The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Bill Little commentary: The quiet man
06.22.2013 | Football, Bill Little Commentary
When it came to describing Bill Wyman, Darrell Royal would call him the best center he ever coached.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and there is one photo of former Longhorn Bill Wyman that shows just that.
Shot in the bench area of a Texas football game in the season of 1973, the picture by the acclaimed sports photographer, the late Linda Kaye, shows the rugged face of an embattled center, his long hair dripping in sweat plastered across his forehead.
That will always be the lasting image of the man who was the lynchpin of the offensive line during part of one of the greatest eras of Texas Longhorns football.
Wyman, who died at 61 early this week due to complications of Parkinson's disease, was a three-year letterman who earned all-Southwest Conference honors in 1972 and 1973 and was a consensus all-American in 1973.
A freshman in 1970, Wyman was part of the last group of NCAA Division I players who were eligible to play only three seasons with the varsity, and he made the most of it. By the middle of his junior season, he had become one of the best centers in Texas Longhorn football history.
But while Wyman's presence was felt throughout his career, it was his tough, rugged leadership as a captain during his tumultuous senior season of 1973.
"He never said a lot," recalls teammate Jay Arnold. "He led by example. Coaches and players alike remember [him] as the best there was."
As the center in an offense which helped fullback Roosevelt Leaks earn all-American honors and a place in College Football's National Hall of Fame, Wyman was a part of an offensive line which carried the Wishbone offense into the middle years of its success. From the season of 1968 through Wyman's senior year of 1973, Texas won six Southwest Conference championships and went to a record six straight Cotton Bowl games. The 1972 team beat Alabama in the New Year's Day game of 1973, finishing the season with a 10-1 record and a No. 3 national ranking.
Wyman's senior season seemed headed for great things when the Longhorns were given a pre-season ranking of No. 1 in the country, but destiny had begun to play some really cruel tricks as early as the spring.
Royal's personal world was shattered in April when a car driven by his only daughter, Marian Royal Kazen, was struck by a shuttle bus. She died after spending 19 days in a coma. Veteran sports writers who had covered the UT team since Royal's first days at Texas quickly recognized a change in Royal's personality.
Whether or not that affected the Longhorns' season will never really be known, but from the first game of the year that September, things seemed headed in the wrong direction. The No. 1 ranked Longhorns opened the season in the Orange Bowl Stadium against Miami, and lost, 20-15. Texas never punted the football. The Longhorns fumbled eight times, and lost five of them -- including one at the Hurricanes' 30 yard line by a running back who was headed untouched for a sure touchdown.
The worst, however, was yet to come.
Just before the season had started, archrival Oklahoma had raided Royal's coaching staff with the hiring of Jim Helms, a former Longhorn running back who had just spent the last several years as a coach at Texas. The last minute hiring fueled the resentment at UT toward Sooner coach Barry Switzer, since Helms had been a part of all of the spring and fall preparations for the season.
Whether or not Helms' knowledge of Texas' plans made a difference quickly became a point of contention, particularly after Oklahoma hammered the Longhorns, 52-13, and Helms was presented the game ball in the Sooner dressing room after the contest.
What followed, however, is one of the untold stories of a remarkable turnaround -- and a lesson that would play itself out years later in another place and time. Texas was 2-2 as an angry Royal came into a team meeting the following Sunday.
Royal began by questioning the team's desire and commitment, but before he had gone far into the speech, Arnold, who would become an all-SWC defensive back that year, interrupted him.
"That's not right, coach," Arnold said from the back of the room. "They changed everything we had prepared for -- stuff they had done last year and this year. We played as hard as we could. We were going full-speed to the wrong places."
The uneasy silence in the room was broken when defensive guru Mike Campbell spoke up. The 52 points OU had scored were by far the most ever against a Campbell-coached Texas defense.
"He's right, Darrell," he said. "They seemed to know everything we were doing before we did it."
The following week, Royal called his team together.
"I need to apologize," he said. "It is pretty obvious to me that none of us are having any fun, and I want to change that. I want to have fun, I want my coaches to have fun, and I want you guys to have fun. So let's change things."
The next week, Texas went to Fayetteville and clobbered a good Arkansas team, 34-6. They went on to win the rest of their regular season games. With Wyman leading the way, Roosevelt Leaks would be named all-American and finish third in the Heisman Trophy voting. In a 42-14 victory over SMU, Leaks would set a then Texas and Southwest Conference record, rushing for 342 yards.
Arnold, who went on to decline a chance to play pro football and became a very successful lawyer in his hometown of Liberty, remembers another important change that came after the Oklahoma game.
"We were part of the 'old school' when it came to physical and strength training," he said. "We would lift and condition in the spring and off-season, but put the weights away during the season. Oklahoma did it differently. They were working on weights all year long. We changed after that game, and never looked back. We were in an era of enlightened transition as far as that was concerned."
Royal's ability to adjust and learn from mistakes and become an innovator had become legendary, and Arnold's memories of the meeting in the locker room and the weight training reflects that. But no more so than an event which happened more than 25 years later.
It is a familiar story that Mack Brown uses often; how he was so frustrated with his team after a loss to Oklahoma that he told Royal, "Coach, my team quit."
"No," Darrell said, almost echoing the words of Arnold so many years before. "Teams don't quit. Some players may have given up, and it may look like that. But some of your guys may have gone out and played the best games of their careers."
Mack tells that story to laud all-American and all-Pro Casey Hampton, who did exactly what Royal described in the game.
When it came to describing Bill Wyman, Royal would call him the best center he ever coached, and he forever linked Wyman and his running buddy Leaks after Roosevelt's record-setting day against SMU.
"Wyman was more consistent out there Saturday than any player we had. Over a career, I don't think we've had any player who has been more consistent that Wyman. He and Leaks go together like ham and eggs," Royal said.
Following his playing career, the 6-2, 238-pound Wyman was chosen to play in both the Coaches' All-America game and the Senior Bowl. He was picked in the sixth round of the NFL draft by the New York Jets, but chose instead to return to his native Houston area roots and entered the construction business.
He battled cancer and won during the 1990s, but he couldn't defeat the ravages of Parkinson's.
Centers and other offensive linemen are hard to quantify when it comes to excellence. Running backs, receivers, quarterbacks -- and all kickers and defensive players -- have some statistics that can be pointed to.
Bill Wyman's legacy will be left as that of John Wayne in the movie "The Quiet Man." Folks never fooled with him. He was a tough, tough football player, but most of all he was a good man and a good friend.
And if that is how you're remembered, that's a pretty good deal.
