Former Longhorn, East Texas native James Street dies

It was a sad day for Longhorns fans and East Texans alike as former Texas Longhorn quarterback James Street died at the age of 65. Street was a Longview native. He went into the 1968 as a backup quarterback for the Longhorns but it only took two games for him to become the starter. He led the team to 20 straight wins including a 15-14 victory over No. 2 Arkansas to win the regular season. That game was dubbed, “Game of the Century.” That game was attended by then President Richard Nixon who predicted the Longhorns would go on to become national champions. He was a perfect fit for then head coach Darrell Royal who introduced the wishbone offense, which didn’t work for the Longhorns in those first two games of the season before Street took over, and he exceeded at it. Eventually Texas went on to win the National Championship just like Nixon said they would. Winning the National Championship was something that hadn’t been done until 2005 when Vince Young led the Horns to a win over the USC Trojans. After his time with the Longhorns, Street went on and had a successful career in finance. He founded a firm in Austin which focuses on working with plaintiffs in legal disputes.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 30th, 2013 at 9:10 pm and is filed under Tyler Businesses. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.