Texas Tech University Athletics
Faith, Football and a Quarterback's Legacy
October 31, 2015 | Football
Tom Wilson was among the first great Texas Tech quarterbacks when he led the Red Raiders from 1963-65 during the infancy of the school's membership in the Southwest Conference.
Oct. 31, 2015
By Britton Drown
Special to TexasTech.com
S
o often Tom Wilson returns here. After all, the game of football has defined much of the last half century of his life. The victories, the defeats and lately the lessons that many times only the sport itself can teach so well. Right now, 16 years after retiring from the game, it is very much those indelible lessons that Wilson leans so heavily against.He needs them.
For the former quarterback and longtime coach, it may not be in his nature to do something like this. Nevertheless, as one who has dedicated his life to both consuming and passing along the joys of football, Wilson is now asking that the game might give just a little more back to him.
So he pulls on those lessons he knows so well. The humbling teachings of perseverance. Strength. Courage. And now faith.
Tom Wilson was an assistant coach for Texas Tech from 1966-72.
See, in addition to being a Red Raider, Wilson is a father. He is a husband to his beloved wife Daun of 53 years. He is also a Christian and regular member of Northside Baptist Church at his home in Corsicana, Texas. If anything, football has provided solace in the very real battle for his life, and one can't help but immediately sense he approaches that battle the way he has done so many others in his life.
"It's just another battle," he says calmly. "I'm certainly not anything special. I'm one of many that have cancer and I'm fighting through it. I'm trying to fight through some adversity. It's not a whole lot different than what we face in athletics and in life."
It's quickly evident that athletics, and football in particular (much of which can be traced by to the plains of West Texas) is the watermark on Wilson's celebrated life. So perhaps it's fitting that on Saturday his widespread and selfless dedication to the sport he so dearly loves will be honored in a way that has never been done at Texas Tech.
As the Red Raiders take the field today, he will be reunited with generations of Red Raider signal callers as part of the Double-T Varsity Club's very first reunion dedicated solely to a single position of players. That effort commences Saturday in a celebration of Texas Tech quarterbacks.
It's a moment Wilson has been looking forward to since presenting Double T Varsity Club Executive Director Rodney Allison, another former Red Raider quarterback, with the vision this past spring. The idea spawned earlier in Dallas in a meeting between Wilson and former Red Raider great Ron Reeves.
Soon after, Allison jumped at the opportunity, and together the group quickly agreed to begin with Red Raider quarterbacks.
"It's a position that really stood out," Allison said. "We've had great players at every position, but I think that Texas Tech fans identify with the position of quarterback. We're excited to start there before getting back together and looking forward to highlighting more positions and great players at different positions across all Tech sports."
As the reunion takes place for the first time, there is little doubt that stories will collide and history will engulf Jones AT&T Stadium as Wilson makes a return to the field where many argue that he authored the first great Texas Tech quarterback story.
"His playing days and his coaching days were really something special," said Allison, who quarterbacked Texas Tech from 1974-77.
Similar to former Red Raider great Tom Wilson, Kliff Kingsbury was a Texas Tech quarterback before returning as a coach.
Wilson quarterbacked the Red Raiders from 1963-65 during the infancy of Texas Tech's membership in the Southwest Conference. Perhaps the highlight of his career came by way of engineering Texas Tech's now legendary 20-16 victory over Southwest Conference rival Texas A&M in his senior season. In that game, the Red Raiders trailed the Aggies late in the fourth quarter before Wilson took over the offense with less than two minutes remaining in regulation.
With one final shot at his third-straight victory over the Aggies, Wilson and the Red Raiders went on to make history.
Tom Wilson
As Wilson's recalls, he connected with receiver Jerry Shipley on a curl route from the left side before Shipley heaved a lateral back to teammate Donny Anderson streaking underneath from the right. Anderson took the shovel pass and eventually scored the go-ahead touchdown.
The unorthodox play sealed Texas Tech's victory over the Aggies in front of more than 40,000 fans inside Jones AT&T Stadium.
"It's one of the most famous plays in Tech history," Allison said.
Wilson went on to become the first Texas Tech quarterback to be named to the All-Southwest Conference team. He continued his commitment to his school afterwards, serving as assistant coach and quarterbacks coach for seven years before beginning a stint in College Station as Texas A&M's offensive coordinator and eventually its head coach.
Yet it's the Texas Tech campus that he still calls his football home.
"Being a quarterback at Texas Tech was special," Wilson said. "It was a blessing for me to have that opportunity and I've always cherished that opportunity."
His legacy is special, too. As a player and quarterbacks coach, not unlike current head coach Kliff Kingsbury, Wilson gave back to the university in a way that has been felt for decades afterward and seasons to come.
"If you look at the tradition and success of this offense, it's definitely an honor to play quarterback at Texas Tech," Kingsbury said. "I know our current quarterbacks feel that way and knowing the majority of the guys who played the position the past 15 years, we all take great pride in having played here. It's a proud tradition we hope to continue."
It has been more than 50 years since Wilson last took a snap at Texas Tech, but he continues to watch closely as Texas Tech quarterbacks, season after season, each leave their own unique legacy within the walls of Jones AT&T Stadium. It's something that brings him immense joy. Through the stories, Wilson has also witnessed change, perhaps most notably to the ever-increasing role of the passing game as the Red Raiders have ignited and helped define the spread offense era.
Yet as football has taught him so well, change is part of the game and it is also part of life itself. Perhaps that is the inspiration for the analogy that he has held tight to since his diagnosis in March.
"Every play is not a first down," he said. "Sometimes you have to punt -- and that's not all bad. Right now I'm just going to keep on trying and maybe I'll score and have a chance to beat this thing. You just can't give up."
