In this space last week, I gave you a primer on MSU’s new conference mates, Oklahoma and Texas. But, as a couple of loyal readers reminded me, Mississippi State and Texas actually have a history on – and off – the gridiron. The teams have split four matchups over the years, with Texas winning in 1912 and 1999. But it’s those middle two matchups – MSU wins in 1991 and 1992 – I want to focus on.
The 1991 game in Starkville was a classic “old-school football” matchup, one that resulted in a 13-6 Bulldog victory over the No. 13 Longhorns. But, in the days prior to MSU’s trip to Austin in 1992, things got interesting.
Perhaps you’ve heard the story – I always believed it was apocryphal or, at least, embellished – about former Bulldog head coach Jackie Sherrill, uh, castrating a bull before the teams’ 1992 matchup. Apparently, it’s true. Almost every word of it. I can say with absolute certainty that Sherrill had an anatomically intact male cow brought out to the practice field. When the bovine left, he was no longer … anatomically intact.
You see, Texas’ mascot is a longhorn steer named Bevo. A steer is a male cow who’s been castrated. So, he used to be a bull. Over the course of practice that week, Sherrill discovered that most of his players didn’t know what a steer was or what made it a “steer,” so he devised a plan to demonstrate that process. He thought it would be “motivational and educational,” according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, and was it ever.
How do I know? Well, one of those aforementioned Dispatch readers was there. My neighbor, and former MSU team physician, Dr. Robert “Bob” Collins, saw it all. Collins, who served as team physician from 1985-2013, recalled Sherrell’s motivation for the stunt.
“… We had a bunch of city kids on the team, and he (Sherrill) was going to make sure that they understood what the difference was between a steer and a bull,” Collins said.
While the rest of us might be content with merely explaining the difference, Sherrell, who was head coach at Texas A&M from 1982-88, preferred to demonstrate.
“Jackie never had any fondness for the University of Texas,” Collins said.
Where’d Sherrill get the bull, “Willy?”
“Some big-bucks donor was going to have (Willy) castrated anyway, and I’m not sure if Jackie asked him for it or he just volunteered. But, it did not come from the vet school. In fact, the vet school went absolutely bonkers when it happened. They did not like it.”
In Collins’ retelling, Sherrill borrowed a pocket knife from longtime head trainer Straton Karatassos – better known as “Strat” – and “did the cutting.”
How did the players respond?
“Some of them threw up. Most of them were just, ‘Oh, OK, that’s how it’s done,” Collins said.
As a physician, how did Collins respond?
“I just watched,” he said. “I don’t recall a particular feeling one way or another. To me, it was just another surgical procedure. Just who was doing it?”
The demonstration worked, as the Bulldogs throttled the Longhorns, 28-10, in Austin later that week. Despite comments to the contrary – Texas coach Gary Darnell said the stunt “was in poor taste” – Texas employed its own motivational practice prior to the game.
“The visitor’s locker room at Memorial Stadium was under the visitor’s side of the field. Under it,” Collins recalled. “It was a very, very hot day, and the University of Texas, knowing that we’re good Mississippi boys, had turned the heat on in the locker room. It was hotter in the locker room than it was on the field.”
Surely an institution of such class and dignity, whose own head coach considered himself an arbiter of taste, wouldn’t stoop to such dirty tricks, would it?
“… The University of Texas did not like Jackie Sherrill,” Collins said.
Philip Poe is sports editor. He can be reached at [email protected]
Philip Poe is sports editor.
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