I’ve often been asked, “Who was the best athlete ever at Brownwood High School?” and without hesitation I always say Lawrence Elkins – and I still say that. But, a year prior to Elkins, there was an athlete at Brownwood that not many people knew because he probably didn’t get the notoriety that Elkins did, probably because he was a lineman and not a receiver. His name was Robert Young. That’s the only thing I ever knew him as. Later on in life he became known as Bob Young. He was an all NFL offensive lineman for both the St. Louis Cardinals and the Denver Broncos and later on coached in the NFL.
He was in my graduating class. The fact is, I was one of the weaklings of the class but Robert (very big) and I got to know each other because we lived practically next to each other when we were in grade school. So, he was one of my protectors. If someone wanted to get to me, they to go through Robert, and no one could. He was a very big guy, but he was also a heck of an athlete too. Fact is, Robert Young, in the spring of 1960, was the first high school athlete in his classification in Texas ever to throw the shot over sixty feet. He did it at the State Track Meet in Austin.
But, what I want to talk about is his prowess in football. He was recruited by The University of Texas and Darrell Royal and he went there in the summer of 1960. Now, at that time, freshmen were not allowed to play on the varsity. So, you had a freshman team and you had a varsity team. Robert goes to UT as a freshman, and at the end of practice one day, the freshman were doing wind sprints. They would do sprints with the linemen and then do sprints with the backs and receivers. The backs and receivers could run a lot faster than the linemen, so they ran in two separate groups. Robert was, by far, the fastest lineman. The coach one day decided that Robert could run with the other bunch so they ran Robert, after he had already run with the linemen, with the backs and Robert won that sprint as well. The freshman coach then decided, since they worked out right next to each other, to take him over to the varsity and told Coach Royal what Robert had done. So, they ran Robert again, his third sprint after practice, and he beat all of the varsity linemen. Then, they turned around and ran him against all of the varsity backs and receivers and he finished second.
I don’t know all of the accolades he had during his brief stay at the University of Texas, but I do know this, Coach Wood told me one day that Darrell Royal told him that Robert Young was the best athlete they’d ever had on campus up until that time.
He was a terrific specimen! Back in the 1970’s when they did the television program ‘The World’s Strongest Man’, Robert (Bob) Young won the title one time. He did not finish the University of Texas. He went that freshman year and grades got him. He decided to come back home and played his final three years of eligibility at Howard Payne. Then, on to the NFL and what a wonderful career. His last stop as a coach was with the Oilers and that’s where he passed away several years ago at home in Houston.
Until next time, so long everybody.
***
‘Out of the Box’ with Dallas Huston is published each Monday morning at BrownwoodNews.com. Dallas was the radio voice of the Brownwood Lions and Howard Payne Yellow Jackets for more than 55 years. He currently is Pastor of Center City Baptist Church and hosts a Men’s Bible Study in Brownwood on Monday evenings. Your comments are welcome at [email protected].