Oct. 29, 2003
This is another "B" Line column, a collection of news items of particular interest to members of the Baylor "B" Association. Contribute news about you or your teammates via e-mail to Lee Harrington (leenelaine@281.com), Dutch Schroeder (Dutch_Schroeder@baylor.edu), Reba Cooper (Reba_Cooper@baylor.edu) or Jack Loftis (Jack.Loftis@chron.com). The mailing address is Baylor "B" Association, P. O. Box 8120, Waco, TX 76714.
It doesn't dwell in one's mind like a near-death experience, but just lingers there alongside such memories as missing the lottery by one number or forgetting to vote for your steady the time she ran for Homecoming Queen.
The recurring thought dates back almost 40 years - to Nov. 9, 1963, to be precise. The site was Memorial Stadium in Austin and the cold, wet conditions that plagued Baylor and Texas that afternoon would have made sportswriter Grantland Rice's classic "blue-gray sky" lead sound like he had just witnessed a Day-Glo painting.
The moment was The Interception, so special that over the years it has earned capitalization. With 29 seconds left in the game and the No. 1-ranked Longhorns leading, 7-0, Baylor quarterback Don Trull passed from the UT 19-yard line into the end zone where teammate Lawrence Elkins appeared to have eluded coverage.
But as if he had appeared from a magician's hat, Longhorn Duke Carlisle stepped in front of Elkins for an unbelievable interception. End of game and another step toward Texas' eventual national championship.
Elkins, who was honored at Floyd Casey Stadium on Saturday as the Game Day Legacy Player, says he told Trull in the huddle that when he ran to the outside UT defensive back Joe Dixon had been moving up too fast. The pair reasoned that a quick move by Elkins toward the middle might result in a touchdown.
'I'm beat! I'm beat!" . . .
Talking about the game years later Carlisle, who had played defense that day for the first time during the 1963 season, said he could still hear Dixon's shouts: "I'm beat! I'm beat!" With another receiver lined up inside Elkins, it was Carlisle's responsibility to cover the decoy as he also moved toward the middle - theoretically leaving Elkins free to make the catch.
"I saw Elkins bending back toward me," Carlisle told reporters immediately after the game. "I didn't have far to go to get to the ball. I didn't watch him after the ball was in the air. I knew he had a chance for it, but I knew I had a chance, too."
Recalling the play on the eve of Friday's reunion of the 1963 Baylor team that went 8-3 and defeated LSU 14-7 in the Bluebonnet Bowl, Elkins also credited UT defensive lineman Staley Faulkner for his role in the dramatic Carlisle interception. "He was in Trull's face," Elkins said. "And that forced Don to throw the ball a little high."
The play came so close to being successful that Longhorn coach Darrell Royal said afterward, "My only thought was 'Will they go for two?'" And Elkins says it is likely Baylor coach John Bridgers would have gone for the win.
After Elkins helped Brownwood win its first state championship in 1960 he was recruited by a number of universities, including Texas, Rice and Baylor.
Elkins said no Baylor coach ever came to visit him in Brownwood, but Royal himself was the UT representative. "He came to our house and played dominoes with my daddy," Elkins said.
Baylor was a fit . . .
However, it was Brownwood coach Gordon Wood who convinced Elkins that Baylor and Bridgers' pro-style offense might best utilize Elkins' skills as a receiver. And how true that was.
During the 1963 season Elkins set a NCAA record with 70 receptions for a total of 873 yards. Current Baylor records show Elkins ranking third in career receptions (144) behind Reggie Newhouse (183) and Gerald McNeil (163).
A consensus All-American in 1963 and 1964, Elkins appeared in the Hula Bowl and the East-West Shrine Game and was a No. 1 draft pick by the Green Bay Packers. But that was during the professional football money wars and Elkins wound up playing four years for the Houston Oilers of the upstart American Football League.
He was inducted into the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame in 1976, the Texas High School Hall of Fame in 1987 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1993.
Today Elkins lives in Saudi Arabia, where he works for the Ministry of Water and Electricity. In addition to his weekend in Waco, Elkins used his trip back home to help celebrate 1960 teammate Ronney Moore's (he played his college football at Texas A&M) induction into the Gordon Wood Hall of Champions in Brownwood.
"I also went fishing," he said. "It's tough to find a fishing hole in the Saudi desert."
(The "B" Line column is produced by Jack Loftis, editor emeritus of The Houston Chronicle and chairman of the Baylor "B" Association Communications Committee.)
