Three-time All-SWC tailback Larry Stegent joins TexAgs Live

A three-time All-SWC selection and a member of A&M's 1967 SWC championship team, former tailback Larry Stegent was elected to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 2003. On Thursday, Stegent joined TexAgs Live to look back on his career in Maroon & White, A&M's future and more.

Key notes from Larry Stegent interview

• I think Hugh McElroy was a sophomore when I was a senior. When I was playing for the Cardinals in St. Louis when A&M beat LSU. I came home from practice, and my wife and I were trying to pick up that game on the radio. We listened on KMOX. We listened to the entire game and that last play. Lex James was the quarterback from Houston. It was fantastic.
   
• I was recruited by the Southwest Conference. I was recruited by just about everybody. I had my sights set on LSU, and as time and recruiting went along, I got to meet more and more Aggies, people like Gordon Edge and Johnnie Mitchell. Those Aggies were really on me about saying: Are you going to live in Baton Rouge or live in Houston, where you’re from? I said I'm going to live in Houston, so it made no sense to go to LSU. I changed my mind the very last weekend and had a long meeting with Gene Stallings. Then, I went back to Houston and said, “I'm going to sign with A&M on Tuesday.” They came down on Tuesday, and I signed. I’ve made a few great decisions, and that was one of them. I’ve made bad decisions, but that was a great decision.
   
• Stallings was a disciple of Bear Bryant. He played for coach Brant and coached for coach Bryant at Alabama. He was like coach Bryant. He was very tough and disciplined. We had 55 freshmen who showed up at Henderson Hall. When I was a senior, there were about seven or eight of us left. It was a pretty good attrition rate, over 90 percent. Seven or eight of us hung on, and seven or eight that stayed ended up having good careers. It was awesome.
   
• We knew we were a good football team, but we had no depth. We started off 0-4 in 1967. We lost to SMU with a pass to Jerry LeVias. Then we played Purdue at the Cotton Bowl. They had Mike Phipps and a good running back. That was a close game. We lost that close one there. We lost to Florida State in a monsoon at Kyle Field. I tried getting a few extra yards and fumbled. We went to Lubbock 0-4, and on the last play of the game, we scored. We had a good run after that for seven games. Beating coach Bryant, it felt like we could beat anybody. The coaching staff did a great job, and the guys played well.
   
• My senior year against Army, General James Earl Rudder came to a lot of practices. We played Army at Army during my senior year. Coach Stallings said General Rudder was coming in and wanted to talk to us before we took the field. He came in and got on a bench and said, “Listen, the head of West Point, I was in World War II at Normandy with him. I'm gonna let y’all know, I have a bet with him. I don’t want to lose that damn bet. If I lose that bet, I’m going to be back in here and have some words with you.” I don’t know what it was, but it scared me more than Stallings.
   
• Edd Hargett was a great leader. He had a great arm and was smart. He didn’t make many mistakes. He put the ball where he needed to put it. He had a knee injury in high school, so he didn’t run a whole lot. But he didn’t need to when he threw it well.
   
• In 1969, we played Texas at Kyle Field. They were No. 1 in the nation, and we were in the nation. It was one of those deals where they were getting ready to play Arkansas for the national championship the next week. Of course, we went out for the coin toss. Their captains were James Street, Bob McCay, Glen Halsell and a tight end. We’re doing the coin toss, and the referee said, “Texas, you make the call.” They called tails, and it came down as tails. Bob McKay responded, “We don’t give a damn.” It ended up pretty bad. It was a real beating. They were really strong. The week before, we played Rice in Houston. On Sunday, we were informed that the wishbone was getting put in. You know, Texas had worked on the wishbone for two or three years. We put it in and thought we had it perfected in two days. When we broke the huddle, I looked across, and the Texas linebacker looked across like, “What are y’all doing?” I think the longest gain we had was 13 yards. That happened because he QB reversed out the wrong way, I knocked the ball out of his hands, and I kicked it downfield where one of our guards recovered it for 13 yards.
   
• Curley Hallman was a really good and smart player. What he lacked in speed, he made up for in anticipation. We had a great secondary. We had a lot of guys drafted. Hargett, me, Wendell Housley, Barney Harris, Bob Long, Ralph Krueger, Billy Hobbs, Tommy Maxwell, Tom Buckman and a tight end. The second year, when we came back and won the conference championship, we basically had that entire team back...but everyone was hurt, so we didn’t have enough depth to fill it.
   
• I never dreamed that I would be in the Texas A&M Hall of Fame, but it was a great night, great evening, and I think it was the same night Emory Bellard got inducted. I gave him the business a little, and Judge Willie Blackmon was one of the guys inducted. It was very special for that to happen to me.
   
• I was up in Youngstown, Ohio, for a funeral, and someone came in and said there’s a phone call for me. I was shocked, like, “Who’s calling for me here?” It was someone from the Associated Press to say that I got drafted by the Cardinals with the eighth pick of the first round. I didn't get any letters from them. I played in four all-star games where Don Shula was the coach. He said if I'm available, I'm going to draft you. He later left Baltimore and went to Miami. I was happy to get drafted, though.
   
• Getting hurt was devastating. Of course, you get hurt in college with a separated shoulder, broken hand or a few things like that. It was an exhibition game against the Bears. I was a rookie, so they put me in the second half. Pete Beathard was the QB. It was a pass that was intercepted, but they blew the play dead. I guess he didn’t hear the whistle, and I turned to look at the sideline. He hit my knee perfectly and hyperextended it all the way to the ground. Within three or four minutes, it was the side of a watermelon. They took me to a hospital and had a seven-hour surgery on it.
   
• I was there for 17 days. I was 220 pounds when I went into the hospital and 170-something when I came out. I lost weight and started a rehab program. I didn't know if I'd ever play again, but I did. I came back the next year and played a little defense and special teams. It got down toward the end of the year, and MacArthur Lane got hurt. I started against Philadelphia at running back, and lo and behold, I blew out my right knee where no one even touched me. Another year on IR. Finally, it got to the point where I didn't have much lateral movement. I couldn’t do what I did before, so I dropped my shoes in the Mississippi River and went, “OK, let's see what I can do with my business degree from A&M.” It haunted me for a little while, but it doesn’t anymore. My hopes were to play eight or nine years in the NFL, but the end just came earlier than I thought. Then I got into the insurance business, and it stuck. In 1981 or so, I opened Stegent’s Insurance Associates. Now I have two partners, my daughter and wife. I don’t know what I'd do if I didn't work.
   
• I'm excited about the Aggies. I see the guys out west have us at about eight games. I don’t buy that. I see three tough road games with LSU, Notre Dame and Texas. A lot of people say, “Well, we can beat one of them.” I think we can beat two of them. I think we’ll beat Notre Dame, and our defense will be much better than it was last year. On the offense, I'm looking for Rueben Owens II to have a great year. I think we will win 10 ballgames, really.