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Little Rock Touchdown Club – January 13, 2023

Theismann airs it out: LRTD Club welcomes former NFL QB

by Sam Lane | Today at 2:33 a.m.

Super Bowl champion quarterback Joe Theismann (left) discussed many topics with host David Bazzel during the Little Rock Touchdown Club annual awards banquet Friday at the DoubleTree hotel in downtown Little Rock. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Stephen Swofford)

One of the first stories went back to his collegiate playing days at Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish fell to Texas 21-17 on New Year’s Day in the 1970 Cotton Bowl.

As the following season came to a close, Theismann and his fellow members of a select committee at Notre Dame decided they wanted a rematch with Texas exactly one year after the first meeting. The Irish halted the then-No. 1 Longhorns in their tracks, winning the rematch 24-11 to finish No. 2 in the nation.

Theismann mentioned the heightened scrutiny on the modern athlete, something he wanted to emphasize to those in attendance.

“The college and high school experience is something that is valued and appreciated,” Theismann said. “Life is moving so fast, and for so many of us in this room, we did not have to deal with what these young men and women are dealing with today in athletics. We have to understand that the pressure is so much greater for them.”

On top of winning the 1983 Super Bowl and being named the league MVP the same year, Theismann’s career is often remembered by his career-ending broken leg in a 1985 game against the New York Giants.

After all these years, Theismann had one simple clarification to the story: “People always come up to me and say, ‘Ah Joe, I’m so sorry you broke your leg’. I didn’t break my leg, Lawrence Taylor broke my leg. Keep the facts straight.”

For all of Theismann’s accolades and skill as a quarterback, he’s never forgotten his once chance to double as a punter.

In a 1985 game against the Chicago Bears, Washington Redskins Coach Joe Gibbs called Theismann over and told him he’d be the team’s punter for the rest of the day, as starter Jeff Hayes hurt his thigh earlier in the contest.

Theismann had one punt attempt that day, and it was one that still stands in the NFL’s record books. With the ball on the 15-yard line, Theismann stood on his own goal line. He took the snap, let the ball drop and kicked it to his 16, all for a net punt of a single yard.

“That’s right, you’re being addressed today by a record holder in the NFL, I hold the record for the shortest net punt in the history of the National Football League,” Theismann joked.

The Willie Roaf Award for best in-state offensive linemen, the Paul Eells Award, the Darren McFadden Award for best in-state running backs, the Dan Hampton Award for best high school defensive lineman, the Sully Award for best high school call and team MVPs from all 12 in-state schools were awarded at Friday’s banquet.

The final two awards handed out Friday were the Harlon Hill Award, regarded as the Heisman Trophy for Division II football, which was given to John Matocha of Colorado School of Mines, and the Cliff Harris Award for the Division II Defensive Player of the Year, which went to Caleb Murphy of Ferris State.

LR Touchdown Club award winners

Harlon Hill Award — John Matocha, Colorado School of Mines

Cliff Harris Award — Caleb Murphy, Ferris State

Paul Eells Award — Bumper Pool, Arkansas

Willie Roaf Award — Ricky Stromberg, Arkansas; Joey Su’a, Bentonville

Central Arkansas — TaMuarion Wilson

Harding — Cade Pugh

Henderson State — Xavier Malone

Hendrix — Tajae White

Lyon — Isaiah Bradford

Ouachita Baptist — Payton Stafford

Southern Arkansas — Jariq Scales

John Robinson Guest Speaker at Little Rock Touchdown Club 08 /27/12 (at the 36:20 mark I ask him about the halftime speech that John McKay gave)

I have read over and over that John McKay gave a big pep talk at halftime of this game while trailing 24-6 to the Fighting Irish and he predicted that Anthony Davis would return the kickoff for a touchdown and then USC would score over and over and over!!!! However, that is not what McKay said at halftime according to John Robinson. First, let me give one of the incorrect reports of McKay’s speech and then I will share where Robinson corrects the record. Here is one of the websites I came across:

1974

USC vs. Notre Dame, Nov. 30, 1974
Notre Dame had a 24-0 lead just a minute before the end of the first
half.  USC scored just before halftime (and missed the conversion) to
make the score 24-6 at the half.  Coach McKay is quoted as having said
during halftime something like “Gentlemen, if you block like you should, Anothony Davis will carry the second-half kickoff back for a score, and we’ll go on from there.  Let’s go!!”  USC’s Anthony Davis took the second half kickoff 102 yards for a touchdown, and the comeback was on.  The Trojans scored 55 unanswered points in only 17 minutes!!!  The Trojans
won the game 55-24.  Father Theodore Hesburgh, the Notre Dame president,
congratulated Coach John McKay after the game, then added, “That wasn’t a
very nice thing for a Catholic to do.”  Replied McKay: “Father, that
serves you right for hiring a Presbyterian (Coach Ara Parseghian).”
Neither team was a “cream puff”.  USC went on to win the Rose Bowl and
the UPI and MacArthur Bowl National Championships, and Notre Dame went on to ruin Alabama’s National Championship hopes in the Orange Bowl.
hptaylor@gps.caltech.edu (Hugh Taylor)
woodylives69@earthlink.net (Billy Mccloud)

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If you want to know really happened then check out the video clip above and start at 36.21 mark. The quote of the day came from Johnny McKay, coach John McKay’s son, a wideout for the Trojans: “I can’t understand it. I’m gonna sit down tonight and have a beer and think about it. Against Notre Dame? Maybe against Kent State . . . but Notre Dame?”

Here is what really happened according to John Robinson who was the offensive coordinator on that 74 USC team:

It was the most shocking first half results. We score right before halftime and we are down 24-7 to Notre Dame. Now John McKay could go around the bend pretty good, but he comes in there at halftime and gets all the guys to come in together kind of like the cubscouts coming around a fireside. He gets in the middle and he says, “Fellows”. I thought oh no, but he talks to them in a soothing voice.  “I am prouder of this team than any team I have ever coached. We are jittery somehow playing for the national championship has gotten to us.”

During this whole halftime we did not talk any football at all and when it time for us to go out and we run the second half opening kickoff and Anthony Davis runs it back for a touchdown, and we score 55 straight points and beat those dirty rotten Catholics (joking since Robinson was raised Catholic).

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