The 1985 TCU Horned Frogs football team represented Texas Christian University (TCU) in the 1985 NCAA Division I-A football season….as the Horned Frogs finished the season 3 – 8 overall….while posting 0 – 8 in the Southwest Conference. The team was coached by Jim Wacker….in his third year as head coach….as the Frogs played their home games in Amon G. Carter Stadium….which is located on campus in Fort Worth, Texas.
The 1985 Texas Longhorns football team represented the University of Texas at Austin in the 1985 NCAA Division I-A football season….as the Longhorns finished the regular season with an 8–3 record….while posting a 6 – 2 record in the SWC…. and then lost to the Air Force Academy by a score of 24 – 16 in the Bluebonnet Bowl.
This game was played on November 16, 1985 at Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, TX in front of a crowd of 66,397….which the Longhorns won by a score of 20 – 0…in a hard hitting Southwest Conference match-up….as dang near every SWC opponent was a longtime rival.
TCU Head Coach Jim Wacker was the father of Mike Wacker….who was a 6’9″ F/C for the University of Texas Longhorn basketball team from 1981 to 1984….when in his freshman year he team up LaSalle Thompson “down on the block” during the 1981 season under Head Coach Abe Lemons….as Wacker and Thompson led the Horns to a 14 – 0 record….with a # 4 in the nation ranking….as Wacker averaged 15.2 points and 9.3 rebounds….while Thompson average 18.6 points and 13.5 rebounds per game for the season….and what team wouldn’t like to have that kid of production in the key and down under.
During the 1981 -1982 season….Coach Wacker, who was at that time coaching just down the road from Austin at Southwest Texas State (now Texas State)…..where he had just finished leading the Bobcats football team to their 2nd NCAA Division II National Championship in the past two years….and that’s when Coach Wacker took a Thursday off from football to drive up to Waco, TX to see his son take on the Baylor Bear….which was at the end of the 1st half of the Texas basketball season….only to make a surprise appearance while at Bone Daddy’s bar…. Madison Square Garden, The Sports Place at 302 E. 6th Street in Austin….when he walked through the doors with UT Head Basketball Coach Abe Lemons….who would be speaking at the weekly Abe Lemons Luncheon every Thursday during the entire men’s basketball season….for we are pretty sure that the two coaches got to know each other during the recruiting process of his son, Mike.
As Bone Daddy puts it….”I got to spend some time with a coach who not only had won 2 x NAIA Division Ii National Football Championships….along with winning 2 x NCAA Division II National Championships….plus the man who had sired one-half of the best “Twin Tower Tandem” in collegiate basketball that season….as his son Mike and LaSalle Thompson had teamed up to lead the Horns to a 14 – 0 record….and # 4 national ranking on the very day that these two Texas coaching icons came to The Garden to hear Abe speak.
That night in a game against Baylor University….Texas F/C Mike Wacker suffered a serious career threatening knee injury that required a year and a half to heal well enough for him to return to competitive basketball again. The injury to Wacker was devastating to the Longhorn basketball team….who after being undefeated through 14 games….went on to finish the remaining 13 games of the season with a 2 – 11 record….which caused the other half of the best “Twin Tower Tandem”….a two-time 1st team All-SWC in his freshman and sophmore year…LaSalle Thompson to not return to Texas for his senior year….while opting to begin his 14 year NBA career by becoming 5th pick overall by the Kansas City Kings.
The most devastating aspect of Mike Wacker’s injury was the fact that it led to the eventual firing of Coach Abe Lemons at Texas….which ended a wonderful 5 year business relation between Bone Daddy and Coach Abe….while Coach Jim Wacker would leave Southwest Texas State to coach the TCU Horned Frogs for the next 8 years. Any way you cut the pie….this video does for Bone Daddy what 1000’s of our videos do here at ImaSportsphile for 10,000’s of viewers…it bring back fond memories of days gone by.
