When Arch Manning takes the field in Dallas Saturday, the Texas Longhorns will be less one living legend at quarterback.
Emmet Augustus “Duke” Carlisle was the first of four championship signal callers to come through the Forty Acres. He died last Friday in Lockhart after a seven-year battle with lung cancer at the age of 84, leaving Eddie Phillips and Vince Young as the last living Longhorns quarterbacks to lead Texas to a national title.
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So much history at play here.
This week, Manning is leading the No. 1 team in America into its annual blood feud matchup against the struggling Oklahoma Sooners, who haven’t beaten the Longhorns since 2023. Like Carlisle, Manning has never made it about himself, preferring to spread the credit to teammates.
Without a Carlisle, there never would have been a Young – or Manning, for that matter.
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“Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to meet him, but with this place, there’s so much history, right?” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday. “Just the great players, the great coaches, the great teams, and then you add in the Cotton Bowl and the history of the Cotton Bowl itself, and the unbelievable wins that took place under coach (Darrell) Royal there, and then you add in the Red River Rivalry and OU and all that this game entails. There’s so much history.”
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And then, later: “It’s really great to honor those guys that played before us. We’re living up to the standard that they have set for us. And so with Duke, it’s no different.”
Texas’ greatest moments
Manning will be suiting up at the Cotton Bowl, the same stadium in which Carlisle made history in Royal’s eighth season with a win over Navy in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup. Heisman Trophy winner Roger Staubach got all the headlines going into the game, something Manning knows about. Carlisle outplayed Roger the Dodger in the 28-6 win, thanks in part to a star-studded offense led by All-America tackle Scott Appleton, who won the Outland Trophy that season.
Carlisle and Staubach were both enshrined in the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame in 2000.
Texas quarterback Duke Carlisle, shown running against Navy in the 1963 Cotton Bowl, directed the Longhorns to their first national championship. (Texas Athletics photo)
Unlike Carlisle, Manning will be getting the lion’s share of headlines when it comes to the quarterback discussion this Dallas trip. Sure, they’re talking about Oklahoma’s John Mateer north of the Red River, but the whole country has been following Manning’s story – on and off the field – since those Heisman projections came out in the spring that had him leading the pack.
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He has fallen off the pace after a tough statistical outing in the Tennessee win, but there is plenty of season left.
More immediate was last season’s 23-6 win being the unofficial jump-off point to the Horns finishing out the season with seven wins in their final eight games. The tough lessons from the 29-21 loss at Florida in early October provided the impetus for him to take a step forward as a leader on the field and in the locker room.
“Any time you can get a win over a rival, it boosts confidence in the team and that was kind of a full team win,” Manning said. “But anything can happen in this game. We got to prepare like we’re coming off a loss and be ready to roll.”
Texas defensive tackle Hero Kanu saw a leader emerge from last year’s Florida experience.
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“I think he grew up a lot in that time,” Kanu said of Manning. “Last year was his first year starting and over that time he accumulated these experiences and he got better and better the week. And I think the same thing goes for this season.”
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Just like Carlisle, Arch would rather talk about his teammates than himself, that is, if he’s talking.
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Arch Manning’s last Red River experience
Manning could be playing in his final Red River matchup, that is if he leaves this season with another year of eligibility in the bank. Despite some uneven performances – the offensive line’s poor play has plenty to do with it – Manning is still projected as a first-rounder on many NFL mock drafts because of his prototypical build, a big arm and good athleticism, unlike his Longhorns ancestor who stood 6-foot-1 and weighed a spindly 176 pounds.
The Kansas City Chiefs selected Carlisle in the sixth round of the AFL draft and the Green Bay Packers grabbed him in the fifth round of the NFL draft. Packers coach Vince Lombardi cut him in training camp and he signed with Dallas and spent time on the taxi squad before he made a business decision.
“I was skinny compared to the rest of those pros,” Carlisle said more than once. “I looked around and thought, maybe I should get out of the NFL while I still had my head attached.”
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He went to work with his father-in-law’s oil company in Mississippi, a decision that proved fruitful.
His best football memories came in college, no question.
The busts of Eddie Phillips, Duke Carlisle and James Street as they were being worked on in Montana by sculptor Ken Bjorge, who said each bust took him about eight months to complete. (James Nixon III)
“He really had a very self-effacing way about him,” said Rich Terry, Carlisle’s son-in-law during a Saturday phone call. “He would talk about it and tell you stories, but it would always be about how he got lucky or messed up. It was always about somebody else with him.”
In the storied history of this program, there can only be one first and Carlisle, who went 12-0 as Texas’ starting quarterback, holds that distinction. We can all agree that 62 years after that initial natty and 20 years after VY sprinted into the right corner of the Rose Bowl end zone to dethrone Southern Cal, the program is long overdue when it comes to making some new special memories.
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The four national championship quarterbacks have several things in common, but most notable is that none lost to the Sooners.
This article originally published at Six decades after Duke Carlisle paved the way, Texas’ Arch Manning set for Dallas | Golden.
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