CHERRY LEMONADE
by Larry Carlson
Unless they lived through the worst home loss in UT history, Longhorn fans likely don't recall the name of Marty Cherry. The sophomore from the Arkansas side of Texarkana got a rough football baptism as a relief pitcher for the eleventh-ranked Horns on a hot mid-September day in 1997. A stunning 66-3 whipping from UCLA --- to live in infamy as "Rout 66" -- ultimately resulted in a positive turn for
Cherry. That was despite a tough day at the office. Cherry, not any more or less effective than his teammates, had three interceptions amid his 9-18 passing and was roughed up for minus 25 yards and a lost fumble on five sacks.
It was only the third game since UT coach John Mackovic had been hailed as an offensive genius, thanks to a gutsy call (James Brown to Derek Lewis) the previous December that resulted in an upset win over Nebraska in the inaugural Big XII title game.
Push fast-forward one year to autumn '98. A personable, sunny Mack Brown had replaced Mackovic at The Forty Acres. Ricky Williams was Heisman-bound and a freckle-faced youngster named Major Applewhite was coming on strong as a fill-in for injured senior QB Richard Walton.
Cherry? He'd been picked off by noted male fashion photographer Bruce Weber, who saw Marty's handsome mug on the televised UCLA debacle and had his assistants contact Cherry about a possible photo shoot.
Cherry reportedly deflected the first advances but took up the offer in February '98.
The guy later described by one writer as "square-jawed and aqua-eyed," was soon modeling for Abercrombie & Fitch and strolling the catwalk in Italy. By the '98 season, Cherry had traded in his burnt orange and white togs for more uplifting finery. After dropping 25 pounds from his 6-2, 200 frame, he was featured, along with a football, in a Ralph Lauren Chaps billboard in Manhattan's Times Square.
"I'd probably tease him about giving up football," Applewhite, one of Cherry's buddies, told the Dallas Morning News. "But on second thought, he's making the money and hanging out with all the pretty women."
It's hard to discern just how long the fashion modeling lasted for the erstwhile quarterback. But Marty Cherry really did become the "poster boy" for turning lemons into lemonade on one of the darkest days in Longhorn football.
Write to Larry Carlson at lc13@txstate.edu