Bill Little passes

[billfromlaketravis 11784]

I’m trying to find something nice to say about the late Mr. Little. He seemed well liked and he loved Texas Football. He watched hundreds of great wins in person. Very few Texas fans can say that. 
 

I’ll forgive him for his Mack apologist post game pieces. RIP and HooK ‘em. 

[Deej 77676]

9 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

What a fabulous time span to live as a Longhorn. Little was a great guy to represent this state and this university.

The '63 Aggie game was a sham from kick-off. Aggies had watered the field all week long and then painted the mush green. This effectively slowed down the Texas offense. Royal was spitting mad.

The tape of the "controversial (weeahhhh! because, even cheating, we lost!) call doesn't look controversial at all to me. The Aggies claim the call was about his feet being out of bounds. The photo they use, a still of course, shows the Aggie with his feet in bounds. They wuz robbed.

The call was actually that the receiver did not have possession. At least that's the way I remember it from the excellent Longhorn Network documentary about that championship season.

aggy never changes.

Wally Scott once told me the story of playing in College Station in 1939 when the field was nothing but mud. They went in at halftime, and aggy had only provided wash cloths. No towels. They went out for the 2nd half as muddy as they had went in at halftime. They lost the game

The next year in Austin, before the game, Coach Bible told them he sent for the nicest towels from the nicest hotel in Austin and made sure to put them in the visiting locker room. 

Wally said they were so pissed that they went out and beat the snot out of them. 

[LTtxfan 49912]

A Celebration of Life service for legendary Longhorn Athletics administrator Bill Little, who passed away last Friday, is set for Sunday, October 1, at 2:30 p.m. CT at the Lady Bird Johnson Auditorium in the LBJ Library (2405 Robert Dedman Drive, Austin, TX 78712) on The University of Texas campus.
 
In lieu of flowers, the family encourages contributions to three of Little's favorite organizations: Friends of the Daily Texan, which ensures long-term funding of scholarships for staff members of The Daily Texan; the Texas Exes Cheer and Pom Alumni Network Operating Endowment; and Hospice Austin.
 
The full story on Little's passing can be found here.

[statsman 5676]

On 8/22/2023 at 6:07 PM, Deej said:

aggy never changes.

Wally Scott once told me the story of playing in College Station in 1939 when the field was nothing but mud. They went in at halftime, and aggy had only provided wash cloths. No towels. They went out for the 2nd half as muddy as they had went in at halftime. They lost the game

The next year in Austin, before the game, Coach Bible told them he sent for the nicest towels from the nicest hotel in Austin and made sure to put them in the visiting locker room. 

Wally said they were so pissed that they went out and beat the snot out of them. 

Wally Scott is on my list of “Longhorns Who Had a Much Greater Impact on the Program Than We Will Ever Know”. Feel free to share any stories. 

[Deej 77676]

3 hours ago, statsman said:

Wally Scott is on my list of “Longhorns Who Had a Much Greater Impact on the Program Than We Will Ever Know”. Feel free to share any stories. 

Wally was just the best. Bled orange. 

[DeadArmadillo 907]

Was in Winters, Texas this week. Stopped to send an E-mail. Took this pic in his honor. But did not pour out a 40

[ImissWallyPryor 9046]

Security Stare Bank’s logo is really amateurish. 

[LTtxfan 49912]

EDITOR'S NOTE: Texas' legendary publicist and Hall of Fame sports information director Bill Little was the preeminent historian of Texas Athletics and often weighed in with insightful and informative commentaries throughout his career. Little sadly passed away on August, but his many stories and legacy will live on forever. Here's a wonderful piece he wrote on the Texas-Rice football series in 2007.

 

I have told this story before, but as Rice University visits Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium as the Longhorns' home facility is undergoing a transformation, it is worth telling again.

In the movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the bad guy says to Indiana Jones as he points to the Arc of The Covenant, "Indy, we are only passing through history -- this IS history."

And so it is with this Texas-Rice football series.

It began over 90 years ago, when Rice, playing in only its third football season, lost to a Texas team that included six players who would enter the Longhorn Hall of Honor after it was started more than 40 years later.

They were legendary names -- folks like Louis Jordan, the team captain, and Gen. K. L. Berry, Pig Dittmar and Clyde Littlefield. And that was only the beginning.

A year later, Rice and Texas met on October 16, 1915, in the Longhorns' first game in a new league alignment called the Southwest Conference. For 82 years, from that beginning season in 1914 through 1995, the two schools played every year. It was longest continuous streak of any Longhorns opponent.

Texas controlled the series in the early years, but the fledgling Owls did post a notable win in 1924 under their new coach, a guy named John W. Heisman (for whom the famous trophy is named). But beginning in 1930, the series between the university on South Main in Houston and the guys from the Forty Acres in Austin was second only to Texas A&M as the Longhorns' biggest rival.

In 1937, Texas hired D. X. Bible, and Rice followed in 1940 with the hiring of Jess Neely. Heisman not withstanding, the two coaches brought credibility and respectability to both the game and the coaching profession that was unsurpassed.

From 1930 through Neely's final win over Texas in 1965, Rice actually held the edge in the series, 18-17-1. In 1957, Darrell Royal took the Texas job, and he would go on to become the fourth member of the prestigious College Football Hall of Fame to coach in the series.

Royal finished as the winningest coach in Southwest Conference history. Neely finished tied for second in a career that spanned 26 years.

For years, the Rice-Texas game was the social event of the football season, and when the Owls opened their state-of-the-art stadium in the mid-1950s, it was usually packed with 70,000 folks for the meeting with Texas.

And the series took on an unusual quality. From 1954 until the Longhorns snapped the string with a victory in Houston in 1964 and Rice returned the favor by winning in Austin in 1965, the home team won. The only exception was a 14-14 tie in 1962, when a heavy underdog Rice team knocked Texas from its spot as the No. 1 team in the nation. Otherwise, Rice won in Houston, and Texas won in Austin.

But beginning with Neely's final season of 1966, Texas reeled off 28 straight victories until Rice ended the streak on a rainy Sunday night in Houston in 1994.

When the final SWC season ended in 1995, Rice was the first former league member that Texas scheduled.

The 2007 game in DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium recalls, for old-timers, that era 50 years ago when Rice opened its new stadium. Work crews, just as they have here in Austin, toiled 'round the clock to get the stadium ready. Now, after lots of hard work through a rainy spring and summer, fans sit in the squared-off north end that will comprise the first level of a multi-level end zone in Austin. The proximity to the field is striking. For years folks in this part of the country, as well as a Super Bowl crowd in 1974, thought Rice Stadium was the best spectator stadium in the country. It, too, had a similar vantage point from the end zone.

But it is important that Rice and Texas play for other reasons. Long after those who remember the "good ole days" of the Southwest Conference are gone, the two schools will be competing for excellence in academia as the state's premier institutions of higher learning.

There is a particular irony in this series for Longhorns coach Mack Brown. In recent times, his brother, Watson, served as the head coach at Rice. But his connection with the series goes back even farther.

When Mack was coming out of high school in Cookeville, Tenn., he had originally dreamed of playing at Alabama. But Watson was playing at Vanderbilt. And when Mack took his visit to Nashville, the guy who had the biggest influence on his decision was the Vandy athletics director.

He was a white-haired old gentleman with an unmistakable southern drawl. His name was Jess Neely.

Things have changed a lot since these two were the kingpins of the Southwest Conference. They play in different leagues, and to a large extent, with different aspirations.

What hasn't changed is the profile of the two universities, and the commitment of the coaches of today. Rice and Texas rank proudly as two of the finest academic institutions in the country, and their commitment to excellence has never wavered.

When Rice coach David Baliff was at Texas State, Mack Brown both befriended him and respected him. He not only was a good football coach; he had important values that fit Mack's view of what a coach should be.

Mack believes he and Baliff are both committed to the same principles of the game, and of the importance of student athletes, that their legendary predecessors were.

In 1962, in a speech at Rice Stadium, President Kennedy was talking about America's race against the Russians for pre-eminence in space.

"Why do we want to put a man on the moon?" he asked in that famous New England accent. And then he surveyed the crowd and simply said, "Why does Rice play Texas?"

The sudden switch to sports surprised the huge crowd, which included most of the student body of what was then called The Rice Institute, with a student population barely a tenth of the big university in Austin. And then he answered his own question.

"To achieve higher things."

That said far more than it seemed.

That is why these coaches are proud of the young people whom they coach, and why both of these schools walk proudly among the nation's elite universities.

They are driven by the higher purpose that Brown refers to when he says, "We're in the education business during the week and the entertainment business on the weekend," with a stated goal to "win championships with nice kids who graduate."

They will not all be perfect, and sadly, some will make life-changing mistakes. But the reason you coach in college is because you are a teacher, doing your best to influence lives.

Because long after the entertaining ends, the education will be the linchpin of the future, where you pass through history, to history.

[LTtxfan 49912]

Sept 1st              Bobby and Bianco

Remembering Bill Little, with John Bianco | Rest in Peace 

[ImissWallyPryor 9046]

On 8/31/2023 at 8:44 AM, LTtxfan said:

EDITOR'S NOTE: Texas' legendary publicist and Hall of Fame sports information director Bill Little was the preeminent historian of Texas Athletics and often weighed in with insightful and informative commentaries throughout his career. Little sadly passed away on August, but his many stories and legacy will live on forever. Here's a wonderful piece he wrote on the Texas-Rice football series in 2007.

 

I have told this story before, but as Rice University visits Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium as the Longhorns' home facility is undergoing a transformation, it is worth telling again.

In the movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the bad guy says to Indiana Jones as he points to the Arc of The Covenant, "Indy, we are only passing through history -- this IS history."

And so it is with this Texas-Rice football series.

It began over 90 years ago, when Rice, playing in only its third football season, lost to a Texas team that included six players who would enter the Longhorn Hall of Honor after it was started more than 40 years later.

They were legendary names -- folks like Louis Jordan, the team captain, and Gen. K. L. Berry, Pig Dittmar and Clyde Littlefield. And that was only the beginning.

A year later, Rice and Texas met on October 16, 1915, in the Longhorns' first game in a new league alignment called the Southwest Conference. For 82 years, from that beginning season in 1914 through 1995, the two schools played every year. It was longest continuous streak of any Longhorns opponent.

Texas controlled the series in the early years, but the fledgling Owls did post a notable win in 1924 under their new coach, a guy named John W. Heisman (for whom the famous trophy is named). But beginning in 1930, the series between the university on South Main in Houston and the guys from the Forty Acres in Austin was second only to Texas A&M as the Longhorns' biggest rival.

In 1937, Texas hired D. X. Bible, and Rice followed in 1940 with the hiring of Jess Neely. Heisman not withstanding, the two coaches brought credibility and respectability to both the game and the coaching profession that was unsurpassed.

From 1930 through Neely's final win over Texas in 1965, Rice actually held the edge in the series, 18-17-1. In 1957, Darrell Royal took the Texas job, and he would go on to become the fourth member of the prestigious College Football Hall of Fame to coach in the series.

Royal finished as the winningest coach in Southwest Conference history. Neely finished tied for second in a career that spanned 26 years.

For years, the Rice-Texas game was the social event of the football season, and when the Owls opened their state-of-the-art stadium in the mid-1950s, it was usually packed with 70,000 folks for the meeting with Texas.

And the series took on an unusual quality. From 1954 until the Longhorns snapped the string with a victory in Houston in 1964 and Rice returned the favor by winning in Austin in 1965, the home team won. The only exception was a 14-14 tie in 1962, when a heavy underdog Rice team knocked Texas from its spot as the No. 1 team in the nation. Otherwise, Rice won in Houston, and Texas won in Austin.

But beginning with Neely's final season of 1966, Texas reeled off 28 straight victories until Rice ended the streak on a rainy Sunday night in Houston in 1994.

When the final SWC season ended in 1995, Rice was the first former league member that Texas scheduled.

The 2007 game in DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium recalls, for old-timers, that era 50 years ago when Rice opened its new stadium. Work crews, just as they have here in Austin, toiled 'round the clock to get the stadium ready. Now, after lots of hard work through a rainy spring and summer, fans sit in the squared-off north end that will comprise the first level of a multi-level end zone in Austin. The proximity to the field is striking. For years folks in this part of the country, as well as a Super Bowl crowd in 1974, thought Rice Stadium was the best spectator stadium in the country. It, too, had a similar vantage point from the end zone.

But it is important that Rice and Texas play for other reasons. Long after those who remember the "good ole days" of the Southwest Conference are gone, the two schools will be competing for excellence in academia as the state's premier institutions of higher learning.

There is a particular irony in this series for Longhorns coach Mack Brown. In recent times, his brother, Watson, served as the head coach at Rice. But his connection with the series goes back even farther.

When Mack was coming out of high school in Cookeville, Tenn., he had originally dreamed of playing at Alabama. But Watson was playing at Vanderbilt. And when Mack took his visit to Nashville, the guy who had the biggest influence on his decision was the Vandy athletics director.

He was a white-haired old gentleman with an unmistakable southern drawl. His name was Jess Neely.

Things have changed a lot since these two were the kingpins of the Southwest Conference. They play in different leagues, and to a large extent, with different aspirations.

What hasn't changed is the profile of the two universities, and the commitment of the coaches of today. Rice and Texas rank proudly as two of the finest academic institutions in the country, and their commitment to excellence has never wavered.

When Rice coach David Baliff was at Texas State, Mack Brown both befriended him and respected him. He not only was a good football coach; he had important values that fit Mack's view of what a coach should be.

Mack believes he and Baliff are both committed to the same principles of the game, and of the importance of student athletes, that their legendary predecessors were.

In 1962, in a speech at Rice Stadium, President Kennedy was talking about America's race against the Russians for pre-eminence in space.

"Why do we want to put a man on the moon?" he asked in that famous New England accent. And then he surveyed the crowd and simply said, "Why does Rice play Texas?"

The sudden switch to sports surprised the huge crowd, which included most of the student body of what was then called The Rice Institute, with a student population barely a tenth of the big university in Austin. And then he answered his own question.

"To achieve higher things."

That said far more than it seemed.

That is why these coaches are proud of the young people whom they coach, and why both of these schools walk proudly among the nation's elite universities.

They are driven by the higher purpose that Brown refers to when he says, "We're in the education business during the week and the entertainment business on the weekend," with a stated goal to "win championships with nice kids who graduate."

They will not all be perfect, and sadly, some will make life-changing mistakes. But the reason you coach in college is because you are a teacher, doing your best to influence lives.

Because long after the entertaining ends, the education will be the linchpin of the future, where you pass through history, to history.

The editor’s note on a piece about a HOF SID shouldn’t contain a careless error. Bill Little would not approve. 

[LTtxfan 49912]

 

[Underdog 29106]

Class by Holly... 

 

[LTtxfan 49912]

 

[LTtxfan 49912]

10.06.2023 | Football

Bill Little commentary: The kaleidoscope

EDITOR'S NOTE: Texas' legendary publicist and Hall of Fame sports information director Bill Little was the preeminent historian of Texas Athletics and often weighed in with insightful and informative commentaries throughout his career. Little sadly passed away on August 18 and his Celebration of Life service was last Sunday (Oct. 1), but his many stories and legacy will live on forever. Here's a wonderful piece he wrote on the Red River Rivalry on Oct. 7, 2011.

DALLAS - A kaleidoscope is an optical instrument, with varying symmetrical colorful patterns being displayed on rotation. It is ever changing in beauty and form, and yet somehow always the same.

So it is with the Texas-Oklahoma game. It is a montage of sights, sounds and smells.

It is a corny dog, a roller coaster ride, a tour of new cars and a livestock show on the Fairgrounds. It is a stadium split down the middle, with burnt orange and red. At the south end is "The Tunnel." Much has been made through the years of the moment when the two teams, prepared for battle, walk together down the ramp, ready to burst into the arena.

The dynamic of the game, like the turning colors, changes regularly. For years, when the Longhorns were in the Southwest Conference and Oklahoma was in the Big 8, the game was unique in that nowhere in the country did such an intense rivalry exist which did not involve a battle for a conference championship, nor match two teams from the same state.

With the coming of the Big 12 Conference in 1996, that changed dramatically. Starting then, the game has regularly had a huge effect on the determination of the league champion. Now, it takes on different proportions. As the Big 12 has evolved into ten teams this season, the conference championship game matching two division champions has gone away. The league winner will be determined straight up, with all the teams playing each other. Where once you had to have the best conference record among six teams to win your division, now the league champion will be crowned based on the best conference record among the ten teams.

In other words, win or lose in this one, there will be a lot to play for the rest of the season.

The contrasting of the senses - those of sight, sound and smell - is a constant on the Fairgrounds, but all of those are idle if not for the people. And that is the real story of why this game, and this setting, mean so much.

Juxtapositioned with the thousands of burnt orange and red clad fans who pack 90,000 strong into the stadium are more than 100,000 more who come to the Fair because they are more interested in how little Johnny's lamb does in the livestock show and how Aunt Sally's pickles are judged in the food contest. And most of them absolutely do not care who wins this football game. Perhaps they are the blessed ones. Stress is, after all, what you choose it to be.

But in the arena, memories are carved and heroes are made. You cannot think of the Texas-Oklahoma game without it becoming personal. Players who have played in the game will tell you the same thing. National championships have been launched, Heisman trophies have been won, all in the space of less than four hours during an October afternoon.

On this field, legends have played. That is why it has been so important that Dallas businessman Pete Schenkel spearheaded stadium renovations that added 15,000 seats and provided upgrades to the old stadium in a successful effort to convince the two schools to stay at the Fairgrounds. It is history at its grandest scale.

But like a forest where the tall trees live, seedlings grow. And that brings us to the present.

The game, and the series, survives and thrives on momentum. Like no other game, this one is about the ebb and flow of emotion. David McWilliams, who played on the Longhorns' 1963 National Championship team and later served as UT's head coach, put it best.

"It is important not to get too high in the high times, or too low in the low times. Because it will change," he said.

There are many theories as to why the momentum swings so in the stadium. Perhaps it is the split of the crowd down the middle, with one end of the stadium pulling for one team and the other end for the other. Whatever the reason, it is a game where comebacks are common place.

The game will be televised for the 59th time, and has been a sellout since the 1940s.

That is what makes this clash of college football powers is always so intriguing. Where history tells us of the games, the plays and the stars that are to be remembered, the very best thing about this game is what happens next.

There are a lot of things in life that grow old, perhaps stale, and out of style - and that has never happened with this game.

The reason for that doesn't lie in the arena, or on the Fairgrounds, or even the tunnel. Coaches battle each other, locked in a game of wits. The bands play for the show, and for the pride. The fans come, some because they always have, and others because they are locked in on something new for them.

At the heart of it, however, are the players. Keith Moreland, who played both football and baseball at Texas and spent 13 years in the Major Leagues, once said of this game, "I have stood at home plate in the World Series, and it was a great moment. But nothing compares to that feeling you have when you run out of that tunnel into that stadium."

Perhaps that is because the ghosts of games past make that field a hallowed space. More likely however, it is the showcase of pride and togetherness that only the ultimate definition of the word "team" can produce.

You play games for fun. But there is no greater feeling than that of playing for and with each other, especially when it translates into accomplishment. And it is in that space where Texas-Oklahoma thrives, not only for the events of today, but for the memories of tomorrow. 🤘