Darrell Royal..In His Own Words

InÂ FebruaryÂ we learned that legendaryÂ head coach Darrell Royal has been living withÂ dementiaÂ for several years.Â With Coach Royal, 87, by her side, and with support from friends including cyclist Lance Armstrong and actor Matthew McConaughey, Edith Royal also announced the creation of the Darrell K Royal Research Fund for Alzheimer’s Disease .

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It touched my heart and after the sadness I started to think of the greatness of the man. He will always be “the” head coach when anyone thinks of the University of Texas. Well at least until us old timers are gone and the new generation will start asking, who was Darrell Royal?

The thing about coach Royal is he had some of the greatest quotes ever said by anyone and I am not talking about just the sports world. I would like to share a few for those who might have forgot he special way to spin aÂ phrase.

I would have loved to know the setting of these quotes but finding the quotes is one thing and learning when and in what context the quotes were made is quite another.

Football doesn’t build character. It eliminates the weak ones..

Breaks balance out. The sun don’t shine on the same ol’ dog’s rear end every day.

Don’t matter what they throw at us. Only angry people win football games

Then there was one of his most famous and it is surrounded with controversy. In 1962 coachÂ Darrell Royal said that there are three things that can happen when you pass the football, and â€œtwo of them are bad.â€ Â This was the earliest quote on record for this statement. In 1965 Woody Hayes, head coach of the Ohio State University used the quote. Some have also attributed the quote to some General from Tennessee but we Longhorns have no doubt it was Coach Royal who coined the phrase. Here are a few other quotes.

All the white meat is gone. There’s nothin’ but necks on the platter

He’s not very fast, but maybe Elizabeth Taylor can’t sing.

I don’t count on the boy who waits till October, when it’s cool and fun, then decides he wants to play

I had hoped God would be neutral.

I learned this about coaching: You don’t have to explain victory and you can’t explain defeat.

There are so many more and I feel blessed to have met Coach Royal and even more blessed to have had him coach the Longhorns.