DARRELL ROYAL

'Darrell K. Royal' (born July 6, 1924 in Hollis, Oklahoma), is a College Football Hall of Fame member, and is the most successful football coach, in terms of wins, in University of Texas Longhorn history.
Royal has a middle initial but no middle name. The "K" is in honor of his mother, Katy, who died when he was an infant. She died of cancer, but because of the taboo surrounding the disease at that time, Royal was led to believe until he was an adult that she had died giving birth to him.^[1]

Contents

Oklahoma Sooners 1946-1949

Early coaching career

University of Texas

Notable quotes

See also

References

External links

Oklahoma Sooners 1946-1949

Royal played quarterback and defensive back at the University of Oklahoma under his mentor, coach Bud Wilkinson. While attending the University of Oklahoma he joined the Delta Upsilon Fraternity.
He was most noted for his prowess as a defensive back, where his 18 career interceptions and his 3 interceptions in the 1947 game against Oklahoma State are still Sooner records.^[2][3]
His part-time contributions at quarterback had a similar impact, despite having to share time with Jack Mitchell and Claude Arnold at the position. He threw a 43-yard pass against North Carolina in the 1949 Sugar Bowl. He holds the fourth best winning percentage in school history (minimum 15 starts) with a 16-1 mark as a part-time quarterback starter. His 11-0 mark as a starter in 1949 ranks as one of the best seasons in school history.²

Royal with son Mack, around 1950.

Early coaching career

He served as an assistant coach at North Carolina State, Tulsa and Mississippi State. He coached the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League, and in 1955, he returned to Mississippi State for his first collegiate head coaching job. He spent the 1956 season at the University of Washington.

University of Texas

Royal took over as head coach at University of Texas in December 1956, and achieved success almost instantaneously. The team went from a 1-9 season, their worst record ever, in 1956 to a 6-4-1 season and a berth in the Sugar Bowl in 1957. In Royal's 20 years as head coach, UT never had a losing season. Royal posted a 167-47-5 career record at Texas. His overall coaching record was 184-60-5.
With Royal at the helm, UT won three national championships (1963, 1969, and 1970), won or shared 11 Southwest Conference championships, and made 16 bowl appearances.
Royal's coaching tactics were the subject of criticism in Gary Shaw's exposé of college football recruiting and coaching practices, ''Meat on the Hoof'', which was published in 1972, six years after Shaw left the Texas football program.^[4]
Royal is also known as a great innovator on the football field and off. He introduced two key changes to college football – the "flip-flop" and the wishbone formation backfield. He was also the first coach in the nation to employ an academic counselor. Four out of five of his players went on to earn their degree.
Starting in 1962, Royal also served as athletics director for UT. He retired from coaching in 1976, and remained director of athletics until 1980. He now serves as special assistant to the university president on athletic programs. In 1996, the University honored him by renaming Texas Memorial stadium to Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
Royal was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983.

Royal with Bud Wilkinson.

Notable quotes

★ "If good luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity, bad luck is what happens when lack of preparation meets a challenge."

★ "Even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while."

★ "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."

★ "You've got to be in a position for luck to happen. Luck doesn't go around looking for a stumblebum."

★ "Three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two of them are bad."

★ "I'm going to dance with the one who brung me." (When asked by the press which quarter-back would start in an important bowl game).
"It's no disgrace to get knocked down - so long as you get back up."

★ "Great players give it all they've got to stand up again, average players take awhile, while losers lay flat on the field."

See also

★ List of presidents of the American Football Coaches Association

References

1.
2. 2006 Oklahoma Sooners Media Guide
3. Oklahoma Sooners Record Book
4. Tarnished Legends

External links

★ Head Football Coaches at The University of Texas

★ The Darrell K Royal Appreciation Page

★ Texas Monthly Talks - Interview with Darrell Royal

★ Read Me Texas - Darrell Royal

★ Darrell Royal at SoonerSports.com