The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Longhorn Football legend passes away
12.16.2014 | Football
Johnny Treadwell was a consensus All-American in 1962, inducted into the UT Men’s Hall of Honor in 1985
The Longhorn family lost one of its all-time greats with the passing of Johnny Treadwell.
An All-America offensive guard and linebacker who played on coach Darrell K Royal's teams of the early 1960s, Treadwell died Sunday of natural causes according to the Austin American-Statesman.
Treadwell, who lettered from 1960-62, was not only a standout on the field, but also off it.
In addition to being a consensus All-American in 1962 when the Longhorns won the Southwest Conference title with a 9-1-1 record, he was a two-time Academic All-American.
A native of Austin, Treadwell was an All-SWC choice in 1962 and played in the 1963 Hula Bowl. He was inducted in the Longhorn Men's Hall of Honor in 1985.
Below is an excerpt from the book, 'What It Means to Be a Longhorn,' focusing on Treadwell
It was the spring of 1959 and Darrell Royal's staff was in its third year at The University of Texas. The man responsible for recruiting central Texas was Royal's top defensive aide, Mike Campbell. As Campbell was scouring the area for prospects, a high school coach told Campbell that the best prospect in the area was a linebacker at Austin High School who had missed six games of his senior season with a broken leg.
So when Campbell found some film of the player and decided he could play at Texas, he sought him out and had to not only convince him to come to Texas, he had to convince him that he was good enough to play at Texas.
And when he did decide to come, it turned out to be one of the best recruiting jobs Campbell ever did, and one of the best unions of the Darrell Royal era. That young man, you see, was a muscular linebacker named Johnny Treadwell.
By the time he left Texas after the 1962 season, Johnny Treadwell had led Longhorn teams to countless victories, and had earned almost every national and regional honor for which he was eligible.
But it wasn't just the athletic ability that made Treadwell so special…it was an attitude. He was a nice guy who played really, really tough. In the famed 7-3 victory over Arkansas in 1962 when the Razorbacks were leading 3-0 and sitting on the Texas goal line about to go ahead, 10-0, Treadwell gathered his defensive teammates around him in the end zone and said: "Now we got 'em where we want 'em." That was just before he and Pat Culpepper caused a fumble which Joe Dixon recovered to save the Longhorns' chance for victory.
His most determined statement of that 1962 season—which Texas finished at 9-1-1—came just before Texas played TCU in Fort Worth. The season before, TCU had knocked Texas out of a probable National Championship with a 6-0 upset win in Austin.
At a pep rally on the Thursday before the game Treadwell's senior year, Johnny was one of the speakers. "We're not going to just beat TCU," he said to the hushed crowd, "we're going to punish TCU."
The Frogs that year had hopes of another win—one that would have possibly put them in a tie for the Southwest Conference lead. But Treadwell and his defensive cohorts limited them to just 71 total yards of offense, the least allowed by a Texas team in over 10 years. TCU crossed midfield just once, and never threatened the Texas goal as the Longhorns won, 14-0.
Johnny Treadwell was the first wearer of the number 60 which Tommy Nobis would later make famous for linebackers, and until recent years when his health didn't allow it, he regularly took an afternoon or so off from his veterinary work to attend a Longhorn practice.
And however hard the Longhorns were working, Johnny would want them to work harder. It was part of his fiber, and part of what made him who he was—a legend.
