(This is the third part in a series profiling the 2020 and 2021 inductees for the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame and Wall of Honor. The features will be posted at baylorbears.com in the weeks leading up to the Oct. 29 induction ceremony. Also, listen for Hall of Fame interviews with "Voice of the Bears" John Morris on ESPN Central Texas each Thursday afternoon from 2-3 p.m.)
 
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Sitting on a boat in the middle of Aransas Bay, former Baylor quarterback Brad Goebel found out he had a big one on the line.
            After missing a second call from Baylor Associate AD Walter Abercrombie, he knew something was up. "I thought it must be something urgent," Goebel said. "I had no idea why he was calling."
            Abercrombie was calling to give him the news that Goebel had been elected to the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame as part of the 2020 class.
            "I felt like I had a 30-inch trout on my line when he told me," Goebel said. "That was the last thing on my mind."
            When he left Baylor after an injury-shortened senior season in 1990, Goebel held school records for pass completions (375) and attempts (730) and ranked No. 2 in career yards passing with 5,026, behind only Cody Carlson (5,411).
            In the last 30 years, Goebel has fallen to 10^th on the career list, supplanted by the likes of Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III (10,366), four-year starter Charlie Brewer (9,700) and two-time Big 12 champion Bryce Petty (8,195).
            "Baylor has had so many great quarterbacks play after me," Goebel said. "Of course, I was up in the record books early on, but I got pushed down, pushed down. Offenses have changed from when we played, so I didn't really think too much of it. I just didn't feel like I had much of a chance, but I'm extremely grateful and very humbled."
            Coming from a tradition-rich Cuero High School program, Goebel remembers watching the Gobblers win back-to-back state championships in 1973 and '74.
            "It was instilled in me early on what that meant and the tradition and winning and being part of a great program," he said.
            More than a decade later, Goebel was the quarterback when Cuero lost to a powerhouse Daingerfield team in the 1985 Class 3A final. Recruited by every Southwest Conference school, along with LSU, his final decision came down between Baylor and Texas A&M.
            "It wasn't like this early recruiting like they have now. When the football season was over, after we went to the state finals, that was when I started to get a lot of attention," he said. "Baylor was really the first one on me. Ultimately, it was just Baylor University and Coach (Robert) James and Coach (Cotton) Davidson and Coach (Grant) Teaff. I liked the offense they were running with a lot of one-back stuff, and I kind of saw myself fitting into the offense after Cody left."
            Sitting behind Carlson while redshirting in 1986, Goebel said he learned a lot from Carlson and then-offensive coordinator Duke Christian. The Bears recorded their second-straight nine-win season that year and beat Colorado in the Bluebonnet Bowl.
            When starting quarterback Ed Lovell suffered a knee injury in the first quarter of the season-opening game in 1987, Teaff turned to an unproven redshirt freshman.
            "Really, it was one of those deals where you don't think about it," Goebel said. "You're thrust in there, you don't have time to think about it, you just go in there and play."
            A teenager when the season started, Goebel completed 158-of-305 passes for 2,178 yards – which still stands as Baylor's freshman record – in leading the Bears to a 6-5 record. He earned consensus All-SWC honors in a year that featured future Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware at Houston, longtime NFL veteran Billy Joe Tolliver at Texas Tech and Bret Stafford at Texas.
            "I really liked that offense," said Goebel, who played under three different coordinators in his four seasons. "It was a lot of one-back and no-back and we did a lot of motion and different formations. It was just a good offense for me."
            Despite missing a few games over the next two seasons because of injuries, Goebel was on pace to shatter Carlson's passing records before suffering a broken hand in the fourth game of his senior season.
            "I just could never really finish out a whole season," he said. "I'd miss a game or two here and there. And then my senior year, obviously, very disappointing not being able to play a lot that season. Chuck Reedy had come in, and I liked the offense. J.J. (Joe) came in after I got hurt, and kind of the same thing, had success then and continued to have success after me. Injuries are just part of the game, it gives other guys opportunities."
            That played out again a year later when an undrafted rookie free agent started two games for the Philadelphia Eagles after Randall Cunningham and Jim McMahon both suffered injuries.
            "I wasn't ready, just too early on in my career for that," Goebel said. "I did OK, but I wish it would have happened later in my career where I would have had more time and more experience. I ended up playing five or six games as a rookie with the Eagles. We ended up with a 10-6 record that year, but missed the playoffs.
            Traded to Cleveland the next year, Goebel spent three years with the Browns and a first-time head coach named Bill Belichick.
            "I didn't really know anything about Bill Belichick at the time other than him being the defensive coordinator with the New York Giants under (Bill) Parcells," Goebel said of Belichick, who has since won six Super Bowl titles with the New England Patriots. "I didn't play a lot, but he liked me and kept me around for three years. He felt like I was a guy he could count on. I remember many times when he said, 'Just be ready, I'm going to need you.'
            "My NFL career was one of just working hard and hoping that my name wasn't called on the cutdown days. I was kind of dodging the Grim Reaper, it seemed like."
            After spending part of the 1995 season with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Goebel hung it up and returned to Texas. He and his wife, Kristi, are part of a real estate team with Horseshoe Bay Resort Realty near Austin.
            "With the (COVID-19) pandemic, I would never have expected us to be as busy as (we were in 2020)," said Brad, who consistently ranks among the area's top producers. "People feel they can live wherever they want to live now and work out of their houses, and maybe they just feel safer out here right now. Something is going on, and people are discovering this area."
            Brad has a 22-year-old daughter, Kylie, who graduated from Texas State, and he coaches his 11-year-old son, Gage, in baseball.
            "He's all into baseball," said Brad, who dreamed of playing pro baseball until blossoming on the football gridiron. "I told him, 'Hey, if you want to play football, just let me know,' but I'm not pushing it early on. He's been pitching and having success playing baseball. I can just see more and more, as the years go by, how he's growing and how his intensity is a lot like mine."
            This year's Hall of Fame banquet and induction ceremony will be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 29, in the Brazos Room at the Waco Convention Center and will honor the 2020 and 2021 classes.
Banquet tickets cost $50 per person, with table sponsorships also available for $600 (green) and $800 (gold), and can be purchased by contacting the "B" Association at 254-710-3045 or by email at Tammy_Hardin@baylor.edu.
 
NEXT UP
Thursday, Sept. 2: Jason Smith, football (2020 Class)