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View Full Version : Randall "Tex" Cobb



nobogey72
02-10-2008, 01:39 AM
For anybody that is concerned about it taking theirselves or their kids too long to get out of college, check out this week's Sports Illustrated. (don't know how to do the fancy stuff or I'd put the link on here) For the younguns on here that don't recognize the name, he grew up in Abilene played football at ACU 72-76 and then decided he wanted to be a pro boxer. After 5 years and starting from scratch, he beat some names like Ernie Shaver, Ken Norton, and fought for the Heavyweight Championship against Larry Holmes. He got the crap beat out of him but went all 15 rounds and never went down, causing Howard Cosell to quit covering boxing due to the brutality of that fight. Randall later said on Johnny Carson that unless he could find a cure for cancer, he didn't think he could make a better contribution to mankind (getting Cosell to quit). He made several movies (due to his extremely ugly face and a little talent) the best known of which was the motorcycle riding "warthog from hell" in Raising Arizona. He has been in every Jim Carey movie for the last decade in some form or another, and was in many episodes of Walker Texas Ranger. He recently graduated from Temple University with a degree in Sports Management at age 54. He has made a living for the last 10 years or so by being a sparring partner in Philly. I grew up with him from Kindergarten through college and talk to him regularly but had no idea that he had gone back to school. Quite a colorful character. He still claims that if the Holmes fight had lasted another 15 or 20 rounds, that he would have won. UFC just came along about 20 or 25 years too late. He was one bad boy. I saw him kick a light bulb out of a ceiling in the dorm at ACU and land on his feet. He ended up getting kicked out of ACU for shooting flaming arrows at the other dorm across the campus, and his only comment after being caught wearing a loin cloth and bandana with the bow in his hand after shooting the arrows, was that he was bored. That's when he just flat drove his old car to Philadelphia and went in a gym and told someone that he wanted to learn to box. He caught the eye of Joe Frazier, and that's how it started. He was on Johnny Carson several times through his carreer and probably his most famous quote was that there were some out there that could probably beat him in the ring, but lock us in a phone booth and the smart money will be on me.:eek: :clap: :clap:

Bull Butter
02-10-2008, 01:53 AM
College degree at age 54. That right there will get major props from me!

Maroon87
02-10-2008, 02:17 AM
I remember watching that Holmes/Cobb fight. That was before PPV when all the fights were on ABC or CBS for free. Cosell was off the chain...he basically stopped calling the action and started lobbying for the ref to stop the fight. It was pretty hilarious.

nobogey72
02-10-2008, 02:23 AM
Originally posted by Maroon87
I remember watching that Holmes/Cobb fight. That was before PPV when all the fights were on ABC or CBS for free. Cosell was off the chain...he basically stopped calling the action and started lobbying for the ref to stop the fight. It was pretty hilarious.

That's what made it so funny (and probably true) that Randall commented that if it had lasted another 15 rounds, he thinks he would have pulled it out. He was just being funny, but I promise, that in his mind that was probably really how he felt.:)

nobogey72
02-10-2008, 02:25 AM
I was at ring side for the Holmes fight, and got hit with blood, snot, and who knows what else during the fight. Several times during the fight after Holmes would land about 5 solid shots, that Randall would glance over to us his friends and say, " I think I've got him right where I want him". It was unbelievable.

turbostud
02-10-2008, 09:43 AM
I remember him in the movie Uncommon Valor. I was a youngin then. Great movie.

STANG RED
02-10-2008, 05:57 PM
Me and one of my good buddies had few cold ones with Cobb at Cowboys in Abilene not more than a week or two before that Holmes fight. I bet Cobb drank 20 to 30 longnecks that night. When I asked him about being in training for the Holmes fight, he gave me that typical ugly as hell Cobb scowl and said "---- training, I'm getten drunk tonight". I just turned to the bartender and said bring us all another round. Cobb smiled, I quit pissing my pants, and we all had one helluva good time for the rest of the night.
Oh, and if I remember correctly, didnt he first try to claim the dorm next door was making too much noise for him to study when he was caught shooting the flaming arrows? It might have worked, but it didnt explain the loin cloth and full indian headress. :D