The Country Slicker

Darrell Royal, head coach at the University of Texas, wears tailored three-button suits and adopts a low-keyed, tutorial tone with his players. "When he explains something," says Quarterback James Street, "it's like getting a lecture from a professor." Royal also likes to bring his charges down to earth with such occasional homespun homilies as: "There ain't a hoss alive that can't be rode, and there ain't a man alive who can't be throw'd."

The combination of cattle-country philosopher and football slicker has helped make Royal one of the most successful college football coaches in history. During his 13-year tenure at Texas, the Longhorns have compiled a won-lost-tied record of 103-28-4. They have won five Southwest Conference titles and one national championship, and have appeared in nine post-season bowl games. Royal was named Coach of the Year by the Football Writers Association of America in 1961 and 1963; he is the only coach ever to win that honor twice. He may be on his way to a third title. Recently his boys whipped conference archrival Southern Methodist 45-14 in Dallas' Cotton Bowl to bring their 1969 record to 6-0. That victory secured their ranking as the nation's No. 2 team and established the Longhorns as the only serious challenger to Ohio State for the No. 1 position in the nation.

Campus Fixture. Royal's Grapes of Wrath accent is no affectation. He grew up in Hollis, Okla. (pop. 3,006), on the edge of the state's dust bowl. He and his three brothers and one sister had to sleep with wet rags across their faces to filter the air they breathed. "We had a little place right on Highway 62," he recalls. "I used to stand in the front yard and watch the trucks go by, jammed with people heading for California."

World War II saved Royal from the fruit-picking odyssey. He joined the U.S. Army Air Force in 1943 and played for the Third Air Force at Tampa, Fla. After the war, Oklahoma Coach Jim Tatum had little trouble persuading the slight (5 ft. 11 in., 158 lbs.) quarterback to come home and try his hand at college ball. In 1947, Royal's sophomore year, Tatum was replaced by a youngster named Bud Wilkinson. Under Wilkinson's guidance Royal was named All-America quarterback in 1949. But the pro scouts considered him small, and he drifted into coaching. He held seven different jobs in eight years and eventually wound up as head coach at the University of Washington in 1956. Then he jumped to Texas.

Royal is now as much a fixture on the Austin campus as the University Tower. Texas alumni and undergraduates are easy to please; so long as the Longhorns win, they are as content as well-fed dogies. The faculty might well resent Royal's status as full professor (of nothing), with tenure and a $35,000-a-year salary; Royal soothes them by inviting three professors each week to become honorary coaches and sit in on pre-game briefings.

Straight Shooter. On the field, Royal is a stickler for fundamentals. Kicking, he insists, is the essential ingredient of a winning team. Before the Oklahoma game Royal told his team: "I don't know when, but I can assure you there's going to be a big break made in the kicking game today." Sure enough, in the fourth quarter the Longhorns recovered a fumbled punt inside the Sooner 25, then quickly marched to a touchdown to clinch a 27-17 victory.

Although he is a strict disciplinarian (he made several team members get haircuts before the nationally televised Oklahoma game), the players appreciate Royal's straight-shooting style. Says Halfback Ted Koy: "When I was in high school, some college coaches promised me a starting position my sophomore year. The only thing Coach Royal promised me was that he would have a winner at Texas. No soft soap, just straight talk." Most important of all, Royal produced the promised winner.

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