Two subjects -The history of Longhorn Fan and Remembering Bill Sansing

Bill Sansing has passed away. The link below shares an article that Bill Little wrote about Mr. Sansing’s influence on the Sports media starting as the SID for D.X. Bible. Bill was 100 years old.

https://texas-lsn.squarespace.com/bill-sansing

Benjamin Franklin said there are only three things certain in life: death, taxes and Fans

Ok – the quote is not entirely correct, but if there had been Longhorn fans in 1776, he would have said it. ????

This newsletter discusses The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Longhorn fans.

Fan passion is the lifeblood of all sports. It has been said that Sports is the only occupation that the fans are the “experts” and not the coach. Duke Carlisle says in his book Longhorn and Tall Tails, Fans think coaching is a “common sense” profession. With a sense of humor, Duke says, “fans also have certain rules they expect a coach to follow, such as don’t pass if it’s going to be intercepted, or never go for two unless you make it.” Hindsight makes fans great coaches, and fan hindsight has cost many coaches, both good and bad, their jobs. 

The love/hate relationship between Coaches and the fans is nothing new. In 1894 Coach Wentworth had a 6-1 record; in 1908, Coach Metzenthis record was 11-5-1; and in 1915, Coach Allerdice record was 33-7 record. Coach Allerdice teams still holds some football records and he is in the Longhorn Hall of Honor. All were great coaches, but each resigned because of what they consider as the “supercritical nature of the Texas fans.” 

In 1915 , trying to stop the fans from running off the Coaches, the University passed a resolution halting the unruly behavior of Longhorn fans. The resolution did not work.

The link below shares the history of Longhorn fans with an editorial comment at the end from the webmaster. 

https://texas-lsn.squarespace.com/death-taxes-and-fans

The History of Coke Bottles at Sporting events ends in 1947.

The proper authorities decided that bottles and fans should not share the same space at sporting events. In the Longhorn/Sooner game featuring DKR as the Sooner quarterback, a “poor” call against the Boomers initiated a bottle-throwing protest. Royal, in later years, said that “half the field was covered with coke bottles.” “Idiots were throwing them from up high. .. I went right straight out to the 50. I was going to make ’em throw their best to get me.”

The Devoted

Wesley Allen (deceased), Ed Berry, Scott Wilson

The quintessential fans -passionate, pure, sincere, unwavering, uncomplicated, and tireless. Each has a special way to showing their spirit to the Longhorn nation.          

 

Longhorn fans are sharing Longhorn history at the “Reflection Point” TlSN website. Here is one memory shared by Tom Prikryl.

8/27/2019

 On the Saturday that you guys beat Arkansas in Fayetteville, I had to take my SAT test, and then played a Class AAAA Semifinal Game against Robert E. Lee of San Antonio (I played for the Seguin Matadors.)

 Funny story…all my life all I wanted to do was to play football at UT.  However, after that ‘69 season, Coach Royal was getting the pick of the litter in terms of recruits.  I had scholarship offers from all of the other SWC schools, but not one from UT.  I eventually went to the Coast Guard Academy and had a fun career playing there (until I tore two knee ligaments and a patella tendon).  Later, I worked on Coach Royal’s show at Channel 7 in Austin One day I was giving him a hard time about not offering me a scholarship.  And in typical Coach Royal fashion, he said, “Well Tom, we just weren’t recruiting any short, fat guards that year.”  From someone else, that might have been a real derogatory comment.  From Coach Royal, who said it with a twinkle in his eyes, it was just funny.

Fan memories are at the link below.

https://texas-lsn.squarespace.com/fan-memories

The article on the anatomy of a Longhorn fan shares humor and truisms. While most Longhorn fans are loyal followers of the Longhorn Nation, the social media has unfortunately given a voice to many faux fans. I hope that U.T. can distinguish between the two. 

Making decisions about the future of Longhorn sports requires listening to the heart of the Longhorn nation with no input from the anatomical inappropriate derriere class.

https://texas-lsn.squarespace.com/theanatomyofalongornfan

TLSN is an independent organization celebrating Longhorn Sports History . TLSN is not associated with the UT Athletic Department or any organization closely aligned with UT.

The website and newsletter are free, insightful, historical, and educational.

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