The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
For Randy McEachern, dreams really did come true
10.01.2007 | Texas Athletics
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Randy McEachern -- clairvoyant.
Or so it seemed on an October morning in Dallas 30 years ago when the third-string Texas quarterback shared a dream he'd had the night before when he met with teammates at breakfast.
"I told them I'd had a dream that I was going to play in the game," McEachern said, laughing, referring to the annual battle with the University of Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl.
"Honestly," he continued, "I told them I dreamed I was going to play."
Given McEachern's place at quarterback on the UT depth chart that scenario seemed a little far-fetched even for Walter Mitty. Lest we forget, McEachern wasn't even in the Texas media guide that season.
But then...
In startling succession during the opening quarter of the game on Oct. 8, 1977, UT quarterbacks Mark McBath and John Aune were sidelined with injuries.
Enter No. 6 and a dream fulfilled.
McEachern laughs as he recalls that October day three decades ago. He always is asked about it at this time of year. Such, especially will be the case this season since it is the 30th anniversary of the game.
McEachern enjoys talking about that day. Well, there is one thing he doesn't like about looking back.
"I can't believe it has been 30 years," he said, with mock horror. "It doesn't seem as though it has been 30 years, but when you look at some of us, it definitely looks as though it has been 30 years."
When the 1977 season began, McEachern noted that he was not No. 3 on the depth chart, but, rather, No. 4.
"Ted Constanzo of San Antonio Churchill was No. 3," McEachern said. "He tore up his knee before the season began, so I moved up to No. 3. I played a little bit in each of the first three games that season because we blew out Boston College (44-0), Virginia (68-0) and Rice (72-15). I got into the games and handed off. It was my senior year in school, but my redshirt junior season in football."
McEachern's parents did not come to Dallas for the game, remaining in Houston to listen to it on the radio. Oklahoma was on probation, so the game could not be televised.
"There was no reason for them to think that I was going to play, so I understood them not coming," McEachern said. The Sooners, who had beaten Ohio State the week before, were No. 2 in the country coming into Dallas, while the Longhorns stood at No. 5.
And McEachern stood on the sideline as the game began.
Then, in the first quarter, McBath suffered a broken ankle and Aune injured his knee.
"Mark was hurt in the second series," McEachern recalled. "He was carted off the field. Jon came in and on a play his knee buckled. No one knew then just how serious the injury was."
So McEachern trotted onto the field, as his dream became reality.
"The story has been told that Earl (Campbell) came halfway to the sideline to meet me as I walked out," McEachern said. "That sounds good, but it isn't correct. It's legend.
"Actually, it was George James who came over and met me. Oh, Earl, did speak when I got into the huddle. He said, 'Let's go, little man.'"
And go he did, leading the Horns on an 80-yard drive before intermission, giving Texas a 10-3 edge at the half.
"I had worked hard for that moment," McEachern said. "I prepared each week and was prepared mentally as I stood on the sideline. What's hard was that I didn't get many reps with the first team in practice, of course."
McEachern was struck by what Coach Fred Akers said to the team at halftime.
"Fred talked about accountability," the QB remembered. "He talked about how each of us were accountable for what we did on the field."
What McEachern did on that day was guide Texas to a 13-6 upset, with Campbell scoring the game's only touchdown on a 24-yard run. Campbell finished with 124 yards on 23 carries. Russell Erxleben had field goals of 58 and 64 yards, which no doubt would have been the story of the day had it not been for McEachern.
It was a script not even Hollywood would have believed.
The victory against the Sooners ended six years of frustration for UT against their rivals from across the Red River.
Asked if the Sooners did any "talking" during the game, McEachern laughed.
"I remember George Cumby (OU linebacker who later played with the Green Bay Packers) saying a few things," he said. "What they did do was to take Earl out of the option. So, I ran for two yards on 14 carries, which I think is about 2.5 inches per carry."
McEachern was hurt in the Houston game Nov. 5 and Ricky Churchman guided the Horns the following week against TCU. Texas was unbeaten through the regular season, but then lost to Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl Classic.
McEachern held on to his starting job in 1978 when UT finished 9-3, blanking Maryland, 42-0, in the Sun Bowl. McEachern said he's never had something like that again, a dream being fulfilled in just that way.
"My mom put together a collage of the game and called it 'Randy's Dream,'" he said.
There will be another third-string quarterback named McEachern at this year's Texas-OU game as Randy's son, Hays, will be on the Sooners' sidelines.
McEachern said in recent years he finally was able to get a tape of the game, which he had never seen.
"While it wasn't shown nationally, it was on in Austin," he explained. "One day someone brought us the tape; it was Beta. My wife, Jenna (a former Longhorns cheerleader) had CDs made and gave them to my parents and me for Christmas two years ago.
"It was really something watching it for the first time. When you are there, everything happens so fast and there is no rewind button."
And while winning the game that day was an obvious cause for joy, McEachern said what he learned that day was, in a sense, even more gratifying.
"Patience -- that was a life lesson that day," he said. "Today, everybody wants everything right now. High school players want to be the starter and if they don't get to be, they leave. Patience -- it's hard to wait.
"But as Coach (Darrell) Royal used to say, 'Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.'
"You always need to be ready because you never know when your opportunity will come."
And when your dream will come true.