Freddie WAS an incredible warrior...and, IMHO, the epitomy of a Longhorn...an undersized kid from out of state with only 1 scholarship offer comes in & wins a starting job on a National Championship team. Plays thru excruciating pain and is the ultimate teammate (showed up on crutches @ Cotton Bowl when MD's said he couldn't leave the hospital). I get moist in the eye every time I think of Freddie.
Johnny Jones from Lampasas, IIRC also ran track for UT. He was the or one of the fastest men on earth around that time.... Need a lifeline on that statement.....
Lam ran a 9.1 hundred, which tied the world record, which was dropped to 9.0 shortly thereafter. He ran on the 4x100 gold medal relay team in the 1976 Olympics as a teenager. That performance encouraged Terry Metcalf to influence Eric to come to Texas rather than Tennessee, where Terry thought Eric would play football, redshirt his 3rd year to win the Olympic long jump, get a huge shoe contract, then finish football at Texas
Speaking of speed.... Jamal Charles says hello. He is in the on-deck circle today for a Monday showing.
Worster, I think the order of speed behind Lam is: 2) Wayne Johnston (I believe his was wind aided 9.1) 3) Herkie Walls 4) Tony Jones People also lose memory of Ham being as fast as Jamal
Eric was a great jumper and was fast, but I'm not sure he was as fast as any of those mentioned. As far as being shifty, I think Metcalf was in a class by himself, although Jitter Fields might be close if you discount the yards going backwards.
Eric was not as fast as Ham. He was one of those who had a lightning fast start (thus the leaping ability) but lost pace with the true sprinters. I would take both on my track team and start counting points at 38.
^His 80-yard touchdown run against ou was indeed a thing of beauty. If you watch it again, note how quickly he reached full speed after he broke free of the last arm tackle.
Gilbert and Coach Royal. This photo was on a magazine cover but I cannot remember the name of it - from 1968. I still have it in a box somewhere:
4th Those pics are amazing My faves are tge top one with the girl shouting and hooking AND the natural heisman in the bottom. Thank you for finding and posting.
