Iconic QBs in unfamiliar colors
Ware sought a career in burnt orange, while Young eyed his hometown red
As a kid in Dickinson, Andre Ware had his college football path all mapped out.
He would follow in the footsteps of Donnie Little, another Dickinson alum, and play quarterback at the University of Texas.
“Anything he did I wanted to do,” Ware said of Little, who from 1978-80 became the first black quarterback to play for the Longhorns.
More than a decade later, on another side of Houston, Vince Young had a similar dream. Except he wanted to stay home and play for the University of Houston.
“We tried,” Young, a Madison High School alum, said of a push by some of the area’s top football talent in the early 2000s to stay and play for the Cougars. “We all said, ‘Let’s all stay home and let’s make our home team look good.’ ”
As the Cougars and Longhorns prepare to meet Saturday for the first time in 21 years, what if the script had been flipped for two the best quarterbacks to ever play college football?
Andre Ware in burnt orange and white.
Vince Young in red and white.
“I grew up wanting to go to Texas,” Ware said Tuesday during an appearance with Young at Dick’s House of Sport in Friendswood. “There was a rug in front of my bed every morning I would see the University of Texas when I stepped out of bed. It was a goal from the beginning.”
Ware was so convinced he would end up in Austin that all Longhorns coach David McWilliams had to do “was lie and tell me I was going to play quarterback when I got there.”
“They were honest, to their credit,” Ware said. “They told me I would be moved to defensive back. The next time I visited with my high school coach he asked me what position I wanted to play in college. I said, ‘You know the answer to that. I want to play quarterback.’ He said, ‘Well, the next time that guy from Texas comes down here you need to talk to him and ask them where they want you to play.’
“That was a conversation I had with (UT recruiters) and I told them I was no longer going to take the visit to Texas. They asked me why I wouldn’t give them a chance. I said because you won’t give me a chance. Why would I give you one when you won’t give me one. That’s where we parted ways. Needless to say, that was a tough decision and a tough day. But everything kind of worked out.”
At Madison, Young was a hot commodity with a long line of major colleges at his doorstep. Most schools wanted to move Young to wide receiver. But unlike Ware, Texas, under then coach Mack Brown, recruited Young to play quarterback.
More than a decade before UH’s H-Town Takeover — aimed to keep the top prep football players from leaving the city — Young said a similar movement attempted to form.
“We were trying to get everybody from all the
(Houston) schools to go to UH,” Young said. “But they weren’t recruiting us. They didn’t think they had a chance. Everybody ended up going elsewhere or out of state.”
Things worked out for both quarterbacks.
Ware piled up records in UH’s “Run and Shoot” offense and won the 1989 Heisman Trophy.
Young led the Longhorns to a 13-0 mark and won a national championship during the 2005 season and finished runner-up for the Heisman.
“Everything didn’t work out, but UH is still a great school,” said Young, who was invited by coach Dana Holgorsen to speak to the Cougars during preseason camp. “I’m proud of them. I’m a Houstonian. I’m very happy to always see what they are doing.”
Ware said his favorite college memory came against the Longhorns — a 47-yard catch in the 1989 meeting in the Astrodome.
“The week before in preparation to play Texas, we were working on a play we were going to run right out of halftime,” Ware said. “It was set in stone. This is what we are going to run. We would go three receivers to our right, one to the left, and I would act like I’m calling an audible. I’m walking out to the single receiver side to my left. The ball was snapped, and we would sneak David Klingler, our backup quarterback, into the game and direct snap to him. We ran a switch route, which the outside receiver comes in, I go off his butt up the sideline. He put one up, and 47 yards later I reeled it in. That week in practice I missed that ball every single time, but in the game I delivered.
“That’s my favorite play of college. It wasn’t a touchdown throw or a run I made. It was the catch I made. That was my Heisman moment, I guess.”
While their college careers were nearly decades apart, Ware and Young in recent years joined forces, along with Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon, as co-founders of Brothers in Arms, which offers scholarships to high school seniors raised by single parents.
Both quarterbacks also maintain ties to their schools. There’s plenty of changes underway in Houston and Austin, where the Cougars joined the Big 12 this season and the Longhorns are set to move to the SEC in 2024.
And for likely the only time in the foreseeable future, the Cougars and Longhorns will meet Saturday on the football field.
Young was a true freshman the last time the schools met, a 41-11 UT victory.
“It was a good game. I think we blew them out,” Young said with a laugh. “I don’t want to say too much about it because I don’t want to make my brother mad.”
Ware had his comeback ready.
“60-40. 66-15. 47-9,” he said. “Those were the scores when we played Texas. We took care of business.”