Preface to Professor Carlson’s article “Living the Dream” .

DKR the Dream Maker

Royal gravitated to recruits with dreams of greatness, aggressive traits, and instincts to hit. He liked recruits with Billygoat instincts that could inspire teammates. Royal picked high school athletes who chose not to run out-of-bounds but instead stuck their cleats in the turf and pointed a face mask straight upfield. He wanted self-starters saying if you “spend time waiting for these promising boys to deliver; pretty soon you’re wearing a straw hat to Christmas.” 

Randy was a dreamer Royal recruited who fulfilled his destiny under Coach Akers. Akers, like Royal, was a dreamer who played for the Arkansas Razorbacks and was a two-time Longhorn National Champion under DKR.  

Where have all the Dreamers gone?

Billy Dale says, “OU is the angry window we have to look through that reflects the demise of Longhorn football; personally, over the last 12 years, I have wondered where the football dreamers have gone. Talented athletes who dream of greatness just like Randy McEachern. Maybe Coach Sark can bring them back. “

But until that occurs, Professor Carlson opens a window to the past offering Longhorn fans a fresh breeze of a fonder moment in the Red River Rivalry. “

Welcome to 1977!

  Below is Professor Larry Carlson’s most recent article, “Living the Dream.”    

Above is a photo of Professor Larry Carlson’s interview with Randy in the mid-1977 after the SMU game. Also, the link below in red font is Larry’s interview in October 2022, continuing the McEachern family’s 1977 spiritual full of grace life.

Randy McEachern’s interview with Professor Larry Carlson is at https://www.texaslsn.org/2022-randy-mceacherns-interview-by-larry-carlson

LIVING THE DREAM
The Randy McEachern Saga

by Larry Carlson  ( lc13@txstate.edu )

America has long been the ultimate land of dreamers.  The Founding Dads dreamt of democracy.  They made it happen.  Then there was the expansion West. Check. On and on.

The American Dream. The dream job, the dream girl, the dream vacation, the dream life. Teenaged girls in the ’50s and ’60s labeled their ideal guys as “dreamy.” Dream, dream, dream, sang the Everly Brothers.  Dream on, squawked Steven Tyler and Aerosmith. Most of us are Walter Mitty-style dreamers, way more mild and meek than focused and prepared when it comes to thinking big and stalking our greatest dreams.  

Not Randy McEachern, though.

When a team is quickly down to its third-string quarterback in a big stakes rivalry game, things seldom end well.  But while McEachern didn’t coin the “next man up” mantra for football warriors, he has personified it for close to half a century.  

Anybody schooled in the golden age of 20th century Longhorn football knows the stirring, beautiful story of McEachern’s role in the 1977 Texas-OU street fight — and his legacy as a highly successful quarterback for the ensuing two seasons.  To sweep dust from the ledger for everyone, here are some handy Cliff’s Notes:

McEachern, a fourth-year redshirt junior from Pasadena’s J Frank Dobie High, had not even suited up for the tense 6-6 State Fair standoff in ’76.  Sidelined by a severe knee injury in Darrell Royal’s final battle against his alma mater, Randy’s duties that day were to serve as a spotter for the Exxon radio network.  The frustrating tie put Texas at 0-5-1 in DKR’s last six bouts with the Okies and likely set the wheels for Royal’s early retirement (at the age of 52) in high gear.  When Texas finished spring football practices under its new 39-year-old coach, Fred Akers, Randy was fourth-string behind the trio of Mark McBath, Jon Aune and Ted Constanzo.  A switch to the defensive backfield was one coaching suggestion McEachern opted not to take.

When Constanzo went down with a late summer racquetball injury, Randy inched up to QB3 status, and because of UT’s blowout wins ( 44-0 over Boston College, 68-0 over Virginia and 72-15 against Rice) the former Dobie Longhorn got his first semi-meaningful collegiate experience as a Texas Longhorn.

McEachern had dreams — actual Mr. Sandman dreams — of playing against OU and becoming a hero, (read the dream at 1977 account on TEXAS-OU RED RIVALRY AND A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT (squarespace.com) ), but when a resurgent, fifth-ranked Texas team led by a streamlined, faster, stronger Earl Campbell faced off against number two Oklahoma, it did not appear there would be any playing time for backups. 

McBath, a cocksure sophomore with good running ability but prone to throw rainbow passes, was the unquestioned man under, though Aune was bigger and faster and had tossed a Texas record 88-yard TD pass to Alfred Jackson in the opener.   

It was cloudy, humid and 78 degrees with wind gusts up to 20 mph at game time.  The two ground-oriented teams traded punches on the floor of the old Cotton Bowl, and OU took a 3-0 lead five minutes in.  Less than a minute later, McBath had a serious ankle injury, one that would shelf him for the season.  Aune came on and made some encouraging runs, but any success was erased by penalties.  Soon, he injured a knee, and McEachern entered the game as Texas fans gasped.  Aune was back in the huddle moments later, but then the tricky knee gave way for good.  It was early in the second quarter, and Texas, down to its third-team QB, did not yet have a first down.

Fast forward a few hours.  Texas, with Big Earl and the seasoned O-line gradually wearing on the OU defense, with McEachern guiding the team and hitting clutch passes to Jackson, and with Russell Erxleben booming punts and two long-range field goals, set up the UT defense for a heroic goal-line stand in the waning shadows of the clock.  Texas won, 13-6.  

When media members were at last allowed inside the wildly exultant Longhorn locker room, McEachern was mobbed.  Campbell, Erxleben and DT Brad Shearer, soon to win the Outland Trophy as America’s best lineman, were passed over for the man of the hour, the “Cinderella story,” the darkhorse nobody had interviewed before.  He answered every question with veteran cool.  In Austin, the revelry on The Drag began.  It continued for another eight hours, at least.

 Randy McEachern’s life had changed.  That was certain.  But this game hadn’t ended the season.  Now the clutch kid who looked like your sister’s nice-guy boyfriend or another preppie on the way to class, was really on the spot.  Texas had to cram for a big exam, the first true road game of the year.

Fayetteville, Arkansas was never going to be hospitable, and especially not now, not with the eighth-ranked Hogs hosting the hated Horns, up to number two in the polls.  

 Could Texas somehow keep winning?  Could a keyed-on Campbell keep rolling?  Could the McEachern kid persuade his fairy godmother to tap him again with the magic wand?  What would unfold for this new Longhorn herd under a new coach for the first time in twenty years?  It all sounded like an episode-closing questionnaire for the old “Batman” TV series.  A thousand villains lay in wait. 

Randy McEachern was no cameo actor, no one-hit-wonder.  With a little help from his friends, especially that classmate named Earl, Texas would rock on to number one status.  But even McEachern would succumb to an injury in November, pressing freshman Sammy Ansley into the starter’s job for TCU and Baylor.  A healing McEachern would return triumphantly in that Baylor game, going seven for eight by air.

With the conference title at stake in College Station, the Tyler Rose ran for 222 yards and stamped his name on a certain coveted football trophy.  Randy McEachern, number six in your program and number one in your heart, would again display the deft passing touch he had come to be known for in just seven weeks. This time he tied an almost prehistoric UT record by connecting on four scoring passes in a 57-28 Texas barbecue. 

More adventures were ahead for the quarterback talented enough to be named to the All-Southwest Conference second team in spite of starting just five SWC games.  In the offseason, another knee surgery.

Then a redshirt senior season without Earl or three grizzled signing class mates on the O-line.

The storybook life would continue in many ways, though.  The Horns won most of their games and Randy won the girl.  From unknown and unlisted in the UT media guide to Big Man On Campus, McEachern lived the dream, on a Texas-sized scale.

It all has begged for the Hollywood scenario writers to mob him the way media folks did at his locker following perhaps the most fondly-remembered Texas-OU game in burnt orange history.  Randy married the cheerleader, Jenna Hays McEachern, noted author of a trilogy of classic Longhorn football books.  They have three children, one with a pigskin story almost as unusual as that of his father. 

And still able to call an audible, McEachern turned a near-death encounter in middle-age into something much bigger than another escape from an onrushing blitz.   In the question-and-answer session below, the. Longhorn Hall of Honor member earnestly shares his unique, timeless story of perseverance, faith, family and football.

Saturday, October 8th, 2022, the scheduled date of the next chapter of the Texas-OU rivalry, marks forty-five years to the day since a young man named McEachern forever redefined what “next man up” accountability can mean to a team, a school, a fanbase, and the ages.  Maybe the current Longhorn team could benefit by hearing Randy’s testimonial.

I asked him just how many times over the years he’s been called upon by UT to share that inspirational story with young players.  I was astounded to learn that — at least as of last week –he has never been invited to do that.

So I’ll leave it at this:  Memo to the Horns, especially Charles Wright, QB3 of the UT football squad.  Express yourself.  Dream big.  And be ready.