Old Hogs, ’Horns become good buddies
Posted on Tuesday, March 11, 2008
The summer of 1971 found Arkansas All-America defensive end Bruce James wrestling with a career crisis in the training camp of the Philadelphia Eagles in Reading, Pa.
While playing for the Razorbacks, James underwent four surgeries — three to repair his knees and a fourth to implant a steel pin in an ankle. His medical history had lowered him to the 12 th round of the NFL Draft and had him facing the fact that “it was time to start looking for something else to do.” Texas defensive back Danny Lester was another rookie in the Eagles’ camp that summer.
“Danny was a second- or thirdround pick,” James said in a recent interview. “He got a lot more money than I did. He had bought a new car — a Porsche. It was an orange Porsche, of course.
“ He was a great guy with a good sense of humor, a lot of fun to be around. We became friends almost instantly. He talked about some of the other Longhorns like [tackle ] Bob McKay, [fullback ] Steve Worster and [quarterback ] James Street, and assured me I’d enjoy being around them if I ever got the chance. A long time later, that turned out to be true.” For a little context, this was in the immediate aftermath of “Big Shootout I” at Fayetteville in 1969, when the Hogs and ’Horns played for the national championship, and “Big Shootout II” at Austin in 1970, which some joker renamed “The Cap Pistol Follies” after the ’Horns routed the Hogs 42-7.
If you are fuzzy on the details of Big Shootout I, underdog Arkansas led 14-0 into the fourth quarter and lost 15-14. Lester’s pass interception snuffed out the Hogs’ most promising comeback opportunity.
Several years ago, author Terry Frei captured the impact of Big Shootout I with his book, Horns, Hogs and Nixon Coming.
“Terry interviewed the starters for both teams and he interviewed the Texas players first,” James said. “When he interviewed the Arkansas players, he told us some of the things the Longhorns said. Now, Bob McKay was the best tackle I ever had to line up against. I was really interested in what he had to say. So that book sort of indirectly got their players and our players acquainted. “ In 2004, a 35 th anniversary reunion of the 1969 ’Horns and Hogs players was scheduled around a Texas-Arkansas game at Fayetteville. It happened, but not as originally planned. The players visited at a Friday night banquet, but their presence was not acknowledged at the game the next day.
A couple of years later, the Little Rock Touchdown Club was seeking extra attractions for a banquet honoring high school and state college players. At the behest of the event’s organizers, James called McKay, his old antagonist and new-found friend.
“ I told Bob they’d pay travel and hotel expenses and maybe give each guy $ 1, 000,” James said. “Bob asked what the banquet was all about. When I told him, he said he’d talk to Street and Worster, and get back to me. When he called, he said, ‘We’re coming, but we’re paying our own way. You’re not giving us anything.’ “ I think that’s what you’d call a class act.” Lester, his first “class act” discovery among Longhorns, was killed in a highway accident in Texas two or three years after James met him. Back in 1971, Lester and James were released by the Eagles on the same day. James, now a State Farm insurance agent and a recent Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame inductee, declined to face another knee operation. “Danny probably could have made 1 it, but he was only 5-9 / 2 and the Eagles sort of wrote him off because he was short,” James said. “I guess pro scouting was still in the dark ages then.” “ Anyway, Danny offered to drive me to Philadelphia to catch a plane, but when we got there he insisted we take a tour of the University of Pennsylvania campus. ” Penn was founded by Benjamin Franklin and others in the 1700 s, but James soon grew weary of looking at old buildings and “not so pretty” coeds. He suggested it might be time to go to the airport.
Lester said, “What’s your hurry ? Don’t you realize this is as close to an Ivy League education that we’ll ever come ?”
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