Questions for Rayburn

[SMUPonyFan]

What do you think about the recent changes at SMU? The Commitment and Coach Bennett?

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Go Red, Go Blue, Go Mustangs, S M U

[Rayburn]

I need to study the details of this commitment thing more, but I can tell you that football is king and where the football team goes it will pull the rest of the athletic department with it (you don't need me to tell you that).

Ford Stadium is a tremendous step forward, one that was nearly unthinkable (as far as getting the job done) not so long ago.
Around the time of our Death Valley Days and for some time afterward (particularly when the SWC broke up), I had resigned myself to the idea that SMU football would fade away. Ford means that the Mustangs will live on long after I am gone and that my grandsons (who are some pretty stout athletes and in high school now) may actually PLAY for the Red and Blue (although those benches at Ford look mighty nice and splinterless to me).

It is up to us now. That is where the real commitment comes. SMU (and our big money people) have anted up annd said we're in the game, so now it is up to us. I'll be frank, I doubt that we will ever be a consistent powerhouse in football like Miami has become but then I never thought I'd see a sight as sweet as that stadium so I could be wrong as hell.

I am happy to see the enthusiasm for the new coach and I hope it energizes our supporters. From what I have read and heard about him, he's top flight. But being a former coach (and an old one at that) I have a long memory for new coaches who were touted as "saviors." Don't get me wrong, I think he will get us there but if he does not, the next guy will, or the next. You have to believe that or there's little sense getting up for it all. I'm just cautious, as any man with as many snake bites as I have would be.

What does my heart good is that we are moving in the right direction and not talking about how to start moving or in which direction we should move. I know I'll be in attendance when the Flying Red Horses get to a bowl game, but - maybe one day -I'll get to see a Mustang baseball team play agin. Now THAT would be something!

My goodness, such sage words! Nobody will ever ask my opinion for anything ever again.

[click]

Good to hear from you again.Do you remember anything about Cen-Tex football of the middle 60's.

[Rayburn]

From 1963 to 1970 I was in Kansas coaching high school ball and then working at Kansas U. I did help coordinate recruiting in Texas for KU from 1967-70.

When I think back, I recall specifics about players and schools but not about particular regions necessarily. Any one player, school or town you have in mind?

[click]

Just remember some good players from around the Waco area around that time. The McDaniel Bros. from McGregor come to mind.

[Rayburn]

Sorry, I don't recall the McDaniels brothers.

One fellow out of Waco I recall in particular was Rodrigo Barnes who was a defensive lineman at Carver High, the all-black school which had such a rivalry with Moore High. We made a tenitive recruitment of Barnes. He later wound up at Rice and had a nice pro career in the 1970s.

[click]

He was a good player I remember him well.Thanks