Before you give Royal sainthood, you might want to find a copy of Meat on the Hoof a pretty unkind view of the Royal treatment of his less than star players. He would actively try to get players to quit, by making them do drills which got them hurt, by moving them from athletic dorms to dumps, and many other creative methods later adopted at SMU by Dave Smith.
Woah! Hold up!
I know all about Meat On The Hoof it was written by a guy who didn't want to play football in the first place, a guy (Gary Shaw) whose daddy made him play; he says so in the book. It is written from exactly the point of view of someone who hates football and hates the whole football system.
By the way, when Shaw notes that Royal did not recognize him after he quit the team, he failed to point out that he had lost about 60 pounds and had grown a beard!
By all means, read Meat On The Hoof and then read Jan Reid's book Vain Glory and you'll see Royal's answer to Shaw's accusations.
My dad coached football for a long time and he always considered DKR to be a decent man and a superb football coach.
