The History of the Texas vs. Tide during the Modern Era

by Larry for TLSN.

BLUEBONNET BOWL 1960 Season

Dec. 17, Rice Stadium, Houston

Background: Ninth-ranked Bama went 8-1-1 and boasted the nation’s second-ranked defense.

Texas, coming off Darrell Royal’s first SWC championship in ’59, had gone 7-3, with one-point losses to Nebraska and Arkansas along with a 7-0 loss at Rice. The bowl game was expected to be a

defensive showdown.

The game: TEXAS 3 ALABAMA 3

The defenses did not disappoint. It was a scoreless tie until the Tide took a

3-0 lead in the third quarter. Texas kicker Dan Petty had earlier missed a 35-yard attempt but, following a 71-yard drive by the Longhorns, hit a 20-yarder to even the score with just under four minutes to play.

The Horns, behind All-SWC performer Monte Lee, stuffed Bama’s offense again and UT had a shot at pulling out a last minute victory but Petty’s potential game-winning FG missed with six seconds left.

The “sister-kisser” of a game featured UT’s Jimmy Saxton as the top offensive player. There was plenty of competition for the defensive MVP award, and it was won by Alabama’s rugged Lee Roy Jordan, who would return to Texas as a long-time star for the Dallas Cowboys.

ORANGE BOWL, 1964 Season

Jan. 1, 1965, Miami

Background: Bama (10-0) was already crowned the national champion by AP and UPI.

Texas (9-1), the defending national champ, lost 14-13 to Arkansas when a late two-point try failed in Austin, preventing back-to-back titles for the Longhorns. Tide QB Joe Namath re-injured his right knee in practices leading up to the game but suited up and carefully went through warmups. This would be the first Orange Bowl played at night and the first college football game televised during primetime.

The game: TEXAS 21 ALABAMA 17

Texas stopped Bama’s first drive, led by the very capable Steve Sloan, at the UT one-yard line.

Moments later, Big Ernie Koy swept around the end and cruised 79 yards for a touchdown. The Horns’ longest TD run in the regular season had been 21 yards. UT did not pass often, leading one critic to describe Darrell Royal’s Texas offense as “as thrilling as the cover of a telephone directory.”

But the Horns again struck like lightning when backup QB Jim Hudson hit George Sauer with a 69-yard bomb that put Texas up 14-0.

Bear Bryant, who had said about Namath’s injury, “He moves like a human now…he used to move like a cat,” sent Joe Willie into the battle, and he rallied the Tide with a TD pass.

Then Bama appeared to make a huge break, blocking a David Conway field goal attempt and scooping it, but a fumble followed the scoop, and Texas needed only a short drive to punch in a one-yard TD by Koy.

The second half, offensively, was all Bama. But despite Namath’s excellence on a gimpy knee, Texas bent but did not break. Trailing 21-17 late, the Tide had first and goal at the six. The Tommy Nobis-led UT stop-em troops turned back three fullback plunges. Namath tried to sneak the ball on fourth down, but Nobis and Frank Bedrick crunched the attempt. Namath claimed he was in the end zone, but his progress had already been whistled, and Texas prevailed for the upset victory.

Royal was jubilant, and his friend, the Bear, was magnanimous. “If you can’t jam it in from there without leaving any doubt, you don’t deserve to win.”

The aftermath: Joe Namath signed a record-breaking contract with the New York Jets the following day.

Little did anyone know that four Longhorn players who had played big roles in spoiling Namath’s final college game would be starters on Joe Willie’s Super Jets of ’68, winning Super Bowl III in a shocking upset of the Baltimore Colts. Wide receiver George Sauer would be Namath’s favorite receiver, TE Pete Lammons — who had picked off two Namath passes in the Orange Bowl game — would be his trusted tight end, DL John Elliott would become an All-Pro and Jim Hudson, who launched the big Orange Bowl bomb, became New York’s stellar, ball-hawking safety.

COTTON BOWL, 1972 Season

Jan. 1, 1973, Dallas

Background: Bama had blown a national title in heartbreak fashion against archrival Auburn in the Iron Bowl, getting two punts blocked late in a game that ended up as a 17-16 loss. The Tide was now ranked fourth. Texas (9-1) cruised to its fifth straight SWC title, the season’s only defeat against Oklahoma.

The Horns ranked seventh in both polls as they came into the Cotton Bowl.

The Game: Texas 17 ALABAMA 13

Bama converted two interceptions of Alan Lowry passes into a first quarter 10-0 lead. UT kicker

Billy “Sure” Schott got Texas on the board in the second, but UT faced a 13-3 deficit at intermission.

Lowry, who had been bedridden with a high fever, got a shot at halftime. He was certainly the shot in the arm Texas needed in the second half. In an interview last year, Lowry recalled feeling better as the game wore on and said his fever had been so bad the previous night that bedsheets had to be regularly changed because he was profusely sweating.

Texas FB Roosevelt Leaks and Lowry pounded the rock on Bama throughout the second half. Leaks would finish with 120 yards, and Lowry had 117. The versatile Lowry, an All-SWC DB in ’71 who had become the SWC’s All-Conference QB in ’72, ran for two touchdowns. The winning TD came on a 34-yard gallop that saw Alan tightrope the sideline. Different replay angles told different tales to fans of the Tide and the Horns, but the result was a touchdown in the last matchup between good friends Bear Bryant and Darrell Royal. DKR finished with a 3-0-1 mark against the Bear (1-0 vs. A&M, 2-0-1 vs. Bama).

Lowry, who would go on to coach in the NFL for 25 years, was the game’s Offensive MVP, and UT’s stellar middle linebacker, Randy Braband, earned the Defensive MVP award in his final game in burnt orange.

COTTON BOWL, 1981 Season

Jan. 1, 1982, Dallas

Background: Third-ranked Bama (9-1-1) was the SEC champ and Texas (9-1-1) represented the Southwest Conference because SWC front-runner SMU was on NCAA probation and was banned from bowl appearances. The punishment was a bit of “Pony Express” foreshadowing of the “death penalty” that would hit Southern Methodist in another six years. Texas was no paper tiger; the Horns had beaten the Mustangs, 9-7. UT had a surprise hero for the season, Robert Brewer, a former walk-on who came in as the starter in midseason and steadily improved.

The game: TEXAS 14 ALABAMA 12

Defense ruled the day. The Crimson Tide led 7-0 at halftime and upped the ante with a fourth-quarter field goal to lead, 10-0. But UT’s Brewer pulled off a dynamic quarterback draw for a 30-yard touchdown run on third and long at the 10:38 mark. On the Horns’ next possession, Terry Orr capped an 80-yard drive with an eight-yard TD to give Texas its first lead with just two minutes to play.

Bama’s Joey Jones raced all the way to the UT 38 with the ensuing kickoff. But Texas DB William Graham picked off QB Walter Lewis’s pass on the next play. The Horns punter, John Goodson, later stepped out of the end zone for an intentional safety and Texas’ Fred Akers had outlasted Bear Bryant in their lone matchup.

BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP, 2009 Season

Jan. 7, 2010, Pasadena, CA

Background: Mack Brown and Texas (13-0) were playing in the famed Rose Bowl Stadium for the third January in the last six years, having beaten Michigan, then winning the national title over USC. Alabama, in just its third year under Nick Saban, was also 13-0 as the nation’s top two teams got set to play for the crystal football. UT was led by Colt McCoy, the winningest starting QB in college history. Bama’s attack was spearheaded by Heisman winner Mark Ingram, the nation’s top running back.

The game: ALABAMA 37 TEXAS 21

Everything changed on the game’s fifth play, with Texas already threatening to score.

McCoy got crunched by 300-pound Marcel Dareus and left the game, wincing and holding his shoulder.

He would not return, and UT would be forced to lean on blue-chip QB Garrett Gilbert, highly touted but seldom used in his freshman year even in blowouts, as Brown seemed to be pushing McCoy for the Heisman. Texas settled for two first-quarter field goals by Hunter Lawrence and the Tide would roll up 24 unanswered points in the second period.

The Horns’ top-ranked defensive unit had not been helped by a curious play call as UT sought

late points, trailing 17-6. It resulted in a botched play and a 28-yard pick six to give

Alabama a 28-6 lead.

Gilbert played admirably and rallied the Longhorns with two TD passes to the incomparable

Jordan Shipley, pulling Texas to within three, 24-21, with six minutes left in the title bout.

Burnt orange optimism was rolling stronger than the Tide.

But Bama made big plays and Texas made mistakes. Alabama won its first national championship in more than a decade. Texas, on the lip of the title cup for the second straight season, was stymied.

2022 Season

Sept. 10, 2022, Austin

Background: Both teams had won tune-up games the previous week and ESPN’s Gameday crew was in Austin for the 11:05 kickoff in searing heat. UT’s Steve Sarkisian hoped to follow Jimbo Fisher and Kirby Smart as the third lieutenant to beat his former boss, Nick Saban, Alabama’s incomparable head coach.

The Crimson Tide featured Heisman winner Bryce Young at QB, along with the country’s premier defensive player, LB Will Anderson. Much-hyped Texas freshman QB Quinn Ewers would be in the spotlight, along with Heisman candidate Bijan Robinson.

The game: ALABAMA 20 TEXAS 19

In a nutshell, Bama gave Texas the cold shoulder. That is to say, almost 13 years after Colt McCoy was sidelined in the first quarter against the Tide, Quinn Ewers was mashed by an Alabama defender after a fast 9-for-12 passing show, one play after he hit a photogenic long bomb to Xavier Worthy.

Will Reichard’s 52-yard FG had staked Alabama to a 3-0 lead but now Texas was threatening to

punch in a touchdown. But UT had to settle for a Bert Auburn field goal.

Just seventeen seconds later, the tie was broken, as Tide RB Jase McClellan zipped 81 yards to silence Texas fans. In the second period, Bijan Robinson scored on a short run to finish a 75-yard drive and tie the score at 10-10.

The Horns were unable to cash in on a later red zone excursion just before halftime. Longhorn fans were steamed over what appeared to be a safety that was not called, and Nick Saban was fuming over

his team’s uncharacteristically sloppy play that resulted in multiple penalties.

Auburn gave Texas a third quarter lead, 13-10, with a short field goal, and press box jokers imagined a Sunday headline of “Auburn Beats Bama on FG.”

The curly-haired Texas kicker hit another three-pointer in the fourth quarter to extend the lead but

Bryce Young expertly guided a 75-yard drive and the Tide re-captured the edge, 17-16, midway through the final period.

The Longhorns, behind QB Hudson Card — who played consistently well all day — drove 44 yards for a chance at a go-ahead field goal with just 90 seconds remaining, and Auburn smoked a 49-yard shot, The Horns had a 19-17 lead.

Alabama, though, had Bryce Young. The shifty, elusive QB forced a blitzing Longhorn to whiff on a crucial play that might have snuffed the Tide’s last gasp at a winning drive. Young inexorably moved his team within striking range for Reichard, and with just ten ticks left, the Bama kicker nailed a 33-yarder

for the 20-19 win, one of the most memorable games played in UT’s venerable stadium.

TLSN TLSN TLSN TLSN TLSN