Exit Homer

In College Station, Texas, last week, chunky, 50-year-old Homer Norton thanked everybody kindly, pocketed $20,000, and walked out. As head football coach at Texas A. & M., he had made the mistake of losing to the University of Texas for eight years in a row. Now he was fired.

The old grads, like old grads everywhere, had no use for a loser--and their memories were short. In 1939, Homer had been a hero at A. & M. He had a wonder team that year, starring "Jarrin' Jawn" Kimbrough, which was voted the nation's best. In five years, his Aggies had played in four Bowl games. Box office was good at the campus stadium. Last year, when old grads began yelling for his scalp, Homer, who has coached at Texas A. & M. for 14 years, calmly told them to put up or shut up; his $10,000-a-year contract still had three years to run. They shut up.

But this year, unable to swallow another licking by Texas (32-13), old grads put up the money to buy up his unexpired contract and send him packing. Was he mad at his dismissal? Not he. Said Homer: the payoff was fine, and as for Texas A. & M., "My best wishes go with them always."

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