Billy Glass Jr. didn’t want to follow in his dad’s footsteps. But after visiting a couple other schools, “I quickly came to the conclusion that I wanted to go to Baylor.”

“It had to do with the coaches there,” he said. “I liked Coach (Grant) Teaff. They had a line coach named Bill Young, who I thought was a great coach. But what I didn’t know was John O’Hara was there. He ended up being a great offensive line coach for me when Bill Yung left. I learned a great deal from Coach O’Hara.”

A three-year letterman who played offensive guard for the Bears (1977-79), Glass will be honored at Saturday’s game as a Baylor Legend.

“I haven’t been very involved with Baylor football since I left. I was involved in raising my family and trying to make a living and building my business,” he said. “I was really shocked (when “B” Association executive director Walter Abercrombie called). I was just honored. When Walter called, I was like, ‘Wow!’’’

Glass was part of a turnaround at Baylor that saw the Bears beat both Texas A&M and Texas at the end of the 1978 season before going 8-4 and beating Clemson, 24-18, in the 1979 Peach Bowl.

“A lot of years have gone by. I can’t remember the exact things going on,” he said. “I just know that Coach Teaff and that whole staff was all about working. Coaches always want to take the blame, but when the players are making silly mistakes, the players at some point have to take some responsibility. We ended up turning it around, and I think it was because we just corrected a lot of the mental mistakes we were making.”

During his Baylor years, he was surrounded by a talented cast that included future Pro and College Football Hall of Fame linebacker Mike Singletary, NFL running backs Frank Pollard, Greg Hawthorne, Dennis Gentry and Abercrombie and talented offensive linemen like Rell Tipton, Gary Gregory, Keith Bishop and Frank Ditta.

“We just had a great group of guys there, a lot of talent, and Coach Teaff allowed us to have fun,” Glass said. “A lot of coaches are so business-oriented that they never let the players have a good time. I had a great time at Baylor.”

A fourth-round draft pick by Cincinnati in 1980, Glass spent one season with the Bengals before getting hurt during training camp the next year and being released. He was picked up by Cleveland, but when the Browns said they didn’t pay signing bonuses, “I told them, ‘Well, I think I’ll just go home.’’’

Married by that time, Billy went to work in the commercial real estate business with another former Baylor football player at Hank Dickerson & Company in Dallas.

“I can’t tell you how many people he mentored,” Glass said. “You could just go down the list of all the great real estate people in the city. I thought about leaving Mr. Dickerson and going back to get my degree, but I knew I might not ever get that chance to be around such a great group of real estate guys. You talk about a blessing. I got to go play football at Baylor and I got to go to work with Mr. Hank Dickerson.”

That began a 35-year career that saw Glass start his own commercial real estate business at one point. He now serves as president of Gentry Mills Capital in Dallas.

Billy and his wife, Laura (Reynolds), who he met in an English class at Baylor, have three grown sons, Billy Ray, Mathew and Joshua and two grandchildren. He has been on the board of directors for Special Olympics in Texas for the last eight years and is chairman of a capital campaign to raise money for a new building in Austin.

“It’s exciting to see this real resurgence and interest from alumni, just because everybody is so excited about what (football coach Art) Briles has done and everything that’s going on at Baylor,” Glass said. “The campus, the facilities – I remember them playing their basketball games at the Heart O’ Texas Coliseum. Now, we have a beautiful basketball facility and a new football stadium. What great tools to recruit with.”