The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Bill Little commentary: CWS conjures memories of dual-sport Longhorns
06.17.2003 | Football
Perhaps it was the conversation with Ted Koy, of the legendary Koy family, that brought back the memories. But with the Longhorn baseball team playing in the College World Series and the start of football season just an incredible month and a half away, the mere mention of Ted's dad, Ernie, stirred recollections of two-sport Longhorn greats.
Ernie Koy is in his 90s now, but in the 1930s he was a super star in both football and baseball at Texas. He played college football with Harrison Stafford, and professional baseball with Babe Ruth. Since the NFL was a weak underling to Major League Baseball in the 1930s and 1940s, Koy chose the baseball route after college.
So, too, had it been for Bibb Falk, who was an all-Southwest Conference football player, and earned his money and made his fame in baseball. "The Big Leaguer, as he would become known, was a college star in the time just prior to 1920.
Falk walked his entire life with a Texas swagger, perhaps best shown in a dressing room talk from his baseball coach, Billy Disch, after he had led the team to victory.
"Men," Disch is reported to have said. "The Lord was with us today." To which, from the back of the room, Falk replied, "Yeah, but ole Falk took over in the ninth."
Falk went to professional baseball, joining the Chicago White Sox in the summer of 1920, and when the infamous "Black Sox Scandal" broke, revealing that some of the Sox players had taken money to throw the 1919 World Series, Falk replaced the banned Shoeless Joe Jackson in left field.
Twenty-five years later, Falk was the Texas coach when Bobby Layne earned his college fame as a football quarterback and baseball pitcher. Layne, who went on to become a Hall of Famer in the NFL, was so good as a college pitcher that he never lost a SWC game in his four years at Texas.
For years, the NCAA prohibited players from playing as a professional in one sport and as an amateur collegian in another, and that rule robbed Darrell Royal of two of his budding star running backs in the early part of his football career.
In those days, when freshmen were not eligible for the varsity, those who wanted a college education would come to school, and if they played well in their sophomore season, pro scouts would try to sign them.
Max Alvis and Bart Shirley both signed professional baseball contracts after one year of playing for Falk and football for Royal in the late 1950s.
The same happened for Garry Moore, a defensive back in the 1960s, but there were a couple of famous Longhorns who played both baseball and football during the latter part of the same decade.
Bill Bradley was on the baseball team for awhile during his tenure, and, of course, James Street became an all-American pitcher and the winningest quarterback in school history during his time in the late 1960s.
Keith Moreland, who now works with the Longhorn Sports Network as a commentator, was a starting safety on the football team in 1973, but wound up giving up football for baseball because he saw a brighter future with the sport with the bat and the ball.
Since Moreland, there have been several football players who helped the baseball team. Wide receiver Johnny Walker played on the baseball team in the late 1980s, and signed a professional contract prior to his senior year. He thus became the first to take advantage of the changed NCAA rule which allowed a player to keep his eligibility in one sport and play professionally in another.
Quarterbacks Shea Morenz and Peter Gardere also lettered in baseball, but with the coming of Ricky Williams, a new trend began.
Williams, and currently Cedric Benson, signed a professional baseball contract out of high school, and played football as well.
Looking at the "might have beens" in both sports, perhaps the highest profile is Adam Dunn, who came to Texas as a football quarterback, and would have been eligible to play baseball as well had he not decided to forego his football career in favor of a multi-million dollar contract which made him a Cincinnati Red, and hence one of the top players in baseball.
Dunn's signing left the quarterback position thin, and thus young Chris Simms had to play as a freshman, rather than having the advantage of a red-shirt year.
Mack Brown makes it clear to recruits that he is open to the idea of a player competing in two sports, but the time constraints make it really hard. This year in the Big 12, only Oklahoma State quarterback Josh Fields (who started at third base for the Cowboys) played a significant role as a football and baseball star.
Longhorn redshirt freshman linebacker Brian Robison did a terrific job of balancing a two-sport load by earning All-Big 12 honors in the discus while competing for playing time at strongside linebacker.
Brown, who is tremendously supportive of all of the UT programs, knows that the changing times of the games makes it harder and harder for a player to do multiple sports. But if a young man is committed, he will have his chance.
And if he is as good as Falk, Koy, Layne, Street, Moreland and the rest, he can make it happen.
