FLIPPING THE SWITCH
By Larry Carlson
Tom Campbell is in his element this summer afternoon, talking football. The man can tell a damn good story. The easy drawl, the timing, the breaks punctuated by chuckles. It's all there. Terrific tales told by a dude who has had good reason to polish his stories. When you're the Longhorn responsible for two of the biggest defensive plays in the burnt orange family album, you're going to get asked to hit rewind pretty often.
Campbell, naturally, has been queried just a few thousand times about what it felt like to crush the hearts of Razorbacks and set Irish eyes to crying with late interceptions on 12/6/69 and 1/1/70 but he owns plenty of other stories to talk about. Like the one about an opposing player who turned out to be a life changer for Campbell, late in his junior year of 1968, his first season as a starter. In the accompanying interview to this sidebar article, I had asked Tom to name someone who might have been the best, most memorable offensive player he faced. He named an largely forgotten TCU tight end but added, "...except I didn't have to face him." He then said it was too long a story but that the player mentioned had indeed changed Campbell's life.
That response called for a follow-up after the original planned interview. I expected that perhaps TCU's Bill Ferguson had led Campbell, off the field, into a religious experience or perhaps a dynamic business opportunity after their playing days.
It was even better.
Campbell, laughing often, recounts the early parts of the '68 season. The former walk-on was now a second-teamer, and had set a goal to just never be demoted to third team. But after a season-opening tie against Houston, he was astonished to see the depth chart showing him promoted to the starting job at left outside linebacker. He did not disappoint.
"I got better and better each week," Tom recalls, after saying he had never dreamed of starting at Texas where his father, Mike Campbell was the dominant defensive mind of college football, Darrell Royal's most trusted assistant.
After the Houston tie and a road loss to Texas Tech, a win streak that would reach thirty was born. By mid-November the Horns were riding high, having whipped Baylor for their sixth straight triumph. But Tom Campbell wasn't celebrating that Saturday evening after beating the Bears.
"I hardly slept," he remembers. Campbell knew that TCU had a tight end, Bill Ferguson, who was demonstrably bigger and faster than most. "This guy was an animal. He was about 6-4, maybe 6-5, and 230 or 240, He played baseball, too," Campbell adds, telling me that he, at about 182 pounds, felt no apprehension in dealing with the average tight end of 200-205 pounds. "I could handle that," he says, "but all I could think of was 'Bill Ferguson is gonna kill me.'
"All day Sunday and Monday, all I'm thinking is, 'I'm gonna DIE. He's gonna kill me and we're gonna lose.'
As the players filed in for the team's regular Monday meeting before practice, Campbell continued to haunted by the thought that TCU's offensive coaches would be sending big, bad Bill Ferguson to his side every play, avoiding the other outside linebacker, Corby Robertson, a 200-pounder who had earned All-America honors as a junior in '67.
When the meeting began, Tom's father, "Iron Mike" Campbell, addressed the defense.
"Men, we're gonna do something different this week," is the way Tom recalls the introductory words. "He looked at me, and said 'Tom, whatever side 82 (Ferguson) goes to, I want you to go to the other side."
Campbell pauses his story to only half-stifle a burgeoning belly laugh, then continues.
"And I said in my mind..."This man is a GENIUS!" Now Campbell can no longer control his own laughter that gets almost drowned out by mine.
And with that, the rover position was born, a position that Coach Mike Campbell would utilize the rest of his coaching career. Tom was suddenly protecting more against the pass than the run. Texas stomped TCU in Fort Worth, 47-21, with Campbell picking off a Horned Frog pass, Then he added another interception when the Longhorns crushed A&M to close out the regular season. In the Cotton Bowl, rover Tom Campbell swiped two Tennessee passes in the 36-13 victory, hauling away the Defensive MVP award.
Some years after the Campbell-Ferguson duel that didn't happen, Tom was living and working in Corpus Christi, Ferguson's hometown. One of Campbell's associates who had heard his story of the life-changing matchup that never came off, brought the two together over beers with a number of Ferguson's friends. Naturally, Tom was asked to regale Bill and his buddies with the nightmare scenario he had feared, and the coaching maneuver that the senior Campbell concocted to prevent any purple problems for the UT defense. A good time, as they say, was had by all at the sudsy reunion.
But back to Campbell's career, blossoming after a stellar junior season and Cotton Bowl accolades. Tom recollects being approached in the spring of '69 by one of UT's defensive assistants who thought he might have a bit of a compliment for the rover.
"He said, 'Y'know, you're faster than what we thought you were. We think maybe you could play defensive back.
"I was a little insulted. They always thought the Campbell boys were slow. I looked at my Dad's assistant and said, "Maybe everyone else is just slower than you thought.
"He just turned around and walked off."
Write to Larry Carlson at lc13@txstate.edu
Campbell laughs again, relishing the recount. The man who would lead the conference in interceptions and forever cause sleep deprivation for Bill Montgomery and Joe Theismann has uncharacteristically elected a vast understatement to accentuate the obvious end to another memorable tale.
"So that spring, I started playing left defensive back."
He pauses just a second, then makes his break to the ball.
"It worked out really well for me. It really did."
Then, another herd of chuckles.
As usual, Tom Campbell has the last laugh. Just ask Arkansas and Notre Dame.
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