Frank Broyles (left) and Darrell Royal,
Memorial Stadium, Austin, 1976
December 4, 1976: In front of a national television audience on ABC, the University of Texas football team defeats the University of Arkansas, 29-12 at Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas. The stadium will later be renamed for Texas' head coach, Darrell Royal.
It was the last game for Royal as the Longhorns' coach. Hired in 1957, he had won National Championships for them in 1963 and 1969, and 11 Southwest Conference Championships. But they finished the season 5-5-1, and it felt like other teams were catching up to his. Even though he was just 52 years old, he felt it was time to move on -- and a lot of Longhorn fans came to that conclusion before he did.
It was also the last game for Frank Broyles as head coach at Arkansas. Hired in 1958, he had won a share of the National Championship in 1964, and 7 Southwest Conference titles. Officially, Broyles led the Razorbacks to the SWC title outright in 1960, 1964 and 1965; Royal led the Longhorns to i outright in 1962, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973; they shared the SWC title in 1959, 1961, 1968 and 1975.
Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, seat of the UA system, is 525 miles northeast of what's now named Darrell K Royal-Memorial Stadium in Austin, UT's seat. (Like President Harry S Truman, Royal's middle name was just an initial, without a period after it.) Texas won the game between them in 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1976. Arkansas won in 1960, 1964, 1965, 1966 and 1971, giving Royal a 13-5 advantage. Overall, through the 2022 season, Texas leads, 56-23. (UPDATE: Through 2025, the Longhorns lead, 58-23.)
Despite their on-field rivalry, Royal and Broyles were close friends, probably due to their similarities. They were born 6 months apart in 1924. Both were Southerners, but not from the State where they would do their most famous coaching: Royal from Hollis, Oklahoma, Broyles from Decatur, Georgia. Both were quarterbacks in college, themselves trained by a Hall of Fame coach, but not at a school they would later coach: Royal by Bud Wilkinson at Oklahoma (another major rival for Texas, along with Texas A&M), Broyles by Bobby Dodd at Georgia Tech.
They famously agreed to move their 1969 game to the last week of the regular season, to get a national audience on ABC. When Number 1 Ohio State were upset by Michigan 2 weeks earlier, that made Texas Number 1 and Arkansas Number 2, and their game, for the SWC title, a berth in the Cotton Bowl, and the inside track to the National Championship, became one of a few college football games to gain the headline "Game of the Century." Texas came from 14-0 down to win, 15-14, and beat Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl to win the National Championship.
Both men continued to serve as their school's athletic director for a while: Royal until 1980, Broyles until 2007. Royal lived until 2012, Broyles until 2017.
Frank Broyles (left) and Darrell Royal,
Darrel K Royal Memorial Stadium, Austin, 2008
Arkansas left the Southwest Conference for the Southeastern Conference in 1990. In 1996, the SWC folded, and Texas joined the Big 12 Conference. In 2021, Texas made a deal to join the SEC for the 2024 season.
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December 4, 1976 was a Saturday. Betty Lennox, the basketball player known as "Betty Big Buckets" for her baskets that helped the Seattle Storm win the 2004 WNBA Championship, was born.
There were 3 other college football games that day. Unlike Texas vs. Arkansas, where, unusually, neither team was nationally ranked, at least 1 team was in each of the other games, including 3 other Texas teams then in the SWC:
* Number 6 University of Houston beat the University of Miami, 21-16 at the Astrodome in Houston. UH had lost to Arkansas, but beaten Texas, and won the SWC title. Despite this, only 20,849 fans came to see this game. Coach Bill Yeoman's Cougars stayed Number 6, and beat Number 4 Maryland in the Cotton Bowl, to finish 10-2 and ranked Number 4.
* Number 9 Texas Tech beat Number 18 Baylor, 24-21 at Clifford B. and Audrey Jones Stadium (now Galaxy Stadium) in Lubbock, Texas. Officially, Tech tied Houston for the SWC title, Technically (pun intended, UH won it by beating Tech in Lubbock 2 weeks earlier.
* And Number 13 Nebraska beat Hawaii, 68-3 at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu. Only 33,737 saw that game, unlike in 1982, when Nebraska brought 16,000 fans to Aloha Stadium, and boosted the attendance to 46,876. Nebraska went on to beat Texas Tech in the Bluebonnet Bowl at the Astrodome. (It's 539 miles from the Tech campus to the Astrodome, so it's not like being in the same State gave Tech any real home-field advantage.)
There were 2 NFL games on the day. The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Baltimore Colts, 24-17 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. And the Los Angeles Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, 59-0 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Falcons finished 4-10, fired head coach Marion Campbell, then hired Leeman Bennett. With his "Gritz Blitz" defense, they improved to 7-7 in 1977, and made the Playoffs in 3 of the next 5 years.
Baseball was out of season. There were 7 games in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 103-96 at Madison Square Garden.
* The New York Nets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 107-105 at The Omni in Atlanta.
* The Washington Bullets beat the Denver Nuggets, 100-95 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.
* The Houston Rockets beat the Indiana Pacers, 120-108 at The Summit in Houston. It's now the Central Campus of
televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.
* The Chicago Bulls beat the New Orleans Jazz, 107-99 at the Chicago Stadium. As usual, the Jazz were a one-man show: "Pistol" Pete Maravich scored 34 points, but no other player scored more than 16.
* The Golden State Warriors beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, 116-114 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Jamaal Wilkes scored 31 points. Having already won an NBA Championship with the Warriors, he would win 3 more with the Lakers.
* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 112-108 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.
There were 6 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers beat the Minnesota North Stars, 11-4 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis
suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. It was actually only 2-2 until 5:13 left in the 1st period, but the Broadway Blues took off from there. Rod Gilbert had 2 goals and 3 assists. Don Murdoch had 2 goals and 2 assists. Ken Hodge had a goal and 3 assists. Wayne Dillon had 3 assists. Even North Star legend Bill Goldsworthy had a goal for the Rangers.
* The New York Islanders beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-0 at the Nassau Coliseum.
* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-1 at the Montreal Forum.
* The Chicago Black Hawks and the Toronto Maple Leafs played to a tie, 2-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
* The Atlanta Flames beat the St. Louis Blues, 1-0 at the St. Louis Arena.
* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-1 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood,
California.
There were 3 games in the World Hockey Association:
* The Winnipeg Jets beat the New England Whalers, 6-2 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena)
in Hartford, Connecticut.
* The Indianapolis Racers beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-3 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.
* And the San Diego Mariners beat the Phoenix Roadrunners, 4-3 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.
And in English soccer, Arsenal defeated Newcastle United, 5-3 at the Arsenal Stadium, nicknamed Highbury for its North London neighborhood. Arsenal had just signed Malcolm Macdonald from Newcastle, and on a frozen field following a snowstorm that week, he scored 3 goals against his former team. He hadn't wanted to leave, and Newcastle fans knew that, so when he ran over to their traveling support after the game, they cheered him as much as the Arsenal fans did.
