Ranking the 25 best head coaches in college football history
By Zach Bigalke
23. Darrell Royal
The man who played college ball for Bud Wilkinson at Oklahoma made his name coaching the Sooners’ Red River rival. Darrell Royal’s first head coaching job actually took place in the Canadian Football League, where he spent a year managing the Edmonton Eskimos. After his sojourn north of the border, Royal spent two largely forgettable years at Mississippi State and one at Washington before landing the gig in Austin.
As the head coach of the Longhorns, Royal quickly found success. He won his first Southwest Conference title after three years, and by 1963 he had led Texas to the university’s first national title. That season Royal’s Longhorns capped an undefeated season with a win over No. 2 Navy in the Cotton Bowl. Royal would lead the team to two more national titles, winning back-to-back crowns in 1969 and 1970.
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In over two decades of coaching, Royal’s teams did not finish with a losing record even once. Twenty years after his retirement, Texas paid the ultimate tribute to the most decorated coach in school history by renaming their stadium Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.