Bobby Wuensch shares a story about one of the Arkansas players comments made to him 40 years after the game. The Arkansas player says that during the game the Razorbacks on defense were amazed that near the end of the 3rd quarter down 14 to 0 that there was no dissention, no name-calling, no grumbling, no frazzled looks displayed by the Longhorn offense. The Horns were not rattled and remained “calm, cool, and collected”.
Kirk Bohl’s wrote a great article about the 1969 team. The article link is in red font.
Tim Taylor interviews Bill Atessis for his website. Enjoy the read
Tim Taylor says:
My first 1969 National Champion to be interviewed for this weekly missive is Mr. Bill Atessis. No. 77 was the biggest man on that team, at 235 pounds. Coach Mike Campbell’s left end was a key player on those great Texas teams that won 30 straight games. Consensus All-Southwest Conference his junior and senior years (1969 & 1970), second team All-American as a junior, and a consensus All-American his senior year. He was voted Longhorn defensive MVP by the Dallas Morning News and Houston Post (1969, 1970). He was a finalist for the Outland Trophy in 1970.
Bill was a truly great defensive end. Bleacher Report published a 50 Greatest Longhorns list in May 2010. They list Bill as No. 21. Ahead of such Texas defensive legends as Johnny Treadwell (#39), Aaron Ross (#35), Tony Degrate (#31), Jammer, Thomas, Vasher, & Huff (30, 29, 28, & 27, respectively; lordy what I would give for 1 or 2 of those men right now), and Kenneth Sims (#24). The list is interesting, and would be a wonderful evening of debate over cocktails, but the top 4 are Earl, Ricky, Nobis, and VY. Hard to argue with that Mount Rushmore of Texas.
I had a wonderful visit by telephone with Bill Atessis and his wife when they were driving up to Austin last Friday for the 1969 reunion and Kansas game. Bill, I am most appreciative of your time. Here are the highlights:
On DKR: Coach Royal expected you to know how to do your job and to do it. There was no compromising on what he expected of you.
Great DKR Story: “He did apologize to me once in front of the whole team after a game. I was on punt return as a defenseman, because defense played punt return [no special teams], and I peeled back on the punt. As the offense’s left tackle was coming down the field I laid him out, rolled up on him, and I was flagged for clipping. When I went to the sideline Coach Royal greeted me, and he was mad. He benched me for a couple of series as my punishment, to make sure I understood that there was a consequence of my action [the clipping penalty]. Well, on Sundays we watched film. As we are watching the film from that game, Coach Royal stopped the projector, and he apologized to me in front of the whole team. He said it was a good block and a bad call.”
We talked about the 1969 game with Arkansas, the Game of the Century, and Bill shared this memory: “Coach Royal wasn’t real big on emotional pep talks. But before the Arkansas game he had told the team that “I want to let you guys know we asked Arkansas that if the game was tied at the end, could we have a playoff. We checked with the conference, and they are okay with it. However, Arkansas declined.” We all knew that if they were scared of a playoff [what would now be overtime], then they’re sphincters were so tight that they couldn’t pass a pumpkin seed.”
I asked about the great Coach Mike Campbell. “He was a different kind of animal. He made me the player I was. You have to remember that Coach Campbell and the other coaches fought in World War II. They had a nerves of steel. Being in a tight football game was nothing compared to what they had seen and been through in the War.”
Coach Campbell had his defense spend a lot of time practicing goal line stands, and as we know, that Texas defense was very good at it. Bill said “If they drove down the field and were on our 2 or 3 yard line, we felt like we had them right where we wanted them”. The Texas defense made a number of goal line stands that year, and the strength of that defense is not remembered as well as the prolific wishbone offense, but it should be.
Great stuff: “On defense we all had position responsibilities. I loved the option because the quarterback options off the defensive end [the position Bill played], and the quarterback was always watching me. If I sat on the line and didn’t create a gap, then that forced the quarterback to make the decision quick. If he kept it, I tackled him, and if he pitched it, I was in position to make that tackle.” Great example of the discipline on Coach Royal’s team and Coach Campbell’s defense, and what Bob McKay emphasized over and over: you went out and did your job.
As I noted, my conversation with Mr. Atessis was on his drive up to Austin for last weekend’s 50th reunion of the 1969 National Champions, and he said he was just excited Friday to see his teammates and be at The University as he was 50 years ago. He said he still gets goosebumps.
Bill, thanks for your time! Great to visit with you. Hook em!
2014 University Co-op signing
1969 Championship Montage
