This lot is closed. Bidding ended on 7/23/2020.
The 1973 Cotton Bowl Game set up to be an epic contest between Darrell Royal's Texas Longhorns and Bear Bryant's Alabama Crimson Tide. It would be the last time these two coaching legends would ever face each other and would go down as one of the best games in collegiate football history. From early on, it appeared that Alabama had the edge, as 70,000 Cotton Bowl spectators watched his team go into the locker room after the first half with a 13-3 lead. After the intermission, things started to go the Longhorns' way and with 7:42 left, Texas was put in position for their game-winning drive. With a little more than four minutes left in the game and faced with a third down, Royal called a quarterback bootleg and QB Alan Lowry scampered 34 yards for an amazing and game deciding touchdown. When the clock hit 0:00, Royal was carried off the field by his team and the image of the iconic head coach wearing that memorable burnt orange button-down jacket with both fists in the air would be forever instilled in the minds' of Longhorns fans everywhere. On the Texas sidelines that day, as he had been for most of coach Royals' big games, was his long time friend and famed Texas country music singer/songwriter Jerry Max Lane. After the game, coach Royal removed the jacket he had been wearing when carried off the field, rolled it up and tossed it to his longtime friend. The jacket is as beautiful as it is significant. In the rear neck is the Whiting manufacturers tag size “44” reading “DRY CLEAN ONLY”. On the left chest is a white tackle twill helmet that reads “Coaching Staff” embroidered in burnt orange stitching with the team’s “UT” logo above in burnt orange tackle twill. Across the back reads “TEXAS” in white tackle twill. Inside the left pocket reads the coach name "Royal" on an orange strip tag in white chain stitching. This jacket is properly tagged, was presented to us as coaches-worn and shows use. Accompanied by a copy of the Royal LOA as the original has been lost over time.