A Taco Flats Love Story by Randy McEachern
The first time I met Jenna was in 1974, at a bar off of North Lamar called Hectorβs Taco Flats. She was a Texas cheerleader, and I was a lowly freshman quarterback. Jenna saw me sitting in the corner, nursing a beer, and told the owner, Hector Alvarrado, βThat kidβs gonna get you arrested. Thereβs no way heβs 18 years old.β
Six years later, in 1980, we were married. The daughter of a prominent high school football coach, Jenna was beautiful, smart, articulate, and she knew football. Sheβd spent many hours at UTβs athletic offices visiting with Coach Royal and Coach Ellington, and working with Jones Ramsey and Bill Little in the Sports Information Department.
Almost two decades later, Bill tapped Jenna to edit One Heartbeat: A Philosophy of Teamwork, Life, and Leadership, One Heartbeat II, and several other books heβd written on Longhorn sports. In 2006, she and Bill compiled What it Means to be a Longhorn, a collection of stories of some of Texasβ best players from the 1930s through 2005. Just before the 2010 football season, Triumph Books asked Bill to write a book about Texas football. He replied that he was far too busy during the season to write a book, and suggested that Triumph ask Jenna to write it. The resulting book was 100 Things Longhorn Fans Need to Know and Do Before They Die.
One sunny afternoon in 2009, Jenna was reading on our front porch. Edith Royal drove into our driveway, walked up to the porch holding a folder full of the letters that kids had written Coach Royal during his twenty-year tenure as UTβs head football coach. βI donβt know what we can do with these, but letβs do something with them.β Jenna and Edithβs collaboration resulted in the book that Jenna is most proud of: DKR: The Royal Scrapbook. Her love for The University, for Coach and Edith Royal, and for the history of Longhorn football is reflected in that labor of love.
Coach Ken Dabbs always told me Iβd out-kicked my coverage when I married Jenna, and he was right. Iβm awfully proud of her accomplishments as a wife, mother, and author.
Randy McEachern
The oral history as told through the Eyes of Texas Jenna McEachern is below
Jenna Hays McEachern grew up in the world of football. She is the daughter of a successful Texas high school football coach, and both of her brothers played on his teams while she cheered from the sidelines. Sheβs been a Longhorn fan since she was nine years old and made her first pilgrimage to Austin.
Jenna studied photojournalism at The University of Texas, and also majored in being a UT cheerleader. She worked for Jones Ramsey and Bill Little as editor and go-fer in the Sports Information Department, and later edited βOne Heartbeat β A Philosophy of Teamwork, Life and Leadershipβ and for βOne Heartbeat II β The Road to the National Championshipβ, both written by Mack Brown and Bill Little.
Little and McEachern collaborated on βWhat It Means to be a Longhornβ, a collection of oral histories of some of Texasβ greatest players. Her second effort, β100 Things Longhorns Should Know and Do Before They Dieβ was published by Triumph Books in 2008. βDKR: The Royal Scrapbookβ, by McEachern and Edith Royal, was published by University of Texas Press in August 2012.
McEachern was named one of 125 "Extraordinary Exes" during the Ex-Students' Association's 125th Anniversary. She is married to former Longhorn quarterback Randy McEachern. They still live in Austin, where they reared three near-flawless children β Bailey, Hays, and Lester Simmons.
Longhorn Nation; Texas Greatest Players Talk about Longhorns
Football
By Bill Little; Jenna Hays McEachern
Triumph Books; Copyright 2015
Longhorn Nation is a quick and entertaining introduction to University of Texas Football from a playerβs perspective. It covers a tremendous amount of territory from 1930s to the 2005 National Championship. Sandwiched in the accounts are transitions from one Coach to another, from war to peace, from I-formation to the Wishbone. All of these events are told by the people (players) who were in the middle of them.
There are not two people better qualified to pull this type of book together than Bill and Jenna. Bill is a longtime member of the Staff of the University of Texas Athletics Department. Jenna is an ex-University Texas Cheerleader, an author of several books on University of Texas athletics and wife of an ex-University of Texas Quarterback, Randy McEachern.
What I find most interesting in this book are the hidden gems of information, the ways the game has changed over the years. For example, in the early years, there were no scholarship limits on schools such as UT where now there are strict limits. As players recount their experiences you can trace how these policy changes impacted the recruiting process and how they made their decisions to join the Longhorns.
Competition for specific recruits could be intense. In some cases recruits had made up their minds when they were six years old. Others made their final decision literally in the final days. Coaches (high school and college), parents, girl friends, high school teammates, alumni, academics, Austin culture, all played a role in the final decision. Indeed, the final decision was as much of a surprise to the player was it was to the recruiter or his parents.
The introductions by Darrell Royal and Mack Brown were particularly insightful and in some cases hilarious. Mack Brown quoted Coach Royal as telling him when he first came to campus βIβm too old for a regular job, but Iβll help you where I canβ. Being recently retired I certainly can identify with that perspective.
I found Earl Campbellβs story the funniest and in a way the most genuine. Specifically he was truly flabbergasted by the entire recruiting process and hoopla surrounding him, the team, and the Heisman Trophy process.
Not surprisingly what stands out in the stories told over the decades is the loyalty players have to specific Coaches (especially the ones who recruited them), Coach Royal in particular, and the influence Coaches have in their lives (for example Coach Brown). Other members of the staff also had a profound impact on players, trainers, equipment managers, and one stand out person, Sally Brown, Coach Brownβs wife.
It goes without saying that many of the players interviewed for this book have formed long, lasting relationships that have lasted years and in some cases decades based on deep, shared experiences. You truly have to read this book to understand, as a non-player, the depth of the feelings players have for each other and their experiences.
As one might expect of a book of this type it is focused primarily on the positive experiences the players had during their time at the University. Some players had the opportunity to be critical of their experience or the University, but largely they were able to place their feelings in the context of what they were able to build on from their time at the University to improve their lives and those around them.
DKR: The Royal Scrapbook
by Jenna McEachern with Edith Royal
September, 2012
University of Texas Press
ISBN: 978-0-292-70493-0
McEachern, Jenna Hays with Edith Royal. DKR The Royal Scrapbook University of Texas Press- Austin, Tx.- Front Cover courtesy Athletics Department University of Oklahoma. Book Designed by Derek George. Front flap courtesy University of Texas Sports Photography Department, and the back flap courtesy Royal Family Archives.
Decades after his last game in 1976, Darrell K Royal remains βThe Coach,β the winningest football coach in University of Texas history. Royal is still revered as βa coach who would rather lose a game than engage in unsportsmanlike tactics; who would neither make excuses for losing nor brag about winning..." in the words of the City of Austinβs βDarrell Royal Dayβ proclamation. DKR offers an intimate, insiderβs view of the private life of the man behind the legend through an extraordinary collection of never-before-published photographs, letters, newspaper clippings, football ephemera, recollections, and βRoyalismsβ lovingly preserved by Edith, Royalβs wife of more than sixty-five years.
100 Things Longhorn Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die
by Jenna Hays McEachern
Triumph Books -- July 1, 2008
ISBN-10: 160078108X
ISBN-13: 978-1600781087
The University of Texas was legislated to be great. The 1876 Constitution of the State of Texas directed the legislature to establish a "University of the first classβ¦styled 'The University of Texas'."
That same legislature made the Agricultural and Mechanical college [Texas A&M] a branch of The University (then called the "Main University").
Those are only two of the 100 Things a true Longhorn fan must commit to memory. From the history of The University to the details of our four national championships, "100 Things" is the ultimate bucket list of whatβs important about the Horns.
"Without question, "100 THINGS" is THE definitive guide to acquiring the TRUE HEART, SOUL, and MIND of a great LONGHORNS FAN."
McEachern, Jenna Hays. 100 things Longhorns Fans Should Know & Do Before the Die. Triumph Books, Chicago 2008
What It Means To Be A Longhorn
Edited by Bill Little and Jenna McEachern
Triumph Books, August 1, 2007
ISBN-10: 1572439513
ISBN-13: 978-1572439511
Forewords by Darrell K Royal and Mack Brown set the tone for this unprecedented collection of stories, thoughts, and memories of some of Texas' best football players.
There is a common thread that runs through all of the stories. In choosing Texas, each of these "boys" had the courage to challenge himself to compete with the best and against the best. To a man, they were challenged and changed forever by this tradition, this place, this "University of the first class."
From Howard Terry, who played in the 30s, to Earl Campbell, UTβs first Heisman Trophy winner, to Vince Young, commander of the 2005 National Championship team, these men tell compelling stories of the spirit of Texas, the expectations of excellence, the pride of having worn the burnt orange and white.
"Sit back and prepare to see how over the years, The University of Texas has impacted lives. While the crux of this is supposed to be just about football players, you quickly realize that this book transcends football and really touches how U.T. Austin impacts lives." - Jason Bronstad, Amazon.com Customer Reviews
One Heartbeat edited by Jenna McEachern
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