HAS STEVE WORSTER BEEN FORGOTTEN?
by Larry Carlson
This summer’s news that Longhorn greats Dan Neil and Michael Huff are on the ballot for next year’s voting for the College Football Hall of Fame was welcome. Appropriate.
But I cannot understand for the life of me, how Steve Worster is not already in the HOF, and appears to have disappeared from consideration. It makes no sense.
Worster, who died two years ago at 73, defined the wishbone fullback position and was simply the best to ever play the position in that revolutionary formation. Anywhere.
The sturdy Longhorn whose name adorned the 1967 signing class at UT, known forevermore as “The Worster Bunch,” spearheaded the ‘bone when it was born in 1968, his soph year and first season of eligibility. The Bridge City bruiser ran over folks for three years, his Texas teams winning 30 straight games and capturing two national titles and three Southwest Conference championships.
He was twice an All-American and was a consensus first-team All-SWC choice all three years he played.
The face of Longhorn football, mighty “Woo” set the pace for greats who would follow in his large, deep footsteps.
Several of Worster’s Texas teammates were long ago inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Backfield mate Chris Gilbert is in. So are superlative blockers Bob McKay and Jerry Sisemore.
The best of UT’s ground-gainers from yesteryear – Earl Campbell, Ricky Williams, Jimmy Saxton and Roosevelt Leaks – are Hall of Famers, as they should be.
Other legendary men who wore the burnt orange, including Vince Young, Tommy Nobis, Johnnie Johnson, Ken Sims, Steve McMichael, Jerry Gray and Derrick Johnson…all are present and accounted for, as are the hosses and bosses of pre-DKR football such as Bobby Layne, Harrison Stafford and Bud McFadin.
How in the hell is Worster not there?
Somebody, get Chris Del Conte on the phone. The UT powers that be need to tend to business with the sport’s big dogs and fat cats on this unseemly oversight. Let’s face it. The College Football Hall of Fame is diminished by the absence of the matchless Steve Worster.
(TLSN’s Larry Carlson is a member of the Football Writers Association of America. He teaches sports media at Texas State University and lives in San Antonio.)
