Dear Doc,
Thank you, from the essentially game-detail-clueless but inescapably engaged former TH Rogers Jr High cheerleader and Longhorns fan, for such wonderful memories/stories of your legendary friend and your engagement with his game and life. You are a walking history book, and you've flipped open to a particularly poignant page here.
Love, Alice
From: James Ayres jayres@cvctx.com Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2012 19:59:25 -0800 To: Clayton Stromberger cstromberger@austin.utexas.edu Cc: Shakespeare at Winedale 1970-2000 alums winedale-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Winedale-l] DKR
Way back when Cliff Grubbs (Prof Economics) and I decided to talk to Coach about attempting variations of the wishbone. So we made an appointment to talk to him in his tiny office in Gregory Gym. In '69 I think. We had a super play in mind, a tailback pass. He very graciously welcomed us. When we told him about our idea, he asked us to draw it up on the chalkboard. We did. All Bertleson had to do when he received the ball was fake his forward movement, drop two steps and pass to an x standing alone in the end zone. Simple.
He thanked us for the idea, then drew up his own chalked arrangement to show us why that would not work, given the aggressive forward back and blocking strategy of the triple option. He thanked us for our ideas and said we were welcome to come back any time.
The following Saturday, Alabama ran our play---for a touchdown. We decided not to call Coach about that.
I next encountered Coach in '78 when I was on the athletic council. We had meetings every week until '81 on athletic director matters. I discovered quickly (1) that he was not comfortable in the position of athletic director and (2) was very unhappy that the Regents did not select Mike Campbell as his successor as coach but chose Fred Akers instead. He also did not like our choice of Deloss as athletic director. Deloss is not your UT "good 'ole boy."
Later I had lunch with him and his driver, Louie Murrillo, at Ciscos a couple of times a month to talk about everything BUT football. Coach introduced me to Willie on one Saturday bloody mary morning before the Willie Nelson one mile run at the Terrace Motel grounds in south Austin. I ran in that race and would have beaten Willie at the end but he had some of that tomato fuel I did not. We were both 50 that day.
Doc
On Nov 7, 2012, at 5:41 PM, Clayton Stromberger wrote:
Doc --
Favorite memories of Coach Royal?
Right 53 Veer pass,
cs
Winedale-l mailing list Winedale-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/winedale-l
Winedale-l mailing list Winedale-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/winedale-l