Catching up with: Tom Campbell

May 31, 2012

Former Texas DB Tom Campbell lettered at Texas in 1968 and 1969. A walk-on as a freshman, Campbell was a key player in the National Championship season of 1969 and was selected as a consensus All-SWC defensive back that year. As a junior in the 1969 Cotton Bowl, Campbell helped Texas defeat Tennessee 36-13. In that game, Campbell had two tackles (one solo), two interceptions and four passes broken up. For his efforts, Campbell was named the game's Oustanding Defensive Player. The next year's Cotton Bowl saw Campbell soar to even greater heights as the Longhorns defeated Notre Dame 21-17 with Campbell intercepting Irish quarterback Joe Theismann with 38 seconds to play in the game to seal the victory and college football's national championship for Texas. Campbell posted 6 tackles (4 solo) and the aforementioned interception in the game. This came on the heels of Campbell's game saving interception against Arkansas in the "Big Shootout" that preserved a 15-14 victory for the Longhorns to give them the SWC title and sent them to the 1970 Cotton Bowl. Campbell finished his career with 13 interceptions. Campbell's father was long-time Texas defensive assistant Mike Campbell and Tom's twin Mike and his younger brother Rusty also played for the Longhorns. Campbell is in the Longhorn Hall of Honor and was inducted into the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame on April 19, 2012. He spoke to MB-TF.com at this year's Letterman's Weekend golf outing.

How did it feel to play football at UT with your brother, Mike Campbell?
What was weird was coming here and playing football for my father [former Texas assistant defensive coach Mike Campbell]. It wasn't that difficult because my dad had a reputation, but we had lived with him for 18 years so there wasn't anything that he ever said or did that surprised Mike or I. Mike is my twin brother. Where it became a big deal was when one day - I played on the left side of the defense and [Mike] was on the right - when I was junior, I got promoted up to first team as a rover back because the guy in front of me got injured. Honestly, Mike was probably a better player at the position, but Mike played on the right side and my father did not believe in rotating or switching back and forth. It is different. It was like you had to be ambidextrous. It was not easy to be on the left side and go to the right side. I became the starter, but I always intuitively knew that he was a better football player. Late in the season of my junior year of 1968, the reason it happened was we were getting ready to play TCU who had a great big tight end. I mean he was 6-4', 240 pounds, and he was an animal. If he comes to my side, I was going to have to play over him. Dad knew that I might be able to beat a 210 or 220 pound tight end, but this guy was going to kill me. In fact, I knew he was going to kill me. On practice that Monday afternoon before playing TCU, he said, "Men, we are going to do something different this week. Tom wherever that tight end goes you are going to go to the other side." I thought this man was a genius. What it did was now I started going from left-to-right, left-to right, left-to-right and it was odd. It took a long time for me to get comfortable being on the right side of the defensive formation. But by time the Cotton Bowl rolled around, I was very comfortable with it, and I had a good game and got Most Valuable Defensive player. I just had a good overall game with tackles, interceptions and knocking passes down. They came to the conclusion that maybe I could play defensive back. So that was how I got moved in the spring. They came to me and said, "We lost a lot of defensive backs. [Bill] Bradley is graduated, Ronnie Ehrig graduated and a couple of other guys are gone and we need defensive backs." So I said, "Yes, that sounds like a challenge I would like to try."

You sealed the wins at Arkansas in 1969 and in the Cotton Bowl that same season with timely interceptions. Why do you think you were able to come up with those?
I do attribute it mostly to good coaching and our scheme. You had to have talent. If you didn't have talent, then it didn't matter how much the coach liked your effort. So I knew by late in my senior year that I was a good defensive back. The other teams, I felt like, thought I was the weak link. I really believe, even though no one has ever said it to me, that when Arkansas needed a big pass at a critical situation they threw it at me. Fortunately, I was in the right place. Also fortunately my brother Mike had Chuck Dicus, an All-American receiver, covered that play. Because he was covered, [the quarterback] went to his secondary receiver while I had my guy covered. [former Arkansas QB Bill] Montgomery had to throw it though because he was getting ready to go down. So everyone had made their play. I was very fortunate and maybe they picked on me because they thought I was the best place to go to complete a pass. But they were wrong.

How great of an honor is it to be inducted into the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame?
The Cotton Bowl, this very day, is to me the best bowl ever and it was back then. When we were playing, it was the number one bowl. So I grew up with the Cotton Bowl being a major, major bowl with Texas playing in '63 for the National Championship. I can't even imagine a better honor than to be inducted into the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame. That is not anything that I ever thought of.

How special were those Texas teams in the late 1960s?
Everything was clicking. We had a unique offense, but we had good talent. I think that no matter what offense we would have been running, we would have been in the same position. They won the national championship in 1970, but if you work backward, in '69 we won the national championship and in '68 we ended up number three in the country. We didn't have a good year in '66 and '67, maybe even '65. Then you start '64 and we had a chance to win the national championship. In '63 we did win the national championship. In '62, TCU beats us in a weird game that cost us the national championship and in '61 we had a shot at the national championship. [Former Head] Coach [Darrell] Royal's teams owned the '60s, and the final game was always in the Cotton Bowl.

How nice is it to come back to events like Letterman's Weekend and see the Longhorn family together?
I look forward to it. Heck, tomorrow I will be looking forward to next year. We have reunions, we get together and I see guys during the year, but this is a special deal to see guys that you don't see the rest of the year. Everyone looks forward to it.

You said that you think your brother was a better football player than you. Does he think he is the better football player?
He does.

Was there any jealousy issues between you guys?
No. I have to tell you I was glad to be offered the opportunity to go to defensive back in '69, because I was going to be competing with him for that [linebacker] job. I was first team and he was second team, but I knew that he could support the run a lot better than I could. He was a little bit bigger and a little bit stronger. He wasn't quite as fast as I was, so it just depended on the situation. I could defend the pass better than he could, but he could defend the run better than I could. I thought there was a reasonably good chance he was going to beat me out. I was glad to get that opportunity to go to defensive back.

How special of a coach was your father, Mike Campbell?
He really was a defensive genius. He wasn't just a defensive genius, he just had a knack. He could have coached offense. There were a lot of times that Coach Royal would call him and say, "What play do you think we ought to run here?" Daddy paid attention and saw what the other team's defense was doing, and he knew our offense. So he would see that there was a defensive shortcoming and go to Darrell and say you need to run such and such play. The guy was a genius all around. In terms of coaching the fundamentals and the techniques, he just insisted on good fundamentals whether it was tackling, staying low or keeping blockers off of you. He insisted on that, and that is what made us as good as we were defensively. He was a great football coach.

What did it mean to him to coach his sons at such a high level?
I don't know. He never told us. I intercepted the pass against Arkansas and we won the national championship, but he never said anything to me after that. Even against Oklahoma in a nationally televised game, I intercepted a pass at the end of the game and he didn't say anything. The year before against Tennessee in the Cotton Bowl, I got Most Valuable Defensive Player and he never said anything to me. In his mind, I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. It never bothered me. Then at Notre Dame, I intercepted the pass and we won the football game with a minute to go or less. It wasn't that I thought he was going to come up and say anything to me, but all of a sudden we are outside the dressing room and he calls me over. I am wondering if he is going to tell me where the car keys are or something. He says, 'Tom, I don't know what you are going to do with the rest of your life, but it ought to be on television." That was it. That was him. That was classic him.

Do you think him not making a big deal about your football accomplishments was more of his personality or not wanting to show favoritism towards his sons?
I think it was his personality. He just felt like we were simply doing our job. By me intercepting that pass, that was what I was there for.

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