Texas football: 5 best seasons in Longhorns history
By Ethan Lee
2. Texas football runs the table in 1963
Like in 1969, the 1963 season saw the Texas Longhorns posting a perfect record and winning claim to a national title under Darrell K. Royal’s guidance. The Longhorns faced a few arduous challenges but were still able to get through the season unscathed.
Tulane, Texas Tech, and Texas Christian proved to be easy wins as Texas won those games by a combined score of 104-14.
That set the stage for No. 2 Texas to face No. 1 Oklahoma in the Red River Shootout. But that monumental rivalry game didn’t live up to what it could have been as the Longhorns won with ease, defeating OU 28-7.
The following week now No. 1 Texas was nearly tripped up in Little Rock as the Arkansas Razorbacks went toe-to-toe with the best team in the country. But Texas still came out on top, winning 17-13. Rice, SMU, and Baylor all turned out to be relatively challenging foes as well as the Longhorns won the three games by an average of 5.3 points.
After beating Texas Christian 17-0, the top-ranked, unbeaten Longhorns traveled to Texas A&M and met up with what ended up being the most difficult game of the season. The Longhorns struggled to beat the Aggies, but beat them nonetheless, winning 15-13, the closest game Texas would play all season.
After winning in College Station, Texas finished the regular season 10-0, had claimed the Southwest Conference title and was headed into the Cotton Bowl for a match up with No. 2 Navy.
But the Cotton Bowl ended up being a game Texas would win with ease. Texas cruised to a 28-6 victory, finished the year with an unblemished 11-0 record and would go on to claim the national championship that season.