The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Football great “Finishes What He Started,” earns UT degree
05.22.2020 | Football
Stanley Richard, a Longhorn All-American defensive back, NFL first-round draft pick and eight-year pro, returned to UT and finished his degree.
Former Texas defensive back and 2004 Longhorn Hall of Honor inductee Stanley Richard notched several accomplishments on his belt during his time on the Forty Acres. All-American. All-Southwest Conference. Team MVP. First-round draft pick. And this weekend, The Sherriff will add another one that every student-athlete aspires to as a graduate of The University of Texas. He did so by returning to school after a long and highly-successful NFL career and a busy life after football as a rancher.
"It took a lot of hard work, and now I feel more connected than ever with Longhorn Nation," Richard said. "It was a challenge, and I feel like I found more of myself."
A four-year letterwinner and MVP of the 1990 squad, Richard earned All-America and All-Southwest Conference honors in that year and was selected ninth overall in the 1991 NFL draft by the San Diego Chargers. After an eight-year NFL career with the Chargers and Washington Redskins, including an appearance in Super Bowl XXVIII with the Chargers, Richard retired and bought a 300-acre cattle ranch in his hometown of Hawkins in East Texas.
"I knew I always wanted to go back home and have a place to hang out in my hometown," Richard said. "My father (Charles) came back into my life and encouraged me to get a ranch, that way I could feed my family and it would also give me something to do. I've been enjoying it all these years. I love everything that comes with cattle ranching and bailing hay."
But a conversation with his mother, Mary, a few years ago changed the course of Richard's life.
While he was being recruited out of Hawkins High School, several programs visited with Richard and his mother, and Texas was where they felt most comfortable and where they believed he would have the best opportunity both on the field and in the classroom. While Richard was in Austin, his mother had the opportunity to watch him grow and develop as a football player and as a person.
After his success on the football field and in ranching, Richard started to wonder what he could do next. His mother sat him down and provided him with some direction.
"She opened my eyes and reminded me that I had made a promise. She said to go back to UT and finish what I started," Richard said. "Go back and find out what it is that they saw in me and to then offer myself to them and thank them for giving me the opportunity."
The process of completing his degree was more difficult than he had anticipated. Just a few courses short of it when he left campus for the NFL, many of those he had finished no longer correlated with the degree he was pursuing, so it became necessary to take several additional classes. UT Associate Athletics Director for Student Services Kat Hastings was there to help Richard in the process.
"Kat was able to get it set up so I could come back," Richard said. "She helped me and prepared me for the challenge and kind of made sure I was ready."
Since he had not taken any classes in almost three decades, he elected to ease himself back into his studies, taking one class at his local community college, then two, adding an additional class each semester until he was able to comfortably handle a full course load. Last year, he was readmitted and was once again taking classes at the University.
"When I first arrived in 1987, I was a young kid and I was scared to death of everyone because I grew up in a small town 1,300 people and my graduating class had 49 people in it," Richard said. "I go to Austin, and one of my classes had 600 students in it. I was too young and did not take advantage of everything I could have."
Back on campus as a student after many years away, Richard easily identified some major differences this time around, most notably that at 52, he was older than most of his professors. With information more readily available, assignments were now more of an enjoyable challenge and really engaging. Access to the internet meant it was no longer necessary to spend a full day at the library to find the information he needed for writing assignments and other projects, but that he could do even more research with so much available on-line.
"Back in the 80's, we had three exams and maybe two papers," Richard said. "Now you are writing papers weekly and having exams and quizzes weekly. You're more involved, you have better access to professors, and you have to be accountable."
The ability to email professors and classmates, collaborate with Google Docs, and the ease of writing papers on Word documents instead of with a typewriter and paper are just a few examples of the changes that have helped him achieve his goal.
Determined to focus on being a student, Richard spent limited time with the Football team over the past year. Now with his degree in hand, he looks forward to being more involved with the program. Oscar Giles, Texas' defensive line coach and Richard's former UT teammate, has encouraged Richard to visit the team during practice and tell them about his journey as a player.
"The Sheriff is a great guy and he was a heck of a football player," Giles said. "I used to call him Hawk, because he was from Hawkins, and then he became the Sheriff. He comes back for our letterman events all the time, and we've stayed in close touch over the years and have talked for a long time about him finishing his degree. It's difficult to come back after being out for a while and with a hectic life schedule, but from the first time we talked about it, I told him I was gonna stay on him to get it done. And I'm so happy for him that he did it. It was great while he was taking classes because it got him on campus and around our team, too. He deserves a lot of credit for coming back, doing everything he needed to graduate, and I know he's really proud of the accomplishment. I know it wasn't easy, and I'm so fired up that he's a Texas graduate and can proudly hang that diploma and get his T-Ring."
Richard attended the Spring Game in 2017 and felt that something had been missing.
"I thought, 'I need this in my life,'" Richard said. "I wanted to share my knowledge and what I've experienced. I'd like to one day share and mentor and guide and make some type of contribution."
He fondly remembers the 1990 season and the "Shock the Nation Tour." Following a 5-7 season the previous year, expectations were low for Texas heading into that season, and a 1-1 start to the campaign didn't help. The team rallied together and reeled off nine consecutive victories, including wins over No. 4 Oklahoma, and a Houston Cougar team led by Heisman hopeful David Klingler that was ranked No. 3 in the nation.
"That Houston game was the most memorable thing to happen for me at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium," Richard said. "I was a captain on that team, and we played our best game in front of record attendance."
Richard will receive his degree in Applied Learning & Development from the College of Education. Among the things this Texas Ex is ready for – receiving his T-Ring.
"When I was younger and saw the ring, I really didn't understand, but now I know," Richard said. "I went from this little kid up to this old man, and I'm so thankful that I had this opportunity.
"We say what starts here changes the world, and I'm so proud to say that's where I started."
From college star to NFL standout and a career in ranching, Richard's life will come full circle when he joins his fellow graduates in the UT Class of 2020 for the school's first-ever virtual graduation ceremony on Saturday.
Ryan Tewes, a volunteer assistant in the Texas Media Relations office, writes feature stories on Longhorn student-athletes for TexasSports.com.