Phil C
01-03-2007, 03:02 PM
It was on this day that Texas met Mississippi in the cotton bowl.
An article on it is in this month's Inside Texas magazine that you can get in places such as the HEB. This was a significant day for Coach Royal and UT in football as well as for yours truly.
Mississippi had a great colllege program at that time and Coach Johnny Vaughn had the previous five years had a 46-7-2 record. In the prior year in 1960 Mississippi had several polls that gave them the national championship in spite of a 6 to 6 tie with LSU. In fact in the late fifties and early sixties the Mississippi vs LSU were great games between two highly ranked powers and even the loser was still highly ranked at the end of each year. Great for the SEC indeed.
Royal had been five years at UT but in the big bowl games he hadn't been able to win one and had a 0-2-1 record with only a 3 to 3 tie with Alabama in the Bluebonnet Bowl in 1960. The 1959 UT team was defeated by No. 1 Syracuse in the Cotton Bowl 14 - 23 and Mississippi had beaten UT 39 to 7 in the 1958 Cotton Bowl.
In 1961 both teams were great with UT finishing the season at 9 -1 and Mississippi the same record. That was the year TCU pulled the upset 0 - 6 and Mississippi had lost to highly ranked LSU 10 - 7.
UT was ranked slightly ahead of Mississippi but Mississipi was favored to win the 1962 Cotton Bowl because they had 17 points advantage on UT. But UT played great. In the first half James Saxon and Jack Collins scored two tds for a 12 - 0 halftime lead for UT (extra points were not made). Mississippi had a frustrating day because UT defense stopped them every time and intercepted five passes that day. In the third quarter Mississippi made a td and the extra point which made it interesting since with a td Mississippi would have the lead. UT kept them under control except for one Mississippi drive which was stopped when Missippi went for a fourth and two first down [sounds familiar doesn't it? :)] Texas won the game and this was significant. It proved that Coach Royal and UT could beat top teams which they did and went on to win 2 National Championships and beat top teams consistenly over the next several years.
It was significant for me too. I listened to the game on the radio. Before then I was a UT fan but of course as a child it consisted mainly of asking my parents what the score was or reading about it in the papers before the comics on Sundays.
This game hooked me. It was carried by a nation wide network and the announcer was very enthusiastic. After that I have listened to all the games on the radio and watched them on tv as available. The 1963 year was fun as I would listen to all the games on the radio when they weren't on tv and go to my garage by myself on Saturday afternoon and listen to the games in my garage with my football. Overall, a great 45 years I might add.
An article on it is in this month's Inside Texas magazine that you can get in places such as the HEB. This was a significant day for Coach Royal and UT in football as well as for yours truly.
Mississippi had a great colllege program at that time and Coach Johnny Vaughn had the previous five years had a 46-7-2 record. In the prior year in 1960 Mississippi had several polls that gave them the national championship in spite of a 6 to 6 tie with LSU. In fact in the late fifties and early sixties the Mississippi vs LSU were great games between two highly ranked powers and even the loser was still highly ranked at the end of each year. Great for the SEC indeed.
Royal had been five years at UT but in the big bowl games he hadn't been able to win one and had a 0-2-1 record with only a 3 to 3 tie with Alabama in the Bluebonnet Bowl in 1960. The 1959 UT team was defeated by No. 1 Syracuse in the Cotton Bowl 14 - 23 and Mississippi had beaten UT 39 to 7 in the 1958 Cotton Bowl.
In 1961 both teams were great with UT finishing the season at 9 -1 and Mississippi the same record. That was the year TCU pulled the upset 0 - 6 and Mississippi had lost to highly ranked LSU 10 - 7.
UT was ranked slightly ahead of Mississippi but Mississipi was favored to win the 1962 Cotton Bowl because they had 17 points advantage on UT. But UT played great. In the first half James Saxon and Jack Collins scored two tds for a 12 - 0 halftime lead for UT (extra points were not made). Mississippi had a frustrating day because UT defense stopped them every time and intercepted five passes that day. In the third quarter Mississippi made a td and the extra point which made it interesting since with a td Mississippi would have the lead. UT kept them under control except for one Mississippi drive which was stopped when Missippi went for a fourth and two first down [sounds familiar doesn't it? :)] Texas won the game and this was significant. It proved that Coach Royal and UT could beat top teams which they did and went on to win 2 National Championships and beat top teams consistenly over the next several years.
It was significant for me too. I listened to the game on the radio. Before then I was a UT fan but of course as a child it consisted mainly of asking my parents what the score was or reading about it in the papers before the comics on Sundays.
This game hooked me. It was carried by a nation wide network and the announcer was very enthusiastic. After that I have listened to all the games on the radio and watched them on tv as available. The 1963 year was fun as I would listen to all the games on the radio when they weren't on tv and go to my garage by myself on Saturday afternoon and listen to the games in my garage with my football. Overall, a great 45 years I might add.