Darrell Royal

A legendary homespun wit and an innovative mind have made former Texas boss Darrell Royal a coaching icon. UT football teams amassed 167 victories (including 30 straight), won three national championships and played in 16 bowl games during the 20 years Royal patrolled the sidelines in Austin. The Longhorns flat-out dominated the Southwest Conference during the Royal era, with 11 league titles (including a record six straight) and 77 players named all-SWC from 1957-76. Royal's overall 23-year head coaching career will be remembered for his never having a losing season, being credited as the first to install the Wishbone and for his dedication to success in the classroom and adherence to NCAA rules and principles.

"The only place you can win a football game is on the field. The only place you can lose is in your hearts."

"Breaks balance out. The sun don't shine on the same old dog's rear end every day."

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."

"A head coach is guided by this main objective: dig, claw, wheedle, coax that fanatical effort out of the players. You want them to play every Saturday as if they were planting the flag on Iwo Jima."

"It's a horse and a horse - referring to a game involving two evenly matched teams.

"No, we'll just dance with the one that brung us" - reply when asked if his team would do anything different in a big game.

"We were outpersonneled."

"Once you cross the fifty, you feel like an unsaddled horse."

"You've got to be in position for luck to happen. Luck doesn't go around looking for a stumblebum."

"You can call in the dogs and piss on the fire now" - referring to his team's commanding lead near the end of a game.

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Darrell Royal