Earl Campbell

by Asher Price

  didn’t hit tacklers: Kirk Bohls, “God Made Only One Earl,” Austin American-Statesman, Aug. 9, 1987, D8.

  Put a gun on him: Jim Murray, “Campbell Breaks Free Again,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 15, 1991, C1.

  It’s me first, Earl second: Kirk Bohls, “Earl to Open Up on TV Monday,” Austin American-Statesman, June 24, 2013, C1.

  I always thought Superman was white: Clifford Broyles, “Clifford Broyles,” Bryan–College Station Eagle, Jan. 27, 1974, 3B; see also Eddie Perkins, “Memories of Campbell Last for Coach,” Dallas Times Herald, Aug. 2, 1986, Earl Campbell file, Stark Center, and Newman, “Roots of Greatness,” 100.

  Earl Campbell is the greatest player: Newman, “Roots of Greatness.”

  Earl found a phone booth: Dale Robertson, “We Just Want to Hold Him under a Mile,” Houston Post, Dec. 20, 1980, DRCF.

  I was watching basketball: Patrick Reusse, “Sobriety Saved Hall of Famer,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, Feb. 3, 2018, 6C.

  His father, Bert: Author interviews with Campbell’s brothers (Dec. 2015) and Donald Hamilton (Apr. 2017).

  If they gave out a Heisman: Earl Campbell, “Ann Campbell Wins ‘Heisman for Moms,’” Austin Weekly, May 10, 1989.

  I always thought if I: Buchholz, “Rock of Ages.”

  Every time you hit him: Bruce Lowitt, “Campbell’s Style May Take Its Toll,” Austin American-Statesman, Oct. 19, 1979, G1.

  Campbell told a friend in shop class: Author interview with Tim Alexander, Mar. 2018.

  he played with a 101-degree fever: Earl Campbell, thetylerrose.com/the-college-years.

  I hit him square: Jenkins, “Life’s Roses (and Sausages),” 70.

  You want to know what: Author interview with Carl Mauck, Aug. 2016.

  I truly believed: Author interview with Earl Campbell, Feb. 2016.

  To appreciate Campbell: Ron Reid, “This Oiler’s a Gusher of a Rusher,” Sports Illustrated, Sept. 18, 1978, 24.

  it seems like something: “Earl Campbell Press Availability Transcript,” Sept. 9, 2012, Texas Sports, texassports.com/news/2012/9/9/090912aaa_732.aspx.

  My people were bought and sold: Randy Harvey, “He Was Never Promised a Rose Garden: JT Superstar, Campbell,” Austin American-Statesman, Jan. 13, 1974, C3.

  a kind of Horatio Alger: “Campbell Receives Texas Hero Award,” Cox News Service, May 8, 1981.

  PART I: TYLER

  Conducting research about Tyler involved interviews with Tim Alexander (Mar. 2018), John Anderson (Dec. 2015), Lincoln Ashford (Jan. 2017), David Barron (Sept. 2017), Henry Bell III (Apr. 2017), Sam Biscoe (summer 2017), Gary Bledsoe (July 2017), Earl Campbell (Dec. 2015, Feb. 2016), Herbert Campbell (Dec. 2015), Linda Campbell (Apr. 2017), Margaret Campbell (Apr. 2017), Martha Campbell (Apr. 2017), Willie Campbell (Dec. 2015, Apr. 2017), Charles Clark (summer 2017), A. C. Flynn (Sept. 2017), Michael Gillette (Oct. 2017), Cedric Golden (May 2017), Donald Hamilton (Apr. 2017), Phil Hicks (Apr. 2017), Michael Hurd (Nov. 2017), Sam Kidd (Dec. 2016), Lynn King (Apr. 2017), Bill Kinzie (Dec. 2016), Joe Richard Lansdale (winter 2016), Thorndyke Lewis (Apr. 2017), Laura McGregor (Apr. 2017), Andrew Melontree (Apr. 2017), Clyde Nelson IV (Apr. 2017), Robert Peters (Oct. 2017), Erna Smith (July 2017), J. B. Smith (Oct. 2017), Mike Trope (Oct. 2016), Leon Van Alstine (Apr. 2017), and Tiffany Wright (Dec. 2015, Apr. 2017). Quoted material from these interviews is generally not documented further in the notes.

  The story of Earl Campbell’s birth and naming comes from a range of sources: interviews with members of the Campbell and Kinzie families, an oral history of medicine in Smith County, and scores of articles about Campbell’s early years.

  born in the same bed: Bruce Newman, “The Roots of Greatness,” Sports Illustrated, Sept. 3, 1979, 98.

  Ann Campbell had wanted to name and They wanted to charge me: Earl Campbell, The Earl Campbell Story: A Football Great’s Battle with Panic Disorder, with John Ruane (Toronto: ECW, 1999), 2.

  The story of Kinzie: An author interview with Bill Kinzie (Dec. 2016) filled in a lot of Earl Christian Kinzie’s biographical details, as did a February 1984 interview with Kinzie as part of the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Oral History Collection; see also Sam Blair, “Dr. Kinzie Delivered the Goods,” Dallas Morning News, Dec. 11, 1977, 4B.000

  At Tyler’s East Texas Tuberculosis Sanatorium: Sue Low, “Kerrville State Hospital,” Handbook of Texas Online, tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/sbk01.

  the meanest part of the state: Michael L. Gillette, “The NAACP in Texas, 1937–1957” (PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1984), 219.

  the family was wondering: University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, “Kinzie, Earl C., D.O.” (1984), 12, Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, Oral History Collection.

  The (white) family retained: Chris Tomlinson, Tomlinson Hill: The Remarkable Story of Two Families who Share the Same Name—One White, One Black (New York: Macmillan), 2014, 79.

  the margin was about 25–1 and they sent envoys: Archie P. McDonald, Historic Smith County (San Antonio: Historical Publishing Network, 2006), 12; see also Joe T. Timmons, “The Referendum in Texas on the Ordinance of Secession, February 23, 1861: The Vote,” East Texas Historical Journal 11, no. 2 (1973), available from Scholar Works, scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ethj/vol11/iss2/6. While Texas voted to secede by a margin of 46,129 to 14,697, Smith County went by a margin of 1,149 to 50.

  Tyler at least as long ago: Genealogy Roadshow, season 1, episode 2, PBS LearningMedia, pbslearningmedia.org/collection/watch-full-episodes/2/#.W0bden4nZp8. This episode is no longer available on the website.

  a third of households: Vicki Betts, retired archivist at University of Texas at Tyler, to the author, June 2018.

  not to take the testimony and reign of terror: Barry Crouch, “The Freedmen’s Bureau and the 30th Sub-District in Texas: Smith County and Its Environs during Reconstruction,” Chronicles of Smith County, Texas 11, no. 1 (Spring 1972): 15–30.

  Sundays found the Reverend Albert: Robert E. Reed, Jr. Tyler: Images of America (Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2008), 67.

  The home of Mayfield: Memorylaneinn.com.

  A little bit of Texas: Dayna Worchel, “Many Politicians Make Tyler a Spot to Visit,” Tyler Morning Telegraph, Feb. 17, 2013.

  you were in a different world: Frank Kemerer, William Wayne Justice: A Judicial Biography (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008), 89.

  The only things redder: David Maraniss, “Justice, Texas Style,” Washington Post, Feb. 28, 1987, G1.

  Tyler Rose Festival queen: Newspaper clippings and videos on display at the Tyler Rose Museum, including “Rose Queen Aids in Old South’s Rebirth,” no byline, date, or publication title visible.

  grander than everyday life and It’s like fairy dust: Introductory video to a permanent exhibit at Tyler Rose Museum.

  They didn’t want the history: Rodney Lamar Atkins, Remembering When We Were Colored in Tyler, Texas (Tyler: self-published, 2007), 1:53.

  same as last year: Lee Hancock, “Robert E. Lee High School, Race, and Segregation in Tyler: A 130-Year Timeline,” The Tyler Loop, Sept. 1, 2017, thetylerloop.com/robert-e-lee-high-school-race-and-segregation-in-tyler-a-130-year-timeline.

  As a boy, if Earl Campbell: Vicki Betts, “‘For the Citizens of East Texas’: The Desegregation of Tyler State Park” (2015), University of Texas at Tyler, Robert R. Muntz Library, Presentations and Publications, Paper 39, hdl.handle.net/10950/487; Gillette, “NAACP in Texas”; Allan Shivers Papers, Box 86–107A, folder “Campaign: Negroes,” DBCAH.

  fomented, encouraged, aided: Plaintiff’s Original Petition, State of Texas v. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, et al., Smith County District Court, Allan Shivers Papers, Box 86–107A, folder “Campaign: Negroes,” DBCAH.

  seeking to register students: Order, Oct. 23, 1956, Texas v. NAACP, ibid.

  more $100,000 houses: Paul Burka, “Real Governor of Texas,” Texas Monthly, June 1978, 114.

  The Campbells were so hard
up: Martha and Margaret Campbell.

  We could never understand: Campbell, Earl Campbell Story, 9.

  The annual East Texas Fair: Bud Finlayson, Mustang Country (self-published), chap. 4, elitesoft.com/web/mustang/chap4.html; corroborated in interviews. From Finlayson:

  They (the Blacks) all lived way over on the north side of town, and were hardly ever seen on our side of town, except for the Black maids, yard men, and garbage men, who came south for work. Their houses were small, unpainted, and dilapidated, with weed filled, mainly dirt yards, compared to our large, brick, air-conditioned homes with lush grassy lawns. They had always attended separate schools. That year, however, integration began taking place in Tyler public schools. It was gradual at first, with only one out of every fifty, or so, being black; enough for my Dad to react with a threat to move us to Mississippi to keep our education White. They stayed on the north side and went to different stores, and different restaurants. At the East Texas Fair, there were different restrooms, “Colored” and “White.” And everybody knew not to go to the fair on Thursday night cause it was “Nigger Night.”

  “super-patriots” bombed a parked school bus: Dianna Wray, “Tension Lit Fuse to Bombing,” Longview News-Journal, Sept. 13, 2009, 3G.

  It was a sad day: Lee Hancock, “Robert E. Lee High School, Race, and Segregation in Tyler: A 130-Year Timeline,” The Tyler Loop, Sept. 1, 2017, thetylerloop.com/robert-e-lee-high-school-race-and-segregation-in-ty-ler-a-130-year-timeline.

  You will find some: School desegregation file, SCHS.

  “bad Earl” phase: Newman, “Roots of Greatness,” 100.

  I was on the path: Betty Lou Phillips, Earl Campbell: Houston Oiler Superstar (New York: McKay, 1979), 8.

  who didn’t make trouble: Michele Burgen, “A Very Proud Mom,” Ebony, March 1978, 56; see also Newman, “Roots of Greatness.”

  Earl had to be led: Author interview with Lynn King, Apr. 2017.

  You work to get a status: Avrel Seale, “A Rose by Any Other Name,” Texas Alcalde, September–October 1994, 15.

  The relationships between the different: Kirk Bohls, “Earl: No One Has a Rosier Future,” Austin American-Statesman, Aug. 22, 1976, C1.

  They did what human beings: Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration (New York: Random House, 2010), 14.

  I knew that I lived: Richard Wright, Black Boy (New York: World, 1947), 147.

  breaks his leg this season: Willie Morris, The Courting of Marcus Dupree (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983), 58.

  And the Rangerettes remained: Rebecca Markovits, “Texas History 101,” Texas Monthly, Sept. 2004. The Rangerettes were founded in 1940, admitted their first black member in 1973, and elected their first black officer in 2012. Gussie Nell Davis, the founder of the Rangerettes, stated that she would be receptive to an African American member—even though she didn’t take one in the first thirty-three years of the troupe; see Jeanie R. Stanley, “Davis, Gussie Nell,” Handbook of Texas Online, June 12, 2010, tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fda83.

  Pages of the Southwestern Report: Frank R. Kemerer, William Wayne Justice: A Judicial Biography (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008), 7.

  After awhile, he came: Ibid., 116.

  I would not have for: Ibid.

  God-dang, when he got: Ibid.

  rationale apparently was that: Joe Richard Lansdale et al. v. Tyler Junior College, 318 F. Supp. 529 (E.D. Tex. 1970). Available at Justia, law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/318/529/1480978.

  If someone devised a litmus test: Burka, “Real Governor of Texas,” 115.

  They were tickled and eager: Maraniss, “Justice, Texas Style.”

  discussing ways and means: Lee Hancock, “Unfinished History: Black Tyler’s Long Fight to Change the Name—and Many Other Things—at Robert E. Lee High,” The Tyler Loop, Sept. 18, 2017, thetylerloop.com/unfinished-history-black-tylers-long-fight-to-change-the-name-and-many-other-things-about-robert-e-lee-high.

  each other like fortresses: Burka, “Real Governor of Texas,” 114.

  A cousin wrote a letter: Ibid., 192; see also Denise Gamino, “A Giant of Texas History,” Austin American-Statesman, Oct. 15, 2009, A1; Douglas Martin, “William Wayne Justice, Judge Who Remade Texas, Dies,” New York Times, Oct. 15, 2009, B11.

  It was a great way: Martin, “William Wayne Justice.”

  as wide as the goal posts: Hancock, “Robert E. Lee High School.” I also reviewed Williams’s testimony as part of a University of North Texas oral-history project: Minnie Mosley Gram and Rostell Williams, oral history interview by Moisés Acuña-Gurrola, June 29, 2015, video, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth836718.

  Teacher, teacher: Bettye Mitchell and Katherine Bynum, “Oral History Interview with Bettye Mitchell,” July 1, 2015, video, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth836696.

  It is unbelievable that we: Tyler Morning Telegraph, Nov. 22, 1971.

  If the black students had been: Hancock, “Robert E. Lee High School.”

  There’s a difference between: Burka, “Real Governor of Texas,” 190.

  would make the circle: Marilyn Covey, “Justice is Done,” Tyler Courier-Times-Telegraph, May 24, 1998, 1.

  How’s my friendly neighborhood: Burka, “Real Governor of Texas,” 189.

  I like Tyler: R. D. Faubion, “Passing Judgement,” Tyler Today, Summer 1992, 10; Marilyn Covey, “Justice Plans to End Active Duty Career,” Tyler Courier-Times-Telegraph, 1.

  was bucking for sainthood: Molly Ivins, “Of Law and Lowlife,” Los Angeles Times Book Review, Oct. 27, 1991, 1.

  Tyler hosted a homecoming: Details about the celebration, parade, and banquet come from an “Earl Campbell Day” brochure, available at the Smith County Historical Society.

  Running Back Campbell: Kirk Bohls, “Scramble for Campbell: Earl’s Sitting Cool as NFL Teams Fight for Draft Rights,” Austin American-Statesman, April 23, 1978, C1.

  We have, as I look out: “‘Earl Campbell Day’ Sets Tributes Flowing,” Associated Press, Feb. 2, 1978.

  The organizers had made sure: Burka, “Real Governor of Texas,” 192.

  according to Campbell family lore: In addition to members of the Campbell family, Tiffany Wright (SCHS), Scott Fitzgerald (East Texas Genealogical Society), and Ancestry.com were helpful resources for tracing the Campbell family’s genealogy. Interviews with A. C. Flynn, Charles Clark, Donald Hamilton, and Mike Trope also provided details about the history and home life of the Campbells, as did Earl Campbell’s autobiography and Newman, “Roots of Greatness.”

  taste for white lightning: Author interviews with Herbert and Willie Campbell (Dec. 2015) and Donald Hamilton (Apr. 2017).

  Enough thorns stick you: Tyler Rose Museum, introductory video.

  As recently as the late nineteenth century: Valuable information about roses in Tyler, including area soils and the shipment of roses, was provided by Brent Pemberton, “The Texas Rose Industry,” Combined Proceedings, International Plant Propagators’ Society 42 (1992), and Roger Harris, “Rose Industry,” Handbook of Texas Online, tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/drr01.

  But disaster lurked: Background details on the San Jose scale are available from Leo Shapiro, “Diaspidiotus perniciosus: San Jose Scale,” The Encyclopedia of Life, eol.org/pages/835588/details, and C. L. Marlatt, “The Discovery of the Native Home of the San Jose Scale in Eastern China and the Importation of Its Natural Enemy,” Popular Science Monthly 65, Aug. 1904.

  We never was lazy: Thordis Simonsen, ed., You May Plow Here: The Narrative of Sara Brooks (New York: Norton, 1986), 39.

  He was always the laziest: Mark Wangrin, “Making of a Legend,” Austin American-Statesman, July 28, 1991, E1.

  The Campbell kids earned: Information about budding comes from the Texas Rose Museum and interviews with Martha and Margaret Campbell. H. Brent Pemberton, professor at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Over
ton, provided me with the article “Roses” (1933) by the horticulturalist J. C. Ratsek, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Substation No. 2, Tyler; the 1967 “Guidelines for the Production of Roses in Smith County” by the TAMU Agricultural Extension Service; an undated Tyler Chamber of Commerce “History of the Texas Rose-Growing Industry” by E. W. Lyle; and “The Historical Geography of the Rose Industry in Smith County, Texas” by Darrel L. McDonald, presented at the 93rd Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Fort Worth in April 1997.

  I’ve been on this corner: Newman, “Roots of Greatness,” 98.

  A 1988 Tyler newspaper story: Dianne Strahan, “Budding Business Ties Two Families Together,” Tyler Courier-Times-Telegraph, June 12, 1988, 5.1.

  If I had to say one thing: Texas Rose Museum, video.

  You’d walk through that house: Author interview with Lynn King, Apr. 2017.

  The bathroom was an outhouse: Campbell, Earl Campbell Story, 2.

  I’d bust out of the locker room: Phillips, Earl Campbell, 22.

  he opted to take a taxi: Paddy Joe Miller, The Tyler Rose: The Earl Campbell Story (Spring, TX: Schuromil, 1997), 110.

  I have to be honest: Wangrin, “Making of a Legend.”

  She had all of two dollars: Newman, “Roots of Greatness,” 98.

  not much to somebody: Harvey, “He Was Never Promised.”

  he purposely gave her wrong directions: Campbell, Earl Campbell Story, 11.

  In many ways, the life: Information about median income in the South in the 1970s comes from “Money Income and Poverty Status in 1975 of Families and Persons in the United States and the South Region, by Divisions and States (Spring 1976) Survey of Income and Education,” US Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, P-60, no. 112, June 1978, 224–227, and Ray Marshall, Employment of Blacks in the South: A Perspective on the 1960s (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1978).

  When God took that rib: Campbell, “Ann Campbell Wins.”

  Earl Campbell was always a big kid: Material about Campbell’s schoolboy football days comes from interviews with the Campbell family, Thorndyke Lewis, J. B. Smith, David Barron, Phil Hicks, Leon Van Alstine, and Lynn King.