The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Catching up with Dwight Jefferson
09.18.2008 | Football
Sept. 18, 2008
What brings you to practice today? Well, we were in town on business, and in addition to that, with Hurricane Ike, since I'm from Houston, we don't have any power, so I decided to extend our stay. I finished with my work yesterday, and I've got my son, Max, with me, so we decided to come on out and check out practice. It's rare that you get down on the field, so we wanted to do that.
When was the last time you got to see a Texas practice? It's been a few years. I was in town on business probably five or six years ago when they first opened up the practice facility on Red River, so it's been a while.
With everything you've done, including being a judge and attorney, where does your career stand now? I've got my own practice now. I do quite a bit of arbitration and mediation, which kind of goes along with my experience as a judge. I also handle cases, some environmental cases and different things like that.
Do you get to follow the team regularly? Yes, in fact we have tickets in section 29, so we make it a point to come up for most of the home games.
As someone who played in this stadium in the 1970s and seeing it now, what are your thoughts on its progression? First of all, there's a lot more security here than there was in the 70s (laughing). Almost anyone would walk in or jog around the track while practice was going on. But the program really has advanced a lot. As I look around, it's really amazing the transformation that's occurred over the past few years. We really support the program and want it to do well - once a Longhorn, always a Longhorn.
And looking up at the retired numbers, Earl Campbell was one of your teammates. What are your best memories of when you played? Yes, we rode No. 20 a long way (laughing). My best memory was the 1977 year when we had an undefeated regular season. Earl won the Heisman, and it was just a storybook year. It wasn't easy. We had some close games we had to pull out in the end, but the team was very close, and we really stuck together. It was just a great experience.
How did it make you feel to see the 2005 team win the National Championship? Did you feel like you were a part of that? I was there for the game, number one. For the guys of the '77 team, it was really special, because we got so close, but couldn't quite accomplish it. For the '05 team to accomplish it, it was a great experience.
But for you, you went out on a high note with a win over Maryland in the Sun Bowl in 1978: Right, we went out on a high note against Maryland. I was telling some friends that the only trophy I ever won in football was in my last game there in the Sun Bowl, where I was the outstanding lineman of the game. So, I'll always have fond memories of El Paso.
Did you have any special feeling watching the team play there last week? Yeah, there really were great memories from out there. It was a great bowl experience, the people in El Paso, especially the Texas Exes and the people with the Sun Bowl, were really fantastic. It really is on of the best bowls in the country.
What have been your thoughts as you've watched the program develop under Mack Brown? All you have to do is look at this stadium and the National Championship trophy, and recognize that when he was selected as the head coach, he has really fulfilled every expectation that the selection committee and The University could have expected. He's run a winning program, but in addition to that, he has graduated his players and brought in quality individuals. On the whole, he's done an outstanding job.
