New book retells one of UTs greatest stories

Orangebloods.com publisher Geoff Ketchum makes his debut as an author this month with the release of "The Die-Hard Fan's Guide to Longhorn Football". Whether the book is profiling the birth of the wishbone offense or telling never-before-told stories about Longhorn legend Vince Young, the book makes an effort to showcase the defining moments in the history of Longhorn football in a way that's never been done before. One of the chapters of the book focuses extensively on the ups and downs, both in life and on the playing fields for one of the most dynamic athletes in the history of the school.

Here's a small excerpt from that chapter.

The rest of the world might have known him as Johnny Jones, but it didn't take long before the entire Longhorn Nation began to know him as something else.

He was no longer Johnny Jones. Instead, he became Lam Jones.

There might not have been another athlete in the world that possessed the combination of world-class speed and abilities on the football field that Jones enjoyed. He might have been an American original in every other town, but in an ironic twist of fate, he was just one of several Johnny Jones' on the Texas football roster.

Literally.

On the same roster as Jones were fellow running backs Johnny Jones of Hamlin, Texas and Johnny Jones of Youngstown, Ohio. With three players sharing the same name and the same position, nicknames were a necessity.

Jones of Lampasas became "Lam" Jones. Jones of Hamlin became "Ham" Jones. And Jones of Ohio became "Jam" Jones, mostly because it rhymed with the other two.

With a new moniker in the game program, Jones began the journey of creating a legacy in football that would match the one that he had created on the track.

Of course, when you consider that he had grown up a fan of Barry Switzer's Sooners, it's amazing to think that he would end up with their arch-rival.

Perhaps it wasn't divine intervention, but an unlikely sequence of events led to his arrival in Austin.

"Coming out in recruiting, I was leaning a little more towards The University of Oklahoma and that was simply because back in those days they had the wishbone," Jones said. "At Lampasas High we ran the wishbone, and they also ran the wishbone at Texas, but Oklahoma had some wishbone halfbacks that were just a little more flashier than the Texas running backs. Texas had Roosevelt Leaks and Earl Campbell. That's two of the best right there. If you were a wishbone halfback, you'd lean a little more towards the Joe Washington and Greg Pruitt-type of running back. That's the type of back I was. I was considered more of the fast, quick and shifty type of back. Those were the type of backs that had been going to The University of Oklahoma, so I was leaning heavily towards Oklahoma."

The Sooners might have had the offense that Jones had coveted, but the in-state Longhorns had something that Switzer and Co. couldn't retaliate against.

Texas was family, even if Jones just didn't know it yet.

"While Coach (Darrell) Royal and Coach (Ken) Dabbs were over visiting me at our house, we were able to find out that there was a closer bond than we even realized. Coach Dabbs grew up in a little town called Freer, Texas and his family owned a restaurant down there. Their cook's name was Lonnie MacPhall. At first, coach Dabbs didn't know my grandmother's maiden name when he first started talking to her over at the house.

"After finding out my grandmother's maiden name, he asked her if she knew a Lonnie MacPhall and when he asked her that, she said, 'Ken, is that you?'"

"I guess her brother had been talking about this Ken Dabbs for all of these years. All of these years he had been talking about him. It turned out that my grandmother's older brother was the cook in Coach Dabbs' family's café. When Coach Dabbs was growing up, my grandmother's brother taught him how to drive and all kinds of stuff. Once they found out that that connection was there, had I gone anywhere else they would have hung me. That's how I ended up at Texas.

"Her older brother took care of Coach Dabbs when he was young and he was going to take care of me when I got to Texas, and he did. Everything turned out fine."

Jones also joked that Royal's celebrity power in Lampasas didn't hurt Texas' chances of landing him.

"It also doesn't hurt when Coach Royal comes to your house and has dinner with your grandparents," Jones said with a smile. "Your grandmother and grandfather are like rock stars in Lampasas to have Coach Royal sit in your home and have some of your homemade bread or homemade jelly. Not a lot of grandmothers could say that and my grandmother was on top of the world for a long time after that."