Texas football is the best of times and the worst of times all at once. Baylor and TCU are in the midst of remarkable seasons, while the Cowboys, Texans, and Longhorns are playing games some would prefer to forget. The University of Houston is undefeated, while A&M has experienced some disappointments on its way to a 6-2 record. In all, it’s just football, with highs and lows that are inevitable when following sports.
Nonetheless, the peaks of Texas football—when looked at through a historical lens—are awfully high. In order to determine what players in the history of the game are the best loved, we’ve created a bracket with 32 of the most fondly recalled names in the history of the game. We’ve pulled from both the NFL and college ball, featuring the iconic stars of the Cowboys, Texans, and Oilers, as well as the University of Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Christian University, Baylor, Texas Tech, and SMU. They’re arranged in four divisions—quarterbacks, running backs, defensive players, and other offensive players—and seeded by renown.
Voting starts Monday morning with the round of 32, and we’ll eliminate a round every morning—down to 16 on Tuesday, to 8 on Wednesday, 4 on Thursday, and the voting for the winner will go through the weekend. Check back at the Daily Post to vote for your favorite Texas football icons. It’ll be a welcome reminder in a year where only the fans of a few teams have much to celebrate that people like Staubach and Campbell, or John David Crowe and Tommy Nobis, or Elvin Bethea and Jason Witten made Texas football the greatest in the country.
