Inside Pitch

 Longhorn Football Stadium Tour continues...

Last year when Texas joined the SEC, I decided I needed a new sports travel challenge having completed my MLB ballpark chasing tour in 2021.  While I'd been to a few SEC games (in Oxford, Starkville, Knoxville) since moving to Memphis 30 years ago, the idea of following the Longhorns on road games to all 15 SEC schools got me excited and it was on!  Having already seen the Longhorns at Ole Miss in '12 and at Arkansas in '21, the tour began last year with a trip to Vanderbilt.  This year, I circled Florida (anniversary weekend trips will take on a new flavor for the next several years) and Mississippi State.  Looking to next year, at Tennessee and at LSU loom as anticipated trips.  

Furthermore, on this year's trip to Gainesville, I met a guy from Houston at the Swamp Cruise tailgate who was visiting his 34th different stadium for a Longhorn game. Of course he'd been to the Rose Bowl, the Big House, the Shoe, and most of the Big 12 stadiums. He mentioned  Nebraska as one of his favorites.  I look forward to making many memories, Hook 'em! 

LONGHORN FOOTBALL STADIUM TOUR

1.      Darrell K Royal Texas Memorial Stadium                     Austin, TX                        

·         1986 – 1989:  Many games during my college years, not many highlights and only one winning season:

o   In ’86, Longhorns went 5-6 (their first losing season since 1956) and finished 6^th in the 9-team Southwest Conference.  Fred Akers was fired; replaced by David McWilliams.

o   In ’87, Longhorns went 6-5, finished tied with Arkansas for 2^nd in conference behind A&M (A&M and Ark dominated the conference during my 4 years).  Won the Astro-Bluebonnet Blue (*see Astrodome)

o   In ’88 and ‘89, the Longhorns finished 4-7 and 5-6. Ironically, the following year the Longhorns turned it around to go 10-2 and won the SWC.

2.      The Astrodome                                                                             Houston, TX

·         1987, 1991, 1993: Likely attended other Longhorn-Cougar games in the 70’s-80’s, but I remember going to the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl on 12/31/87 victory over Pitt.  After graduating, I attended both UT-UH games over the 4 years I lived in Houston.

3.      Rice Stadium                                                                                 Houston, TX

·         1990, 1992, 1997: Also likely attended other Longhorn-Owl games in 70’s-80’s, but I remember going to the games in Houston after graduating.  The non-conference game vs. Rice in 1997 (Texas joined Big 12 in ’96) was on 9/27/97, the weekend before my wedding, this served as my bachelor trip.  Went to the game with Barclay, and Texas narrowly won.

4.      Cotton Bowl                                                                                   Dallas, TX

·         1986 and 1987: TX-OU games.  I’ll never forget my freshmen trip to Dallas with my roommates. The games were losses, rather blowouts to top-ranked OU, but the experience was unmatched.

·         1/1/2003: Texas-LSU Cotton Bowl.  Led by Chris Simms and Roy Williams, Texas won 35-20.  Enjoyed the game with my dad, Barclay and Jean.

·         10/11/2008: TX-OU: This was a great game between #1 OU and #5 Texas.  John Funk offered his tickets to my dad, so I made the trip from Memphis to see Texas, behind Colt McCoy, lead the Horns to a 45-35 win.

5.      Superdome (Tulane)                                                                 New Orleans, LA

·         9/28/2002: My first and only visit to the Superdome.  Texas crushed Tulane 49-0.  I need to go back for a Saints game.  I would like to see another game in the Superdome after it was renovated after Katrina hit in ’05.

6.      Vaught-Hemingway Stadium (Ole Miss)                      Oxford, MS

·         9/15/2012: Before the thought of Texas ever joining the SEC, the Longhorns scheduled a home/home series with the Rebels and played their first game ever at Ole Miss.  Horns won 66-31 behind QB David Ash.  The Rebels would win the following year in Austin in Mack Brown’s final year as coach in 2013.  Our friends, Jay and Carrie Oliphant, invited Cindy and I to tailgate with them in the Grove.  This was my 2^nd game at Ole Miss after first visiting Oxford for the LSU-Ole Miss game in ’94.

7.      Razorback Stadium (Arkansas)                                                         Fayetteville, AR

·         9/11/2021: Highly anticipated renewal of the historic rivalry (before Texas joined the SEC in ’24), ended with a bad loss to the Razorbacks, 40-21.  This was my first time visiting Fayetteville.  Enjoyed catching up with my friend and avid Hog fan Phil Stevenson’s tailgate before the game on the hill overlooking the stadium.   I went back to U of Arkansas the following year to tour the campus on a college visit with Nicole.

8.      FirstBank Stadium (Vanderbilt)                                                          Nashville, TN

·         10/26/24: With Texas joining the SEC in ’24, this was the first stop on my goal of seeing Texas play at all 16 SEC stadiums.  Texas fans far outnumbered Vandy fans (from AI:  the announced attendance was 28,934, and a large portion, if not more than half, of that crowd was comprised of Texas fans...I’d say easily 60%) It was a competitive game which saw Quinn Ewers throw for 3 TDs as #5 Texas beat Diego Pavia and the #25 ranked Commodores 27-24.  

9.      Ben Hill Griffin Stadium – “The Swamp” (Florida)                  Gainesville, FL

·         10/4/25: To celebrate our 28^th anniversary, Cindy and I traveled to Tampa, then made the short 2 hour drive up to Gainesville for Texas’ first visit to the swamp since 1940 (85 years!)  We couldn’t check into our hotel on Saturday morning because the Longhorns had booked the entire Best Western, so we ubered to the Surly Horns/Swamp Cruise tailgate and enjoyed pregaming with a couple hundred Longhorns fans.  Although the game ended with a disappointing 29-21 loss, we enjoyed the good college gameday atmosphere in and around the stadium. The stadium was loud as they had plenty to cheer for yet it seemed smaller than the 89,000 capacity.