Jay Arnold shares a memory

Jay Arnold talks about Longhorn football players from small towns.

 Larry: Your topic is such a big part of my heart. Small town guys that Coach Akers, Coach Royal and other staff members recruited were always a solid part of the team during my years. Coach Akers recruited Glen Gaspard and me the same year and we were suite mates in the Jester Hotel our freshman year. My roommate was another small town guy, the late Marfa Mad Dog, Robert Guevara. As you probably know, all the other schools that recruited Glen and I used the same lines, “you don’t want to go to Texas, it’s got 25,000 more students than your hometown. You’ll just be on a number on the sideline at Texas. You will start for us as a Sophomore. At Texas you’ll never play a down, etc.”. I would wonder to myself, but never say it, “I wonder who’s going to win the game, if I start for another team and can never get off the bench at Texas?” Glen felt the same way. We were both fortunate enough to start as Sophomores and play in the Cotton Bowl as SWC Champions for our recruiting class’ first of what would be UT’s 4th in a row. We extended the SWC Championships to 6 in a row through our senior year.

Remind me when we are able to get together about our “small town guys” kicking game we played before practices, and how Glen’s knuckleball kickoff was actually incorporated into Coach Royal’s game plan after I got Glen to very successfully use it against UCLA on national tv in 1971 at the Colosseum in LA! Coach Royal, as you know, was a stickler on the kicking game. He was hot at the time and instructed me to come to the front of the plane on the way back to Austin and sit with him and read me the riot act on calling a play he didn’t authorize. My explanation led to a full pad next Monday on the field demonstration called by Coach Royal. Glen, Jimmy Moore, me and a few others had to don full pads and go live, full speed on the kickoff while Glen kicked his knuckleball kickoff. After about 30 minutes Coach Royal seemed less skeptical about the legitimacy of the knuckle kickoff. Coach Royal later used Gaspard’s knuckleball kick 3 times that season. The unsanctioned use at UCLA led to a fumble recovery and turnover touchdown. Coach Akers role in trying to smooth things over will never ever be forgotten by me. That same weekend was when Coach Royal put us up in a plush Hollywood hotel. I can’t speak for the big city guys but for us small town guys it was like being in a castle. In fact, the jet ride to LA was only my second airplane ride. I’ll never forget our first meal at the Century Plaza Hotel. We had about 5 spoons and five forks, it seems. Coach Royal got up right before the food was served and said every time they bring a dish just use a different fork or spoon, depending on the dish. The first dish was a cold potato soup. They brought it out and the low grumbling broke out around the room It just so happened that the round table I was sitting at was next to the coaches table. Coach Royal came over to our table and asked what was all the grumbling about. Ray Dowdy of Austin said “Coach, this soup is cold. They didn’t even heat it up before they brought it out here.” Coach Royal then made an announcement to the whole room that this was a Gazpacho potato soup and it was supposed to be cold. Again, Ray Dowdy, a Sr starting defensive tackle, said, “Mama never served us cold soup at home. I wwnt mine warmed up!” That met with a majority approval and Coach had the waiters come by the table and pick up bowls of everybody who wanted hot soup and take it to the kitchen and heat it up and bring it back hot. I recall a few of the Dallas and Houston guys (and maybe others) had heard of and eaten cold soup before, maybe at home or in a restaurant, and they left their soup cold and ate it. But those of us that never had cold soup, and they certainly weren’t served in our usually one small town cafe, had it heated up and reserved. I recall everyone at my table did. The rest of the meal was great. They kept bringing course after course. But living and interfacing and playing football with the big city boys and establishing lifetime friendships was a great reward for us small town guys.

\Jay Arnold

At times I have wondered if the “Big Man Upstairs” (as Frank Medina referred to Him) has chosen Frank to receive those who made it to Heaven by the ‘skin of their teeth’, and that I was in that category, and would once again have to endure another “Medina Session!”