LEGENDS:
DARRELL ROYAL
THE COACH
Gridiron
behind him, Darrell Royal stakes out a different turf.
Then, as they do now, Darrell and Edith Royal lived in a house alongside a golf course. And for good reason: He still makes good use of his surroundings.
Darrell
began playing golf when he was 30 years old, as he was beginning his first
college football head coaching job at Mississippi State in 1954. His regular
partner on the neighboring nine-hole course was Spec, the shoeshine man from the
campus union building.
“Spec
and I liked to play as soon as there was enough light to see,” Royal recalls.
“He came by real early, we’d have a breakfast of Oreo cookies and milk, and
take off.” It was all about fun and fresh air. “Spec and I played for who
carried the bag.”
They
played with borrowed clubs for a while until Edith surprised her husband with a
set of irons she bought with some of her grocery money. Good investment. Darrell
had found a game he could enjoy playing for a lifetime.
As
chairman of the board of governors at Barton
Creek in Austin, Texas, and a
member of the board of governors at The
University of Texas Club, housed in
his namesake Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, this football coaching
legend plays and talks golf with hundreds of members, alumni, and fans every
year.
Royal
is proud of Barton Creek’s four courses — the Crenshaw/Coore (which was
co-designed by Ben Crenshaw, University of Texas’ NCAA and two-time Masters
champion), Fazio I, the Palmer Course at Lakeside, and the new Fazio II. So much
so that you’ll often find him playing on one of them.
“I’ve
always just played for fun and never been one for practice,” says the man who
retired as UT football coach in 1976 after winning three national championships
and 11 Southwest Conference titles, and maintaining a 20-year record of 167-47-5
— the best in the nation over that period. “Early on, I liked to play as
much as time and daylight allowed. One spring [while in Fayetteville, Arkansas,
for a Southwest Conference meeting], Frank Broyles and I played 91 holes. I
enjoyed every one of them.”
Now
76, Royal can still shoot his age, carries an 8-handicap, and never has been
frustrated by the game. “If I hit a bad shot,” he says, “I forget it as
soon as I hit the ball again.”
Just
like he and Spec used to do.
We’re looking
for club legends. Send your ideas and/or photos to “Legends,” Private Clubs,
3030 LBJ Freeway, Suite 350, Dallas, TX 75234.