USD Football 1995

AFTER 81 SEASONS AND A TEXAS-SIZED STABLE of MEMORIES, THE awe IS CLOSING THE BARN DOORS FOR GOOD. Sammy Baugh, throwing every- thing but the yard lines at the opposition. Nobodyin the land could deliver a football or a one-liner like Sammy, a West Texas lad who once turned down a national interview with three words that required no further explanation: "It's roundup time." T he real SWC was Grant Teaff's 1974 Miracle on the Brazos, hard-jawedBobby Layne at Texas, rubbery Jim Swink at TCU, Lance Alworth and Light Horse Harry Jones in the Ozarks, the Wishbone in CONTINUED BY STEVE PATE

''D oyle Traylor, the man under ... takes the ball, and ... but ton! button! who's got the button? And it's Henry Christopher! Falling on the ball at the Mustang 23!" That's Kern Tips, describing a fumb le o n your Humble Radio Network, circa I957. Tips verily sang play-by-play, his voice smooth as a vanilla shake at the local drug store, on ly better. And that's the way the South- west Conference should be remembered. T he way it was. Exciting. Superior. This 1995 season lowers the curtain on the old conference. Four teams-Baylor, Texas, Texas A&Mand Texas Tech- have merged withthe Big Eight, which will become the Big 12. Three others--Rice, SMU and TCU-will settle into the West- ern Athletic Conference. Yet another, Houston has chosen the newly formed Conference USA. Since Arkansas' depar- ture in 1991, teams have been branching offlike tributaries, each seeking higher ground. Talk of secession, which once seemed shocking, became the norm, even understandable. The most recent genera- tion of Texas residents may onlyremember a league tangled up in tl1e black web spun by NCAA probation, which prompted an out-of-state exo- dus of high school talent. But it's important to remem-

gletary,John David Crow and Earl Campbell, Darrell Royal and Frank Broyles. The real SWC was Slingin'

ber what the SWC really was. The real SWC was Little Davey O'Brien and Doak Walker, Tommy Nobis and Mike Sin-

"It's kind of like apair of pants you really like. You keep wearing 'em and wearing 'em and wearing 'em, andpretty soon they just wear out. That's kind ofwhat happened to the Southwest Conference." DARRELL ROYAL, FORMER HEAD COACH, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS

THE TEXAS LONGHORN. O N E O F THE S OUTHWEST C ONFERENCE'S MOST

SAM C . PIERSON JR.