The time Slocum ate tacos with Gorbachev
Ex-coach recalls leader’s visit to College Station
COLLEGE STATION — Between bites of chips and dip at On the Border restaurant across Texas Avenue from Texas A&M, R.C. Slocum glanced around at his fellow feasters that memorable April evening of 2001 and grinned at his good fortune as A&M’s football coach.
“President Bush had Secret Service members with him,” Slocum recalled of George H.W. Bush’s company within reach of both the former world leader and a generous portion of guacamole. “And Mikhail Gorbachev also had a couple of (bodyguards) with him.”
Slocum, at the time entering his 13th of 14 seasons as A&M’s head coach, kidded that a handful of his 300-pound defenders might have in turn awed the former world leaders.
“I thought, ‘Man, I should have brought a couple of those big ol’ defensive linemen with me, to provide a little protection for the old coach,’ ” Slocum said with a chuckle.
Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union who helped steer a peaceful end to the Cold War with the United States, was buried on Saturday in Moscow. The world-changing politician died on Tuesday at the age of 91, prompting recollections of his impact on the sphere a few decades ago — and curiously on College Station 21 years ago.
Bush, who served as President from 1989-93, opened his presidential library on the A&M campus in 1997. He welcomed plenty of distinguished leaders over two decades before his death in November 2018, and Gorbachev was a headliner in the spring of 2001.
The Russian, in College Station to accept Bush’s Award for Excellence in Public Service, also had a hankering for Mexican food and taking in some baseball, so Bush’s people arranged both in-town expeditions. Bush also invited Slocum for a bite and some camaraderie with a comrade.
“President Bush invited us over to his (residence) and I brought a Texas A&M jersey I had made up with ‘GORBACHEV’ on it,” Slocum recalled. “I also took him an Aggie helmet.”
Gorbachev, too, brought his own gift for Bush with a distinct Russian flavor.
“It was a flask that looked like a long, tall rifle,” Slocum remembered. “It had a screw-on cap on the top of the barrel, and it held Russian vodka.”
As for some local grub, College Station around the turn of the century had much fewer culinary offerings than today, and Mexican choices particularly were far in between. So, the collection of dignitaries headed across campus to On the Border, perhaps with the idea Gorbachev wouldn’t know or really care about the difference between authentic Mexican food and a Tex-Mex chain restaurant.
“We said, ‘On the Border is right across the street, let’s head over there,’ ” Slocum recalled.
Plus, the Secret Service approved of On the Border’s spacious layout, compared to say the cozier Los Nortenos in Downtown Bryan and its more authentic Mexican fare. The On the Border crew, too, included Gorbachev’s only child, daughter Irina.
“Gorbachev spoke through an interpreter, and his daughter spoke some English,” Slocum remembered. “He seemed like a jolly guy, and he and Bush seemed to have a really good relationship. They laughed about some old memories and it was things like, ‘Remember when Margaret Thatcher did this or that,’ they were just telling stories and reminiscing about some of their travels over the years.”
On the Border, which as usual welcomed a big crowd Saturday with A&M hosting a football game against Sam Houston, has since recognized the historic meal with a framed picture near the front of the restaurant, complete with a signed menu from Bush and a couple of middling pre-iPhone photos of the venerated table (with iced tea, margaritas and beers aplenty).
“I tell people, ‘What’s wrong with this picture?’ ” said Slocum, who also has a photo from that evening displayed in his home. “‘You’ve got a former leader of the free world, a former leader of the Soviet Union, and a former shoeshine boy from Orange, Texas, in the same picture.’
“President Bush always got a kick out of that.”
Meantime Gorbachev got a kick out of attending a Cy Fair at A&M Consolidated high school baseball game on the same visit. He and Bush threw out the first pitches at the game to the thrill of a crowd on a suddenly extraordinary spring afternoon.
“One of those experiences you’ll never forget,” recalled Rex Sanders, A&M Consolidated’s coach at the time.
Bush had pulled Sanders aside and told him that while Gorbachev used an interpreter, the Russian also knew much more English than he let on — aka, be mindful of what you say. Bush officials also had called Sanders in the days prior to ask permission to attend the game, and Sanders said his field received a much-appreciated facelift for the cameras prior to the trumpeted visit.
Away from the fajita smoke and fastballs, Bush praised his fellow world leader on Gorbachev’s historic Brazos County visit while speaking to A&M students in the Bush school of government.
“He did (so much) to guarantee that you guys would be living in a world of peace for the next 25 years, 50 years …” Bush told the students of Gorbachev, who had pushed for a de-escalation of the nuclear arms race along with a warming of relations with the United States. “He stuck his neck out, and he changed the political agenda throughout the entire world.”