FOOTBALL STAR EARL CAMPBELL
The Tyler Rose
___Few people have come farther than Earl Campbell. The man who would later win All-America honors and the Heisman Trophy at the University of Texas and Football Hall of Fame honors as a running back with the Houston Oilers was born into poverty, the sixth of 11 children of B.C. and Ann Campbell. The "Tyler Rose," as he would later be known,
joined his father and brothers working in the Tyler rose fields but found his way out through the football field. Last year, he was named one of the 100 top pro football players of all time. Campbell lives in Austin with his wife, Reuna, and their two sons, Christian and Tyler.
Q
___. What is your most vivid memory of your childhood in Tyler?
___Well, I grew up with 10 brothers and sisters. The good Lord took our father when I was in the fifth grade. The oldest kid was 18 and my baby brother was a year and a half old. I knew when I was in the fifth grade that I wanted to be a pro football player. And when I got to the ninth grade, I realized God had given me a talent he didn't give others. But growing up in Tyler, I just remember working in the rose fields and living with my mom.
Q.
___ Did any of your brothers play football?
___Yes, and if it hadn't been for the race problems, I would have been the third-best and the twins would have been the fourth- and fifth-best athletes in the family. Two of them were better than I, but they got caught up in the race thing and never got the chance.
Q
___. What was your home life like?
___When the funeral was over after my father died and everybody had left, my mother pulled everyone together in our little house and said to us, "You'll never go to bed hungry, and I am going to give you the best clothes we can buy as a family." The biggest thing was it was a big family and a lot of fun. When I was playing pro football, my biggest dream was to build my mom a house in Tyler, and I built it. My home life was very good. One thing they demanded was that on Sundays everybody had to be at 11 o'clock (church) service. And if you sang in the choir or ushered or were in the prayer service, you had to go back in the afternoon to your auxiliary programs. I attended Hopewell Baptist Church.
Q
___. Who was the most important person in your life as a child?
___There was a coach named Lawrence LaCroix. He got me in the eighth grade and took me over. At each step in my life after my dad died, there was a coach who was like a different dad. The one who had the biggest impact on my life was Coach LaCroix. Probably the other guy was Allen Roberts, a white guy, who took me under his wings. He always told me I was great, and I didn't understand it at the time, but he said, "You are great, and you are going to be in a position to do a lot for your people and a lot for mankind." As a kid, I would just say, "Yeah, yeah," and all I was interested in doing was getting the money. I think he was saying I could make a difference.
Q
___. When did you first get interested in football?
___I started playing flag football in fifth grade and then tackle football in the eighth grade, and I think I began to get serious about it when Coach LaCroix got me in the eighth. I will never forget one day a few years later. We had a black-and-white TV. Texas was playing SMU. My oldest sister stopped me when I was running through the house and told me to watch a guy who was about to set a record of 300 yards in one game. The guy was Roosevelt Leaks. I sat and watched and said that was what I was going to do some day--set a bunch of records.
Q
___. Why did you decide to attend the University of Texas?
___A lot of people were talking to me about going to Texas. My mother worked for some people who were Texas alums, and Allen Roberts was a Texas alum. At 18 years old, I had come from nothing, and I basically went on recruiting trips so I could get a T-shirt. I visited the University of Texas, and Raymond Claiborne showed me around and said, "If you come here, you will win the Heisman Trophy, because Roosevelt Leaks is leaving." I talked to Coach (Darrell) Royal, and he asked, "What do you think of our school?" I said, "It's great; I am going to come to school here." He said, "Well, then you don't have to visit Oklahoma next week." I said, "No, I am going to visit Oklahoma next week, but I am coming here." I told him I had given Barry Switzer my word that I would visit there, and my word is good. Then I came home from that trip and Oklahoma was looking good, so I basically said a prayer, "Lord, if I sleep through the night I'm going to Oklahoma. If I get up to use the restroom, I'm going to Texas. I had to get up, so I came to Texas."
Q.
___ You earned your degree?
___I really came here to be a football player. Education wasn't on my mind. But I wanted to be the first of the 11 kids in my family to get a degree. When I left here in 1977 after winning the Heisman Trophy, to go play pro football, one of the things I promised myself was that I was going to get that degree. I only lacked eight or 10 hours, and I did it. Four or five of my other brothers and sisters have also gotten their degrees.
Q.
___ Was it difficult to be a student and a famous athlete?
___I am 45 now and have never looked at myself as being a famous athlete. I looked at it as being different and being pulled from every direction and trying to do the right thing. Mom said the day I was born she knew I was different. I don't mess with a lot of people or go around with a lot of people. I look at it as long as you pray and try and do your best you can look in the mirror and say, "You, Earl Campbell, didn't do anything, but I tried." If you can do that, you don't have anything to be ashamed of. I am not sure "famous" really fits me.
Q
___. When did you become a Christian?
___I grew up going to church, but one day I passed by a tree near my house, and it still stands there. I can't tell you when, but I was very, very young, and I asked God to come into my life. I probably am not a guy who stands on a pedestal and says what kind of Christian I am, because I am just a sinner seeking God's grace. I am not Mr. Right, because I know who Earl Christian Campbell knows and I do know that that man is involved in my decisions every day. I tell him as much as I can, "As long as you are involved in what I am doing, it is going to be all right." I try to tell him that what you do for me is take Earl out of it and you take over. And every time I put my hand in and mess up, he tells me, "I told you to stay out of this."
Q
___. Tell me about your family.
___I have an 18-year-old son, Christian, who is Mr. Everything as far as an athlete and is looking for a college. I have a 14-year-old son, Tyler. On my first day in the ninth grade at Moore Junior High School in Tyler, I saw this black girl. Reuna and I dated straight for 13 years. I came here and went to school and then went to play pro football, and she stayed in Tyler. She is a nurse. If it is the good Lord's will, we will be married 20 years this spring.
Q.
___ What do you think of the increasing prominence of Christian athletes and their displays of Christianity on the field?
___The main thing is that they have their own versions of it, but God has a hand in everything that goes on. It's sad that we can't let a team pray before a game as a unit or say a prayer before a basketball game. But we have to encourage our kids to be Christian people and to get up and go to church. I heard one guy who said his son couldn't kneel and say, "Thank you, Lord," after a touchdown because the referee would throw a penalty on him. There is something wrong in our legislature and government when we take prayer away from kids while we want them to know there is a Christ, the Devil and things you can't do. When we had prayer in the schools, we didn't have so much trouble with kids. I was thinking this morning as I was driving to work and telling God that I thanked him so much for my wife and my kids and for them being in choir rehearsal and prayer meeting, because that is where it all starts. Until our government gets prayer back in schools, I think we are going to lose our kids.
Q
___. What church do you attend in Austin?
___When I first came here to attend school I joined Mount Olive Baptist Church and grew up under the leadership of Rev. Ralph L. Smith. When we came back, I rejoined that church, my family and I, and Rev. Carter is our pastor. Rev. Smith is retired.
Q
___. How has your athletic career shaped who you are as a person?
___I got some things from Jack Ham of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who was the perfect guy outside of Muhammad Ali. I only wear a tie with a white shirt because every time I saw Muhammad Ali he was wearing one. I liked Jack Lambert. His shirt-tail never came out on the field. As far as being a person, besides the money, it helped people look at me with respect. Darrell Royal told me to always walk light because I was carrying a big stick.
Q
___. How old were you when your father died?
___About 10 or 11. I was mad at God for a long time about it. When they came and told us he had died, I went out in the front yard and told God I hated him. He had taken my dad, and he hadn't done anything to anybody. But when I got older, I understood that when you've done all you can do and you are through, that's when he takes you.
Q
___. What do you do to have a great day?
___Main thing, as I drive out of my driveway I start saying my prayers, or I may say them in my chair before I leave or when I am getting dressed. I want God involved in my life every day, and if he's not in it, it's not going to be a good day.
Q
___. What advice would you give to student athletes today?
___Be a student first. Athletes come and go. Do everything you can while you are in school. Very few athletes make it to the next level. Get your degree, because when you get to be 45 and can't move around because of arthritis, you can still get a good job.
Q
___. What is your most vivid memory of your football career?
___One Monday night, when we played the Dolphins. Bob Griese would throw a pass for a touchdown for the Dolphins and Earl Campbell would run for one. I remember the first touchdown and the last, not the second and third. On one I ran 77 yards, and Howard Cossell looked at Don Meredith and Frank Gifford and said, "Tonight, we may be watching history being made."
___Interview by Toby Druin
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