LONGHORN ROYALTY LEGENDARY COACH DARRELL ROYAL AGAIN DOES HIS PART FOR THE TEXAS PROGRAM.

Byline: Ramona Shelburne  Staff Writer

AUSTIN, Texas - He arrived at 8:45 a.m., almost an hour early for his interview with ESPN and Texas football coach Mack Brown, as part of the preview for Texas' national championship game against USC in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 4.

Outside, in the trophy room, which is filled with the adornments of his career, three more television crews were setting up. In a few hours, 20 or so print reporters would crowd around him. By the end of the day, he'd done close to six hours of interviews.

It has been a long time since Darrell Royal has been in the spotlight like this. The legendary Texas coach retired after the 1976 season with three national titles, setting the benchmark for success at one of college football's most storied programs.

In retirement, Royal, 83, has become one of the most popular public figures in the state, but largely faded into the background of the Texas football program. He stayed on as athletic director for a while, then became a consultant, but the coaches who succeeded him wanted to make the program their own.

Brown had a different idea. When he took over as head coach in 1997, one of his first acts was to bring Royal back into the fold and make him more visible. He asked him questions, invited him to practice and made him a standing offer of a seat on the plane for any road trip.

``He's kind of like the governor emeritus of Texas,'' Brown said of Royal. ``For me, probably the No. 1 reason I came to Texas was Coach Royal. When I got the job, I asked him to help me. ... He's the most inexpensive consultant that's won three national championships you could ever have.''

Or, in ``Royalism'' parlance: ``You've gotta dance with the one who brung ya.''

For Texas fans, Darrell Royal is that man.

When he took over the program in 1957 at the age of 32, Texas hadn't had a winning season in three years. The Longhorns had gone 1-9 in 1956.

Texas went 6-4-1 his first year, 7-3 his second and 9-2 his third, ending the 1959 season ranked fourth in both the Associated Press and the United Press International polls. From 1968 through 1970, the Longhorns won 30 straight games. Texas won the national title in 1963 and back-to-back titles in 1969-70.

In his 20 years at the school, Royal never had a losing season.

``He's the one human being I know that deserved every honor he's ever got,'' said Joe Jamail, a well-respected lawyer from Houston, one of Royal's best friends, and a major benefactor to the Texas athletic program.

``Ever since Mack came he's included Coach in everything. Before then, he was not included. But Darrell is not the kind of guy that will insinuate himself in someone else's affairs, he has to be asked.

``Since (Royal) came, the standard has been set so high, it's been very difficult if not impossible to live up to that. That's why there were so many coaches at Texas.''

David McWilliams played for Royal from 1961-63 and coached at Texas from 1987-91. After he resigned as head coach, McWilliams stayed on in an administrative role in the athletic department, and now runs the ``T'' Association, the organization for Texas letterwinners.

He and Royal are close friends, often attending ``T'' Association functions together. Earlier this year, they traveled together to Texas' game at Ohio State.

``You wouldn't have believed it,'' McWilliams said. ``We were having breakfast in the team hotel and all these people came up to him. He must've signed 50 autographs and this was in Ohio''

``When you get to the end zone, act like you've been there before,'' - Darrell Royal.

It strikes some as ironic, that an Oklahoman - and an All-American football player at the University of Oklahoma at that - would become one of the most beloved men in Texas.

Royal never had a problem with it.

He decided he wanted to become a college football coach while playing for Bud Wilkinson at Oklahoma and was willing to do what it took to make that happen. Royal bounced around from one assistant coaching job to another throughout his 20s before landing head coaching jobs at Mississippi State and Washington.

When the Texas job came open in 1957, Royal wasn't even on the long list. But he became a candidate when two of the candidates who interviewed for the position mentioned him as an up-and-coming young coach.

``My wife and I had just gone to bed when I got the call,'' Royal recalled. ``I turned to her and said, 'This is the one we've been waiting for.' ''

Asked whether he had a problem coaching for the school that had been his hated rival in college, Royal quipped: ``In the coaching profession ... once you accept a job at a place to coach, you're waving that flag. That's where you are. It was no trouble at all for me to come to Texas.

``Put it this way ... a lot of people that know my name now, wouldn't even know me if I hadn't come to Texas. So what did Texas do for me? Everything.''

Brown had the same issue when he was hired before the 1997 season. Brown was born in Tennessee, played football at Florida State and made his name as a coach in North Carolina. He even had ties to Oklahoma, having served as offensive coordinator in 1984.

Royal put out the welcome mat.

During Brown's first spring in Austin, Royal stopped by his office and invited him out.

``Before I know it, we're driving out to Willie Nelson's house to go listen to some country music,'' Brown said. ``Coach Royal and Willie are good friends. And I'm thinking, I don't know how this job is going to turn out, but this is pretty cool. I'm sitting here with Darrell Royal, at Willie Nelson's house, and listening to country music.''

``The sun don't shine on the same ol' dog's behind every day,'' - Darrell Royal.

Royal left Texas after his only non-winning season. The Longhorns went 5-5-1 in 1976 and Royal had tragically just lost two of his children in car accidents.

He made the announcement after Texas beat Arkansas 29-12 in the final game of the season. The timing seemed appropriate. Texas had beaten Arkansas seven years earlier in what was called the ``Game of the Century'' to win the national title. That game was the last time Texas had played in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 game for the national title until this season. President Richard Nixon attended that game.

``I wanted to go out before people wanted me to,'' Royal said. ``I had all the coaching I wanted.''

He was only 52 at the time, two years younger than Brown is now. He'd won three national titles, 11 Southwest Conference titles and coached the likes of Earl Campbell, James Street, Jim Bertelson and Tommy Nobis. He was the first football coach in the country to hire an academic adviser. He invented the ``wishbone'' offense.

Some people thought he'd get bored. Not McWilliams.

Royal played a lot of golf in retirement. His list of golfing buddies reads like a who's who in the state of Texas.

Royal invited Brown to play with him shortly after he was hired in 1997.

``He just said, 'Don't beat me, or you'll be fired,' '' Brown recalled. ``But I wasn't going to beat him. He was shooting his age at 79. He was good.''

That's about as far as Royal has ever gone in terms of threatening Brown. Of all the things Brown did when he took over the program eight seasons ago, he says that bringing Royal back into the family has been the thing he's most grateful for.

Royal feels the same way.

Ramona Shelburne, [phone]

ramona.shelburne(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

(color) Former Longhorns coach Darrell Royal, left, visits with current coach Mack Brown, right, and actor Matthew McConaughy, a Texas fan, during practice.

University of Texas

Box:

DARRELL ROYAL