THE TALL TALE OF DEAN CAMPBELL
by Larry Carlson for https://texaslsn.org
It sounds straight out of Mayberry, RFD. A young Dean Campbell recalls playing some good 'ol neighborhood football in his Austin neighborhood in 1957, when the city bore a closer resemblance to Mayberry than it does to the Austin of today. A young, 30-ish man, new to living in the neighborhood, stopped to talk to the boys about football. Then he offered to give them some treasures.
He took a bunch of orange helmets from his car, explaining that his employer, The University of Texas, would no longer be needing the bright war bonnets. It was Dean's first meeting with Coach Darrell Royal. It would not be his last.
The storybook coming of age tale continued through the years. Dean, undersized but talented, played football for the Austin High Maroons, then had a minuscule shot at one of the few remaining scholarships at Blinn Junior College in Brenham. He tried out, he impressed, he earned a scholarship. It would not be his last.
Campbell, an Austin guy through and through, had worked as a teen at the iconic Dirty Martin's Kum-bak Place on The Drag. He sliced tomatoes and peeled onions in exchange for burgers and fries. Only a few years later, following the stint as a Blinn Buccaneer, Dean moved just blocks away from Dirty's for a new workplace, Memorial Stadium.
Coach Royal, coming off a breakout '68 season that ended with nine straight wins in the first year of the wishbone, offered Campbell, a speedy receiver and punt returner, a scholarship to the school he had grown up in the shadow of.
The little guy redshirted as his new teammates steamrolled to the 1969 national championship. When the Longhorns took the field to defend their title in September '70, Campbell was ready for the opportunity he earned. Campbell, at 5-5, 145 pounds, became the smallest Longhorn footballer since the legendary Rooster Andrews made a name for himself in the 1940s. Rooster, of course, switched from waterboy duties to placekicker and sometimes-player while -- amid some legendary carousing -- keeping a keen eye on his roommate and party podnuh, Bobby Layne. Campbell, by the way, would later become friends with Rooster and his brother, former UT quarterback Bunny Andrews.
Dean Campbell was never mistaken for a water boy in burnt orange. He led Texas in punt returns as the Horns won the 1970 national title, their second in a row. In '71, as a senior, Campbell was even better, weaving, squirting and sprinting past opponents for 17 yards per return, making a name as the Southwest Conference's premier return man while the Horns won their fourth straight SWC crown.
One of the biggest box office hits of '71 was the quirky Dustin Hoffman flick, "Little Big Man." But though the timing was right, that marquee billing would not do justice to the Dean Campbell story. It is much more than the tale of a pint-sized player overcoming odds to play. It is the story of a life in football, including almost forty years as a D-1 coach, with stops at Texas, Air Force, A&M, Arkansas, North Carolina, and others. It is a story of positive influences, faith, and family, and a return home for another chapter as an impactful mentor. It is a story that needs to be told. It's only fitting then, that Campbell is focusing on his memoirs and working with a publisher. It won't be a "short" story, either.
The Dean Campbell odyssey is a voluminous success story, and TLSN is pleased to provide its readers with an inside look at a remarkable man who has always reached for the summit.
Dean’s interview is at https://texas-lsn.squarespace.com/interview-deancampbell-2023