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where is the passion for the game greater at the grassroots level.

There is big money in the state and lots of it, which means there are more big donors in Texas than most anywhere. The weather is as conducive for playing football as it is anywhere.

However, most Texas alumni remember two things about their football history. One, the Royal era: he coached 19 years, won 167 games, 11 Southwest Conference titles and three national championships. The other was Georgia’s defeat of the Longhorns, 10-9, in the 1984 Cotton Bowl.

Texas partisans have been longing for a return of a Royal-like era since he retired. The closest they came was when Mack Brown coached Texas to the national championship in 2005 and lost to Alabama in 2009 in the old BSC championship game. That was a highly successful era, but for most Texas fans it was not the same as Royal winning three national titles and dominating the conference in his era.

We remember Royal for many things in his career, mostly his affection for country music. Off the field, he cavorted with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and the Gatlin brothers. He and his wife, Edith, vacationed with Charley Pride and his wife, Rozene. Royal played golf with Masters champion, Ben Crenshaw, and while he was never the life of the party, he was the center of attention in most any group.

That was because of his story telling and downhome humor. He was the quintessential raconteur. Never verbose, but forever compelling and entertaining.

I never had a conversation with him that he did not invoke humor with every topic. He came from a small-town environment in Hollis, Okla., and knew about austerity and hard times. He surely was the beneficiary of a brush of humility at birth. That trait never left him. For example, he addressed all his coaches and superiors with, “Mr.” He always referred to Dana X. Bible, who hired him at Texas, as “Mr. Bible.”

A story I will always appreciate has to do with his relationship with Bud Wilkinson, the ultra-successful coach for whom Royal played at Oklahoma.

When Royal became the Texas coach and had to play in the “Red River Shootout” in Dallas every year, it was tough on him competing against his old coach.

When his team beat Oklahoma the first time, he told a friend, “It just didn’t seem right to beat Mr. Wilkinson.”