For the young ones, here is a bit of true history, and the perspective of an old one.
I'm 73. When I was a senior at Baylor, in 1971, the Bears had won six, and lost 34 in the four seasons I was an undergraduate. That was when we played 10 games a year. We won less than two games a year, for four years.
Our field was grass, and the grass wasn't watered or mowed often. By November, it was mud.
Our weight room was one Universal gym. The team practiced on a dirt/grass field north of the stadium.
We had fired a good coach (John Bridgers), who did more with less, and hired a coach from LSU that Charlie McLendon wanted to be rid of. I'm sure he was a nice guy, but he was wrong for Baylor.
In December of 1971, Abner McCall had a hard decision to make. Did he continue to pour what little money Baylor had into athletics, or just give it up?
His athletic director, Jack Patterson, helped Abner persist and tried to hire Rudy Feldman from the University of New Mexico. Can you imagine?
Feldman took the job, but the next day, changed his mind.
Patterson was left with a terrible situation...a head coach at one of the most historically terrible programs in the United States had publically accepted the Baylor job, then returned to Albuquerque where the "big money guys" convinced him to stay...probably for a $5,000 a year raise.
Can you imagine the situation Patterson and McCall were in? We just got shafted by....the University of New Mexico coach?
So, Patterson turned to.......Angelo State's head coach....one Grant Teaff.
It was perhaps the most brilliant, or desperate, decision made in the history of college athletics. Had Coach Teaff not been....well, Coach Teaff, there might not have been Scott Drew, or Art Briles, or Dave Aranda. There would not have been McLane Stadium.
For those of you who live or go to Waco, if you see Coach Teaff.....please tell him thank you. Without Coach Teaff, none of this would be possible.
