Texas Longhorns

If it weren’t for the size of the apples in Texas’ locker room during a recruiting visit, former first-team All Pro defensive end Doug English might have never become a Longhorn. Seriously.

The week before, English -- who attended Dallas’ Bryant Adams High School in the early 1970s -- visited Texas for its annual game against Texas A&M, he attended TCU’s home game against SMU and was blown away by what the Horned Frogs had to offer. That included boxes of fresh apples.

“Boy, it was just a beautiful campus,” English said. “They had just remodeled the locker room and they had this beautiful purple carpet and beautiful lockers. It was a first-class locker room. So we were all nodding and grinning thinking it would be a great place to come.

“They beat SMU, their cross-Metroplex rival. So they came off the field and at the end of their locker was a cardboard box full of apples, at the end of each row of lockers. I remember looking at them. It must have been from the farmers market or something because many of the apples still had the stems on them. I just thought 'Man, free apples. This is great. This is the place for me.' "

Apparently the red delicious’ in Fort Worth had nothing on the Granny Smith’s in Austin.

(Read full post)