 Royal in 1966 | |
| Biographical details | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1924-07-06)July 6, 1924 Hollis, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Died | November 7, 2012(2012-11-07) (aged 88) Austin, Texas, U.S. |
| Playing career | |
| 1946–1949 | Oklahoma |
| Positions | Quarterback,defensive back |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1950 | NC State (assistant) |
| 1951 | Tulsa (assistant) |
| 1952 | Mississippi State (off. backs) |
| 1953 | Edmonton Eskimos |
| 1954–1955 | Mississippi State |
| 1956 | Washington |
| 1957–1976 | Texas |
| Administrative career (AD unless noted) | |
| 1962–1980 | Texas |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 184–60–5 (college) 12–4 (CFL) |
| Tournaments | 8–7–1 (bowl games) 1–2 (CFL playoffs) |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| Awards | |
| |
| College Football Hall of Fame Inducted in 1983 (profile) | |
Darrell K Royal (July 6, 1924 – November 7, 2012) was an Americancollege football player, coach, and athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach atMississippi State University from 1954 to 1955, theUniversity of Washington in 1956, and theUniversity of Texas from 1957 to 1976, compiling a career record of 184 wins, 60 losses and five ties. During his 20-year tenure as the head coach of theTexas Longhorns, Royal's teams won threenational championships and 11Southwest Conference titles while finishing ranked in fifteen seasons. He amassed a record of 167–47–5 while in Austin and won more games than any other coach inTexas Longhorns football history. Royal never had a losing season as a head coach for his entire career.[1]
Royal played college football as anAll-Americanquarterback at theUniversity of Oklahoma from 1946 to 1949 under coachBud Wilkinson.[2] Following graduation, he worked as an assistant coach atNorth Carolina State University and theUniversity of Tulsa. Royal also coached theEdmonton Eskimos of theWestern Interprovincial Football Union, the predecessor to theCanadian Football League (CFL), for one season in 1953.[3]
From 1962 to 1980, Royal assumed the role ofathletic director at Texas, succeedingEdwin Olle. Royal stepped down as head football coach after the1976 season; two of his former assistant coaches,Fred Akers andDavid McWilliams, helmed the team for the next 15 years. In 1980, Royal moved to an advisory role under his successorDeLoss Dodds, before retiring in 1990. He was inducted into theTexas Sports Hall of Fame in 1976, and theCollege Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1983.Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium inAustin, Texas, where the Longhorns play their home games, was renamed in his honor in 1996.
Royal was the youngest of six children born to Burley Ray and Katie Elizabeth (née Harmon) Royal inHollis, Oklahoma. His middle initial "K" was given in honor of his mother, who died ofcancer when he was an infant. Due to the stigma surrounding the disease at that time, Royal was led to believe until he was an adult that she had died giving birth to him.[4] Burley Ray, a peace officer at theHarmon County jail, re-married five times after Katie's death.[5]
During Royal's childhood, the town of Hollis was severely impacted by theGreat Depression and bore the brunt of severaldevastating dust storms. Royal worked a paper route and picked cotton alongside his three older brothers, Glenn, Ray Jr. and Don, to help his family make ends meet.[6] In 1940, Burley Raymigrated to California with Darrell and his brother Glenn, settling in the town ofPorterville within theSan Joaquin Valley. However, after failing to make the varsity football team atPorterville High School, Royalhitch-hiked back to Oklahoma, where he enrolled atHollis High School.[7] A multi-sport athlete, Royal played quarterback and punter on Hollis' varsity football team and earned first team All-State honors in 1942 during his senior season.[8]
After graduating from Hollis High School, Royal served in theUnited States Army Air Corps from 1943 to 1946. He was initially trained as arear gunner on aB-24 bomber, and later received training for photo reconnaissance missions beforeWorld War II came to a close.[9]In the fall of 1945 Royal played football for theThird Air Force football team, and was spotted and recruited by scouts for theUniversity of Oklahoma Sooners football program.[10] He playedquarterback anddefensive back at theUniversity of Oklahoma under his mentor, coachBud Wilkinson, from 1946 to 1949. While attending Oklahoma, he joined theDelta Upsilon fraternity.
Royal was most noted for his prowess as a defensive back, where his 18 career interceptions and his three interceptions in the 1947 game againstOklahoma A&M (nowOklahoma State) are still Sooner records.[11][12]
Royal's part-time contributions as quarterback had a similar impact, despite the fact that he shared time withJack Mitchell and Claude Arnold at the position. He threw a 43-yard pass againstNorth Carolina in the1949 Sugar Bowl. Royal 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 astarter in 1949 ranks as one of the best seasons in school history.[11][12]
In 1992, Royal was inducted into theOklahoma Sports Hall of Fame.[13]
Royal served as an assistant coach atNorth Carolina State,Tulsa andMississippi State. He coached theEdmonton Eskimos of theCanadian Football League, and in1954, he returned to Mississippi State for his first collegiate head coaching job.[14] After two seasons, he left forWashington in thePacific Coast Conference,[15][16] but stayed in Seattle for less than ten months.
Royal took over as head coach at theUniversity of Texas (UT) on December 18, 1956.[17] The team went from a 1–9 record in1956, their worst record ever, to a 6–4–1 mark in 1957 and a berth in theSugar Bowl. Within two years, Royal had the Longhorns in theCotton Bowl as the number-four team in the country. In Royal's 20 years as head coach, Texas never had a losing season. Royal posted a 167–47–5 (.774) record at Texas, and his overall record was 184–60–5 (.749). Some of his most memorable games were against theArkansas Razorbacks, and fellow College Football Hall of Fame head coachFrank Broyles.
With Royal at the helm, Texas won the school's first three national championships (1963,1969 and1970), won or shared 11Southwest Conference championships, and made 16bowl appearances. His 1963 and 1969 teams finished the season undefeated and untied—something no Longhorn team would do again until2005.
Royal's teams were known for being very run-oriented. The quote, "Three things can happen when you pass, and two of them are bad," is often attributed to Royal, but Royal himself attributed it to another run-first coach,Woody Hayes.[18]
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.[19]
Beginning in 1962, Royal also served as Texas'athletic director. He retired from coaching in 1976 and remained director of athletics until 1980. He then served as special assistant to the university president on athletic programs.
During his tenure, Royal oversaw theintegration of African-Americans into the UT athletics program. At that time, while UT began admitting black students in 1956 and opening the athletics program to them in 1963, there were no black student-athletes well into the late 1960s.
In a confidential University of Texas memo dated November 10, 1959 which related to how various coaches at the university felt about black players, it was stated that "Coach Royal has coached Negro students, but says they create problems. White players particularly resented Negro boys coming in their room and lounging on their beds. Darrell was quite pronounced in not wanting any Negroes on his team until other Southwest Conference teams admit them and until the housing problem is solved or conditions change."[20]
In 2005, Royal retrospectively noted that "things they are a-changing. But they weren't changing that quickly around here at the time."[21] He offered a scholarship toJulius Whittier (1950-2018) ofSan Antonio after the last recipient dropped out due to poor academic performance, and Whittier became the first black student-athlete to play for theTexas Longhorns football team. Whittier went on to graduate from theLyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs in 1976 with a master's degree and worked as a chief prosecutor with theDallas District Attorney's Office.[22][23]
Royal also coachedFreddie Steinmark, who was a member of the 1969 Longhorns National Championship team and subsequently died from bone cancer. Steinmark has been the topic of several books and a 2015 movie,My All American where Royal was portrayed byAaron Eckhart.
In 1996, the University honored Royal by renaming Texas Memorial Stadium asDarrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium.[24] Royal was elected to theCollege Football Hall of Fame in 1983.[25]
Coach Royal was famous for the inspirationalRoyalisms he deployed as motivational tools. These sayings include:
Royal spent his retired years enjoying life with his wife, Edith, and close friends such as former presidentLyndon B. Johnson[citation needed] and noted musicianWillie Nelson. He enjoyed playing golf and spending time in nature. In 1991, Royal paid $117,350 for Willie Nelson'sPedernales Country Club after it was seized by theIRS due to Nelson's tax debt.[27] Royal and professionalbaseball playerPete Runnels also helped found a co-ed summer camp, Camp Champions inMarble Falls, Texas, which is still in existence.
Royal died on November 7, 2012, due to complications of Alzheimer's disease.[28][29] He is interred at theTexas State Cemetery inAustin, Texas.
Royal was survived by his wife Edith (1925-2024), whom he married on July 26, 1944.[30] They have a son, Sammy Mack, and two predeceased children, Marian Royal Kazen (1945–73) and David Wade Royal (1952–82), both of whom died in automobile-related accidents.[29]
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | Coaches# | AP° | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mississippi State Bulldogs(Southeastern Conference)(1954–1955) | |||||||||
| 1954 | Mississippi State | 6–4 | 3–3 | T–6th | |||||
| 1955 | Mississippi State | 6–4 | 4–4 | 6th | |||||
| Mississippi State: | 12–8 | 7–7 | |||||||
| Washington Huskies(Pacific Coast Conference)(1956) | |||||||||
| 1956 | Washington | 5–5 | 4–4 | T–4th | |||||
| Washington: | 5–5 | 4–4 | |||||||
| Texas Longhorns(Southwest Conference)(1957–1976) | |||||||||
| 1957 | Texas | 6–4–1 | 4–1–1 | 2nd | LSugar | 11 | 11 | ||
| 1958 | Texas | 7–3 | 3–3 | 4th | |||||
| 1959 | Texas | 9–2 | 5–1 | T–1st | LCotton | 4 | 4 | ||
| 1960 | Texas | 7–3–1 | 5–2 | T–2nd | TBluebonnet | 17 | |||
| 1961 | Texas | 10–1 | 6–1 | T–1st | WCotton | 4 | 3 | ||
| 1962 | Texas | 9–1–1 | 6–0–1 | 1st | LCotton | 4 | 4 | ||
| 1963 | Texas | 11–0 | 7–0 | 1st | WCotton | 1 | 1 | ||
| 1964 | Texas | 10–1 | 6–1 | 2nd | WOrange | 5 | 5 | ||
| 1965 | Texas | 6–4 | 3–4 | T–4th | |||||
| 1966 | Texas | 7–4 | 5–2 | 2nd | WBluebonnet | ||||
| 1967 | Texas | 6–4 | 4–3 | T–3rd | |||||
| 1968 | Texas | 9–1–1 | 6–1 | T–1st | WCotton | 5 | 3 | ||
| 1969 | Texas | 11–0 | 7–0 | 1st | WCotton | 1 | 1 | ||
| 1970 | Texas | 10–1 | 7–0 | 1st | LCotton | 1 | 3 | ||
| 1971 | Texas | 8–3 | 6–1 | 1st | LCotton | 12 | 18 | ||
| 1972 | Texas | 10–1 | 7–0 | 1st | WCotton | 5 | 3 | ||
| 1973 | Texas | 8–3 | 7–0 | 1st | LCotton | 8 | 14 | ||
| 1974 | Texas | 8–4 | 5–2 | T–2nd | LGator | 17 | |||
| 1975 | Texas | 10–2 | 6–1 | T–1st | WAstro-Bluebonnet | 7 | 6 | ||
| 1976 | Texas | 5–5–1 | 4–4 | 5th | |||||
| Texas: | 167–47–5 | 109–27–2 | |||||||
| Total: | 184–60–5 | ||||||||
| National championship Conference title Conference division title or championship game berth | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Team | Year | Regular season | Postseason | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Won | Lost | Ties | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
| EDM | 1953 | 12 | 4 | 0 | .750 | 1st inWIFU | 1 | 2 | .333 | Lost in WIFU Final 1–2 |
| Total | 12 | 4 | 0 | .750 | 1 | 2 | .333 | |||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
