The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Former Longhorn star back Jerry Cook dies at 78
07.19.2018 | Football
Cook lettered for the Longhorns from 1960-62 and helped UT to two SWC Championships.
by Bill Little
If, as Darrell Royal often said, the 1961 Longhorns football team might well have been his best Texas team, then perhaps the unsung hero of a team filled with super stars was running back Jerry Cook.
Cook, who died July 9 at the age of 78 from complications of Parkinson's disease, was part of a running back stable that was without peer in Texas history.
Led by All-American Jim Saxton and backed by Cook and sophomore Tommy Ford, the Longhorns tailbacks in Royal's winged-T formation ran three complete offensive units in a 9-1 regular season. Texas ranked No. 1 in all of college football for five weeks until a stunning 6-0 loss to TCU in the next-to-last game of the season ruined the dream of an unbeaten season and National Championship.
Cook -- a sturdy 6-2, 210-pounder -- played in the second unit behind Saxton. In an era where earning a letter was based on number of snaps per game, the Longhorns first team did not officially letter until the seventh game of the season. In a time when team members played both offense and defense, Texas managed a rare (for the time) 33 points per game through the first eight games.
In its 10-game regular season, UT's opponents scored more than one touchdown only once -- Texas Tech in a 42-14 defeat.
While Saxton was racking up yards that would put him in the National College Football Hall of Fame (he led the Southwest Conference with 806 yards on just 78 carries), Cook was the league's second-leading rusher, carrying 80 times for 479 yards, and Ford was the league's sixth-leading rusher as he logged time both at fullback and tailback. Saxton and Cook tied for the team lead in points scored with 56 points, each scoring nine touchdowns and one two-point conversion.
The tailbacks got most of the headlines but superstars Jack Collins, Ernie Koy and Ray Poage, as well as Ford, would earn All-SWC honors during their time at Texas. Defensive stalwarts included halfback Joe Dixon and Pat Culpepper, who played both as a fullback and linebacker.
Meanwhile, Cook was also asserting himself defensively, locking down the starting role as a left halfback, and becoming one of the best two-way players in that era of Texas Football. A season later, with Saxton gone, Cook and Poage became the offensive workhorses. Cook led the 1962 team with seven touchdowns and 42 points scored.
Cook earned a letter his sophomore year in 1960 but was a critical part of Royal's back-to-back SWC champs in 1961 and 1962 when Texas went 19-2-1 over the two-year period, finishing third in the AP poll in 1961 and fourth in 1962.
Cook, who came to Texas from Galena Park High School, was drafted by the Houston Oilers of the AFL but went into private business working in concrete construction in Houston where he was an excellent golfer and a long-time member of Quail Valley Country Club. He also became a cattle rancher and ran his ranch near Columbus, Texas for 27 years before retiring.
He and his wife moved to Munday, Texas to be near family in 2016. He was buried in Munday on July 10.
