Juan Conde’s mean and tough DKR list
JUAN CONDE – 5/30/2022
Billy, I Enjoyed Reading The Latest Edition Of Your Newsletter. DKR Hired Me In 1959 And I Remained On His Staff Until 1976 When He Retired. I Met The Talbert Brothers When I Worked In The Equipment Room As An Assistant To Mr. Jim Blaylock. The Meanest, Toughest Of The Talbert Brothers, In My Opinion, Were Don And Diron. Charley Talbert Was Also Tough And Mean But A Little Milder Than His Two Brothers. DKR Once Said To Me “ If He Had To Walk Through A Dark Alley In A Neighborhood Known For Its High Crime, He Would Be Sure That Don And Diron, Mike Dowdle, Tommy Nobis, And Don Allen Would Accompany Him. DKR Said He Would Be Confident He Would Make It Safely From One End Of The Alley To The Other End. I Believe He Would Indeed Be Safe With These Tough Hombres As His Bodyguards. Juan Conde
I know you remember when Nobis signed his contract as the Number 1 draft choice of the Atlanta Falcons. He bought a brand new, 1966, Gold Olds Toronado. One Saturday night shortly thereafter Nobis and Diron went downtown Austin to eat dinner. While there, some poor guy had the misfortune to bump Nobis’ new car in the parking lot with Nobis and Talbert still in it. The resulting confrontation got ugly. Nobis made the Austin American Statesman, as did Talbert, for the judgment handed down to this poor individual.Make it stand out – Terry Woods
My father officiated football in Central Texas for many years. He would often receive a sideline pass for Baylor games since we lived in Waco
In 1964, Baylor Texas at Baylor Stadium, my Dad gave me his sideline pass for the game. I roamed the sideline behind the Texas bench.
During the game, Nobis intercepted a pass and ran out of bounds right where I was standing. He literally stood right beside me as a fight broke out all around us. The thing I noticed was as mad as everybody on both teams seemed to be, nobody wanted to mess with Nobis. I was clearly in the safest place I could have been for that ugly event. John Pharr
June 2022 at the Houston Touchdown Club Billy Dale, Donnie Wigginton, JoEllen Dale Don, Charley, and Diron Talbert with Tyres Dickson
As a side note- All the Talbert’s are enshrined in the Longhorn Hall of Honor. As students at Texas, collectively, they had a “reputation.” Each will say it was the other two brothers who had notoriety, but ……
Nothing says more about the Talbert’s than an Austin restaurant sign that refused service stating “No shoes, no shirts, and no Talbert’s.”
While Diron, the youngest of the three, was drafted by the NFL in 1966, there were still rumors that Diron visited the athletic dorm at Moore-Hill Hall frequently in 1967. For the 1967 freshman players brutalized by the hazing process, the ghost of Diron filled Moore-Hill Hall. Donnie Wigginton said he chose not to leave his dorm room if the rumor mill mentioned Diron was visiting a former teammate.
Speaking of one heartbeat, mine was in my throat walking to class with the thought that Diron could be nearby. His ghost forced me into a foxhole mentality with the bushes around Gregory Gym my safe haven if Diron appeared. Billy Dale
The fear of Diron was campus–wide. We all had heard the stories.
In that freshman year my transportation home was Greyhound. I would walk to the bus station from Prather Hall. The shortcut took me through that parking lot next to the practice field that the athletes used with that duffle bag of laundry. One Saturday morning just as I neared the end of the lot, that big ole Bonneville Diron was driving pulled up and he asked “Where you going?” “Bus Station” “Hop In”
I admit there was some real fear, but one thing I wasn’t going to do was say “No thanks”.
Always said “Hi” to me anytime our paths crossed.
