William Bonham- Longhorn

Athlete, Lawyer, and Builder of Institutions.

12/27/1930 – 01/03/2026

Known to the rest of the world simply as “Bill,” William Donald Bonham passed peacefully in his sleep on January 3, 2026, with his head resting on a Longhorn pillowcase, surrounded by the love of family and friends.

His gift for tennis emerged at the University of Texas, where he was affectionately nicknamed “Bird Legs Bonham.” After an early baseball injury during his freshman year, he earned a place on the Texas tennis team and loved the University so much that he enrolled in law school to use up his remaining years of tennis eligibility. A three-year letterman at Texas, Bill was undefeated in singles and doubles in Southwest Conference competitions. He was an active member of Delta Tau Delta, the Silver Spurs, and the Phi Delta Phi Legal Fraternity, and he was honored as Outstanding Intramural Athlete of the Year in both 1953 and 1954 while in law school.

1951 tennis Bill Harris (inset left) , Allison, Bill Bonham, Chas Blundworth, Dick Smith, Bernard Gerhardt, Jim Saunders, Penick Manager,Julian Oates

In the late 1960s, Bill hired two young law students, Wayne Fox and Ed Carrington, who became his associates, then partners, and ultimately co-founders of the highly successful firm Bonham, Carrington & Fox, which opened its doors in 1971. By the 1980s, the firm had grown to nearly 50 lawyers in One Shell Plaza. Decades later, his fourth “favorite” daughter followed in his footsteps as a Houston litigator and, shortly before his passing, was named Office Managing Partner of her firm, continuing the legacy he began.

Bill’s fierce competitiveness and love of tennis stayed with him throughout his life. By the mid-1960s and continuing well into his 80s, he captured numerous Texas age-group state championships. He also won national titles, earned international rankings after competing in enough qualifying events, and represented the United States in the Osuna Cup against Mexico for many years. He was a founding member and frequent champion of the Houston Racquet Club, a place he cherished and where he practiced, competed, and spent treasured time with family and friends.

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https://texas-lsn.squarespace.com/bill-bradley-by-larry-carlson

bill bradley vs ou.jpg

The Bill Bradley story is one of the most compelling ones in Longhorn sports history. It is the saga of vast talent and versatility, great expectations, challenges, and disappointments, then adjustments, redemption, and triumph.

Bill Bradley helped build the Longhorn Brand by

“Intercepting Tough Times and Triumphing”

Talk to Bradley for a few minutes, and the chat will go for an hour as he laughs and tells stories about a panorama of football and life experiences. Bradley has had a life filled with football and fun, punctuated by his obvious joy for life. Relaxing on the front porch of his home near the Guadalupe River just north of San Antonio, Bradley chuckles about buddies such as Earl Campbell (“I love Earl. He knows every word to every country song. But he can’t carry a tune in a bucket.”), his one-time coach and longtime friend, the immortal Bobby Layne (“Bobby hated to lose at anything. He would almost want to commit suicide if he lost at anything.”) and Darrell Royal, who once drove his golf cart away from a friendly foursome because he saw a golfer kicking his golf ball from the rough into a better position. “Back at the clubhouse, he told me he had been disgusted by seeing the “fudging” going on at the links…he said ‘If you cheat at golf, you’ll cheat at life,” Bradley recalls, then shifts from that heartfelt, memorable DKR maxim on to another funny one.

William Calvin Bradley arrived at the Forty Acres in 1965 from the East Texas piney woods town of Palestine as the most publicized, highly touted player yet for Darrell Royal, who was coming off a spectacular four-year stretch of 40-3-1 that produced a national championship and flirted seriously with three more titles.

Bradley, following heroics in a high school all-star game, was dubbed “Super Bill” by a football immortal and 1940’s Heisman Trophy winner (see the Q&A below) for his wide-ranging talents on the field. Seemingly able to do it all, he became DKR’s first soph QB to earn the starting job and was a left-footed punter extraordinaire. A knee injury in only his third game slowed Bradley and his team’s upward trajectory, but the one-two punch of Super Bill and RB Chris Gilbert highlighted a convincing 19-0 victory over Ole Miss in the Bluebonnet Bowl to close the ’66 season on a four-game win streak and trigger great optimism. Bumper stickers proclaiming “1967: The Year of the Horns” bloomed like bluebonnets across the Greatest State the following spring.

But two losses to start the fall crushed high hopes and brought increasing criticism to UT’s still young quarterback. Then Texas regrouped and reeled off six straight wins to re-fuel aspirations for a Southwest Conference title. But mid-November brought a stunning loss to a 2-5 TCU squad. What followed was an even bigger blow. Texas A&M defenders intercepted four of Bradley’s passes on Thanksgiving, enabling the Ags to win 10-7 and take their first conference crown since the Bear Bryant days. Texas, stuck at 6-4 for the third straight regular season, wasn’t even going bowling.

Come late summer 1968, more than a dozen UT squadmen had left the team in the wake of even tougher practices and discipline from Royal’s staff. The toughest Horns were galvanized, though, and there was exciting news of assistant coach Emory Bellard’s innovative formation for Bradley to command an attack featuring not just the quick, slippery Gilbert but also big, fast Ted Koy and a star-in-waiting, soph FB Steve Worster.

But devastating deja vu struck in September. Opening at home, Texas had to fight hard for a humbling tie with Houston, then lost to Texas Tech for the second straight year. Dating back to November, the Steers were winless in four games. The new offense was sputtering, and so, too, was Bradley, replaced late in Lubbock by a backup junior named James Street.

1968 Bill Bradlley.jpg

In the wake of the aborted 0-1-1 takeoff, Royal called Bradley in and told him he would be going with Street under center. Bradley later recalled phoning his father in Palestine, ready to call it quits. His father was having none of that.

Bradley’s leadership qualities and pride in his status as a captain, a title voted on by his teammates, came through in humorous, self-deprecating style in the Horns’ first practice since the demotion. Lining up as a novice backup receiver, Bradley loosened the drawstrings on his sweatpants. Midway through his route, the erstwhile QB was stumbling over dropped pants, baring a full moon for his teammates. The practice field erupted with laughter, and the nervous tension was instantly dispelled. It was time to focus on Saturday night’s non-conference bout with Oklahoma State.

“Super Bill” was no longer QB1, but he was still a team leader and a standout punter. When a wide-open Bradley caught a short Street pass for a touchdown in his first game away from starting duties, he gleefully jumped in the air. Texas won, 31-3, and a winning string that would stretch to thirty was born.

But the real “feel good” story for number 18 wasn’t in the works until the season’s sixth game when the UT coaches wisely began utilizing Bradley in the secondary, where he had also starred back at Palestine. Overall, Texas was humming now, and Bill was adapting quickly, making a comfortable new home on defense.

Late November meant turkey, dressing, and the Aggies’ invasion of Congress Avenue and Memorial Stadium. Texas was 7-1-1, needing a win against their arch-rivals to secure a SWC title and a Cotton Bowl spot. If there was any doubt at all about Bill Bradley’s resiliency and renewed confidence, consider this: When Bradley and fellow captains Chris Gilbert and Corby Robertson shook hands with the Aggie leaders at midfield and awaited the coin flip, A&M QB Edd Hargett, the previous year’s All-SWC QB, had thrown 171 consecutive passes without an interception. When the coin landed in UT’s favor, and the ref asked for the burnt orange team’s preference to start the contest, Bradley answered bluntly, “We don’t give a sh#t.”

One can only imagine the reaction of Hargett and the other captains of the defending SWC champs, now back in more familiar territory in the standings with a 3-6 record. Bradley laughs as he recounts the story, noting that one of the Aggie captains, linebacker Billy Hobbs, would become a teammate and friend in the NFL. Bradley was confident enough to really not care who would kick and who would receive, “But I finally told the ref, ‘We’ll take the ball.'”

There’s an old saying that it ain’t bragging if you can back it up. Not long after the opening whistle, right defensive halfback (as his position was then called) Bill Bradley grabbed a tipped pass for an interception that led to an early 14-0 lead. Then he stole another Hargett pass. Then another. His thievery was providing shorter fields for a dominant UT offense to navigate.

Super Bill would grab one more interception before he and the other starters took an early bow before the capacity crowd. Texas led 35-0 at halftime.

The guy who had been victimized by four errant passes the previous Turkey Day had returned the favor in his final appearance at Memorial Stadium. Call it Redemption Deluxe. Revenge served cold. Was Billy Shakespeare writing this stuff?

Bill Bradley at Lamar University. The photo was taken Tuesday, April 1, 2014, Guiseppe Barranco/@spotnewsshooter. The rest of the Bill Bradley odyssey lives on in record books and highlights a long, glossy personal resume. The DB, who might alw

Bill Bradley at Lamar University. The photo was taken Tuesday, April 1, 2014, Guiseppe Barranco/@spotnewsshooter.

The rest of the Bill Bradley odyssey lives on in record books and highlights a long, glossy personal resume. The DB, who might always hold the UT record of four pass interceptions in a single game, went to pro football stardom. Chosen by Philadelphia in the third round of the NFL draft, Bradley was delivering well as a rookie punter and return man when he pestered coaches into letting him in on defense during a midseason game against Dallas. On his first NFL scrimmage play, Super Bill broke on a Roger Staubach pass intended for Mike Ditka, hijacked it, and took it 56 yards for a TD.

That defensive debut was mere foreshadowing. Bradley became the first player (in 1971 and 1972) to lead the NFL in interceptions in back-to-back seasons. He earned All-Pro honors at safety for three consecutive seasons. No Eagle has broken his season and career records for interceptions and interception return yards. And Bradley, sometimes called “The Mayor of South Philly,” for his hard-nosed pigskin excellence mixed well with Southern boy friendliness and a fondness for the nightlife, owned South Street the way “Broadway Joe” Namath ruled Manhattan. When the offseason came, Bradley would stay in his adopted city and, eager to dust off his considerable baseball skills, hang out at “The Vet” and shagged flies and grounders with Phillies’ stars Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose, and Greg Luzinski. And for an eligible bachelor, the allure of the famed Phillies usherettes was obvious.

When it was time to hang up his cleats, Bradley kept the fun coming. He bought and operated a feedstore-turned-gas-station back in East Texas, “giving away” Coors beer — in a “dry” area where his gas station was located, but “accepted tips” for the much-in-demand service. As an NFL ambassador, the still-young football retiree hosted more than thirty Norwegian Cruise Line trips, entertaining adoring fans and tourists, inventing competitive games onboard the ship.

Ol’ Super Bill stayed on the versatility track when he tried coaching and mastered another facet of football. He would be teaching professional and college players for more than three decades, from Austin and Waco to Buffalo and San Diego and into Canada, earning two rings for coaching Grey Cup Championship teams. The superb athlete who did not get a wishbone win as a quarterback has been elected to these august groups: The University of Texas Hall of Honor, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, the Philadelphia Eagles Hall of Fame, the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame, the Palestine High School Hall of Fame and the Texas UIL’s Top 100 Players All-Time list.

Today, Bill Bradley, 74, and his wife live contentedly in the Hill Country, not all that far from Austin and the storied stadium he triumphantly exited fifty-three seasons ago. He agreed to the following interview with Texas Legacy Support Network.

To read Bill’s interview go to https://texas-lsn.squarespace.com/bill-bradley-by-larry-carlson

Charles Harrington says, “My wife went to high school at Hillcrest, but her best friend was a walk on for the 8am ball room dance class. It was only an elective and held to early in morning and all the way across the 40 acres no matter which way you started. She took her studies seriously. What was she thinking?

You have to have guested it. A football player was involved.

Yes, Bill Bradley was her partner.”

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The day Bill Bradley was called to DKR’s office after the 1968 Texas Tech game, he knew he was in trouble. Bill said, “Now, when you go to a coach’s office, three things can happen, and all of them are bad.”

TLSN: Bill, let’s start with a baseball question. As a shortstop, you got drafted in the seventh round by the Detroit Tigers in 1965…and you were already the most hyped signee of Darrell Royal’s first nine classes. How hard was it to turn down the baseball money? The photo is of the 1968 captains, Bill Bradley, Corby Robertson, and Chris Gilbert.

BILL: Being drafted out of high school by the Tigers and not taking that and running was very difficult to turn down. My idol, my Dad, was a hard-drinking railroad man, baseball player, and coach for 27-plus years. (Bill notes that there is a Bradley Field in Palestine, named for his father.) To his credit, he did not sway my decision at all. You can’t even imagine how hard that decision was, not to take $25,000 in 1965. At that time, I had no clue what my future was to be.

TLSN: Did Palestine legend James Saxton’s success at Texas (All-America RB in ’61 when Bradley was a freshman at Palestine High) have any bearing on you choosing Texas from all the offers?

BILL: It was really easy to take a full ride to the University of Texas. I had offers from all over the country but my idol as a youngster was Saxton. James made his mark at PHS and we really looked up to him when he was at PHS. I was a Longhorn most all my life.

TLSN: Part of the legend of your many exploits in leading Palestine to the ’64 state championship, and a building block in you being labeled as Super Bill, was the story about your ability to even throw a left-handed TD pass when necessary. What’s the story on that?

BILL: We as a team are all still very close to this day. Well, I injured my (right) throwing hand in a district game against Kilgore High. We rolled out to the left and I threw a left-hand pass that looked like a twisting propeller of a helicopter. Hence, I was able to throw with either hand. But I must confess to being ambidextrous. (Bradley mentions that he throws righty, kicks, and punts left-footed, writes left-handed, and shoots “both-handed)

Doak Walker (SMU’s 1948 Heisman Trophy winner) basically named me “Super Bill” at the Big 33 High School All-Star game (1965), with (immortal Texas and NFL QB ) Bobby Layne as the head coach of the Texas All-Stars. After we came back to win the game (played in Hershey, PA) against the Pennsylvania All-Stars, Doak said in the dressing room, “I bet if you take off those shoulder pads, you’ll find a big, red “S” under there!”

TLSN: You and your Wildcats have continued to get together regularly. This fall will mark 57 years since the title win over San Marcos. Is anything planned, and how many guys still participate?

BILL: Our group of classmates and teammates in all four major sports and all school activities were absolutely amazing. We usually have a get-together every year or so and normally we average 10 to 20 guys. Oh, we love to remember the glory days. The stories get better and better. But 99.9 percent of them are very true. We love and respect each other more and more as the years go by.

TLSN: Back to baseball, was there any consideration to also play baseball at UT?

BILL: At UT we had Freshman Season. No freshmen were allowed to play on the varsity. I got lucky and started in three sports: baseball, track…in the field events…and football. (Bradley says “a handshake and a broken promise” limited him to playing only football at the varsity level.)

TLSN: How hard was it dealing with the pressure at Texas as a soph in ’66? Coach Royal had never started a sophomore at quarterback.

BILL: The pressure was no problem, but injuries and being full of myself were.

TLSN: Chris Gilbert was setting rushing records and you were setting passing records your first two varsity seasons but the results — 7-4 and 6-4 — weren’t quite up to the recent UT standards. The eight losses were by a total of just 39 points. As the QB, you faced a lot of criticism from fans and media. How hard was it to deal with that during those two seasons?

BILL: It wasn’t hard for me to deal with. The quarterback gets all the credit and all the blame.

TLSN: When Royal and Coach Emory Bellard decided to try the wishbone for your senior season, what do you recall about early workouts and your expectations? https://texas-lsn.squarespace.com/emory-bellardwishbone

BILL: Without going into detail on the Wishbone, let’s just say I wasn’t very good at running it and was very mediocre.

TLSN: When Coach Royal decided to switch to James Street at QB after the 0-1-1 start of your senior year, you famously elected to focus on leadership as a captain. You began as a backup receiver and caught a TD pass and then found a new life as an excellent defensive halfback (or a corner in today’s terms, for our readers) on a team that would finish with nine straight wins. To your teammates, how would you characterize your personality on and off the field during that time?

BILL: My teammates voted me a captain of the team. And many guys got moved around. When Coach Royal made the switch to James, who was my best friend until the day he passed on (in 2013), it was a blessing for me and I’m very proud to say that my friends, the teams, sure changed my life. The credit goes to my family, teammates, and most of all, my coaches.

TLSN: Your final home game had a pretty good scenario. The previous year, A&M had intercepted four of your passes and won 10-7, the first time a Royal team had lost to the Aggies. A year later, Texas is on a roll, you’re a DB….and you end up setting UT and SWC records by picking off four passes from Edd Hargett en route to a 35-0 lead. It was straight out of a Hollywood script. What do you remember most about how sweet that was? And could only the Aggies have kept throwing to your side that much, considering the results?

BILL: Our final home game could not be more fitting for our team and me. To get four picks off of A&M put an exclamation point on my career. An Aggie friend who was close to the team told me that before the game, Coach Gene Stallings had told the quarterback that “Bradley is so new to his position that we should pick on him and throw at him all day.” After the fourth interception, Edd Hargett went over to Coach Stallings and asked him, “If we get the ball again, should we keep picking on that Bradley guy?”

The best thing I remember is how proud my teammates were for me. James came over to me, hugged my neck, and said, “That may never be done again at this university.”

(Editor’s note: That feat has not been matched.)

TLSN: After you and the Horns demolished Tennessee, 36-13, in the Cotton Bowl, Texas finished the season ranked number three in the country. Did you and your senior teammates have a sense that you had laid down the start of the most extraordinary era of Longhorn football?

BILL: You know, years later, I asked James if he thought anyone in the nation could’ve beaten the 1969 national champ Longhorns. He paused and said, “If anyone could have, it would have been the 1968 team that went 9-1-1 and finished third in the nation.”

TLSN: You played in three 1969 post-season all-star games and got drafted in the third round by the Eagles. It was obvious that you were a heckuva punter but did the Eagles take you as “an athlete,” in the way that some colleges today recruit multi-talented guys? You ended up punting, playing safety, returning kicks, and being the holder. What expectations did they spell out for you early on?

BILL: The Eagles actually drafted me as a “Punter/Player.” That’s what the scout, Herman Ball, had on their scouting reports.

TLSN: Your penchant for the Hollywood scripts continued when, on your first defensive NFL scrimmage play, midway through your rookie season, you picked off Roger Staubach and returned it 56 yards for a touchdown. How cool was that?

BILL: That INT against the Cowboys for a score was the highlight of my career…except that we did not win the game.

TLSN: In your third and fourth seasons with the Eagles, you became the first NFL player to lead the league in interceptions in back-to-back years. You made All-Pro three straight times.

But the team didn’t have many wins. It had to be tough to want to feel good about your own play but to suffer along with everybody else in the ultimate team sport. How conflicted were you feeling about it all?

BILL: I was very conflicted about what I achieved because it was great personally but sad collectively, team-wise.

TLSN: Philadelphia fans are notorious for being rough on their teams and players and for infamously booing even Santa Claus. But I’ll bet you experienced some great times. In a nutshell, how would you describe the Eagles’ fans?

BILL: Eagle fans are the best in the NFL. Their “football blue-collar” attitude wins Super Bowls. They liked me because I was a blue-collar player.

TLSN: What are your recollections of two-a-days at Texas and training camps at Albright College in Reading, PA? Compare and contrast, as the old high school quizzes used to demand.

BILL: Texas’s two-a-days were really a grind, like a cattle drive. (With the Eagles) There was much more learning on the run and you have to learn fast and recall to the field…no mental errors allowed.

TLSN: You played with a variety of colorful and talented guys in “the City of Brotherly Love,” such as Tim Rossovich and Harold Carmichael, and you were even Tom Dempsey’s holder a few years after his record-setting 64-yard field goal for the Saints. Some quick descriptions of those old teammates?

BiLL: Rosso was not as crazy as he acted. A lot of it was “Hollywood” fun. After all, Timmy was in 50 movies as a bodyguard, driver, and stuntman. He actually had a series on TV, called “When The Whistle Blows.”

Harold was probably the smartest, tallest, most athletic person I’ve ever met. A great friend forever. (Editor’s note: Bradley journeyed to Canton, Ohio in August to celebrate Carmichael’s induction into the NFL Hall of Fame, and to visit with Harold, Coach Dick Vermeil, and others)

Tom Dempsey (who died in New Orleans’s rest home during the first month of Covid-19 in 2020) was a great friend and sincerely a great motivational speaker. God bless his soul. I could talk all year about my friends.

TLSN: Another legendary Longhorn, Jerry Sisemore, joined the Eagles in your fifth year. What was your relationship with him, then and now?

BILL: Jerry was my Texas brother. We’re joined at the hip. He’s still my great friend.

I love number 76.

TLSN: You enjoyed a coaching career that spanned more than three decades in the NFL, as a volunteer assistant at UT, at Baylor, with various short-lived pro leagues, and especially in the Canadian Football League. What was your favorite stop and why?

BILL: I met my wife, Susan, when I was in the Canadian Football League, with the Sacramento Gold Miners. That’s by far my favorite stop. She is wonderful and beautiful, too.

TLSN: Having been a good player doesn’t always translate into becoming a successful coach, but you did it so well for so long. Were there one or two men who particularly ended up serving as role models?

BILL: Irv Cross was a player and coach and one of the brightest people I’ve ever met. A genius of a person. Coach Royal was very honest and direct. Also, Wade Phillips, a “son of a Bum!”

TLSN: What do enjoy doing most these days?

BILL: Hanging with my wife, Susan, my daughter, Carissa, her husband, Jon, and our grandson, Henry William Carter, alias “Hank Willie.”

TLSN: Here’s one to wrap up with. You’ve lived a pretty well-chronicled life. What’s one thing that most people still don’t know about Bill Bradley?

BILL: I love to play the “Blues Harp,” the harmonica.

Former Texas State writer, media personality, and talk show host, Professor Larry Carlson shares his Longhorn passion with TLSN members.

Former Texas State writer, media personality, and talk show host Professor Larry Carlson shares his Longhorn passion with TLSN members.

The post Larry Carlson’s interviews Bill Bradley #2 appeared first on Texas Legacy Support Network.

The post TLSN newsletter #5 volume IX 3/07/2025- Sean Braswell, When Tragedy strikes, Haul of Hall baseball by larry carlson, Bill Catlett , track and field greats, Jackie Campbell  appeared first on Texas Legacy Support Network.

We first met in 1965-1966 as competitors in the highest classification of high school football. I played for the Odessa Permian Panthers, and he played for the Abilene High School Eagles, coached by future Longhorn head coach David McWilliams. Both of us received and accepted scholarship offers to the University of Texas. Our paths seldom crossed on the football team or socially during our undergraduate years.  Unlike yours truly, from day 1 at Texas, he worked to prepare for a successful life after graduation.  He was blessed with an uncommon combination of high intelligence, common sense, a strong work ethic, and perseverance, which enabled him to achieve success in every endeavor he pursued.

This article recounts Bill’s journey through a lifetime full of amazing experiences.

While Bill has always admired those who set long-term goals, he was not one of them. Instead, his path to success was driven by his natural ability to identify and seize new trends and opportunities. He began early, finding success in athletics, which eventually led to a great education, quality job opportunities, a global perspective rather than a regional one, and lasting friendships.
He was all in if an opportunity intrigued him and offered the potential for skill development and new adventures. He would start by researching those who were pioneers in various activities. Then, he either replicated what the early adopters did or exceeded what was necessary to excel. For instance, during the summer before his senior year in high school, his coaches set a goal for football players to run 10,000 yards per week to maintain their physical shape. Bill ran 10,000 yards every day.

 
Some might say my teammate had an ego, but that isn’t necessarily a bad quality, as many believe. Egos are like symbolic cars that drive us to our destination. I wish I could have been in his car for the past 50 years to celebrate all the beautiful scenery along his journey. For more than 40 years, photography has been his passion, capturing the beauty of our planet that often goes unnoticed by most of us. His photos reflect a heart and soul fascinated with the beauty surrounding us all.  He has accumulated 500 GB of images, totaling over 65,000 photographs representing a vibrant, end-of-the-rainbow pot of gold-like imagery. His photos are a window to his soul. [1] In the 1990s, he attended several photography workshops led by noted landscape photographers Charles Campbell and Mark Muench. In 1999, he completed online coursework at The New York Institute of Photography. 

Bill says, “FAVORITES FROM THE VAULT is a collection of photos I emailed to friends between 2006 and 2015. I started sending photos sporadically starting in 2006 and, around 2010, began sending a photo every weekend, usually on Saturday morning. The Saturday morning photo became a ritual of sorts for the next five years, and then in 2015, I stopped. ” 

 
“More than a few people advised they had become ‘addicted’ to their Saturday morning photo ‘fix’ over the previous decade (2006-2015).  I received numerous requests to resume sending the photos, but I couldn’t get back into it.  I always had it in mind to compile the photos (which were some of my favorite images I had taken) into a single volume, but that was a project for a future day.”

 
“And then my computer crashed.  I had all my images backed up, but not the comments and descriptions that accompanied almost every photo I sent out! Major disaster!!  However, after several years of frustration, a friend of mine who works in IT at UT Austin was able to restore the hard drive to a point where I could access the original text and photos.  It took many, many hours to transfer the text and photos from the old hard drive to a new document. For me, it was literally like breaking into a vault to recover my favorite images! ” 

“The format of FAVORITES FROM THE VAULT might seem a little confusing, i.e., the dates are in reverse order (photos sent out most recently are first, earliest photos are last). And some images are accompanied by extensive descriptions and comments from recipients, while others may have none.  This is a result of the process of recovering the images and text from the hard drive.  “

 
“The “CATTRACKS” logo is significant on a couple of levels.   First, the Catletts (Cat . . .  get it?) have left a lot of tracks (a form of “imprint” . . . . )  on a lot of trails over the years.  Second, by bringing back images from those distant, and some not-so-distant, locales, I hoped these images would leave you with a distinct visual imprint, i.e., “CATTRACKS.” 

 
“I began taking photographs in 1973 while backpacking in the Bridger Wilderness Area of Wyoming. My goal was simple: to bring back images of nature’s wonders to share with others. Pursuing this simple goal proved to be a lifelong quest.”

 
“Over the years, I have appreciated the opportunity to share these images, and I hope you enjoy perusing these FAVORITES FROM THE VAULT.”

                                                                                              

A few of Cattrack’s photos follow.

In terms of a rough Timeline for all these photos —  Windriver photo and Mittens at Dusk photos are sorta “bookends” for my photography:
 
Windriver was one of my first, taken in June 1973. Husky Ears was one of the last photos I took, shot in January 2012. The Mittens at Dusk is the last photo I printed in 2024.

 
Below is a photo of our great University produced by Bill. The photo hangs on the wall in my office.

1969 National Championship in Football

1969- Orange Tower #1, national championship ring, and Littlefield Fountain

Bill’s internal drive to excel has resulted in a journey that most people would not or could not accomplish, as he has ascended to the top of each professional mountain he chose to climb.  Bill shares a story about his first moments working toward his degree as a student in Architectural Engineering at UT Austin. 

Blocking the View

Sometime in either the Spring of 1970 or possibly 1971, he was excused from some Spring training football practices because he was a UT architectural engineering student. Once a week, he had an engineering lab that conflicted with practice, and academics took precedence over practice.

On one occasion, he was dressed in his usual cut-off blue jeans, surfboard Hawaii T-shirt, and flip-flops as he and his lab mates ventured with his professor to inspect the new upper deck under construction at Memorial Stadium later to be named for DKR’s winning traditions.  He said the lesson was “pretty cool.”  He smiled as he walked to a vantage point where he could see his teammates practicing in the hot sun on the field.  He stopped at the level where the sports media and VIP boxes would be, but something was wrong. From that level, he could not really see the whole field.  The new upper deck completely blocked the view of the field for all on that level. It was apparent that no one did a line of site study. Some dismissed his concerns as a novice without a proper working knowledge of the project. Fortunately, others listened, and his observations were proven correct. Adjustments were made, and the media and VIP boxes were moved to another location.

Bill holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Architectural Engineering from UT Austin and was a member of the Chi Epsilon and Tau Beta Pi engineering honor societies; in 1978, he was licensed as a Petroleum Engineer in the State of Texas. In the 1970s, one of his adventures was designing residences and small office buildings as passive solar collectors while simultaneously working as president of an oil and gas operating company where he supervised the drilling and completion of over 60 oil and gas wells per year, producing 10,000 bpd from 170 leases in three states, and prepared lease evaluations, secondary recovery operations, and designed gas gathering systems.  In the 1980s, he was a member of the executive management team of what became the 16th largest privately held company in Texas. After graduating from Vanderbilt Law School in 1992, he became a trial lawyer in Dallas for 12 years. Then, for 16 years, he worked at the University of Texas at Austin’s Office of Technology Commercialization, Office of Sponsored Projects, and as Director of the Office of Industry Engagement, holding various roles that helped move technology created by the University of Texas into the marketplace to benefit society. He was involved in the initial planning for a collaborative research program involving the University of Texas at Austin, Abilene Christian University, Texas A&M, and Georgia Tech to develop the nation’s first Small Modular Reactor fueled by a molten thorium salt nuclear reactor. Funding provided by Natura Resources supported the four universities. 

Billy Dale and Bill Catlett reconnect after decades of travel through life to fulfill their destinies.

After decades of little contact with Bill, we met at a reunion event.  I shared with him the TLSN mission to establish a tax-exempt Longhorn sports historical site with a compassionate component.  He was interested in the idea and started following the TLSN journey as it unfolded. In 2015, he attended a TLSN meeting at the Stark Center, which included Jan and Terry Todd, the Directors of the Stark Center, and David Onion from the Development Office at UT Athletics. TLSN wanted to explore the possibility of the Stark Center supporting the TLSN mission with an exhibit of the 1969 National Championship football team. 
 
In the meeting, Bill suggested that “Instead of having the Stark Center focus on the 1969 team only, why not have the theme of the exhibit be called ‘The Streak? ” This would give more team members equity in celebrating two national champions and the 30-game win streak. 
 
 
He continued, “I originally mentioned to Jan Todd that they could pitch it as ‘the Worster bunch”.  I remember that was how the media most often referred to the 1967 recruiting class, which rewrote the history books (literally) for the three varsity seasons we were at UT.  Obviously, with help from others, like the seniors on the 68 team (Comer, Gilbert, Robertson, Bradley, etc.).

“I also remember mentioning that while UT’s Worster Bunch got most of the headlines, other UT sports, such as swimming and baseball, also won national championships from 1968 to 1971.  It seemed to be a natural fit for the Stark Center to include similar exhibits for the successes of other UT sports.  Jan and Terry then took us on a tour of an empty space in the northeast corner of Belmont Hall under the stadium bleachers immediately adjacent to the Food Court.  They had envisioned possibly expanding the Stark Center into this space to accommodate exhibits of the many successful aspects of UT athletic programs.”

Bill says, “The Stark Center is now the home of the University of Texas Athletics Media Relations Office, which curates the creation and collection of paper records for all UT Austin sports.
The UT Athletics Department converted the empty space we toured into the Frank Denius Family University of Texas Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame displays Longhorns who won NCAA Championships, conference team titles, national championship trophies, conference championship trophies, first-team All-American nameplates, and Olympians.”

One of Bill’s special memories as a football player for the Horns.

In 1969, we were beating the ATMs pretty handily, and tempers were flaring on and off the field. As we came out through the tunnel for the second half, the Aggie Band was exiting the field, and UT players had to force their way through the band members. Being boys, there was certainly ungentlemanly language being exchanged.  Well, things began to escalate, and then one or more Aggie tuba players had the misfortune of saying something explicit to one or both of the Campbell twins. And the Campbell twins immediately reacted by jumping on the tuba players and beating the shit out of them. And, of course, the Aggie Band reacted in force.  To which any Longhorn player nearby joined in. I understand that at the periphery of the melee, the ATM yell leaders inadvertently started a second kerfuffle when they drew their sabers and tried to make their way to the tuba players. Texas players and fans not only did not retreat but stormed the sabre-wielding Aggies.
 
Needless to say, the second half of the game started delayed. Most folks never had any idea what was going on because it all happened within the confines of the “chute” leading from the locker rooms onto the field, and it was over pretty quickly. 

Pancreatic Cancer strikes the spirit of the Longhorn Nation

Bill Catlett is an inspiration to me. His life story exemplifies a life well-lived and leadership in every endeavor he pursued. I admire Bill for embracing his friends and teammates, offering light to many during times that could be overshadowed by darkness.
 
Bill says, “I have the misfortune to have THE most aggressive, hard-to-treat form of cancer – pancreatic cancer – which has metastasized and is Stage 4.   Bill Catlett serves as an extraordinary source of inspiration. His life story reflects a legacy of excellence and exemplifies exceptional leadership in every endeavor he pursued. I hold deep admiration for Bill’s ability to connect with his friends and teammates, sharing his inspiring journey of resilience and hope while battling pancreatic cancer—a journey that might otherwise be overshadowed by darkness.

He continues, In July 2024 I went to my primary care physician to review my blood pressure medication (took me off all BP meds!), and ended up having what we thought was a routine ultrasound scan of the abdominal area. The scan came back with a troubling result: an unknown mass had been detected on my pancreas.

An MRI and biopsy confirmed the worst possible diagnosis. The prognosis was four months to live without treatment (for those of you who are keeping score, that would be ~November 2024) and 10-14 months with treatment. I chose door number two, the treatment option, and began chemotherapy shortly thereafter.

The first 48 hours after the initial diagnosis involved a lot of soul searching, but not really anything different than what I had to work through with the debilitating back pain I was dealing with during 2020-22.  Sort of like I’d had four years to train for what’s in front of me now. But now that I was off BP meds, at least I could think clearly for the first time in years!

I am where the Lord wants me to be, and I’m good with that. I feel blessed to be where I am, and I have objective proof: Jackie was online reviewing the doctors’ notes from my last visit, and there is a category for “Patient Anxiety (on a scale of 0-25).” The doctor had recorded my anxiety as Zero.
It’s December 2024, and I am still plugging along! We’ll just have to wait and see what the Good Lord has in mind for these final months.

I do think about end-of-life stuff, mostly things I’m going to dearly miss. But then I realized if I didn’t have so many wonderful memories of time spent with Jackie, family, and friends over the last 70 years, I wouldn’t have anything to miss!  So, I’m SOOO grateful for the memories I have.  Do I wish there’d been more?  Sure.  But the ones I have are great!  I thank the Good Lord for the full and blessed life he has given me!

In the immortal words of Billy Clyde Puckett —  “Nobody said this wasn’t gonna be semi-tough”.

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 Bill Little commentary: In the twilight of a dream

“The class of ’57,” says the old Statler Brothers song, “Had its dreams….”

And 45 years later, as Darrell Royal’s first recruiting class at Texas gathers in reunion, that tune is a perfect theme song.

What we know about teams, and about classes within teams, is that they are a collection of lives that come together for a common purpose in a special window of time. Mack Brown says the life of a team is 365 days, from the end of the past season to the end of the current one.

And as the clock begins to run down on the years that have followed, roots and reunions suddenly have unique meaning. That’s why Dan Petty, one of the 40 or so who were part of that class that entered The University as freshmen in 1957, decided to put together a get-together.

“I think we all felt that we were part of starting something fresh,” says Bob Gurwitz, who today is an executive in the retail clothing business. “It was a new beginning for The University.”

Gurwitz, like the other members of that freshman class, had watched as Texas football dropped to the depths in 1956. Ed Price, a wonderful gentleman who had both played and coached here, had stepped aside as head coach after a 1-9 season. In his place, The University hired a dynamic young coach named Darrell Royal. At 32 years old, he was one of the youngest head coaches in America.

It was a time of crew cuts, a culture of innocence whose greatest challenge was fending off the “evils” of some new music called rock and roll, whose chief advocate was a swivel-hipped, long-haired singer named Elvis Presley. There were no wars to fight and football was the biggest game on campus. Except, at Texas, the Longhorns were struggling to recover from a downturn.

Oklahoma was in the final year of a record winning streak, and TCU and Texas A&M were Southwest Conference powerhouses. Rice, Baylor and SMU had also had their excellent moments in the decade of the 1950s.

And so it was that D. X. Bible, a legendary college coach who served as UT’s athletics director, called the young former Oklahoma football player Royal and asked him to come from Washington to be the Texas coach.

“A person who takes over a 1-9 program does not inherit a warm bed,” said Royal, in one the first “Royalisms” for which he would become famous over the next 20 or so years.

So to heat things up, Royal and his staff went about the business of recruiting. Freshmen were not eligible to play on the varsity in those days, so this class actually did not play when Royal and his staff surprised everyone with a 6-3-1 regular season and a trip to the Sugar Bowl following the 1957 season.

But they were on board in 1958, when Royal ended the Oklahoma winning streak over the ‘Horns. It was prior to that game, which Texas won in dramatic fashion, 15-14, that Royal said what could well be the lasting theme of the men who were boys that fall of 1957.

“Texas has to develop a football tradition,” he said. “It had one once, but lost it. When we get one, maybe we can stop that bloodletting up at Dallas and turn it into a good show.”

Beginning with the 1958 game, Royal’s teams won 12 of the next 13 games against the Sooners. That was one of several significant milestones involving the freshmen of 1957.

As student athletes, they were the first group to have the advantage of academic support to go with on the field coaching. When Royal hired former high school administrator Lan Hewlett as his “brain coach,” he created the first academic advisor for athletics in the country.

On the field, their credentials included the big win over Oklahoma in 1958, a Southwest Conference championship in 1959 (the first since 1953), the first Cotton Bowl appearance since 1952 (1959) and a Bluebonnet Bowl game tie with Alabama (1960).

“What I remember most of all about the group was their work ethic, and the fact that they really wanted to achieve something. They were tough kids who thrived on discipline and were a fun bunch to start out with,” said T Jones, one of the coaches on the staff.

Jones was one of two (along with Bob Schulze) coaches retained by Royal when he arrived at Texas.

“He brought in a great staff,” said Jones, who not only coached at Texas, but later had a distinguished career in athletic administration, finishing several years ago as Athletics Director at Texas Tech. Of the seven staff members, four (Jim Pittman, Charlie Shira, Jack Swarthout and Ray Willsey) went on to become head coaches. Mike Campbell remained with Royal as his chief assistant until Royal quit in 1976, and Schulze retired at Texas after a long career in coaching. Pittman, Shira, Campbell and Schulze are all deceased, but Jones, Swarthout and Willsey are expected to return for the weekend festivities.

“Looking back,” said Jones, “the most important thing about the players was probably the stability they brought. We needed that. Coming off of a 1-9 season, we needed somebody to help right the ship. We had a lot of strong upperclassmen who provided leadership in 1957, but they needed somebody to hand the ball to when they left.”

The class of 1957 produced a solid corps of leadership, as well as steady players. As sophomores in 1958, they were part of a team which flirted with a national ranking for the first time, climbing all the way to No. 4 in the country before back-to-back losses to Rice and SMU dropped them from the top 20. They ended the season with a 7-3 record.

It would be the season of 1959, however, that would establish Texas as a presence on the national scene again. Royal’s Longhorns finished the season at 9-2, and ranked No. 4 in the nation. As tri-champions of the SWC, they represented the league well in a hard-fought loss in the Cotton Bowl to No. 1 Syracuse.

Injuries hammered the team in 1960, but the ‘Horns closed out the year with four straight wins and a 3-3 tie in the Bluebonnet Bowl against Bear Bryant’s No. 9-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide.

With a handful of the original class still around in 1961, Texas embarked on one of the greatest decades in the history of college football. The Longhorns lost only three games, from 1961-1964. From 1961-1970, Texas finished ranked in the nation’s top five a total of seven times, including National Championships in 1963, 1969 and 1970. In a very real sense, the way for that run was paved, in part, by the class of ’57.

Four members of the ’57 class – Don Talbert, Ed Padgett, Deene Gott and David Kristynik – played important roles as fifth-year seniors on the 1961 team. Talbert, who missed the 1958 season with a broken leg, earned all-conference and All-American honors in 1961.

“It wasn’t that we had a lot of guys who were recognized as stars,” said Jones. “They were just guys who wanted to make something of themselves, and they wanted to be a part of something special here. We all did. It wasn’t just the players; the coaches felt the same way. We believed in Darrell and what he was trying to do.”

For both Jones and Gurwitz, the most impressive thing about the group was not the success it had on the field, but the success that most of the players have gone on to achieve in life.

“We didn’t really remain close,” said Gurwitz, “and I wish that we had. A lot of things happened to us after we left school. But when you look at the group and realize the things guys have done with their lives, then I’d say we got what we came for at Texas.”

For the Legends of the Fall of 1957, life would change considerably when they got out of school in the early 1960s. The peace they felt as freshmen had turned to an ugly encounter in Vietnam. They say that Art McCallum, a member of the class, died when his jet hit below the flight deck on an aircraft carrier. Drew Morris delayed his civilian career as a doctor to serve as a Marine officer. Each man, each story, an account of a life; wives, grand-kids, successes and challenges.

Forty-five years later, 22 members of the freshman class, along with Royal and three of the assistant coaches, will stand on a field in a stadium where they once played. The game program, which cost 25 cents in 1957, sells for $5. The Mack Brown-TexasFootball.com web site, where their story will be told, gets 25 million hits a month, from 2.5 million unique visitors.

The campus has few reminders of what it looked like those years, and some of the strong, ready bodies are now, at least for the most part, pudgier and a lot of the crew cuts have given way to bald spots.

What we learn from them no longer has to do with a touchdown or a tackle, it has to do with family, friends and faith. And that, after all, is what they arrived here with a long time ago, and it is the legacy that they leave us in the fourth quarter of their dream.

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Bill Little’s Burnt Orange Spirit is remembered by many

May 2022 Bob Lenz

Bower Yousse

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