#27 Wade Phillips, the current Houston Texans defensive coaching guru, played linebacker for the UH Cougars in their 1968 classic game against UT. James Street, the father of MLB’s Huston Street, played some QB for the Horns in that same game.
The death of Darrell K. Royal at 88 marks the passing of a college football and UT Longhorn icon, also stirring ancient memories that go way beyond the Austin camp of burnt orange believers. Check out Jerome Solomon’s column in this morning’s 11/08/12 Houston Chronicle and read all the gracious things that former UH Cougar Coach Bill Yeoman had to say about his peer among the coaching gods.
The match up between UH and UT in Austin on Saturday night, 9/21/68, turned out to be one of those games for the ages, pitting the veer offense Cougars of Bill Yeoman against the wishbone offense Longhorns of Darrell Royal. UH went to Austin that day on the heels of a 54-7 destruction of Tulane at the Astrodome a week earlier and UT was getting ready for their opening game of the 1968 season. UH was led by the powerful and fast Paul Gipson at running back; UT countered with the speedster exceptional fellow from Spring Branch, Chris Gilbert.
The Veer versus the Wishbone was on!
There was one other charging factor. – UH was entering their third year of probation for the crime of breaking recruitment rules in their signing of national star RB Warren McVea out from under the noses of all the hobnob bigger schools in 1965. The Cougars were extra-charged in 1968 to make every game against a big name school like UT count as their compensatory bowl game and they went to Austin full of confidence that they could beat Texas.
And so did we Cougar alums and fans. I was there with a large traveling entourage of people who caravanned northwest to Austin with no plans that went further than yelling our celebratory songs out the car windows at “Hollering Woman Creek” on the late night/early morning drive back to Houston.
What a game it was!
1st Quarter: 8:24 – Paul Gipson capped an 11-play UH drive with a 1-yard dive over the goal for a TD. (Leiweke PAT) UH 7 – UT 0.
1st Quarter: 7:16 – Three plays into their first possession, Chris Gilbert of UT broke away for a 57-yard TD run that led to the game being tied. (Layne PAT) UH 7 – UT 7.
(No further scoring occurred until the 3rd Quarter as the defenses hunkered down to control the game. Yes, it’s true. Back in 1968, both UH and UT were capable of playing exceptional defense.)
3rd Quarter: 8:05 – Chris Gilbert caps a 6-play drive with an 8-yard run to score a TD that gives UT the lead. (Layne PAT) UT 14 – UH 7.
3rd Quarter: 7:47 – Two plays later, Paul Gipson of the Cougars rips off a 66-yard run that again ties the game. (Leiweke PAT) UT 14 – UH 14.
3rd Quarter: 4:43 – Paul Gipson takes it in for a score from 5 yards out on the 5th play of the drive. Leiweke misses the PAT, but UH has regained the lead. UH 20 – UT 14.
4th Quarter: 14:21 – Ted Koy of UT takes it in from 4 yards out on the 6th play of the drive to tie the game, as Layne also misses the PAT attempt. UH 20 – UT 20.
4th Quarter: (very late – the phantom score that never counted. We had seats directly down this goal line and got to watch the whole thing up close and directly down the goal line.) With the ball perched only a breath way from the goal line on 4th down with about two minutes to play, as I remember, Paul Gipson takes a short turn and pushes into the goal line from the left side. His whole front torso and the ball are over the goal line plane before he is pushed back to earth short of the goal. The referee’s call? – Gipson did not get in. No UH score. The clock ticks quickly into disgruntled history as a tie. Remember, there was no provision for overtime in those days.
That play launched the classic joke:
Cougar Fan: “Hey, Ref! By how far did Gipson miss that last TD?”
UT-UH Game Ref: (He simply smiles and holds up the “Hook ‘Em, Horns” sign as his answer.)
FINAL SCORE: TEXAS LONGHORNS 20 – HOUSTON COUGARS 20.
And it didn’t even feel as good back then as a kiss from your sister!
Over the years, bittersweet has simply churned its way into a treasured memory. I’m just glad I was there, and I certainly don’t blame Darrell Royal for that final call. Darrell Royal scheduled UH at a time he could have hurt us more by avoiding the Cougars.
Darrell Royal was a great man – pure class – and his loss goes way beyond UT and college football. All of American Sports today mourns his departure.
RIP:DKR!
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