1958...I know it's prehistoric for most posters here, but I believe 1958 began the post D. X. Bible status of The Longhorns as a nationally recognized team.
Lifted from Lou Maysel's "Here Come The Texas Longhorns":
"As he looked forward to the Oklahoma game, for which his Longhorns were a 13 point underdog this time, Royal sounded like a man with an obsession about ending The Sooner's streak of six straight victories and nine in the last ten games with Texas. "The only way anybody's going to beat Oklahoma is to go out there and whip 'em jaw to jaw...Texas has to develop a football tradition. It had one once but lost it. When we get one, maybe we can stop that blood-letting at Dallas and turn it into a good show."
...Royal chose that spot to send Lackey back in, and on the first play he faked a handoff, turned and lobbed a jump pass to Bryant for the touchdown that tied the score...The Texas stands erupted when Bryant made the catch although the Longhorns still had to make the winning point. Lackey kicked it while Blanch held the ball and the signal of the referee touched off more celebration. OU still had 3:10 in which to retaliate and Boyd raised the Sooner hopes by racing 27 yards to the UT 44 when he found no one open for a pass. However, Lackey made a one handed interception on the next play and Texas had the victory that Royal has often looked upon as the pivotal one of his early years at Texas...The victory touched off...elation in Austin which was such that the plane bringing the Longhorns back home had to circle for 15 minutes while policemen moved several thousand fans back off the (air) field to safety."
Note that Bobby Lackey threw the tying pass, kicked the winning PAT, and intercepted the Sooner pass that sealed the victory. He was my first Longhorn hero, along with Rene Ramirez. I would have been a little kid celebrating and greeting the team at the airport, but my mother was so excited that she was speeding and got pulled over for a ticket while driving us kids to the airport in our '57 Studebaker station wagon.