The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Harley Sewell dies at 80
12.19.2011 | Football, Bill Little Commentary
Dec. 19, 2011
Bill Little, Texas Media Relations
The death this weekend of former Longhorn great Harley Sewell, 80, brings to mind the story of the recruiting of one of Texas' all-time greatest football players. In the days before the sophisticated systems of recruiting that benefit today's football programs, great players were often discovered in out of the way places. But no one more so than Harley Sewell, who became one of the greatest linemen in college and pro football history.
The scene is somewhere in far north central Texas, on a hot summer day in the 1940s not too long after World War II. Phil Bolin, who had played at Texas and was a Longhorn fan, was bird-dogging talent for the UT coaching staff. He had heard of a player in the little town of St. Jo - population 900. And he was driving the county roads trying to locate him. He discovered him atop a telephone pole, working at a summer job as a lineman.
"Son," Bolin hollered up the pole to the big blond youngster, "How would you like to play football for the University of Texas?"
"Be fine," Harley Sewell called down the pole.
A few days later, coach Blair Cherry sent him a penny post card, and Sewell signed with Texas.
He arrived at Texas with just a pair of faded blue jeans, a couple of tee shirts and one slightly scuffed pair of work boots. A month into his stay, however, he was homesick. He was packing his old cardboard suitcase when then assistant coach J. T. King came into his room. Sewell would toss a pair of socks into the suitcase, and King would toss them out as he worked on convincing him to stay. In the end, it worked.
And Texas football, and the game of football in general, would be the better for it. Sewell would go on to become one of the greatest linemen ever at Texas. He was a two-time All Southwest Conference selection who earned All-America honors as a lineman in 1952, when he helped Texas to a 9-2 record and a victory over Tennessee in the 1953 Cotton Bowl, where he earned MVP honors. In that game, he led a UT defense that limited the Vols to six first downs and minus 14 yards rushing.
He was the first Longhorn to play in the post season all-star game, the Hula Bowl, and he was a first round selection (13th overall pick) by the Detroit Lions in the NFL draft.
Harley played for the Lions from 1953-62 before finishing his 11-year career with the L.A. Rams. A four-time pro bowl selection, Harley would forever be linked with fellow Texans Bobby Layne and Doak Walker at Detroit, where they earned NFL championship rings in 1953 and 1957. For over 30 years following his retirement from the field, he still worked in pro football, as a talent scout for the Rams. In that role, he became one of the most respected - and loved - men in the NFL scouting business.
Harley was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000, and several years ago they dedicated the football field in Saint Jo in his honor.
The story of Harley's odyssey from Saint Jo to Texas had one more twist. As the late J. T. King used to tell it, Harley was playing in the Oil Bowl in Wichita Falls the summer before he came to Texas. He was told to stop by a hotel for a meeting to discuss coming to Texas. Harley knocked on the door, and when King answered he said, "Are you the coach for the University of Texas?"
"I'm one of them," King replied.
And in disbelief Harley replied, "One of 'em? How many y'all got?"
What we've learned over the years is that Texas did have a lot of coaches, and a lot of great players. But when it was all said and done, there was only one Harley.
Visitation is scheduled Tuesday, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Arlington Funeral Home in Arlington. Funeral services will be at 2:00 p.m. Wednesday at the Arlington Funeral Home chapel, with interment following at the Mount Olivet Cemetery. Donations may be made to the Alzheimer's Association.
