Aggie Flashback with Dave Elmendorf

Notes from Dave Elmendorf interview

* He grew up in Houston and had been exposed to A&M because his father came to school in College Station. He would come up to games with his dad when he was a child and was indoctrinated into the Aggie culture at a young age. However, he started getting recruited for athletics in high school and was able to see some nice campuses including Notre Dame’s. He didn’t take all of his official visits, but he remembers being flown to Austin in a Learjet to visit the Texas campus. He was supposed to be shown around the campus by Bill Bradley, but he never saw him and was pawned off on someone else. He gave some thought into going to Texas, but after his visit, he knew he didn’t want to go there. He thinks that no matter what, he would have ended up at A&M, but fortunately, everything proved itself and he knew for a fact that A&M was right for him.

* His teams had a lot more success on the baseball diamond than on the football field during his time at A&M. He was forced to play on the freshman football team in 1967 which wasn’t much fun, but he was able to play with that same group of guys the next season because there were only five seniors on that ’67 squad. During his three seasons of eligibility, A&M won a total of eight games which was not fun. However, they did get a big win over a top-10 LSU team in Baton Rouge during his senior year.

* Playing two sports while at A&M was not difficult for him. He went to class like he was supposed to as was fortunate enough to have professors that understood his circumstances and didn’t penalize him for them. In today’s world, he thinks it would be very difficult to play two sports at the All-American level. He loved playing for Tom Chandler during his time on the diamond and had a blast playing both sports.

* He had multiple opportunities to give professional baseball a shot, including going number one overall in the supplemental draft to the New York Yankees. He was in negotiations with both the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Rams at the same time and truly did not know what he was going to do for quite a while. What finally made the decision for him was the fact that he would probably have to kick around the minor leagues for a while if he would have chosen baseball, whereas he could go straight to the NFL with football.

* At the time of Super Bowl XIV he didn’t know that it would be his last game in the NFL. Playing in the Super Bowl is everything that people think it is and it was a tremendous atmosphere to be a part of. As a member of the Los Angeles Rams, he felt a little cheated that he didn’t get to travel somewhere for the game, as it was held in L.A. that year. The Rams had great success during his time with the team and had gotten very close to the Super Bowl a few times before Super Bowl XIV. During his career with the Rams, they faced the Dallas Cowboys eight times and went 4-4 in those games.

* His favorite A&M game he was a part of broadcasting was easily the 1998 Big 12 Championship game. The whole entire broadcast booth went crazy when the Aggies completed their comeback to win the Big 12 title. He also remembers the Red, White and Blue Out game very well, as well as A&M’s upset of Texas in the Bonfire game in 1999.