Darrell Royal

Darrell Royal
Royal with son, Mack, circa 1950
Sport(s)	Football
Biographical details
Born	July 6, 1924 (1924-07-06) (age 87)
Place of birth	Hollis, Oklahoma
Playing career
1946–1949	Oklahoma
Position(s)	Quarterback, defensive back
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954–1955 1956 1957–1976	NC State (assistant) Tulsa (assistant) Mississippi State (off. backs) Edmonton Eskimos Mississippi State Washington Texas
Administrative career (AD unless noted)
1962–1980	Texas
Head coaching record
Overall	184–60–5 (college)
Bowls	8–7–1
Statistics
College Football Data Warehouse
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
3 National (1963, 1969–1970) 11 SWC (1959, 1961–1963, 1968–1973, 1975)
Awards
2x Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year (1961, 1963) 2x AFCA Coach of the Year (1963, 1970) 2x Sporting News College Football COY (1963, 1969) Paul "Bear" Bryant Lifetime Achievement Award (2000) Amos Alonzo Stagg Award (2010)
College Football Hall of Fame Inducted in 1983 (profile)

Darrell K Royal (born July 6, 1924) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Mississippi State University (1954–1955), the University of Washington (1956), and the University of Texas at Austin (1957–1976), compiling a career college football record of 184–60–5. In his 20 seasons at Texas, Royal's teams won three national championships (1963, 1969, 1970), 11 Southwest Conference titles, and amassed a record of 167–45–5. He is the winningest coach in Texas Longhorns football history. Royal also coached the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League for one season in 1953. He played football at the University of Oklahoma from 1946 to 1949. Royal was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1983. Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas, where the Longhorns play their home games, was renamed in his honor in 1996.

Early life

"K" is Royal's given middle name, not an abbreviation. He received it in honor of his mother, Katy, who died when he was an infant. She died of cancer, but because of the stigma surrounding the disease at that time, Royal was led to believe until he was an adult that she had died giving birth to him.^[1]

Playing career

In 1942, during World War II, Royal finished Hollis High School, where he had played football. Royal joined the United States Army Air Corps, where he played football for the 3rd Air Force team during 1945 and was spotted and recruited by scouts for the University of Oklahoma Sooners football program.^[2]. Royal played quarterback and defensive back at the University of Oklahoma under his mentor, coach Bud Wilkinson from 1946 to 1949. While attending Oklahoma, he joined the Delta Upsilon Fraternity.

Royal was most noted for his prowess as a defensive back, where his 18 career interceptions and his three interceptions in the 1947 game against Oklahoma A&M are still Sooner records.^[3][4]

Royal's part-time contributions at quarterback had a similar impact, despite having to share time with Jack Mitchell and Claude Arnold at the position. He threw a 43-yard pass against the North Carolina in the 1949 Sugar Bowl. Royal holds the fourth-best winning percentage in school history (minimum 15 starts) with a 16–1 mark as a part-time quarterback starter. His 11–0 mark as a starter in 1949 ranks as one of the best seasons in school history.^[3][4]

In 2000, Royal was inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame.

Coaching career

Early positions

Royal served as an assistant coach at North Carolina State, Tulsa and Mississippi State. He coached the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League, and in 1954, he returned to Mississippi State^[5] for his first collegiate head coaching job. He spent the 1956 season as head coach at the University of Washington.

University of Texas

Royal took over as head coach at University of Texas in December 1956, and achieved success almost instantaneously. The team went from a 1–9 record, their worst record ever, in 1956 to a 6–4–1 mark and a berth in the Sugar Bowl in 1957. In Royal's 20 years as head coach, Texas never had a losing season. Royal posted a 167–47–5 career record at Texas. His overall coaching record was 184–60–5.

With Royal at the helm, Texas won three national championships (1963, 1969, and 1970), won or shared 11 Southwest Conference championships, and made 16 bowl appearances.

Royal with Bud Wilkinson

Royal's coaching tactics were the subject of criticism in Gary Shaw's exposé of college football recruiting and coaching practices, Meat on the Hoof, which was published in 1972, six years after Shaw left the Texas football program.^[6]

Beginning in 1962, Royal also served as athletic director for the University of Texas. He retired from coaching in 1976, and remained director of athletics until 1980. He now serves as special assistant to the university president on athletic programs. In 1996, the University honored him by renaming Texas Memorial Stadium as Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium. Royal was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983.

Head coaching record

Year	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Bowl/playoffs	Coaches#	AP°
Mississippi State Maroons (Southeastern Conference) (1954–1955)
1954	Mississippi State	6–4	3–3	T–6th
1955	Mississippi State	6–4	4–4	6th
Mississippi State:		12–8	7–7
Washington Huskies (Pacific Coast Conference) (1956)
1956	Washington	5–5	4–4	T–4th
Washington:		5–5	4–4
Texas Longhorns (Southwest Conference) (1957–1976)
1957	Texas	6–4–1	4–1–1	2nd	L Sugar	11	11
1958	Texas	7–3	3–3	4th
1959	Texas	9–2	5–1	T–1st	L Cotton	4	4
1960	Texas	7–3–1	5–2	T–2nd	T Bluebonnet	17
1961	Texas	10–1	6–1	T–1st	W Cotton	4	3
1962	Texas	9–1–1	6–0–1	1st	L Cotton	4	4
1963	Texas	11–0	7–0	1st	W Cotton	1	1
1964	Texas	10–1	6–1	2nd	W Orange	5	5
1965	Texas	6–4	3–4	T–4th
1966	Texas	7–4	5–2	2nd	W Bluebonnet
1967	Texas	6–4	4–3	T–3rd
1968	Texas	9–1–1	6–1	T–1st	W Cotton	5	3
1969	Texas	11–0	7–0	1st	W Cotton	1	1
1970	Texas	10–1	7–0	1st	L Cotton	1	3
1971	Texas	8–3	6–1	1st	L Cotton	12	18
1972	Texas	10–1	7–0	1st	W Cotton	5	3
1973	Texas	8–3	7–0	1st	L Cotton	8	14
1974	Texas	8–4	5–2	T–2nd	L Gator		17
1975	Texas	10–2	6–1	T–1st	W Bluebonnet	7	6
1976	Texas	5–5–1	4–4	5th
Texas:		167–47–5	109–27–2
Total:		184–60–5
National Championship         Conference Title         Conference Division Title
#Rankings from final Coaches' Poll. °Rankings from final AP Poll.

See also

• List of presidents of the American Football Coaches Association

References

1. ^ Dingus, Anne. "Darrell Royal". TexasMonthly.com. 
2. ^ "Darrell Royal". Horatio Alger Association. 1996. http://www.horatioalger.org/member_info.cfm?memberid=ROY96. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "2006 Oklahoma Sooners Media Guide" (PDF). Soonersports.com. University of Oklahoma Athletic Department. p. 153. Archived from the original on 2007-07-18. http://web.archive.org/web/20070718203803/http://graphics.fansonly.com/schools/okla-dump/pdf_files/40833.pdf. Retrieved 2007-08-22. 
4. ^ ^{a b} "Oklahoma Sooners Record Book". Soonerstats.com. 2007. http://www.soonerstats.com/football/recordbook/index.cfm. 
5. ^ "Season Results". http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_ia/sec/mississippi_state/yearly_results.php?year=1950. Retrieved 2009-09-26. 
6. ^ Butts, Mike. "Tarnished Legends". Austin Chronicle. http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/vol18/issue45/pols.shaw.html. Retrieved 2006-09-30. 

External links

• Darrell Royal at SoonerSports.com
• Darrell Royal at the College Football Hall of Fame
• Darrell Royal at the College Football Data Warehouse
• Watch a 1953 Edmonton interview with Darrell Royal in Football Story (National Film Board of Canada)

Persondata
Name	Royal, Darrell
Alternative names	Royal, Darrell K
Short description	American college football player, college football coach, College Football Hall of Fame member
Date of birth	July 6, 1924
Place of birth	Hollis, Oklahoma, United States
Date of death
Place of death