STAR-SPANGLED SARK LUNCHEON

by Larry Carlson ( lc13@txstate.edu )

The May 2022 meeting of the Houston Touchdown Club, was like a time travel adventure for me. I’m betting it was for more than a few of us attending.

It couldn’t have been the presence of featured speaker Steve Sarkisian, though he said all the right things, likely in somewhat the manner that Darrell Royal and Mack Brown had done over the years.

Maybe part of the deja vu was just seeing so many folks wearing orange, smiling, laughing, and exchanging handshakes and back slaps.

And it certainly helped to have been able to meet and shake hands with the renowned Talbert brothers — Don, Charlie and Diron — who famously raised hell and roughed up quarterbacks and other opposing players from 1959-1966. And Charlie even caught key passes that saved the Horns in their tightest squeeze en route to UT’s first national championship in ’63. The tall Texas City brothers have aged like everybody else, perhaps, but their characteristic height still allowed them to tower, literally and figuratively, above the crowd as some 250 guests swapped memories for 30 minutes before taking seats for salad, baked chicken, and iced tea.

You could feel the pride in the room, scanning away from the Talbert boys over to birthday boy Vince Young and former player and super booster, Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale. Dozens of warriors with sweat equity in the University of Texas winning tradition.

I had driven over from the San Antonio area with Jay Arnold, All-Southwest Conference DB in ’73, laughing at his patented stories on everything from football to Liberty County history and oil rig work while Jay stretched out his recently replaced left knee, treating it with icepacks and swigs of Diet Dr Pepper. Once at the venue off Fannin Road In Houston, Jay was walking tall, three weeks into knee rehab and recovery, things he first knew more than fifty years ago as a Longhorn freshman.

We quickly found Tyres Dickson’s table and Billy Dale talking with Tyres and beaming about Dickson’s effervescent attitude. Billy and Jay introduced me to their buddy and teammate, Donnie Wigginton. This is the guy who embodies the quintessential “next man up” story. When star QB Eddie Phillips — the reigning Cotton Bowl MVP — was shelved by injuries just one-third of the way into the ’71 season, Wigginton was ready.

The diminutive 5-8 (maybe) fifth-year senior responded by leading the conference in scoring, artfully operating the wishbone, and becoming the SWC Offensive Player of the Year. More importantly, he rallied and led a banged-up Texas team to five straight conference victories and the Horns’ fourth consecutive SWC crown and Cotton Bowl ticket.

I had to tell Donnie that I bought one of his old number 18 jerseys at Rooster Andrews Sporting Goods on Guadalupe at the end of the ’71 season. It’s a tearaway jersey with the classic, stitched-on numerals. I’ve still got that old jersey and Donnie got a bang out of that.

Soon, it was time to be seated. And then the feel of yesteryear was compounded. We all bowed our heads together for a prayer. Too rare these days, I’m afraid. Then we sang “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Nobody was checking his phone. Or kneeling.

After dining, we heard from Coach Sark. He was smooth as glass but seemed unrehearsed and fired up the crowd with comments about wanting to beat OU, wear the (Golden) hat and hoist the Big XII trophy in December. After he took a few questions from the crowd it was time for the festivities to wrap up.

Led by Mr. Darrell Luckett, the TD Club’s designated baritone, we all sang “God Bless America.” Beautiful.

It put kind of a chef’s kiss on a brief few hours that made me feel as if The Best of America was not a curiosity just briefly lifted from a ’60s Kiwanis or Jaycees gathering, but something that still lives and breathes among good folks in Houston and across the fruited plain.

Time to mingle again on the way out and snap a few group photos among friends.

One former Longhorn fired this wisecrack in between goodbyes to former teammates and other lettermen: “Know why Coach Sark is smiling right now?….’Cause he sees a bunch of guys in here who know how to block and tackle.”

Maybe you’ve seen the much-beloved Carpool Karaoke episode when Brit TV host James Corden joined Paul McCartney to re-visit old spots in his hometown of Liverpool, surprising and delighting fans around the city with handshakes, pleasantries, and surprise mini-concerts. At one point while sharing the car with Sir Paul, Corden got a little misty-eyed and wistful and expressed the wish that his late father could be there, to see and enjoy the fun.

Said Paul McCartney “He IS here.”

Sitting there at the TLSN table at the Houston Touchdown Club luncheon, sharing stories with Billy, Jay, and Donnie and having met and exchanged handshakes with the formidable Talbert brothers and Vince Young, I thought about my parents, who passed away many years ago. I wished they could be there, and I quickly remembered Paul McCartney’s easy, faith-filled utterance. I broke out in a smile, realizing that the Bayou City Events Center was holding a lot more souls this day than the 250 seated around the room. Lots more.