Why do you love football?

[echeese]

No sport evokes such passion among it's fans.   

So what is driving your passion for football and for the Horns .. . . 

My passion for the Horns began on 6 Dec 1969 .. . up till then football was something you played and our TV was a 25 inch black and white sanyo. . . . I had never sat down to watch a game up till then. . .too busy throwing balls in the yard or playing pick up games.

Yes, I kicked it off with the Great Shootout. . .the GAme of the Century .. . my Dad was in the military and deployed and when he came home, I found out he was a TEXAS fan too . . .. his dream was to play for TEXAS but WWII came along.

Doubling down, the best player out of my HS was Bruce Cannon who enjoyed SWC player of the week honors as a LB for TEXAS. . .I still remember the day he showed up at 2 a days (we started before UT) wearing that Burnt Orange practice jersey. . . .you would have thought he was a god.

Years later I got to meet Coach David McWilliams and he told me that when BC left TEXAS, he never looked back, didn't return for many letterman events etc. . .he went on to be the superintendent of our school . ..never coached and didn't even attend practices. . . but a side story. . . . McWilliams said some guys were like that, hung up the cleats and moved on.

For me, it's the connection to a feeling of being part of something bigger than I was .. . which is also one of the reasons Marines are so passionate.

 

[Topstarr]

cause, I do.

 

[monarch]

enough said!​

 

[java]

I was born into a staunch UT family.  My Dad's sister went to UT.  He could have gotten a free ride via football, but he and Mom were high school sweethearts and WWII beckoned.  He thought he might get one semester in, so he went to Southwest Texas (now Texas State), where she was going and starred.  He claimed that he spent any time not playing ball or practicing with Mom, then enlisted in the Navy after the first semester.  He didn't want to be drafted and sent to a submarine.  Luckily he wasn't because he was very claustrophobic (sp?).

Daddy was selected as one of the 11 Iron Men in Texas.  Many of you are probably much too young to know what that means.  I probably wouldn't, had he not been selected.  I don't know if he was selected 1 year or 2 years, but evidently it was quite an honor.  One of the 11 best football players in the State of Texas, and he played for a very small small school with a first year coach.  The game plan that year was give him the football.  Untill the day he died, he had a finger that was bent at the second knuckle due to a break.  He played an entire season with a broken knuckle, and it healed that way.  Those guys were tough!  He never had the patience for football players who were hurt all of the time or avoided contact. 

He was always a Texas fan and a Cowboys fan.  He loved Royal and Landry.  My first memories of college football games were with him, in the Knothole at Memorial Stadium.  He was the most knowledgeable fan in the stands and the loudest  He never refrained from taunting the other team, if he thought they were frauds.  He was merciless when highly regarded players from other teams played and Royal's teams stopped them cold.  He also gave other teams the respect they deserved when they fought hard.

I had an uncle who married into the family.  On Thanksgiving, the entire family would watch Texas destroy A&M (the norm at any rate) at my grandmother's house.  My uncle would go to his house, about 1/2 a mile away, and watch the game alone.  However, that didn't stop the phone calls.  We would call each time Texas scored, and in the background several of us would hum Texas Fight.  Of course, on the rare occasion A&M would win, he would return the favor.  He didn't appreciate it when we told him that we had to let them win on occasion to keep them coming back for more.  POOR AGGIES...........!

All of the cousins went to Texas except his son and my sister, even his daughter!  My daughter and her husband walked into their wedding reception to Texas Fight!, and when they reached the front of the assembled guests, The Eyes of Texas played.  The Aggies in the crowd had to stand, in deference to the bride and groom.  The Texas tradition continues!  It was fun!

For me, it was Texas or bust.  Daddy said when I bled, it was Burnt Orange.

 

[Duke C #11]

As to the title question, it's the same two things that will eventually doom the sport - the combination of brute force and lightning speed.

On the second question, I was hooked the first time I saw James Saxton scoot across that 13" black and white TV screen in 1961. His running style was like a water bug.

 

[texasdobbs]

Besides just loving football because it's football.... the tradition of Texas from the songs, chants, game day experience and history are what make me a lover of the game...

 

[Capn Hook]

I grew up mostly in Texas, so there's that.

We were poor and no one had ever gone to college before me.  My dad never talked about football, so what little I learned as a kid was from talking to other kids.  I was born in 1940 so there was little football to be had unless you listened to the radio, or went to a game.

I became interested as a sophomore in HS (Lubbock HS to be exact) and in 1955 LHS had a pretty good team   Tech was never on my radar and it seemed to me that if a Texan was going to cheer for a college it damned well should be THE University of Texas.

I became a dyed-in-the-wool UT fan while in the AF and listening to the UT-OU game.

Luckily I was able to graduate from UT, although at 31, with honors (LOOK AT ME!!!).

 

[Shevis Irons]

Saw the thread title and was sure it would lead to pics of the Chaps Girls.

Kinda disappointed.

 

[streettopeschel]

it's what i grew up with. my dad played at SFA and was good enough to get drafted. i played since i was 8-years old. my first UT game was as a 10-year old. football was just always there. 

it's the state of Texas, by gawd.

 

[Sirhornsalot]

I had no UT grads in my family. It was an OU grad whom I attribute to my Texas loyalty. This was about 1968-69 or so.

I had a great aunt who was very close to my mother. They would visit often and as a young boy, I grew to enjoy those visits. She taught me about college football while we watched an OU game. She spent most of the game dissing Texas, even though OU wasn't playing Texas. That left an impression me. I thought it strange. Unfair. 

And then I watched Texas play OU with her. From that game-on, I was hooked. I defended Texas like it was the Alamo.

A few years later, she's sick in the hospital there in Norman, Ok where she lived. I'm in there watching TV while my mother visits with her. The door swings open and this used car salesman-looking guy walks in and gives her a hug and a huge stuffed OU horse thingy. They visit for a minute and then my aunt introduces him to me.

He holds his hand out and says "hello, I'm Coach Barry Switzer."

I've hated OU ever since.

 

[Etex Horn]

Why do I love football?  Because I grew up in Texas, attending a small high school.  What the hell else was there?  My best friends went out

for football, so I did too.  My friends were all tougher than me and were good varsity players.  I only started a few games my Senior year, I

was not a good football player.  But, sticking it out through my Senior year, lifting all those weights in the off season, instilled some toughness

in me, gave me confidence in myself.  Not quitting in the face of adversity made me a better person, helped me later in life. I can say I played

Texas High School football and I'm grateful for the experience and damn proud I played.  Texas high school football is the best!  While not

a good player, I got a piece of it and I'm glad for that.  

 

[echeese]

Saw the thread title and was sure it would lead to pics of the Chaps Girls.

Kinda disappointed.

It's a why do you love football not fapping thread. . . 



But just for you .. . . 

 

[J.B. TexasEx]

Saw the thread title and was sure it would lead to pics of the Chaps Girls.

Kinda disappointed.

 

[J.B. TexasEx]

— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November 7, 2011

 

[Juan]

From Southern Living Magazine

Which one of you has been mooing?

 

[J.B. TexasEx]

"UT fans 'moo' at A&M"???

Bullshit - aggie's date "baaahs" at him.  Cancel my subscription to Southern Living !  WTF...