History of the Texas Longhorns College Football Team

The Texas Longhorns are a perennial favorite in college football. The University of Texas was founded in 1883 and the Longhorns began playing football in 1893. In their 116 year history the Texas Longhorns have one of the best college football programs in the nation. The Longhorns' all-time record is 832 - 317 - 33. Texas has the third highest winning percentage in college football history and in 2008 they passed Notre Dame for the second most wins in college football history.

Obviously when you are a team as prestigious as the Texas Longhorns you are going to play in a lot of big games and a lot of exciting games. The best game in Texas Longhorns history might be the 2006 Rose Bowl. The Longhorns were a heavy underdog against the USC Trojans but they won on a last second run by Vince Young to capture the National Championship and finish as the only undefeated team that season.

Texas was also a big underdog in 1996 when they played Nebraska in the first Big 12 Championship game. Nebraska was a 21 point favorite but Texas had a three point lead late in the game and had the ball in their own territory. It came to fourth down and a sure punt but the Longhorns went for it, gained the first down, scored an insurance touchdown and won the game.

The Texas Longhorns had many great players over the years but none of them were greater than Earl Campbell. During his career at Texas Earl Campbell rushed for 4,444 yards including 1,744 yards in 1977. In 1977 Earl Campbell won the Heisman Trophy and was the first recipient of the Davey O'Brien Memorial Trophy. Both awards are given to the best player in the country.

The current Texas Longhorns coach Mack Brown has led the Longhorns to a lot of wins but he is still behind his idol Darrell Royal as far as the greatest Texas coach in history. Mack Brown actually has a better winning percentage than Royal but Royal ha the more wins and led the Longhorns to three National Championships. One legendary Darrell Royal story goes like this. The Texas Longhorns are playing their arch rival, Texas A&M, and at halftime the Aggies have a 17 - 0 lead over the Longhorns. Darrell Royal went into the locker room at halftime and didn't say a word. All Royal did was write the score 21 - 17 on the chalkboard and then he walked out. Texas came back to win the game 21 - 17.

The Texas-Oklahoma game has been the most important game for the Longhorns recently but their biggest rival over the years has been Texas A&M. At one point the rivalry between the two was so intense that they had to cancel the game for a few years after a brawl during one game resulted in a Texas fan being stabbed three times in the head. If that's not enough to convince you that Texas A&M is the Longhorns' real rival then how about the fact that Texas A&M is specifically mentioned in the Texas fight song.