In the Mount Rushmore of college football you have Rockne, Leahy, Wilkinson, Bryant, and Royal. Not many would argue with those five men.
However, for many in the south, especially for a generation of Dust Bowl Oklahomans and another generation of 1960's Texans, Darrell K Royal is a dichotomy.
Because never before has one man impacted two football-driven universities moreso than the effect Darrell K Royal had on the University of Oklahoma and blood-rival the University of Texas.
No man has ever been loathed equally by both schools at equal parts of his career either.
If you bleed burnt orange or crimson and your soul aches at the very thought of losing to the other rival, blame Darrell K Royal.
Darrell K Royal was born on July 6, 1924 in Hollis, Oklahoma. The youngest of six children born to Katy and B.R. "Burley" Royal, young Darrell grew up during the Dust Bowl in extreme southwestern Oklahoma--just 6 miles from the Texas border.
Author's note: I have never known why anyone would name their child with just initials but it must be an Oklahoma-thing. Darrell's middle initial "K" doesn't stand for anything other than his mother's name was Katy.
After his mother died before he was 6 years old, losing two sisters to a fever epidemic and facing a life of poverty, at age 14 he followed his father and the migration depicted in John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" and headed to California for a new beginning and hope for prosperity.
However, young Darrell was homesick for his native Oklahoma so he packed a knapsack and his baseball glove and hitchhiked back to Hollis. He made it in one piece and lived with his grandmother.
According to John Hoover in the Tulsa World, as a youngster, Royal would listen to Oklahoma Sooners football games on the radio every Saturday in the fall.
Later as an adult, Royal would recount the impact of Oklahoma football on his young psyche when he described the impact the sound of the Boomer Sooner fight song had had on him:
"...lifted me right out of my socks!"
Royal was a skinny kid on the Hollis High School football team but good enough to lead them to a state championship his senior year as quarterback.
Unfortunately for Royal though, he came of age just as World War II began and soon found himself enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps and served four years in World War II.
After completing his service, Royal finally found his way back to Oklahoma and a home on the University of Oklahoma football team where he would be introduced to a young assistant named Bud Wilkinson.
However, coach Wilkinson wasn't quite a legend yet. The head coach was Jim Tatum.
Royal found himself in one of the first signing classes among a slew of returning veterans. Wilkinson would become the Oklahoma head coach the next year in 1947. According to Harold Keith's book "47 Straight" 31 of the top 33 Sooner players in the 46' class were military veterans just returning from World War II.
The "Monster" Was Born
Barry Switzer often said he was just "feeding the monster" in describing his incredible success starting off 32-1-1 and back-to-back National Championships in 74'-75' as head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners in the early 1970's.
The "monster" Switzer was talking about was created by Bud Wilkinson and a young quarterback from Hollis named Darrell Royal.
In Wilkinson's second year in 1948, with the skinny kid from Hollis who said the sound of "Boomer Sooner" "lifted him out of his socks" at quarterback, the Oklahoma Sooners went 10-1 overall and 5-0 best in the Big 7 conference.
Oh, and by the way, Oklahoma beat Texas that year 20-14 in the Cotton Bowl for the first Sooner victory over their hated rival since 1939!
For all of you who cherish the thought of victory in the Cotton Bowl over either Oklahoma or Texas and revel in the accoutrements of victory, imagine losing to the other team 8 consecutive years!
It was the beginning of a dynasty at Oklahoma.
And domination over rival Texas.
Bud Wilkinson's Sooners would go on and win 8 of 10 against Texas during Wilkinson's first 10 seasons in Norman which was part of an overall 93-10-3 record.
During that time frame no other school dominated college football like the Sooners:
3 National Championships.
10 Big 6 and/or 7 Championships.
4 Undefeated Seasons.
1 Heisman Trophy Winner.
47-game winning streak--longest ever in college football.
In Royals' senior season, the 1949 team was 11-0, the first perfect season in Oklahoma football in 31 years, and has been called "the best college football team of all time!" by 1952 Heisman winner Billy Vessels.
Royal completed 34 of 63 passes, 54% completion percentage rate, for 509 yards with just 1 interception in 49' earning All-America honors along the way.
Quarterback Darrell Royal led Oklahoma to two Sugar Bowl wins and a 31-consecutive win streak during his stay in Norman, as well.
But that was just on offense.
Royal was also an excellent defensive back who intercepted 18 opponents passes during his one-platoon days in Norman. Open the Sooner record book and you'll still see Darrell Royal's name at the top of the list of all-time defensive interceptions.
But Royal wasn't done.
Darrell Royal also was a punter extraordinare once kicking an 81-yarder against OSU and also returned two punts for touchdowns of 73 and 95 yards!
There have been many great Sooners who have played the game in Norman.
However, no one had the impact that Darrell K Royal had on creating the "monster" that cemented greatness on the gridiron in the minds of a generation of Oklahomans! His teams success also reversed a generation of Dust Bowl misery and state inferiority that was widely documented in John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath."
His accomplishments also paralled the skyrocketing post-war building boom at the University of Oklahoma to accommodate all of the returning military veterans who attended college on the G.I. Bill.
In fact, it was University of Oklahoma President George Lynn Cross who famously said he "would like to build a university of which the football team could be proud !"
He was speaking about the legacy that Darrell K Royal created.
The Eyes of Texas
Darrell Royal had always wanted to be a football coach.
As the quarterback of Coach Wilkinson's earliest winning teams, no one knew the intracacies of what made Oklahoma football succeed better than Darrell Royal. In fact, Royal would always be the last player on the practice field in hopes of soaking up as much football knowledge as he could muster.
However, starting out as an assistant coach in the 1950's didn't pay much and meant he would have to take his game on the road.
After stints as assistant at North Carolina State, Tulsa, and Mississippi State, he became head coach of the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League in 1953.
Following head coaching stints at Mississippi State and Washington, Darrell K Royal found a home deep in the heart of Texas.
Immediately Darrell K Royal knew he had found his calling.
"Edith, this is it, this is the University of Texas," Royal excitedly told his wife upon receiving the head coaching offer from Texas.
From 1939 to 1953, Texas won 77% of its games but Texas had not had a winning season in three years before Royal became head coach and was 1-9 in 1956.
In fact the football stadium that would later be renamed in his honor was ringed by barbed wire fence and tall grass when Royal first put down stakes in Austin.
It is ironic today to look back and wonder what must have been going through Darrell Royal's head when he stood on that field in Austin and took stock of the sorry state of affairs he had inherited at such a proud football school as Texas and know deep in his mind that he had a direct hand in the situation!
He also knew that if he were to reverse the situation, and carry that success to Texas, it would have to be at the expense of his mentor and friend, Coach Bud Wilkinson and his native Oklahoma Sooners.
But he knew no man was more prepared to carry that success to Texas than himself.
Hook 'Em!
It didn't take Coach Royal long to reverse the direction of University of Texas football.
He went 6-3-1 in his first season in 1957 and would never have a losing season for the 20 years of his coaching career in Austin.
He also dominated his alma mater.
From 1947 to 1956, Bud Wilkinson's Oklahoma Sooners owned the college football landscape and its neighbor to the south, Texas.
Wilkinson's teams were 8-2 in the ten years prior to Darrell Royal's arrival at Texas. He would stretch that streak to 9-2 beating Royal's first Longhorn team 21-7 in the Cotton Bowl.
However, beginning in Royal's second season in 1958, the University of Texas would not lose to the Oklahoma Sooners for 8 years!
That streak included the final 6 season's of Coach Wilkinson's career in Norman.
The pupil had not only mastered the mentor but had run him out of football!
Blasphemy!
The greatest coach in the University of Oklahoma history had been vanquished from the playing field by one of his own.
"Darrell, how could you?"
You can imagine how this went over in Royal's native state.
Barry Tramel, columnist with The Daily Oklahoman, reported this week the thoughts of Ed Lisak, one of Royal's teammates on that 1949 Sooner team,
"Darrell, he was a great one," said Lisak, "Only thing that ever disturbed me was he was the head coach at Texas. Other than that, I'll forgive him,"
The problem with Royal's impact on the University of Texas for Oklahoma fans was that it didn't stop at the Red River.
Royal would win Texas' first national championship in football in 1963. He would repeat that feat in back-to-back wins in 1969 and 1970 after installing a new offensive system called the Wishbone and reeling off 30-consecutive wins.
Holy cow!
Young Darrell had not only knocked Coach Wilkinson out of football but he had matched him in National Championships and damn near matched his win streak!
Yes, native son Darrell Royal is loved in Norman for what he accomplished as a player on Coach Wilkinson's legendary teams in the 1940's.
However, too many years in burnt orange tarnished his legend in Oklahoma and was a sore spot for many Sooner fans that they never forgot or forgave him!
The Monster Is Awakened
Darrell Royal was instrumental in creating the Sooner football legend then resurrected a downtrodden Texas program at the expense of his alma mater, coaching legend mentor and state pride.
It must have weighed on his mind.
Because after beating Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl for 8 straight years from 1958 to 1965 and then for another 4 years from 1967 to 1970, Darrell Royal had a soft spot in his heart.
Beating OU 12 of his first 14 years had a reverse effect on Darrell Royal.
In 1970, Royal instructed his assistant coach Emory Bellard to visit with Sooners Offensive Coordinator Barry Switzer and show him the keys to effectively running the wishbone.
In Switzer's autobiography, "Bootlegger's Boy", he describes the scene in the Oklahoma coaches office after losing the third game of the 1970 season to Oregon State:
"You could almost hear the Oily's howling to load the entire coaching staff in the first boxcar heading to the Yukon!"
It was a period of time in Oklahoma of restlessness. Losing 11 of 13 years to rival Texas will do that to a proud football program in Norman.
It was also a time that "Chuck Chuck" bumper stickers and parties were appearing all over Oklahoma as Sooner fans were showing their displeasure with Head Football Coach Chuck Fairbanks.
So Switzer convinces Fairbanks to change offensive systems to the Wishbone patterned after Royal's successful system at Texas the week before the rival game in the Cotton Bowl.
How ironic.
The man who mastered Coach Wilkinson's Split-T option at Oklahoma had improved upon the rushing game by installing his own version called the Wishbone only to have it copied by a young, brash offensive coordinator named Barry Switzer.
Switzer knew they had no choice. Rumors were that all the coaches were going to be fired. He had also heard that the University of Oklahoma Regents had recently been turned down by favorite son Darrell Royal to return and resurrect Oklahoma football for the second time.
He had convinced Fairbanks to change offensive systems the week before his biggest rival game and his and the entire coaching staff's futures rode on Switzer's gamble.
The outcome? Texas routed Oklahoma 41-9 in the Cotton Bowl. And, with a good Colorado team up next,
Switzer knew it was a death-knell but had hope. A humorous streak didn't hurt either.
So facing a sure firing, Switzer gathered his fellow Oklahoma coaches and they decided to try and cheer up Coach Fairbanks by having their very own "Beat Colorado" party.
Imagine the scene: Barry Switzer, Jimmy Johnson, Larry Lacewell and Gene Hochever all met at Switzer's house and were indulging in a few adult beverages. Soon Switzer had convinced his wife Kay to let the men raid her closet. They then travelled to all the other coaches houses and convinced them to join in the drag party.
A little after midnight, Switzer and the coaching staff arrived at a stunned Fairbanks' house. Fairbanks knew the power of the moment and joined right in with his assistants.
The Sooners would beat Colorado with Royals' Wishbone 23-15 and held off a sure firing.
Oklahoma had gone on to compile a 7-4-1 season that year in 1970 after installing the Wishbone the week before Texas.
Royal had summoned his assistant to help them out at the end of the season suredly not thinking that Fairbanks and Switzer would ever master the system without his players.
Because Royal knew that the key to the Wishbone was execution and it all started with a quarterback and he had James Street.
Street had been Royal's quarterback in that magical 1969 season when Texas beat Arkansas 15-14 at the end of the 1969 season to claim the school's second national championship.
In what would become the "Game of the Century" in Texas football annals, Royal and his Longhorns were on the top of the world having their national championship proclaimed by no other than President Richard Nixon in the locker room following the game.
But Switzer was smart as a fox because he knew that he had the players to run Royal's offense in Norman.
Royal's players.
Oklahoma had 20 players from the state of Texas on the Oklahoma roster including a young quarterback named Jack Mildren whom Switzer had personally recruited right under Royals' nose from Abilene, Texas.
And to make matters worse, most of the top players from Texas were black. You see the "Bootlegger's Boy" from Arkansas who was raised by a black nanny, was welcomed into the black player's homes and made their momma's feel comfortable because Barry Swtizer was one of them.
On the other hand, Darrell K Royal was late to the game in recruiting black players. In fact, his 1969 national championship team was the last all-white team to be #1.
Royal could hardly be blamed for the snub of black players. He was head coach at a major southern university deep in the heart of Texas in a state that fought for the Confederacy.
He had to be coaxed into relaxing his views by none other than the Texan President Lyndon B. Johnson who had overseen major Civil Rights legislation in 1964.
Texas didn't have it's first black football letterman until 1970 in offensive lineman Julius Whittier. The first black star running back Roosevelt Leaks, would soon follow Whittier in 1971. The "Tyler Rose" Earl Campbell would follow Leaks and arrive in Austin in 1974.
However, Oklahoma had been recruiting black players since their first player Prentice Gautt came on campus in 1956.
The head start in recruiting black players would start playing dividends in 1971.
Switzer also had a couple of running backs from Texas named Greg Pruitt and Joe Wylie. Pruitt from Houston, "a little black kid Texas didn't even try to recuit", would run wild on Royal's Longhorns in the 1971 game. Pruitt carried the ball 20 times rushing for 216 yards and 3 touchdowns as Fairbank's Sooners and Switzer's Wishbone gashed Royal's Longhorns 48-27.
It was only the third time Oklahoma had beaten Texas in 15 years and had been done in a routing fashion with an offense native son Darrell Royal had taught to the Sooners.
Ouch!
And that began the beginning of the end of Darrell K Royal's career at the University of Texas. Just as he had done 8 years earlier to his mentor and legendary Oklahoma Coach Wilkinson, Barry "Bootlegger's Boy" Switzer would now do to Darrell Royal.
Switzer's Sooners would not lose a game to Darrell Royal's Longhorns. He had mastered the Texas Wishbone and had returned to the Cotton Bowl with Texas players, many whom Royal did not recruit, and delivered a viscious smackdown in his very first game.
In Switzer's first year as Sooners head coach in 1973, following a convincing 27-0 win in 1972, Oklahoma beat Texas 52-13 for the worst loss in Darrell Royal's career at Texas.
More wins followed in 1974 and 75' including back-to-back National Championships. In fact, in Switzer's two years as offensive coordinator and 16 as head coach, he beat Texas 11 times.
The tide of the red river rivalry had once again been turned.
Darrell Royal look in the mirror and see your new nemesis named Barry Switzer.
The very thought made Royal's blood curl.
The humble man from Hollis, Oklahoma who had served his country and mentored under the legendary Coach Wilkinson was now being humiliated on the recruiting trail and on the football field by a 36-year old swashbuckler, hard-drinking, cross-dressing, recruiting-bandit coach who had stolen his offensive system and was now shoving it down his throat.
Oh, and by the way. He cheated.
That's what Royal incredibly accused the Sooner coaches of doing prior to Switzer ever coaching a game at the University of Oklahoma in 1973.
Things Turn Nasty in The Red River Rivalry
The Ivery Suber affair was the beginning of the hatred between Darrell K Royal and Barry Switzer.
Suber was a blue-chip recruit from O.D. Wyatt High School in Fort Worth, Texas. Suber had given his oral commitment to Coach Royal in his living room with his mother and father by his side.
But that fact didn't keep Switzer from trying to convince him to come to the University of Oklahoma.
After reconsidering his commitment to Texas and hearing Coach Switzer's pitch in the locker room of a high school game, Subey decided to play at Texas.
Switzer was disappointed but knew he already had some pretty good Texas running backs in Norman including Joe Washington.
However, Switzer was stunned when University of Oklahoma Faculty Representative David Swank told him that Darrell Royal had levied serious accusations against him with the NCAA in the Subey recruiting affair that included:
Switzer had offered Subey a 1973 Pontiac.
$1,000 in cash.
A new wardrobe.
And $250 monthly payments to attend the University of Oklahoma.
Switzer vehmently denied the accusations. He had to not only because he knew them to be untrue but also because Oklahoma was still on major probation over the recruiting of Texas schoolboy star Kerry Jackson in 1972. In fact, not only was OU on probation but from the end of the 1973 season to January 1, 1976, Oklahoma was banned from appearing on television over the Kerry Jackson affair. Sports Illustrated dubbed the Sooners "the greatest team you'll never see!"
Swank said Royal had prepared an affidavit by the NCAA that Subey was prepared to sign acknowledging the accusations against Switzer.
However, with Subey's parents, Coach Royal and the NCAA representative sitting in his living room, Subey refused to sign the affidavit implicating Coach Switzer. Subey went on and played at Texas for 4 years and never recounted his denial.
Royal was disbelieving. He publicly called for Switzer to take a lie-detector test.
Switzer did and passed the test. Had his entire coaching staff take the test and they all passed, as well.
This is what Oklahoma vs. Texas football had come to: lie-detector tests, accusations of illegal payments and distrust.
Later in 1976, Royal accused Switzer of spying on his practices before the annual game in the Cotton Bowl. Switzer laughed off the accusations but stung by the constant sniping by Royal, the accusations and repeated requests to take a lie detector test, Switzer finally snapped and said this:
"Some coaches don't want to coach anymore. They would rather sit home and listen to guitar pickers. They want us to make it where you can't outwork anybody."
To which Royal replied to a reporter supposedly off the record:
"Why those sorry bastards. I don't trust em' on anything."
After tieing Oklahoma 6-6 in the 1976 OU vs. Texas game, Darrell K Royal retired at the end of the season at age 52.
Ironically, it was a fumble by Ivery Suber with 5:31 remaining in the game with Texas leading 6-0 that resulted in the ensuing Oklahoma touchdown. However, the Sooners missed the extra point ending the gut-wrenching game in a tie.
Legendary Dallas sports columnist Blackie Sherrod summed up Darrell K Royal's final game versus Oklahoma at Texas in The Dallas Times Herald this way after the game,
"Royal looked like he had driven a gravel truck without a windshield nonstop across Death Valley."
Sad.
Summary
Son of the depression having grown up in the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma, Darrell K Royal had more impact on the University of Oklahoma vs. University of Texas rivalry than any other human being.
He found amazing success at both schools.
At Oklahoma he led the Sooners to an 11-0 season in 1949, the schools' first in 31 years, and a 31-game winning streak. He was a three-position star finishing his senior season with All-America honors.
At Texas, he is the winningest coach of all time amassing a 167-45-5 record from 1957 to 1976 never having a losing season. The best mark in the nation during that time period. His Texas teams would win the school's only national championships and the only Heisman Trophy winner in school history up until that time was recruited by Darrell Royal.
His folksy, down-home manner was universally revered by Presidents to celebrities to common folks he encountered during his every day life.
The University of Texas honored his life this week by illuminating the famous tower on campus in burnt orange. Today his Longhorns will play a game against Iowa State in the stadium that bears his name. The Texas players will honor him by wearing special stickers on their helmets with the initials "DKR."
Coach Mack Brown also honored his mentor by lining up his team in the Wishbone formation on the Longhorns first play from scrimmage.
The play was a throwback pass to the quarterback who threw from his endzone a 47-yard pass to a Texas wide receiver. All of the Texas players celebrated by raising the #1 sign up to the heavens.
Oklahoma plays Baylor at home today in Norman across the street from Heisman Park home to five statues of the Heisman Trophy winners from Oklahoma. The players will come out of their locker rooms inside the Barry Switzer Center which is also across the street from Bud Wilkinson House where the players live. In front of Bud Wilkinson House stands two statues: one to legendary Coach Bud Wilkinson and the other to legendary Coach Barry Switzer.
Sadly, nowhere on the University of Oklahoma campus is anything in comparison to the great life and career of the favorite son from Hollis. Too many years of success in burnt orange across the river in Texas.
Not sure what President David Boren and Athletic Director Joe Castiglione have in store to honor Royal's legacy today but I am certain they will do something to honor the favorite son from Hollis.
Yes, Darrell K Royal was a special man who rose to great heights. His legacy will remain bright in the hearts of Oklahomans and Texans.
According to Barry Tramel, his backup quarterback in 1949 and lifelong friend Claude Arnold summed him up this way,
"He became imbued with being a Texan. He was very strong down there. But he still thought of himself as an Okie."
Today, both schools fans will remember his legacy and be thankful that he left so much to both schools.
"He was still a true Okie and one of us," his friend Lisak said. "Nothing but great memories and he was a great person."
Boomer Sooner & Hook 'Em!
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