53 years ago today 12/06/69

[927 E. 41st 1124]

Texas 15 Arkansas 14 

What a glorious day!

[Doc Daneeka 6769]

Literally (yes, literally) the first Texas game I specifically remember watching. 
 

I was also introduced to the bitchassness of Texas fans when my dad and grandad said “Texas lost this one” and went outside at the end of the third quarter. 
 

I had no idea at that point that Texas could lose. 

[Sealtm6 35]

9 minutes ago, Doc Daneeka said:

Literally (yes, literally) the first Texas game I specifically remember watching. 
 

I was also introduced to the bitchassness of Texas fans when my dad and grandad said “Texas lost this one” and went outside at the end of the third quarter. 
 

I had no idea at that point that Texas could lose. 

Same here.  That game was my baptism to college football and UT football.  I thought UT was immortal after that game.  A revolutionary day in my life.

[NeverMarryAStripper 22030]

My oldest sister was in the Longhorn band at that game.  Now she is a batshit crazy QAnon conspiracy theory wacko.  Somehow, I think the two are related

 

[Davis Lane 5769]

Got dam I'm old.

Thanks, motherfucker.

[pacman 7429]

long version of the game

 

 

short version

 

 

whole season

Edited December 6, 2022 by pacman

[Saint Tacky 1623]

3 hours ago, Doc Daneeka said:

I was also introduced to the bitchassness of Texas fans when my dad and grandad said “Texas lost this one” and went outside at the end of the third quarter. 

My baptism was the 1972 Cotton Bowl versus Penn State. Dad gave us a few bucks and ordered us to get on our bikes and get the hell out of his sight. We went to go see "Lady and the Tramp" at the local movie theater.

[Valmy77 13441]

That was my Dad's first year at UT. As a Maryland fan up to that point he couldn't believe how good they were. 

[satyanash 14775]

Locker room celebrations after the game

[Doc Daneeka 6769]

27 minutes ago, Saint Tacky said:

My baptism was the 1972 Cotton Bowl versus Penn State. Dad gave us a few bucks and ordered us to get on our bikes and get the hell out of his sight. We went to go see "Lady and the Tramp" at the local movie theater.

I was, very unfortunately, in Pennsylvania for Christmas break for that game. FML.

I had previously expressed some doubts to some relatives about Penn State being better than Texas in 1969 so they were pretty excited about how that game went. 

[Wally Pryor 5310]

Street to Peschel is arguably the ballsiest call in the history of CFB given what was on the line.

National championship, 4:47 left in the game, 4th and 3, a team that relies on the run and rarely passes but decides to pass on this play, one receiver in the pattern, play requires a perfect pass to complete over two defenders, a perfect pass is thrown, and then caught over the shoulder for 44 yards. 

Royal's big balls were never more on display than that day. 

[Doc Daneeka 6769]

2 minutes ago, Wally Pryor said:

Street to Peschel is arguably the ballsiest call in the history of CFB given what was on the line.

National championship, 4:47 left in the game, 4th and 3, a team that relies on the run and rarely passes but decides to pass on this play, one receiver in the pattern, play requires a perfect pass to complete over two defenders, a perfect pass is thrown, and then caught over the shoulder for 44 yards. 

Royal's big balls were never more on display than that day. 

Yes, Royal was sure but it didn’t fool any-damned-body. When your Wishbone QB — not saying he didn’t have the arm, obviously — drops a perfect pass over two defenders in the wind and damp to set up the winning TD and scar a generation of Pig fans, you’ve been living right. 

Even so, can you image the surly game thread through the first three quarters? Or the last couple of minutes?

[Saint Tacky 1623]

"Randy, I’m looking and pointing at Cotton, but I’m talking to you.”

[cochamps 1879]

"Are you sure, Coach"?  

"Hell yes".

 

[NeverMarryAStripper 22030]

I think DKR once said that they had never even successfully completed that pass in practice

[Sealtm6 35]

My dad even bought this album that came out the next year.  Frank Gleiber narrating - I can still hear Gleiber yelling “Speyrer, Cotton Speyrer!”

 

 

[TrashMaster G 17732]

44 minutes ago, Doc Daneeka said:

Yes, Royal was sure but it didn’t fool any-damned-body. When your Wishbone QB — not saying he didn’t have the arm, obviously — drops a perfect pass over two defenders in the wind and damp to set up the winning TD and scar a generation of Pig fans, you’ve been living right. 

Even so, can you image the surly game thread through the first three quarters? Or the last couple of minutes?

"Penn State would kick our asses"

"We don't deserve the championship"

"Fire DKR!"

[EuroHorn 3276]

We’re back!

[927 E. 41st 1124]

5 hours ago, Doc Daneeka said:

Literally (yes, literally) the first Texas game I specifically remember watching. 
 

I was also introduced to the bitchassness of Texas fans when my dad and grandad said “Texas lost this one” and went outside at the end of the third quarter. 
 

I had no idea at that point that Texas could lose. 

It changed my life, I can think of 4 life changing situations in my past where I didn't give up because of what I learned from that game. I can truly say I wouldn't be where I am today because of those guys.

My Dad started taking me to games with the '69 season. Killed Tech 49-7 then I think it was Navy next and it was something like 56-6. It was incredible. Then for the Arky game I'm sick and running a fever, had to watch from a fold out couch in my parents den. As Texas continued to turn over the ball (6 times that day if I recall correctly), I felt worse and worse. Oddly after it was over I was feeling much better! Went with my dad down to south Congress to pick up the deer meat he had processed. It always sounds like an exaggeration but it was my fist time to see people dancing on the sidewalks and in the streets.

[Doc Daneeka 6769]

It changed my life, I can think of 4 life changing situations in my past where I didn't give up because of what I learned from that game. I can truly say I wouldn't be where I am today because of those guys.
My Dad started taking me to games with the '69 season. Killed Tech 49-7 then I think it was Navy next and it was something like 56-6. It was incredible. Then for the Arky game I'm sick and running a fever, had to watch from a fold out couch in my parents den. As Texas continued to turn over the ball (6 times that day if I recall correctly), I felt worse and worse. Oddly after it was over I was feeling much better! Went with my dad down to south Congress to pick up the deer meat he had processed. It always sounds like an exaggeration but it was my fist time to see people dancing on the sidewalks and in the streets.

As crazy as it sounds, that game and one almost throwaway line from my third grade teacher did the same kind of thing for me.

What a lot of people don’t remember is that the defense still had to make a stop outside field goal range to seal that game. And they did.

Seeing Steinmark take the PI to save a TD and only learning later what he was going through just adds to what I take away from that game.

Those guys are immortal, as far as I’m concerned. Just a game, my ass.

[Bama Llama 1474]

If for no other reason than DKR's great ballsy championship call and the perfect execution thereof, this was definitely one those games you always remember.  I was 18, a freshman at Rice but a football fanatic. I watched this game in the smoke filled, dank and dreary Will Rice "College" TV room with about fifty other guys. Bama was mediocre that year and has lost to Auburn 49-26 the previous week.  I was starving for a good football game and this was it.  A few people hooted when Tricky Dick made it into a photo op but looking back now I can't blame him. Helluva game and to win on the road like that and win late, made this a vintage well-earned natty for Coach Royal and the boys. James Street could spear a goddam marlin with the points of his sideburns. Bravo OP for helping us remember.

[Ignatius 4080]

If you haven’t read Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming, do yourself a favor and order it today. One humorous excerpt involving the Peschel play:

”Finally, though, Street tried to leave himself a safety net. He told Peschel that if he decided he couldn’t get deep, if the defensive backs didn’t bite on the fake, he should cut the route short, come back, and Street would get him the ball. No matter what, we gotta get the first down! He says he had some nightmares later in which Peschel broke off the route, Street threw the ball about 25 yards over his head and had to explain that to an irate Darrell Royal.”

[BevoAbyss 2090]

To say this game was BIG is an understatement. It was freaking EPIC. One of the biggest in all college FB history.

-- ABC moving the game to the last week on the chance that #1 and #2 would be the match-up. The prototype for BCS play-off games. No other competing games on TV, no cable, no internet, no streaming. Cold weather over much of America. Massive national TV audience, dwarfing UT-USC. Nielsen rating of 52, with an even higher share of TVs turned on. 

-- The Texas wishbone on 18-game winning streak, Arkansas at 14 games (I think).

-- I was a little kid (now with PhD UT degree), but my dad was a UT alum and we watched the game on new color TV. The entire DFW suburban neighborhood was stoked, especially since Arkansas transplants lived down the street, along with Catholics from Boston who were Notre Dame fans. 

-- Later in life, I met older UT alum who told me this: A lunch of UT dorms had low ceilings and when Peschel caught the pass, many jumped up raising their arms and accidentally punched holes in the ceilings. True or not, I don't know.

-- If I recall, the Street-Peschel pass was named Play-of-the-Decade by some college FB media people.

-- Nixon showing up and correctly predicting Texas would win during half-time interview.

-- Amazing that Royal and Street pulled out the win, despite 6 turnovers!

[LTtxfan 49405]

4 hours ago, Wally Pryor said:

Street to Peschel is arguably the ballsiest call in the history of CFB given what was on the line.

National championship, 4:47 left in the game, 4th and 3, a team that relies on the run and rarely passes but decides to pass on this play, one receiver in the pattern, play requires a perfect pass to complete over two defenders, a perfect pass is thrown, and then caught over the shoulder for 44 yards. 

Royal's big balls were never more on display than that day. 

 

[bullet 1605]

4 hours ago, Wally Pryor said:

Street to Peschel is arguably the ballsiest call in the history of CFB given what was on the line.

National championship, 4:47 left in the game, 4th and 3, a team that relies on the run and rarely passes but decides to pass on this play, one receiver in the pattern, play requires a perfect pass to complete over two defenders, a perfect pass is thrown, and then caught over the shoulder for 44 yards. 

Royal's big balls were never more on display than that day. 

Something I discovered later was that in 1964, Royal went for 2 and lost 14-13 to Arkansas for their only loss.  Arkansas would win a share of the MNC when Texas beat poll champ Alabama in the Orange Bowl.  In this game he made the two point conversion and won 15-14.  So going for two was again him showing fearlessness.  

[bullet 1605]

8 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

My oldest sister was in the Longhorn band at that game.  Now she is a batshit crazy QAnon conspiracy theory wacko.  Somehow, I think the two are related

 

My oldest sister was at UT then, but not in the band.  I remember this game well, but the first one I remember was the loss to Gene Stallings and the aggys in 67.

[Wally Pryor 5310]

31 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

 

I still don't know how that ball made it into Peschel's hands. Just the perfect throw and catch.

[RMac5 1551]

11 hours ago, pacman said:

long version of the game

 

 

short version

 

 

whole season

One of my high school coaches is in there somewhere. RIP Coach Cobb. Looked up the 69 roster online, bottom left corner #63, looks just like him.

Edited December 7, 2022 by RMac5

[Texzilla58 4745]

This game changed things. It made Roone Arledge. It was truly a spectacle that ABC used to advance its programming. It pushed ABC to get MNF from the NFL. If you didn’t live back then these were huge changes. You got a couple of college games on Saturday and a couple of nfl/afl games Sunday. Spotty coverage in the papers and SI in the mailbox. That was sports.

[Doc Daneeka 6769]

8 minutes ago, Texzilla58 said:

This game changed things. It made Roone Arledge. It was truly a spectacle that ABC used to advance its programming. It pushed ABC to get MNF from the NFL. If you didn’t live back then these were huge changes. You got a couple of college games on Saturday and a couple of nfl/afl games Sunday. Spotty coverage in the papers and SI in the mailbox. That was sports.

It wasn’t all that long ago that the Texas media guide (!!] touted how often Texas had been on TV because that was still an impressive thing not very long ago. 
 

Unless I’m misremembering, you could pretty much count on seeing Texas on TV against Arkansas, OU, A&M, and a bowl game. Not always the same, but three times was pretty much it. And MNF was an event. And if you were lucky, the rankings made it into the Tuesday morning newspaper. 
 

Hold on… I think there’s a kid on my lawn. 

Edited December 7, 2022 by Doc Daneeka