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[Music] Hello, I'm Frank Fallon and this of course is Baylor University football coach Grant Taff. We're delighted that you've decided to look back with us into history to perhaps the most memorable Saturday afternoon in Baylor football history in November the 9th, 1974. Well, Grant, I guess certainly the victory over Texas that year stands by itself as far as significant moments in Baylor football history, but I know also that there were so many things that led up to it.

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it well of course there really was going back to nineteen seventy two uh... baylor university asked me to come and be the head football coach here

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it suffered through three really tough years where they only won three ball games and some years prior to that where they had not won significantly and uh... we accepted the challenge and uh...

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after we got here and uh... started in on the prospects of building a competitive winning program. I questioned myself for a time or two that maybe it might not be able to be done. As we began to recruit, we learned one thing, that the university has the capacity to attract

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unto itself not only fine students, but young men of integrity and character. we found that we could take these young men, though maybe not all so-called blue chip players, and develop a competitive winning program. And it was not easy. In 1972, we won five ball games, many more than folks thought we would be able to win. And off of that, we

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were able to bring in one of the finest freshman classes that maybe Baylor has ever recruited. But then 1973 came and it was a tough, tough year. We had a lot of points scored on us. We only won two ball games and lost nine.

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That was the first year to play 11 games. And I'm going to tell you, it was a horrifying, terrible experience. We were playing with a lot of young players as well as inexperienced players. But we came out of that year with a deep resolve that we were going to turn it around some way, somehow.

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Now, the problem was that we faced Oklahoma, Missouri, and Oklahoma State in our first three ballgames. And they were three that were nationally ranked. We lost our first two in 1974, Frank, to Oklahoma and to Missouri. I remember sitting on the steps of the airport in Missouri after that ball game.

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We were waiting for the plane to come in and I sat down out there and I just broke down and cried. There wasn't anybody around me, but I was so keen in my own heart and mind about getting it done, but it just seemed like it was almost an impossible task.

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We came back to Texas and to Waco and we were facing the eighth ranked team in the United States of America and that was Oklahoma State. Now remember we had now lost 11 ball games and won only two over the last season in the beginning of the '74 season. Well, that was the beginning of the turnaround because we defeated Oklahoma State and went on to win

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the championship. But the key to that championship centered around the 1974 Texas ball game. ball game. Alright, tell me what you remember coming into that Texas game. I believe this was your fourth conference game of the year. How did you stand at that point? Well, we had lost to Texas A&M at homecoming and we had won our game against Arkansas, which was

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a very big game over in the hills. And then of course we were playing the University of texas and we had previous to that week before beating tcu so that uh... gave us a two-in-one record going into the texas game

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and texas situation was what weren't you in a tie with texas and a&m at that point or had a&m lost a game they hadn't lost a game yet no that's right in fact on the day that we played texas

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a&m lost to smu we didn't know that that was going to come off but that took place and then we beat Texas and then bingo all of a sudden we're in the thick of the race. Another interesting aspect of this was that that year the Cotton Bowl had already declared that we wouldn't be there for some reason.

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All of the other bowls filled up. We had no place to go except the Cotton Bowl and the only way we could get there was to beat the University of Texas and that hadn't been done for many, many years. So it was a great challenge for our football team.

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Texas had won six straight Southwest Conference championships and we were playing them in Waco, Texas in Baylor Stadium. Well the date was November the 9th, 1974 and so let's turn the clock back now and take a look at what happened in Baylor Stadium on perhaps Baylor's most memorable football

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Saturday afternoon. And as I recall, Coach, things started out pretty well for the Bears. started well for us that day because we won the toss and elected to receive the football. Dean of Texas, I remember, kicked it well out of the end zone and of course that gave

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us the ball on the 20-yard line. It would have been 30 today, wouldn't it? If it had gone out of the end zone on the fly, that's exactly right. Steve Beard was the guy that we wanted to carry the football first.

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We wanted to establish the run. We'd planned to throw in the ball game, but we certainly wanted to come out and attack them. Now Neil's number 11 at quarterback. That's right. Steve Beard is 24. He just carried the football again. That was the second down and five. It's third and two coming up now,

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Frank. We go into our famous tandem offense. Jeffrey is the quarterback and Beard knocks it in for the first down. When did you start that tandem offense? I was running that at at angelo state before i came to bate are about seventeen years now still the same exactly

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now this is a very important play that's to alcee jackson just a little quick hitch we uh... we call it and uh... alcee's uh... had good speed you can see him run off from these guys from texas

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well he ran hurdles on the track team didn't he yeah he was a high school athlete and a very fine football player do you know where alcee is now yes uh... he's a fireman in Dallas, Texas, doing a great job, got a fine family. Bubba Hicks kicked the extra point,

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and we jump out with a 7 to 0 lead over the University of Texas, just 315, as you see, left in that first quarter. Cut off to a real good start.

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We held them, actually, Frank, the next series, and took over, and marched the ball all the way down to their end of the field on about the 42-yard line. and uh... we fumbled

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and gave them their first possession uh... where they had good field position was actually their second possession of the game they moved the ball down uh... kept uh...

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uh... working uh... to their left and to their right with the option and and finally marty akins pitched the ball out to uh... clayborn and he really just uh...

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sauntered into the end zone there uh... to make it seven six looked awfully easy and uh... i'm sure they thought at that time this was going to be duck soup this afternoon because the wishbone had been eating a lot

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of people alive. You know, I think it had been since 1956 that Baylor had beaten Texas coming into this game, as I recall. I can't remember exactly the number of years, but it had been a long, long time.

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There's a familiar number 20, isn't it? Earl Campbell, that was his freshman year, and he's run a lot of touchdowns looking that same way in the years since that time. had he and Roosevelt Leakes in the same backfield, didn't they?

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That was their two prime running backs. They kicked the extra point and took a lead of 14 to 7. Not quite at the end of the first quarter yet. We came back with another possession and we started turning the football over.

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This one right here, Bill Hamilton, the linebacker from Texas, real fine player, made the interception and they get the ball down to our 15-yard line. And they've got 15 yards to go for another touchdown. And for the Texas Wishbone, that's pretty easy pickings.

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Quarter changed. Wishbone, Cameron, you see, is playing fullback instead of the halfback. This was his freshman year, first year. That was Mike Ebo that made that tackle.

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Mike was a freshman player. We had a lot of freshmen playing. We had two freshmen in the secondary starting for us. You remember who those were Frank? Ron Burns and Scooter Reed. Exactly. Yeah.

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Ron's 42 and Scooter's number 18, I think, later on. That's right. They make a field goal and the score is now 17-7. Now this is Mark Jackson in at quarterback. This was Mark's only play of the ballgame and they threw it out. It was a good pass and they really wrestled it away

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uh... from philip kent there you can see uh... uh... i don't think he really had full possession of the youngster from texas but it didn't matter the referee ruled that they got the football

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so uh... they had excellent field position this is marty akins the texas quarterback pitches out late to clayburn who's a great athlete

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and they're down to the three yard line seventy nine there is joe johnson for baylor forty five is don bachhorn donnie uh... played uh... defense and and was our kickoff and look at the uh...

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the position of the uh... defensive linemen their heads were almost straight in the air their back ends up high do you not do that anymore? no that was a technique that we used uh... in uh... those years

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and for the touchdown and kick the extra point and uh... things are not looking too good for the fighting baylor bears in fact it was looking so bad that uh... as we narrowed uh... toward halftime

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crowd started to thin out a little bit i heard some folks that even went out and started home and heard it on the radio and came back oh uh... hundreds did that that was alcee i believe again

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alcee uh... had uh... a hundred and eighty or ninety yards in this game on receptions on seven receptions well neil passed for three hundred and fifty one yards and i believe you and i

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figure that's the second best passing effort by a bayer quarterback ever yeah it uh... it was a great day for him uh... here's uh... course to be reviewed as a good receiver

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became up with the second we're down in scoring territory felt like if we could get this story uh... the moment could be ours that's completed to philip can't down

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inside the twenty yard line uh... philip is in the automobile business in uh... houston texas he's very active in the baylor alumni association very close friend of mine incident

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as many of these young men are that I keep contact with hard to believe ten years has gone by yes, missed the field goal frank and that really hurt because we felt like we needed to get that momentum

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back by scoring again they were leading twenty four to seven and uh... that's a pretty big score for a team like texas so that's the end of the first half and it's texas twenty four to seven so i've gotta know now what did you do at halftime that changed things so much for the second half?

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Well let me go back to the end of that half. We missed that field goal which we really felt was important toward building us some momentum going into the dressing room. And I remember leaving the field and going down into the tunnel and starting up the tunnel and I always let the players go in front of us, the coaching staff. and when I walked in I was walking up the tunnel and I looked to my right and there's number 11 walking beside me and I turned and looked at Neil Jeffrey and he had this big smile on his face

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and I just reached over and grabbed him and I'm really kind of upset because we're down 24 to 7 and Neil's got this big smile and I said why are you smiling and he said coach we're going to win this football game we're going to win this football game and I said why and he said we've got them right where we want them I said, "We're 24-7, Neil."

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And he said, "I know, coach, but just think about this." He said, "We had turnovers. We moved the football. We can move the football, and we're going to win the football game."

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That confidence sort of penetrated that dressing room. We made some adjustments that you normally make at the halftime, but the big thing coming out of the dressing room at the halftime was confidence. and uh... we knew we had to do something big

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to turn the momentum in our favor and uh... we'll find out the second half what that big something was but we did it and it uh... changed the course of uh... football history of baylor

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you're right well of course part of the scene in any baylor football game is the performance of the baylor golden wave band and we thought perhaps you'd like to see a little bit of their performance so we'll take a little bit of a break and bring on the baylor golden wave band right now [Music]

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24-7 halftime Texas is out in front. Let's see what happened in the last 30 minutes. Bader and Texas, 1974. It was Texas' choice the second half, Frank, and they of course wanted the football. Donnie Bockholm kicked off to them and went to the back of the endzone there and they came out first and 10 on a 20-yard line. Well since we're going to see

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all the plays here in the second half we'll try to identify some of the Bader players later players too as we go along. That was Leach caring for no gain and Benson and Luce make the tie. Benson's number 90 and Darryl Luce is number 46. Benson's in med school right now and he's very proud of him. He's going to be a doctor. Of course Darryl is

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an attorney in Waco. That's right. And his number 60, that's Tim Black. Yeah, Tim was a young player and a very good player. Deloche was also in on that tackle as was John Oliver. Dennis was from San Antonio, wasn't he? Yeah, and Oliver was from Houston.

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Oliver weighed about 210 pounds, and I saw him a couple years ago, and he weighed about 280. I asked him why he wasn't that big when he was playing for Baylor. Playing nose guard, wasn't he? That's right. Fourth down, fourth and five, and here's the biggie.

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We had a kamikaze putt on, and we were going for that baby. Who actually blocked that kick? Johnny Green actually blocked it. Darryl Loose got credit during the game. His name was in the play-by-play, but actually Johnny Green's hand was the one that blocked it.

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But as you can see, we had a lot of guys that said they were ready to block it. I saw Jim Arnold on the 90th night. There's a big play-by-play. Yeah, that was a very important play for us over on the right side of our line, down to the 12-yard line. Now it's still 24-7 Texas.

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That's correct and this is the second down. And Beard gets down to the 8 yard line. 67 there is offensive guard Rel Tipton. Rel is an attorney.

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Comes to most of our ball games. Steve Beard. He has his own business and is a very big supporter of our program. Another guard in there is number 69, Napoleon Tyler.

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Napoleon is a commercial artist in Houston, Texas, a graduate of the Bay Area. Number 74 there is Mike Hughes, who went on and made All-American for us.

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The first and goal here, huh? Yeah, this is down inside the five-yard line. And the beard knocks it down to about the three. Now, from here on in--

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We're getting a lot of yards in there. We're hammering in there and not getting much. We're in the tandem offense. It's a play that was called 43 and it's still 43.

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All the guys that have ever played for us, we know that. Powder River. Third and one, big down, knocking in the end zone. Sure we can get it in.

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Whoops, didn't get there. Beard wasn't quite the high diver that some of the other guys were. He had shorter legs.

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Fourth and one, big down. This is pass 46, goal line. You'll see him fake the beard, keep the ball on his hip, comes out.

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You see the tight end is open. He could have thrown the ball, but using his fantastic speed, Neil blasted into the end zone. Well, it's getting a little closer now.

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Well, it's 24 to 13. And the big thing, Frank, was that the momentum had shifted by our holding in on their first possession in the third quarter and blocking their punt.

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Then scoring, even though it took us several plays to finally get it in the end zone and got it in on fourth down. Now our players sense that they can definitely win this football game. I see the umbrellas out.

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I guess it was still raining. Yes, it started out as a fine mist and then rained a good bit throughout the game. But the footing, AstroTurf was fairly good and the footing was good.

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33 there is Tommy Turnipseed. Johnny Slaughter was the person that made that tackle. It's Roosevelt Leakes who was a very fine college player and I know he had a great career as a pro. Still holds the record in the Southwest Conference for the most yards in a single game.

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I didn't realize. There's some great backs in this conference since then. You bet. Leakes again in for about five yards. Horton Foster is number 91.

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This is the first and ten for Texas Wishbone again handing off to Leakes 40 there is Robert Wigand Robert wasn't real big and Probably wasn't you know greatly blessed with speed but was a very tough hard-nosed player out of this game didn't

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Didn't the way you played the wishbone wasn't that sort of something a lot of people adopted later on? Yes, when I first came to Baylor we We faced about six wishbones each year. And by 1974, which was the year of the championship in the disc break game,

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it had begun to dwindle. And then in the next two years it really sort of phased out. And our defense had a lot to do with it. 27 there, and on the go was Ken Quisenberry.

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Kenny went on to become the outstanding player in the Cotton Bowl and one of us a year after we won this game, and then I won the championship. And still 24-14.

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Yeah, they're driving. And this concerned me a lot, Frank, because we had established some momentum. And now they were just chipping away at us, five yards, four

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yards, three yards, first down. And I knew we had to stop them. We had to keep them from scoring some way, somehow. It looks like you brought almost everybody up

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on the line of scrimmage. Well, they're running that two-tied in wishbone. And you just have to do that. You've got to get up close.

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And we had good pursuit, as you can see. And we brought them to a third and seven situation right here. They're on our 23 yard line. Big down force, third and seven.

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They run the wishbone, triple option, and pitched it out to Claiborne. And we've got excellent coverage. And I'm glad they didn't throw the ball.

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They caught that. the loach and turnip seedling on that tackle. This is a big play, big play. They just missed the field goal.

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We didn't block it. But it was on the left side, and he kicked it to the left. Now, had they kicked that, they'd have been up by 13, wouldn't they?

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Yes. Stayed at 24-14. Now, we finally stopped their drive, and now we get the football back.

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And so we start, again, moving toward their goal. The object, of course, is to score again, because we are at home. He's played a good drive, yeah.

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Aubrey Schultz, 52, there's a guy who made All-American for you, too. Great player. There are a lot of great stories about Aubrey. One of the most significant was the fact that he gained,

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between his junior year and his senior year, about 35 or 40 pounds to get up big enough to play offensive center. He had great desire and determination. of your first guys that cracked helmets as I recall. Yeah, he was a good player.

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That's Philip Kent on the inside reverse that we ran with this particular offense. We would run him on the inside reverse and then on the outside reverse. The outside reverse later in this day on would pay big dividends for us. Steve keeps the momentum going forward. He will continue to make yardage. He was your first thousand bidder's first thousand yard rusher. That's correct.

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We've had several since then, but there have not been many better running backs in the history of Sonoma's Conference than he is. He was the most consistent. Very tough, good receiver.

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That young man had a great day. Ricky Thompson. Ricky Thompson. He went on to play a lot of professional football.

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Had a lot of speed around on the track team. You've done that consistently over the years, having used track people. where you got Ricky and Alcee Jackson, you had Gerald and Bruce, a lot of others.

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- Bubba Hicks kicks the extra point and this was really a good feeling. 24 to 21, there was not any doubt in my mind that anybody on the sidelines

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that we're gonna win this football game. And it's a great feeling to have, you know, it's just, you just feel it inside. And the folks in the stands started feeling it

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and those that had left started feeling it and started coming back. And I'm sure Texas was feeding just hits like that. That's why I get that.

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Just playing just about two feet off the ground. And you've got it within three now. Good solid defense. I don't know if we mentioned Joe Johnson or not,

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but what a great football player he was. He is number 79, Joe C. Johnson. A lot of these guys weren't very big either, were they? down there were a big football team compared to the size of the team we had.

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-Terminus C, it's 33. 38 is Johnny Slaughter, I believe. -Johnny Slaughter was a small linebacker. Johnny didn't weigh about 105 pounds. But he was tough. Now Texas is throwing the football, which is unusual for them.

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Marty three thirteen times this ball game completed four that was one before That's what they like to do and that ball off to bigger. Okay 27 there was Quasimodo. I think we mentioned him before Mom burner there it comes. That's a start that

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That we used against the wishbone. He was a defensive back. We were bringing From the outside and try to force the fullback or the quarterback if the quarterback Handed off we'll take the fullback if you didn't take the quarterback. This is low low Don't pass to Steve Beard

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See the wet turf where Steve slipped there it was slippery and Had been a dry turf Steve might have scored on that play But it was wet on both sides of the field

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That's Cleveland Franklin later in the game. Now he became your second thousand yard carrier. That's right.

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And then he was injured and didn't get to play as soon. There's Phillip Kent on the inside reverse. Boy, that play worked well for you, didn't it? It did, and then the companion play off of that,

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the outside reverse, was very good for us. You'll see it coming up right here. It's tipped in up in front. Good blocks, and Kent takes it into the end zone.

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the end zone and you can see the reaction of those folks standing down the sideline what that meant. That meant the Bears just went ahead of the University of Texas. And I'm not sure how many times in the last 18 years we've been ahead. Not many. We were ahead that time. Now that's, let's see, that's 21 straight points you've scored. That's right.

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Unanswered points. Bears were down 24-7 at the half. Now what's this return? This is little fakey return here that Texas used in those years and had a pretty good return on this one. Haven't seen that in years have you? Yeah, they got good return but they had a clip there and

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so they brought it back first and ten. Now they're behind. Bears leading 28-24. Oh boy, there's some more of that good pressure. Trying to pick up that number. Is that Ryan again?

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No, why again? Yeah, here's the other cops inside. Joe Johnson chasing him and I think Bob's here. Yeah.

00:38:38.320 - 00:38:56.360

May have been Leslie Benson, 90, I'll tell you that. So now second and 27, that's a good feeling on the side. The ball was not called it. It was short. Third and 27. Feeling good, Frank.

00:38:56.360 - 00:39:10.360

A lot of those folks coming back now that left the ballgame. Yeah, the parking lots and the drive areas around the parking lot were just jammed. People just got out of their cars, left their cars, flashed something in the air, and just came back in and stayed.

00:39:10.360 - 00:39:17.360

[laughs] By now, probably 100,000 people saw that game, didn't they? [laughs] Yes.

00:39:17.360 - 00:39:35.360

I mean there were a few that just came to the game, hurried on the radio and came. Punt takes a bad hump. I knew things were going to go well. You don't want to run that. The ball starts bouncing back toward Texas. You got it again. You got the lead 28-24.

00:39:35.360 - 00:39:52.360

Slot formation. X48G. The old guys are in there. Need to put that back in the offense. That's a good play. Used that with Alfred Anderson in '80 in fact, '79 and '80.

00:39:52.360 - 00:40:04.360

Good completion. I think that's Sam Hick, really. Sam was our tight end. Sam came as a walk-on and earned a scholarship and got to play for us.

00:40:04.360 - 00:40:11.360

He was not very big either. No. Inside reverse. Broke it.

00:40:11.360 - 00:40:31.360

Big yardage. What we've been able to do, Frank, is we've been able to force them to start throwing some. They've got some incomplete passes. We've thrown them for some losses. And they're not making it four to five on us and moving their stakes down the field.

00:40:31.360 - 00:40:47.380

And so now we're doing that. We're picking up the six, the seven, the eight, nine yards. Here, second and 15, which is in a position I'd rather not have been in. excellent job here by He'll Jeffrey that was an audible at the line of scrimmage and

00:40:47.380 - 00:41:09.320

What they were doing is they were rushing a ripper an outside defensive back and they couldn't cover that Here's the same thing to the left side. He just over three. They have to cover it with the safety coming over You know, there's no some Philip Kent with his shoulder pads out there wouldn't let him do that today. Well, they know Notice Neil also is the holder which is kind of weird. Yeah

00:41:09.320 - 00:41:14.940

You haven't done that in a while, have you? No. Now, Bobby Hicks put that one through. And that was very, very important.

00:41:14.940 - 00:41:22.160

Now that force is in. They have to go for two for the victory. Which, of course, right as you're up by seven, well. By seven.

00:41:22.160 - 00:41:30.540

I forgot to look at the clock. How much time's left there? About halfway through the fourth quarter? Just approximately.

00:41:30.540 - 00:41:49.700

There's that return again. This time, they let it go right straight up the middle. We got to, of course, keep them from scoring and this is very important for our defense to shut them down and get the football back to the offense.

00:41:49.700 - 00:42:05.700

We've got the football that's going to be difficult for them to score. That was Joe Johnson, 79, on that tackle. Leslie Benson is the nose guard of it, number 90. You know what made all this so interesting was later in the year when they played Texas A&M,

00:42:05.700 - 00:42:22.700

Baylor was Texas' strongest supporter. Oh yeah. We had all the coaches and all the guys over in the lettering's lounge that morning they were playing. One was on Friday, we played on Saturday. It was the big A&M Texas game. And it was on television.

00:42:22.700 - 00:42:39.700

They called you from New York. Yes, and we did an interview there and People Magazine was there shooting shots at all of us. And Texas scored about four touchdowns early in that game. It was over and we were in the cotton ball.

00:42:39.700 - 00:42:51.700

It was a great feeling. There's Marty trying to get the ball out and you can see we had that well covered. You can see the dejection on the play. He stood there.

00:42:51.700 - 00:43:09.700

It was a very frustrating time for the Texas players. They had won the conference championship six years ago and this meant the end of that dominance. Now at this time, of course, Houston wasn't in the league yet, so you were playing only seven conference games, weren't you? That's correct.

00:43:09.700 - 00:43:33.200

This was, I believe, our third game. We were one and one, maybe two and one at this point. Very big series for us right here. and still 31-24 Baylor. I don't think enough could be said about

00:43:33.200 - 00:43:51.700

Neil Jeffers' performance in this game, his leadership. Neil at the present time is a youth minister in Dallas, Texas and still uses his talent and ability to help others as he always did. That's the house in the green, six.

00:43:51.700 - 00:44:05.820

I think we may have mentioned this earlier, he threw for 351 yards and I believe that's the second best performance by a Bader passer ever in this game. Inside reverse, I probably called that one time. Yeah.

00:44:05.820 - 00:44:17.980

I'm sorry. I hear it was awfully good to you. Second nine. I think they, uh, looked like they jumped offside, but you can see it's second and

00:44:17.980 - 00:44:43.940

team. The official really wouldn't even admit it, which we probably did. Jeffrey throws the ball out to complete. It looked like Elsie. It's a play-action pass off the option. It was really a quadruple read. If the receiver was covered, he would keep the ball coming out and pitch to the back, which is what no one does anymore. I don't know why it was

00:44:43.940 - 00:45:10.500

very good. Who's your offensive coordinator? Bill Young, who is now the head football coach at the University of Texas at Paso. He's the offensive coordinator. Off of that staff there's eight or nine head coaches I believe around college around the country. Off of this stack there's seven head coaches. That's remarkable. That was Philip Kennigan, a boy over 20.

00:45:10.500 - 00:45:26.500

I was surprised they didn't put them all out in rush, and I thought during the game that they would try to block that punt, but they didn't. Was that Rusty Parrott, was your punter then? Yes, we had good coverage of Shikita on that too.

00:45:26.500 - 00:45:40.500

That's still now 31-24, later. That's right. Marty really didn't like to throw that much and I'm sure Darryl didn't like to throw that much.

00:45:40.500 - 00:45:49.500

You know, he had the over saying that three things happened to a pass and two of them went down. That's right. To be incomplete or understated.

00:45:49.500 - 00:45:58.500

That's right. But they did complete that one. They did. And that was a big first down.

00:45:58.500 - 00:46:15.500

Did it rain pretty much throughout the game? Yes, particularly the last three quarters. Not a heavy run, but sort of a drizzle, not a damp drizzle. This was only the third year for there to be an astroturf at Baylor Stadium.

00:46:15.500 - 00:46:25.500

That's correct. On blitz and... At Turnipseed? Really a big interception. That was Tony Turnipseed making the interception.

00:46:25.500 - 00:46:46.500

that was really big because now we've got the football and we're not going to let things go while we've got it. And a seven point lead. A seven point lead. Well there's excitement now running really rampant in the stadium. The crowd is going crazy. Texas was sort of stunned. Texas fans were not expecting this.

00:46:46.500 - 00:46:59.500

Had you begun to feel what the importance of this was going to be? Well, I really felt like that once we made the momentum change in the second half that we would definitely win. If we won, I felt like we were in the championship.

00:46:59.500 - 00:47:03.500

I'm pleased, I tell you. Now Darryl Roy came to your locker room after this game, did he? Yes, he did. Frank, I had always thought highly of him.

00:47:03.500 - 00:47:07.500

That day he proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was a man of great class as well as a man of great talent. He was a man of great talent. He was a man of great talent.

00:47:07.500 - 00:47:11.500

He was a man of great talent. He was a man of great talent. He was a man of great talent. He was a man of great talent.

00:47:11.500 - 00:47:21.500

He was a man of great talent. He was a man of great talent. He was a man of great talent. to be honest, shadow of a doubt, that he was a man of great class as well as an outstanding

00:47:21.500 - 00:47:33.500

football coach. Our players really appreciated that there was no whining or gnashing of teeth by the University of Texas. Their players and coaching staff said, "Hey, we were whipped and we were whipped by a better

00:47:33.500 - 00:47:47.500

team." The control came in our dressing room and he told our players, he said, "Heck, don't look back." back. I don't think he said heck, but he said don't look back and keep on going and win

00:47:47.500 - 00:48:08.500

the championship. And that's exactly what we did. Well Bubba Hicks just put you out in front by 10 now. Well that was lights out for Texas and there was not that much time left. And we went ahead by 10 points. And there's no way that they're going to beat us now. They've got to try to

00:48:08.500 - 00:48:29.500

deep and they're not used to doing that and we're probably going to end up picking her off. Everybody knows that. Coach Rauh knew it, I knew it, and everybody in the stands knew anything about football. I figured that was going to happen. You see the three-man rush there. This is a guy with Mike Pressley, who's still in the front row. Almost intercepted

00:48:29.500 - 00:48:37.500

intercepted that one. Scared me to fly it there. But it was an offensive pass interference, third and twenty-five.

00:48:37.500 - 00:48:47.500

And this of course, there's the interception. What did we say, a scooter read? Yeah, scooter read, number eighteen,

00:48:47.500 - 00:48:55.500

freshman, there were two defensive backs in that second area that were true freshmen. Well, it's lights out now for sure, isn't it? Yep, we're

00:48:55.500 - 00:49:07.300

on the clock now. I say lights out, but actually the scoreboard lights remained on all night, didn't they? Yes, they did. That scene right there became very famous.

00:49:07.300 - 00:49:21.980

Went all over the world, pictures of this. In fact, immediately after that, there was a push to getting a scoreboard where you could put the University of Texas instead of visitors. You know, it says visitors instead of the University of Texas.

00:49:21.980 - 00:49:44.660

So now it's the team that we're planning out there. So that's the pictorial story of Baylor's most famous football victory, I guess, Eddie. Well, it was an extremely exciting time for all of us. For a good long time before that Baylor-Texas game in 1974,

00:49:44.660 - 00:50:02.720

one of our trustees and a devoted Baylor fan, Mr. Ralph Storm, and I I had talked many times about what we would do when Baylor defeated Texas in Waco, because it had been such a long time since that had occurred.

00:50:02.720 - 00:50:19.080

We finally agreed that we'd start keeping our sleeping bags in the back of our cars for each Baylor-Texas game to be ready to spend the entire night at the stadium following such a defeat,

00:50:20.420 - 00:50:42.220

that we would have our wives and some of our family and others stay with us there and leave the scoreboard on all night long so that we could just thoroughly enjoy seeing that score and having it indelibly impressed on our minds because we knew that it would be a meaningful occasion.

00:50:42.220 - 00:51:06.980

So we had our sleeping bags in our car and there were some other folks that found out about this. Mr. Tom Parrish, who was vice president for development at that time, and Dr. John Ballew, who was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. And so when that miracle on the Brazos occurred, as it was then termed, we quickly got our gear out of the trunks

00:51:06.980 - 00:51:32.980

of our cars and our wives ran to get some things that they thought they would need for the night. And so there were seven of us who then began to make a place for ourselves there at the stadium to watch that scoreboard or look at it throughout the night. We of course had a rainy drizzly night but I would guess about

00:51:32.980 - 00:51:52.140

once every half hour, hour, we got our umbrellas and we would venture out and and walk across the stadium and walk up the steps and stand in front of the scoreboard and just stand there and grin at one another and sing that good old Baylor line

00:51:52.140 - 00:52:11.380

and then go back to our cozy little place and rest while and talk about the great victory. There was a film crew that came out there that night And I recall that whoever the individual was that interviewed us

00:52:11.380 - 00:52:31.100

asked the question, why would normally sane, fairly intelligent people like us do something like that? And the response, as I recall, was that on an occasion like that, you don't have to act sane and normal.

00:52:31.100 - 00:52:42.140

it uh... probably pretty sane and normal to get excited and thrilled about something that uh... was a tremendous turnaround during the game because

00:52:42.140 - 00:52:54.840

at halftime i don't think anyone would have predicted that outcome the number of people who left the stadium and returned to their homes of course uh... missed a a wonderful spectacle

00:52:54.840 - 00:53:08.840

i recall uh... ray burchett uh... from austin a pastor down there got up the next morning because he had left at halftime thinking he would just go on home and get ready for his service the next day

00:53:08.840 - 00:53:24.000

and uh... began to listen to the radio thought he'd turn it on and see what further was happening and by the time he got to Austin of course uh... Baylor had defeated Texas and so he spent the night preparing a new sermon that was entitled

00:53:24.000 - 00:53:36.520

"Oh Ye of Little Faith" and uh... And so Ray has never forgiven himself for not seeing that game through as some others did on that occasion.

00:53:36.520 - 00:53:57.240

As we spent the night at the stadium, we had something very fine occur because the night before some of us here in Waco had been to a dinner at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Jack Flanders. And a couple at the dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Bill Beasley, Bill and Lee were there.

00:53:57.240 - 00:54:09.980

And Lee is a Baylor graduate, and Bill is a Texas A&M graduate. Well, Aggies thought that they were moving very steadily toward the conference victory and championship, and then the Cotton Bowl.

00:54:09.980 - 00:54:22.340

They had started putting stickers on their cars, and buying tickets, and reserving hotel rooms. And so Bill said to me on Friday night, gee, I hope that you folks defeat Texas tomorrow,

00:54:22.340 - 00:54:35.180

because we're going to go up there and beat SMU. and then we're going to be on our way to southwest conference championship in the cotton bowl and I said well I don't know how things are going to come out bill but

00:54:35.180 - 00:54:49.580

we'll sure hope that we beat texas we'll see what happens with you folks in SMU and then I told him about our plan to spend the night at the stadium that we had had in our minds for some time

00:54:49.580 - 00:55:06.460

and so bill said well I'll tell you what if you folks defeat Texas and we're going up and beat SMU as we plan to do, we'll bring you out some hot rolls and coffee there at the stadium to warm yourselves up during the night.

00:55:06.460 - 00:55:22.400

Well, as you know, Texas A&M did not defeat SMU. They lost to them the next day. But along about midnight, the phone rang there at the stadium, and I picked the phone up and it was Bill Beasley.

00:55:22.400 - 00:55:34.540

And Bill said, "When do you want the hot rolls and coffee?" And I said, "Well, just about any time, "but if shortly after midnight you could do it, "it sure would be nice."

00:55:34.540 - 00:55:49.860

So not long after midnight, Bill and Lee Beasley drove up to the stadium in their station wagon and it was laden down with food. They had scrambled eggs, pigs in a blanket,

00:55:49.860 - 00:56:02.140

fresh fruit, orange juice, coffee. Seems like they had hot chocolate. They had cookies. They had just prepared a feast for all of us.

00:56:02.140 - 00:56:14.940

So we helped them unload all of that, went up into the box area. We had a wonderful midnight meal and talked and Bill Beasley enjoyed it with us

00:56:14.940 - 00:56:26.220

because he always roots for Baylor, except when we're playing A&M. And after we had visited for a while, we called down to the Waco Tribune Herald

00:56:26.220 - 00:56:36.940

and asked when the first papers would be coming off the press, and they told us. So shortly thereafter, we got in Bill Beasley's station wagon

00:56:36.940 - 00:56:54.460

and drove down to the Tribune Herald and bought, it seems to me, first twenty five papers to come off the press. It may have been ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty, it grows in number as the years go by. But anyhow we got the first issues that came off

00:56:54.460 - 00:57:20.220

the press back in the press room and took them back to the stadium and read those papers until oh six o'clock in the morning. And so it was really a wonderful occasion. We were just extremely proud coach Taff and all of the coaches and that wonderful group of players who had given us the kind of victory that we had longed for and literally brought Baylor

00:57:20.220 - 00:57:47.060

back into a competitive circumstance in the Southwest Conference that still exists to this day because I think beginning with that victory in the Southwest Conference Championship that season, we have had for these past ten years a circumstance that when we take the field most folks know that it's quite possible for a Baylor to come out victorious.

00:57:47.060 - 00:58:05.020

And even though we have had seasons when we have not done as well, like the one that we're presently in, one never knows when the Bears are going to come through and win because we have been a competitive team since that time. And so this gives me a good occasion

00:58:05.020 - 00:58:18.580

to warmly congratulate Coach Taff on the leadership that he has provided during these years that he has been our head coach and the great amount of fun that he has provided us.

00:58:18.580 - 00:58:27.980

And to thank the assistant coaches and all the players through the years, but especially that 1974 team that started it all off by

00:58:27.980 - 00:58:42.660

showing us what can be done by a group of young men who are highly motivated to represent our university in the best possible way. The biggest thing I remember about the Baylor-Texas game in '74 was not any particular play,

00:58:42.660 - 00:58:54.740

even though I do remember some. What I remember is just the fact that we beat 'em. When I was coming out of high school, I at first thought I wanted to go to Texas, and gosh, I guess in 1974, Texas had won seven straight conference titles,

00:58:54.740 - 00:59:11.820

and the big thing I remember is we'd finally beat those guys. In the first half we were kind of awed by playing Texas and I think they jumped out to something like a 24-7 lead or something like that. We went in at halftime and we talked about it and I think we made up our minds that this

00:59:11.820 - 00:59:25.220

team could be beaten. The thing that impressed me most about the second half was the leadership that came out on the field. When you talk about leadership you got to talk about Neil Jeffrey on offense and Darryl

00:59:25.220 - 00:59:50.020

loose on defense because those guys, you know, there was never no doubt, especially with the way Neil played, that we had a chance to pull the game out. The Baylor University coaches out-coached the University of Texas in the second half and that's what I remember most is the coaches changing their game plan and really it did

00:59:50.020 - 01:00:05.940

show up as far as the football players were concerned, we could tell very much that the coaches really had done an excellent job. It took a lot of guts out of Coach Royal to come in like that. I remember distinctly he told us that he hoped we would go all the way.

01:00:05.940 - 01:00:17.700

I don't know if he believed that we would, but as it turned out, that may have been an omen. What Coach Taff has done, obviously, is bring back a big interest in the program and recruit some quality athletes.

01:00:17.700 - 01:00:35.860

At the time I went to the NFL, I think the only other player in the NFL when the regular season came around was Bobby Maples and Baylor people will know how long ago that had been. Since that time, Baylor has put just lots and lots of professional players in the pros, so it's obvious we've recruited a lot better player than we did.

01:00:35.860 - 01:01:05.780

Of course, everybody wants to beat the University of Texas, especially back then in their heyday. When the game was over and you could see that everybody was still in the stands 10, 15, 20 minutes after the game was over, it really sunk in what we had done. Well, the first thing I told them was that I was very proud of them, that last year all

01:01:05.780 - 01:01:28.700

of us had a rough year. A lot of bad things happened to a lot of good young men, and they never lost belief in the program. I know their coaches and then they put feet to that belief this year by hard work and it paid off in something very, very big.

01:01:28.700 - 01:01:48.820

And I'm very, very humble about it. And our coaching staff and our players are too. We, you know, work very hard for it, but yet when it comes, it down. Sounds good.

01:01:48.820 - 01:02:36.580

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