TLSN is a free , historical, educational, and insightful site capturing the history of all Longhorn sports from inception until 2015. Over the last 2 years TLSN has also captured the oral history of Longhorn golfers, trainers, writers, basketball , tennis , baseball, UT Athletic Directors, football players and media personalities. The goal is to capture and save for posterity Longhorn moments from those who helped create the Longhorn brand. With the exception of Peter Gardere all the oral histories are posted and active. Peter's will post on 9/28/2021. All the links to all the podcast are complimented with text and photos of each Horn and can be found by clicking on The History of Longhorn Sports . Oral History PETER GARDERE BILLY SCHOTT DANA LEDUC MIKE BARNES HERKIE WALLS 1981-1984 ROB MOERSCHELL BUCK CODY 2002 AND 2005 GARY PLOCK TENNIS BUSTS FOR 4 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP QUARTERBACKS BEN CRENSHAW DUKE CARLISLE 1960-1963 SPANKY STEPHENS BILL ATESSIS FOOTBALL 1967-1970 JENNA MCEACHERN JOHN CARSEY- BASKETBALL UNDER COACH BLACK AND COACH LEMONS DONNA LOPIANO PART I- JIM BAYLESS - GAME, SET, MATCH COACH PENICK AND ALLISON PART II -JIM BAYLESS - GAME, SET, MATCH COACH SNYDER TYRES DICKSON TYRES DICKSON THANK YOU LETTER COACH RODNEY PAGE 1973-1976 LARRY CARLSON'S BIO AND PODCAST In 2021 TLSN added interviews to the oral history format. Interviews include: Building The Brand With Larry Carlson INTRODUCTION TO BUILDING THE BRAND BILL BRADLEY BILL BRADLEY INTERVIEW MICHELLE ADAMOLEKUN TRACK TOM CAMPBELL-INTERVIEW BY LARRY CARLSON KIKI DEAYALA FOOTBALL TOM CAMPBELL - FLIPPING THE SWITCH ALAN CHAMPAGNE- 1984- 1988 All the links to the interviews can be accessed by clicking on The History of Longhorn Sports
I do love me some Pete Gardere. He was paid the highest compliment of all by OU fans after his record 4th win over them as a starter, when he was entering the tunnel, the OU fans chanted "Graduate! Graduate!".
Incomplete Pete. Sure Texas beat OU all 4 years he started so he owns that lore, but there's more to being a great QB than beating OU.
He did more than beat OU- Here are some non-OU stats for you. PETER SET MANY RECORDS IN HIS 4 YEARS AT TEXAS, · UT - Passing yards by a freshman, season (1,511), surpassed by Shea Morenz in 1993 · UT - Passing yards, season (2364), surpassed by James Brown in 1995 · UT - Passing yards, career (7,396), surpassed by Brown in 1997 · UT - Highest Completion Percentage (min 100 attempts) (57.52%), season, surpassed by Major Applewhite in 1999 · UT - Total offense, career (7,409), surpassed by Brown in 1997 · UT - Fastest to 1,000 yards in a single season (5 games), tied Bret Stafford, tied by Morenz, surpassed by Brown in 1995 · UT - Fastest to 2,000 yards in a single season (9 games), tied by Brown, surpassed by Applewhite in 1999 · UT - Starts, career (41), surpassed by Colt McCoy in 2009 · UT - Games by a quarterback, career (44), surpassed by Applewhite in 2001 · UT - Attempts, season (298), surpassed by Applewhite in 1999 · UT - Attempts, career (1025), surpassed by Applewhite in 2001 · UT - Completions, game (24), tied by Morenz in 1993, surpassed by Brown in 1996 · UT - Completions, season (166), surpassed by Morenz in 1993 · UT - Completions, career (561), surpassed by Applewhite in 2001 · UT - lowest percentage of passes intercepted (minimum 300 passes), career (4.5%), surpassed by Brown in 1997 · UT - Interceptions, career (45), tied by McCoy 2009 · UT - Touchdown passes, game (4), tied Rick McIvor, Randy McEachern, Clyde Littlefield; surpassed by Brown in 1994 · UT - Touchdown passes, career (37), surpassed by Brown in 1997
And he is still the only one ever to do it. It is an accomplishment that shouldn't be minimized, even after all these years.
Also led the ill fated "Shock the Nation" tour of 1990. After going 10-1 and reaching #3 in the nation only to get beat down by Miami in the Cotton Bowl. He will always be Peter the Great in my book
Gardere returned to Austin in 1997 and was the passing coach and stand-in for stars James Van Der Beek and Paul Walker in the 1999 movie Varsity Blues filmed in Austin. He briefly worked as recruiter of NFL prospects for a sports agent company in Austin.
He also had a career 54% completion rate (thus incomplete pete) with 46 interceptions (slightly more than one interception per game) while going 26-19 even with that 10 win season. The year after shock the nation he only completed 50% for the year which is terrible. Pretty much all of the records he held came because he was a 4 year starter and really one of the first true passing QB's for Texas. I don't dislike the guy, I just think he's given way too much credit for having one good season and beating OU 4 times. I'll hop off now because I know this is an unpopular opinion.
Unpopular but 100% correct. If he doesn't hold the.record for most interceptions returned for TD's he's got to be damn close.
But was he ever really great or was greatness attributed only to the four OU wins? It's time we clear this up
I cannot remember a qb at Texas have more dropped passes and deflected passes from the receiver’s hands for interceptions than Gardere. I remember a receiver dropping a perfect pass and the fan next to me yelling “Gardere what are you doing?” I asked him if Pete was supposed to run down the field and catch his own pass. There were a whole lot of incompletions and interceptions that weren’t Gardere’s fault.
Ok so he wasn’t the greatest but beating OU 4 times is it’s own unique and unequalled glory. Just imagine how grateful we would be could someone pull that off today. Winning and/or losing to OU makes for a season of happy or angst for me.
Pete was a solid college quarterback for his time, and his records reflect a really really poor history of passing QB numbers (Not saying we didn’t have good passers, but throwing 25 passes in a game was basically unheard of until the the late 80s. So he wasn’t exactly competing against Dan Marino numbers. His record wasn’t great, but he was also playing on some pretty bad teams with some pretty unimaginative offenses, basically mired in the throes of mediocrity. So I always appreciate guys like him and Brett Stafford for some good wins with some so-so teams.
What made him great were the OU wins. I think we were underdogs each time which was especially big. He had the “it” factor to not count him out until the whistle blew. Didn’t he punt a little?
OU was ranked 16th or higher all four years while Texas went 5-6, 5-6, 6-5 & 10-2 during those years not in that order. But OU ended each year 7-4, 8-3, 9-3 & 5-4-2 so they were definitely not in their prime under Gary Gibbs.
Do we care about a cockroaches record when we squash it? No, we don't. Do we care about the record of a land thief when it is beaten? No, we don't.
