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For you “older” UT Fans!


msucolt45

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5 hours ago, msucolt45 said:

Thanks for sharing. I always knew Rooster was a legend. When my Dad and I walked inside his store, we always had to “buy” something as a child. It was almost like paying it back to the days of old.

Yeah I met "Rooster" as well.  Very kind & happy man -- couldn't believe a guy that size ever played football for UT.  

RIP "ROOSTER" 🤘 

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Rooster put us through football drills at Camp Stewart in 1979. I spent a shit ton of money in his store when I was in Austin. 

 

Revised the year.  My Hare's Nest brother had to correct me.  We were there when John Wayne died.

Edited by Lat22
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My grandparents lived on 40th and Ave. G. Walking to Rooster’s every time we visited in the fall for some Burnt Orange gear was routine.

One of the last times I recall dropping in was after the 2000 Missouri game soaked to the bone and we all bought new sweats for the ride home. Put them on in the dressing room, wore them to the cash register and pulled the tags off on the way to the car.

Thanks for the memories….

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9 hours ago, RomaVicta said:

I would have loved to buy one of the giant Texas football photos they had on the walls. The place somehow lost its charm when they built a new building. 

RIP Rooster

This was the best one and is one of the most iconic photos in Texas Football history.

I watched this game from the temporary green wooden bleachers in the SEZ that were brought over from Gregory Gym.

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1 minute ago, Steamboat1874 said:

This was the best one and is one of the most iconic photos in Texas Football history.

I watched this game from the temporary green wooden bleachers in the SEZ that were brought over from Gregory Gym.

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I was a kid and I think I heard this on the radio while in the car with Dad. Seemed like Texas would never lose again. A long pass for a wishbone team to snatch the game at the end.

Great choice. I'd never really studied the faces on the sideline. It's the second that what is happening is processed. You see the beginning of hands coming up to either form a surrender cobra or just ask the sky, why?

Quote

Facing 3rd and 19, Royal called "86 pass, Ted crossing, Sam post."

Jim Bertlesen broke the 'bone and ran a short hook to help clear the middle. Tight End Tommy Woodard (Ted) ran a deep middle route, while Cotton Speyrer (Sam) ran the post. The ball barely went over Woodard's head (he was double covered) and as it reached Speyrer the UCLA defender in the prevent tried for the interception while another UCLA defender nearbye was caught leaning the wrong way.

Steve Ross describes the day and situation quite well in this fine read.

Speyrer was a stone killer at receiver.

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When I grew up in Austin, the only place to buy quality sports gear was C&S Sporting Goods (on the Drag as I recall).  That’s where my Dad took me for my baseball equipment from little league thru high school.

The person we always went to for help?  Mr Andrews .. who worked there for a number of years before he opened his own store.

Great guy!

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Rooster was the real deal.  My wife and I lived in a rented duplex in the Pemberton area in the 1980s.  We would see Rooster and his bride out walking most every evening.  We only had some "friends of friends" types of connections, but they would invariably stop and chat with us.  Good folks.

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46 minutes ago, Zone Read said:

In early 1999, my wife and I found out she was pregnant with twins.  We were shopping at Rooster's store and saw a t-shirt that said "Longhorn Under Construction."  We took it to the counter to buy it and mentioned that we loved the shirt but it wasn't quite accurate since we had 2 babies in there.  Sales clerk said to hang on a second while they went to the back.  Apparently Rooster told them to iron-on an "S" after "Longhorn" free of charge.  Must have worked, both kids graduate in May. Thanks Rooster, RIP in the great alumni center in the sky.

That is awesome, I remember being able to buy custom shirts there with the iron on letters. We had some creativity with that one. 

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love this part

Quote

Well, Dana X. Bible, another great Texas coach, arranged for Billy Andrews, as he was called at the time, to be an assistant manager at Texas and even gave him a room in the football dorm so he could keep some of the better players from getting in trouble.

One of the best at mischief was an All-American end named Malcolm Kutner, who had known Billy when he went to high school at Woodrow, and the plan worked swell. In 1941 the Longhorns were No. 1, on the cover of Life magazine, and Billy fit in fine.
That spring, however, the defining moment of his life came when three players – Kutner, Pete Layden and Jack Crain – rousted the manager out of bed late one night with an urgent plea. They wanted to go to a cockfight over in Elgin but didn’t have a rooster.

So they got the little freshman in his pajamas, and a flashlight, and went to a huge tree near old Clark Field where five or six roosters were …. er, roosting for the night in the high branches. Up went little Billy with Layden barking orders from below. “Get the one of the right. That’s Elmer. He’s the one.”

Andrews later recalled the tree was higher than the Empire State Building and, when he grabbed the rooster called Elmer, the chicken didn’t want to go to the cockfight. "When I grabbed him, he clawed my face. Oh, man, he tore me up. I fell, bounced through some limbs, but I still had the rooster," Andrews told the Dallas Morning News in a 2001 interview.

That was when Crain looked at Billy on the ground and said, "Hate to leave you here in this condition, but we're late. See you tomorrow."

"I walked back to the dorm," Andrews says. "Woke up the next morning, my left arm was all puffed up. Busted," he said with a laugh, but, by the next day, no one ever called him Billy again. A name had been born.

 

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22 hours ago, LTtxfan said:

Rooster+3.jpg 

If your gonna talk about "Rooster Andrews"

 

The Legend Of Rooster Andrews

Saturday, January 26, 2008 - by Roy Exum

 

Thank you for posting this article.  Jack Crain part of the story cracked me up and didn't surprise me one bit.  CSB-my parents retired to Nocona, Crain's home, in 1975 and they became friends.  He preached my mother's funeral in '85 and was a great comfort to my family that day.

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In 1977, while in junior high, two of us rode our bikes to the Rooster Andrews on the drag. They had these bastardized mesh LA Rams jerseys on sale for something like 99 cents. Two of us bought jerseys. For some reason, the other 6-7 guys in our group decided to also go buy a jersey. All 8 or 9 of us wore those jerseys everywhere, including to the Boston concert at the Erwin Center, my first concert ever. Why do I remember this?

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  • 3 years later...

Loved me some Rooster Andrews. It was always cool seeing a living legend in person when I shopped there as a 20-something.

Anyone know where I can purchase the actual helmet decals like Rooster sold? The thick plastic (whatever) actual burnt orange decals? I have never seen them sold anywhere since his store closed.

 

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5 minutes ago, Tex Pete said:

Loved me some Rooster Andrews. It was always cool seeing a living legend in person when I shopped there as a 20-something.

Anyone know where I can purchase the actual helmet decals like Rooster sold? The thick plastic (whatever) actual burnt orange decals? I have never seen them sold anywhere since his store closed.

 

The Co-op used to have them. I bought some there for an old white helmet that I have.

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11 minutes ago, MAUFRAIS said:

Yeah because you couldn’t test snow skis on a carpet mountain at Roosters.

I remember I would just go there and roller blade around, then ski, a quick basketball game and dip. I am not sure if we ever bought a thing there. My parents would leave me there while they shopped. Sometimes I would sneak over to tilt and play some games. Man, what a walk down memory lane.

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On 9/9/2021 at 1:13 PM, Jiggy-Z said:

Back when he still had his store on the drag in the mid 70's, when DKR was still coach, my mom would take my brother and I there to get some UT stuff in preparation for going to a game.  My folks were never too interested in football, but my dad's younger sister was dating some big whig at KIKK radio down in Houston who was an Arkansas grad.  Super nice guy who somehow always had great west side tickets right in the middle of the blue hairs.  Mom would always take us there the week of the Arkansas games to get us set up.  That set up petered out in the late 70's even though my aunt still dated they guy, but man that was fun, especially after my brother and I started playing in the middle school band. We were so in awe of LHB.

The year after Earl's Heisman, mom got us set with two team autographed footballs from Roosters, that was the '78 team.  I remember that I secretly,not so secretly added my autograph somewhere in the middle of the signatures and I would pretend I was on the team.  Still have the football.

Somewhere back in my memory, I think I met Rooster on one of those first trips back in the mid 70's.  I don't think my mom had any idea who he was.

Later, when I was in school, and after Rooster had moved his campus store north,  I went into the store to get some running shorts and was helped by a good looking gal that I was trying to chat up.  I had planned on some suave moves at the register, but Rooster butted in and took over the payment.  Rooster was so nice and friendly, but I still gave him the Tommy Lee Jones look as much a guy who was 6' tall could, to an old man who was 4'-11".  I really had to stoop and get those eyeballs up.  He had a shit eating grin on his face like he knew what I was doing the whole time.

I made it back to his store only one other time and that was to get me a pair of the first generation Nike AIR MAX running shoes.  No Rooster on that final time.

I'm not sure when he moved his campus store, but by the looks of it is was in the early 80's.  Funny how that move coincided with what would be the end of a dominant era in Texas football.  By 1985 the football program was sagging, the Texas economy was in the tank and would be for another decade, much of the University could have used some upgrades, and it was very obvious to me, at the time, that UT was laving on its past glories.

 

Epilogue: Ended up making the LHB, played '85-'88 , and watched a lot of shitty football. 

Same as my undergrad years; UT administration was definitely not in ‘build and repair’ mode during that time. Most of those racquetball/handball courts in Gregory could have housed a meth lab and not looked out of place…

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I worked my senior year of high school at the Rooster's on 183.  One of my favorite jobs ever.  Rooster was still alive and him and his wife (blanking on her name dammit) would come in every once in a while.  Nicest people ever.  We would play whiffle ball home run derby in the store when there were no customers.  Fucking fantastic job.

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I remember being at the Texas v Notre Dame game in 1995. We saw the Cubs a day before when the outfield during the game was yelling “Texas” “Fight” and Harry Caray said “Texas is here.”

During the football game on Saturday I was fired up to start the game as was everyone. Kickoff happened and a few plays in on a big drive I feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn around and it’s Rooster…who is holding onto my shoulder and my buddies shoulder to prop himself up so he can see the game.

Great guy. Longhorn legend.

Edited by Tailgate
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