FOR LOVE OF A LEGEND
Yeoman’s ex-players gather for early celebration of 92nd birthday
They gathered to share stories and offer plenty of thank-yous.
Bill Yeoman, father of the veer offense and the winningest football coach in University of Houston history, sat in a wheelchair at the head table. A rainy and cold Tuesday could not dampen the festive spirit, a mix of Christmas and early birthday celebrations for Yeoman, who turns 92 on Dec. 26.
Looking dapper in a red blazer, redand-white striped tie and gold UH lapel pin, Yeoman greeted and took photos with each guest as they arrived at a private room at Belmont Village Senior Living.
A stroke five weeks ago has robbed Yeoman of his ability to speak. On this day, though, no words were needed, even as Yeoman tirelessly — and sometimes frustratingly — tried to convey his thoughts to a roomful of former UH players and supporters.
The wide smile of the man who coached the Cougars from 1962 to 1986 spoke volumes.
“He’s a legend,” said Mike Barbour, a linebacker for the Cougars in the early-tomid 1960s.
Bo Burris, the quarterback when Yeoman introduced the veer in 1965, recalled
“We didn’t appreciate how much of a father figure he was in our lives until later on and the influence he had on us.” Horst Paul, a member of Bill Yeoman’s first UH teams in 1962-64, on the coach
how the coach played a major role in the racial integration of college athletics that same season, when running back Warren McVea, the most sought-after recruit in the nation, became the first black player to suit up for a major college football team from Texas. About the same time, UH basketball coach Guy V. Lewis signed Elvin Hayes and Don Chaney.
“That changed sports at UH forever,” Burris said.
Steve Cloud, an offensive lineman from 1969-71, told a story about how Yeoman sometimes “just had a look he could give you worth a thousand words.”
In 1967, the unranked Cougars made a trip to East Lansing, Mich., to play third-ranked Michigan State. Yeoman was previously an assistant there and remained close friends with Spartans coach Duffy Daugherty. On the bus ride, trainer Bob Smith told Tuesday’s gathering, a convertible full of MSU fans “shot the finger” as they passed by.
“(Offensive coordinator Chuck) Fairbanks said, ‘Hey, look, we haven’t even played the game, and they think we’re No. 1 already,’ ” Smith said.
At the stadium, Smith said, the Cougars were greeted by a large crowd hours before kickoff.
“People were standing on our bench,” Smith said. “I go back in and tell (longtime athletics trainer) Tom Wilson, ‘Who in the Sam Hill booked this game?’ He said Coach was good friends with the head coach, and I suspect he did it. I’m not giving him much credit for being real intelligent at this time.”
UH crushed Michigan State 37-7. “Coach,” Smith said as he turned to Yeoman on Tuesday, “I didn’t give you much credit at the start, but at the end I was praising you pretty good.” Yeoman smiled.
Dick Woodall, a quarterback from 1965-67, sent an email with a story about a game that same year against fifth-ranked Georgia at the Astrodome. The Cougars led 15-14 and had only to run out the final seconds of the game.
“Just fall on the ball,” Woodall recalled Yeoman telling him on the sideline. “That’s all you have to do. We’re going to run out the clock.”
Woodall responded: “Coach, do you realize what this will do to my average yards?” Yeoman smiled. Barbour told a story about how, desperate to stay on scholarship
for one more season, he volunteered “to do anything.” Yeoman made him the long snapper.
There were more stories during the next two hours. Rosemary Cloud, who married Steve after his junior season, thanked Yeoman for the chance at a belated honeymoon during a Cougars bowl trip. The postseason destination in 1971: the Bluebonnet Bowl at the Astrodome.
“We got to drive all the way across town,” Rosemary reminded Yeoman. “But at least you put us up in a nice hotel near the Astrodome. We had shrimp cocktail and Baked Alaska for breakfast. I always wanted to say thank you, Coach.”
Yeoman smiled.
Also in attendance Tuesday: Mike Spratt, a defensive back from 1963-65, and Bill Smith, an end from 1962-64 and former head coach at Aldine High School.
The H-Association, the official letterwinner association at UH, gathers a handful of times each year with Yeoman, who won 160 games and four Southwest Conference championships and made 11 bowl appearances in his 25 seasons with the Cougars. Yeoman was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2001. On Tuesday, ESPN named Yeoman to its list of the 150 greatest coaches
in college football history.
For years after his 1986 retirement, Yeoman remained active in a fundraising role with Cougar Pride, the main fundraising arm of UH athletics. He still has an office on the second floor of the Athletics-Alumni Center, although his visits have grown less frequent in recent years due to deteriorating health. In the past, he was a frequent visitor for chats with head football coaches ranging from Kim Helton and Dana Dimel to Art Briles, Kevin Sumlin, Tony Levine and Tom Herman.
Yeoman attended games this season to honor the 40- and 50year anniversaries of his 1969 and 1979 teams. Both times he received loud ovations when shown on the video board at TDECU Stadium. For the first time, Yeoman attended UH football tailgates this season.
“Players love to see him,” his son, Bill Yeoman Jr., said. “He loves the University of Houston.”
After the Oct. 12 game against Cincinnati, not long after Yeoman had his stroke, Bill Jr. was preparing to leave the game.
“No, it’s halftime,” Yeoman told his son. “Not leaving.”
Yeoman was hospitalized this summer with a bacterial infection and is undergoing speech therapy in the aftermath of his stroke.
“Doing great,” Bill Jr. said of his father. “In all respects, except the speech, he’s better than he was before the stroke. He can walk farther than he did before the stroke. It’s just the speech now. I took him to a doctor’s appointment, and he was just singing the Christmas carols.”
On a nearby table was a birthday cake with red and green frosting, the Nos. 9 and 2, and the message “Merry Christmas Coach. Happy Birthday!” A black-andwhite photo of Yeoman’s 1962 team was on every table. On a corner table, a giant birthday card was signed with well-wishes.
“We were teenagers and early 20s, and you go onto the military, get married, business life, but it all came back to Coach,” said Horst Paul, an end on Yeoman’s first teams from 1962-64. “We didn’t appreciate how much of a father figure he was in our lives until later on and the influence he had on us.”
Said Barbour: “He has influenced our lives in an enormous way over the last 55 years.”
As the party came to an end, the group sang an abbreviated version of “Happy Birthday.”
Yeoman simply smiled.