(This is the second part in a series profiling this year's inductees for the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame and Wall of Honor, which will be posted every week at baylorbears.com.)
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Doak Field is almost sheepish about it now, but growing up in Burnet he dreamed of wearing the burnt orange and playing football at the University of Texas.
His first Division I football scholarship offer came from legendary Longhorn coach Darrell Royal, and Field committed to the Longhorns on the spot when he made an official visit in the fall of 1976. But then, he had to tell Baylor assistant coach Cotton Davidson his decision.
"I told Cotton when he called me that Monday, 'Coach, I really think I want to be a Texas Longhorn,''' he said. "Cotton said, 'What? Stay right there, I'm coming to see you.' He broke every speed limit between Baylor Stadium and Lampasas, but he talked to me and gave me some things to think about that I had in the back of my mind."
When Fred Akers replaced Royal at the end of the '76 season, the Longhorns made another run at the all-state linebacker, but he once again turned down his "dream" school.
"Cotton Davidson is the main reason I became a Baylor Bear," Field said, "because he talked me down from that burnt orange ledge. I grew to love him and respect him and his wife, Carolyn. Every time I see him, I thank him for not giving up on me."
Forty-two years after helping the Bears win the 1980 Southwest Conference championship and a then-school-record 10 games (10-2), Field is going into the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame as part of the 2022 class that will be inducted Nov. 18.
"I was just floored. I couldn't believe it," Field said of being elected to the Hall of Fame. "I never considered myself Hall of Fame material. I just felt like I did a pretty darn good job of taking care of my responsibilities, starting for three-plus years, calling the defensive signals, doing what I was asked to do. I just wish both of my parents, who passed away back in 2018, could have witnessed it. Of course, your parents always think you're Hall of Fame material."
A four-sport letterman at Class 2A Burnet in football, basketball, track and baseball, Field actually got his first college letter from Washington State in basketball.
"I had played in a tournament down in Dripping Springs and had scored like 32 points in a game and 20-something in the next game," he said. "Next thing you know, I'm getting letters for college basketball. I was 6-2, 6-3, and I knew my limitations."
After All-American nose tackle Gary Don Johnson suffered a knee injury early in the 1977 season, Baylor went from a 5-2 defense to a 4-3, opening the door for Field to play alongside Lester Ward and All-American and future NFL Hall of Famer Mike Singletary.
"That's some continuity and camaraderie that is hard to replicate," Field said, "to find three guys that could start for three years."
The groundwork for Baylor's SWC championship team was actually laid in 1978, when the Bears opened with five-straight losses to Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio State, Houston and SMU by a total of 21 points. They rebounded to upset 12
th-ranked Texas A&M, 24-6, and then ended a 3-8 season with a 38-14 crushing of the Longhorns.
"It was tough on us mentally, but we hung in there," Field said of the close losses that year. "I believe in my heart that that 1978 team set us up for the 1979 and '80 seasons."
Field, who still ranks seventh all-time in career tackles (330) and third in assists (166), had a career-high 119 tackles during that pivotal 1978 season. But, the best was yet to come.
Going undefeated at home, the Bears capped off an 8-4 season in 1979 with a 24-18 upset of 18
th-ranked Clemson in the Peach Bowl. Field recorded a team-best 17 tackles in the bowl game and had a game-clinching interception with seconds left.
Starting the 1980 season unranked, the Bears won their first seven games, including a dramatic come-from-behind 32-28 victory over SMU and a 46-7 dismantling of Texas A&M. At 7-0, with a Homecoming date looking against Arkansas, Baylor was ranked 10
th nationally and had
Sports Illustrated coming to town to feature Singletary and the "Rodney Dangerfields of college football."
The only blemish during an otherwise perfect regular season was a 30-22 loss at home to San Jose State.
"We were rolling, cruising, and the next thing you know we were in a dogfight," Field said. "I remember Gerald Wilhite, who played in the NFL for a while, was running down the sidelines. Vann (McElroy) goes up, the ball hits his shoulder pads, pops up in the air, and Wilhite runs under it and scores a touchdown.
"That (loss) knocked us down a little bit, but kind of made us mad. We had Arkansas the next week and just blew them out (42-15). We shut out Texas, 16-0, in the final game of the regular season, and I don't think they even made it past midfield until late in the third quarter."
Earning consensus All-SWC honors, Field had 79 tackles that season with three interceptions, two fumble recoveries and a blocked kick.
Embarrassed by a second-ranked Alabama team, 45-0, the year before, the Bears drew Bear Bryant's Crimson Tide again in the Cotton Bowl and lost, 30-2.
"It was a huge disappointment," Field said. "I'm convinced, had we beaten San Jose State, we would have played somebody other than Alabama in the Cotton Bowl. And I think from a mental standpoint, an intimidation factor, we would have probably hit the field with a lot more confidence. Their second and third teams were nearly as good as their starters. And if you get in a dogfight with them, they're probably going to outlast you."
Field said he took it as "a little bit of consolation" when Alabama linebackers E.J. Junior and Thomas Boyd told him the '79 game was "the hardest game we played all year. We were black and blue after that game. The score didn't matter. You guys hit us harder and ran at us harder and didn't give up."
Selected in the seventh round of the 1981 NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles, Field played one season with the St. Louis Cardinals and then three seasons in the USFL with the Chicago Blitz, Arizona Wranglers and Birmingham Stallions before retiring in 1985 following a serious injury.
"After I had already taken a job with Southwestern Bell, the Kansas City Chiefs called and said they wanted me to come to training camp that summer," he said. "I'm sitting there thinking, 'Do I want to give it one more shot?' I just couldn't move as well with this stiff ankle, so I made the decision that it was time for me to get on with my life."
Doak and his wife, Karen, lived in Boerne for nearly 30 years before buying a small ranch overlooking Lake Buchanan and have another small ranch between Burnet and Lampasas.
"I'm kind of a drugstore cowboy – all hat and no cattle," Doak joked.
They have two daughters, Caroline and Katy, one son, Doak, and three grandsons.
"Having watched Andrew Melontree go in last year, and the dynamics of that whole ceremony, that's going to be very emotional for me," Field said. "I'm a pretty emotional guy anyway. Much more so than most linebackers probably should be. I probably could have made more tackles if I had been less emotional."
Joining Field in the 2022 class are Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Robert Griffin III, Gary Kafer and Quentin Iglehart-Summers from track and field, plus Jeremy Alcorn (men's golf), Taylor Barnes Fallon (volleyball), Tweety Carter (men's basketball) and Josh Ludy (baseball).
The 2022 Hall of Fame banquet is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18, in the Cashion Building Banquet Room on the Baylor University campus. Tickets are $50 per person, with table sponsorships also available at the green ($600) and gold ($800) levels and can be purchased by contacting the "B" Association at 254-710-3045 or by email at
tammy_hardin@baylor.edu.
