USD Football 1995

F AREWELLTO THE SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE CONTINUED

says, 'Today a young kid can sit in his living room and watch Florida play Florida State, and for him that game is just as nearby as Baylor-Texas. Famil- iarity with programs in other parts ofthe country came with the adventofcable and nation- al television." Sour grapes, these are not. ''The split became impera- tive," says Royal, who, like hisold nemesis Broyles, has always

jack Oliver clicks his heels togeth- erand says, "Oh noyou don 't!And down you go!" When Teaffwas a 14-year-old growing up in the west Texas town ofSnyder, he heard Tips on the radio. "His vivid description ofthe game," Teaffsays, "enabled me to see the plays in my mind, and that's when I decided I wanted to be a football coach in the Southwest Conference. I wanted to be a part ofanything that sounded thatgood. I never went to any Southwest Con- ference games, I never had a favorite team, l didn 't attend a Southwest Conference school. But Kern Tips made an impres- sion that stuck with me forever." Tips described a confer- ence of wildly diverse rivalries. There was Texas (tea-sippers to the Aggie faithful) vs. Texas A&M (long ago, farmers in CO NTINUED

been blessed with the sense of timing. "I think the decision to tie up with the Big Eight was the right one. It had been com- ing for some time. The last year of the conference--really-- was when Arkansas left I knew itwas bro- ken up then." "Doyle Traylor goes back to pass ... Bobby

Austin and Donnie Anderson in Lubbock. These names are timeless, and for all ages. In 20 seasons asTexas coach, Royal won three national and 11 SWC titles. Now 71, still blessed with homespun witand a knack for putting history in its place, Royal sizes up the 81-year-old conference (1915-95) thusly: "It's kind of like a pair of pants you really like. You keep wearing 'em and wearing 'em and wearing 'em, and pretty soon theyjust wear out. That's kind ofwhat happened to the Southwest Conference." That, and the world got a whole lot smaller. There was a time when Texas high schools seemed capable of stocking an entire nation with running backs, linebackers, the whole nine yards (or, 10 and another

first down). Back then , the state's boundaries seemingly stretched forever. Television and commercial airlines taught us otherwise. With TV,college football became a world like many others, o ne that mea- sured itself by demographics. Teaff, the legendary Bay- lor coach who this year again serves as color commentator on the SWC's Raycom Network,