R.C. Slocum is the ‘ultimate a type of guys’

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  Dave WilsonApr 8, 2025, 07:51 AM ET

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  Dave Wilson is a school soccer reporter. He in the past labored at The Dallas Morning Information, San Diego Union-Tribune and Las Vegas Solar.

THERE’S A SAYING in Aggieland for many who don’t seem to be true believers: Freeway 6 runs each techniques. As in, if you do not adore it right here, do not let the door hit you at the means out.

However for R.C. Slocum, all roads have all the time ended in Texas A&M.

He arrived in 1972 as a 27-year-old receivers trainer, and this Jan. 2, at 80, he formally retired. All through the ones 53 years, he left an enormous maroon thumbprint on soccer in Texas. Slocum sped up integration in Faculty Station as a tender assistant within the Seventies, created one of the vital maximum fearsome defenses of the Eighties, turned into one of the vital nation’s winningest head coaches of the Nineties, and two times served as intervening time athletic director previously 5 years.

The previous shoeshine boy from the tasks of Orange, Texas, grew up idolizing Southwest Convention icons like Darrell Royal and Frank Broyles, absolute best suits at Texas and Arkansas. Then he turned into certainly one of them. Whilst you recall to mind Texas A&M, you recall to mind R.C. Slocum, as simple a pairing as chicken-fried steak and cream gravy.

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As head trainer, Slocum by no means had a shedding season, going 123-47-2 and had the sixth-best successful proportion nationally (.721) when he used to be fired in 2002. Twenty-three years later, two of his former avid gamers, the Detroit Lions’ Dan Campbell and the New York Jets’ Aaron Glenn, are NFL head coaches, and a 3rd, Dennis Allen, is the defensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears after being a head trainer two times.

There may be now not a lot that may gradual Slocum down: He used to be identified with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2021, went via chemotherapy and beat it, then served because the Aggies’ intervening time athletic director in 2022. His distinctive affability and Texas attraction allowed him to evolve to operating for 17 presidents, 5 athletic administrators, 3 head coaches, two coordinators and, he jokes, “hundreds of alumni coaches.”

“There may be now not many that would care for it,” former Texas A&M trainer Jackie Sherrill mentioned. “He helped construct it. He used to be a part of it, he nonetheless is, and he’ll all the time be.”

Without equal Aggie may just by no means convey himself to go away for every other task. Slocum used to be most effective 58 when he used to be fired — however could not transfer colours.

Leashes are shorter for coaches at the moment, with most effective 5 lively FBS coaches serving longer than Slocum’s 14-year teaching profession. Directors are necessarily CEOs, and faculty sports activities are extra transactional than ever. You should not have to appear any more than Faculty Station: Within the 3 primary sports activities, the Aggies have a soccer trainer going into his 2d season, a baseball trainer in his first season, and a brand new males’s basketball trainer coming after Buzz Williams’ departure for Maryland. There don’t seem to be many lifers left in faculty sports activities.

Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione, who has identified Slocum for greater than 30 years, calls him without equal “program man,” noting that it is outstanding that Slocum has labored within the management for the previous 20 years.

“R.C. is in point of fact certainly one of a type in that sense,” Castiglione mentioned. “Particularly in our global going ahead, other people like which can be few and a ways between.”

However Slocum got here up at a time when lots of the state’s ball coaches have been affable characters who have been extra like your neighbors than a titan in a far off gated mansion, who’d drink beer in combination the night time sooner than a sport. He used to be a part of a bunch of training legends together with Royal, Texas Tech’s Spike Dykes, Houston’s Jack Pardee and Slocum’s mentor Emory Bellard, who would meet at Louie Mueller Barbeque, a mythical joint in Taylor, Texas, take a seat in a again room and inform tales. He is an enormous in his personal proper, nonetheless strolling amongst us.

“He is Texas royalty,” Spike’s son, TCU trainer Sonny Dykes mentioned. “He is the ultimate a type of guys.”

Inductee R.C. Slocum of Texas A&M is known all the way through the Nationwide Soccer Basis Enshrinement Rite in 2013. AP Photograph/John Amis

IN 1971, RICHARD Copeland “R.C.” Slocum, then a 27-year-old assistant in his 2d yr in faculty teaching at Kansas State, used to be in Orange visiting circle of relatives for Christmas when he heard that Texas A&M used to be hiring Emory Bellard, Royal’s offensive coordinator, as its new head trainer.

Slocum made an impromptu 200-mile shuttle to Faculty Station to promote himself to Bellard as a candidate, with one downside: He did not know him, and he did not have an appointment. So he simply waited on a sofa outdoor the trainer’s place of work for an opportunity, and after greater than six hours, Bellard in spite of everything listened.

In a while, he made the three ½-hour pressure again to Orange, where the place he had grown up within the greatest federal housing mission ever in-built america on the time, an enormous complicated referred to as Riverside that used to be used to deal with staff development ships in International Battle II at the Gulf Coast. It used to be in Orange the place Homer Stark, a businessman and Aggie from probably the most outstanding circle of relatives on the town, had taken a shine to the child from the tasks and invited him to his first Aggie Bonfire and the sport in opposition to Texas in 1961. The Aggies misplaced, 25-0, their 5th instantly loss to the Longhorns, and completed 4-5-1. However it did not subject. Slocum had fallen beneath the spell.

“From that point on, I used to be hooked,” Slocum mentioned. “I used to be an A&M man from day one.”

In Riverside, Slocum had grown up promoting copies of the native newspaper, the Orange Chief, and shining footwear at a barber store. He scraped up pennies to assist with expenses and evolved a way of empathy from a lifetime of battle.

“My dad fearful about making an attempt to shop for bread and pay the hire,” Slocum mentioned. “I had an figuring out of the houses that I went into and the younger males that I used to be chatting with. In lots of instances, I may just see similarities in the best way I got here up. Lots of them have been African-American citizens, however I may just put myself in that image. Identical backgrounds, just right other people, and so they have been doing the most efficient they might do with what they’d. I wasn’t some fancy trainer. I spent extra time the place they have been.”

That used to be how Slocum had evolved a robust bond with avid gamers like Bubba Bean, a highschool All-American who, in 1971, had simply set the Texas state dashing file with 79 profession TDs, operating for five,532 profession yards in within reach Kirbyville, Texas. Slocum were recruiting Bean to Kansas State since his sophomore season and had an opportunity, as a result of Texas faculties have been hesitant to recruit Black athletes on the time.

When Bellard referred to as to provide Slocum the task, Bean, now a senior, simply took place to be visiting Slocum at his brother’s trailer in Orange, and Slocum right away flipped from promoting Okay-State to promoting A&M. In an issue of mins, Slocum had made two large leaps. He used to be an Aggie, and so used to be Bean, a leap forward for a program that had just one successful season since 1957 and had just one Black scholarship participant on its roster, Jerry Honore.

Honore, who signed with the Aggies in 1970 and used to be in Faculty Station when Slocum arrived, additionally took place to have a bit of historical past with the brand new man. Honore used to be residing in Lake Charles, Louisiana, when the Civil Rights Act used to be enacted, and he used to be bused to a newly built-in college. In a single sport, Honore’s trainer, a white guy, grabbed an offensive lineman and yelled at him to “block the goddamn n—–.”

Honore used to be floored and needed to pass take a seat at the bench. Then he noticed one of the vital assistants, a 23-year-old in his first teaching task out of school at within reach McNeese State, overtly confront his head trainer in regards to the slur. Then he got here to Honore, imploring him to not let the trainer make him give up. Honore went again within the sport, blocked a punt, and Lake Charles pulled out the win.

“That used to be the instant,” Honore mentioned of the younger assistant, “when R.C. Slocum turned into my trainer.”

Reunited in Faculty Station, Honore turned into a key best friend in serving to Bellard and Slocum exchange A&M’s fortunes, with Slocum asking Honore to hit the street with him.

“I requested Emory what number of Black avid gamers lets signal, and he mentioned, ‘You in finding the most efficient other people, and I’m going to care for the remaining,” Slocum mentioned. He did not waste any time. Slocum and Honore visited long term stars like Bean, Carl Roaches, Skip Walker, Pat Thomas and Jackie Williams, 5 of the 8 Black avid gamers Bellard signed in his firstclass, all of whom graduated and went directly to play professional soccer.

“I will keep in mind seeing UT’s trainer, Arkansas’s trainer and LSU’s trainer all out at the entrance porch ready their flip for my mother to allow them to are available in,” Bean mentioned. “R.C. simply walked within the again door. He and my mother have been simply that shut. If R.C. had long gone to Timbuktu and I might were given an be offering to visit Timbuktu, that is the place I used to be gonna pass.”

Slocum (proper) with Bean (heart) on Bean’s birthday in 1972. Courtesy R.C. Slocum

In 1975, at the back of Bean, a fourth-year starter who set the varsity file for dashing yards, A&M had its 2d 10-win season in class historical past at the back of their 1939 nationwide identify crew. Bean rushed for 126 yards in simply the Aggies’ 2d win over Texas in twenty years and turned into the one Aggie ever to land at the quilt of a countrywide version of Sports activities Illustrated.

When Slocum arrived, Texas A&M had about 14,000 scholars — just one,700 of them ladies — and averaged about 29,000 fanatics in keeping with sport at Kyle Box for each sport except for Texas. It used to be a tricky task. It nonetheless is, regardless of the apparently limitless assets, an enrollment of greater than 79,000 and the most important stadium within the SEC, which seats 102,733. However Slocum used to be the Aggies’ true believer, and his secure demeanor, devotion and beauty helped change into Texas A&M into what it’s nowadays, beginning with that decision from Bellard and a cookout with Bean.

“He can have run for governor and had an attractive rattling just right probability. The tale of his upbringing and recruiting to the place he’s nowadays is astounding,” mentioned former A&M head trainer Kevin Sumlin, Slocum’s former offensive coordinator who he employed from Purdue, Sumlin’s alma mater. “Whilst you sat in houses with him, folks favored that roughly paintings ethic. He may just be in contact with any one, white, Black, it isn’t important. That is why they despatched their children there. They depended on R.C. identical to I did to return down right here.”

Starting with breaking down limitations to integration, Slocum all the time desirous about shifting the Aggies ahead. Within the early Nineties, Slocum — now not a president or chancellor — met with SEC commissioner Roy Kramer to first broach the theory of the Aggies becoming a member of the convention. When A&M wanted a brand new soccer complicated, he were given his buddy H.R. “Bum” Vivid, the previous proprietor of the Dallas Cowboys, handy over a take a look at for $5 million to get the mission began in 2000.

“He is been a blueprint man,” mentioned Phil Bennett, a 50-year teaching veteran who used to be recruited, coached and mentored via Slocum. “If there is ever been a man within the historical past of Texas A&M that is been greater in athletics, and soccer specifically, I have no idea who it’s.”

Even DeLoss Dodds, the mythical Texas athletic director who constructed the Longhorns’ athletic division right into a behemoth from 1981 to 2013 and loved tormenting the Aggies at each flip, can admire his outdated buddy’s legacy, providing the best possible reward any person in burnt orange may just be offering.

“R.C. is for A&M what Trainer Royal used to be to Texas,” Dodds mentioned.

Slocum speaks with avid gamers previous to the sport in opposition to the Texas Longhorns on December 2, 1989 at Kyle Box. Wealthy Clarkson/NCAA Pictures by way of Getty Photographs

AFTER ONLY ONE yr as an offensive assistant beneath Bellard, Slocum moved to the defensive facet of the ball, the place he earned a name as one of the vital brightest younger assistants within the nation. Bennett mentioned he were devastated when Slocum took different jobs early on: as soon as for Lou Holtz at Arkansas and as soon as for Steve Sloan at Ole Omit.

“The opposite coaches nicknamed him ‘Boomerang’ as a result of he subsidized out of either one of them,” Bennett mentioned. “And what a good move it used to be for him.”

However in spite of everything, for the one time in the ones 53 years, Slocum took the proverbial Freeway 6 go out, heading to — of all puts — Los Angeles, the place USC’s John Robinson had picked him to be his defensive coordinator in 1981 for a countrywide identify contender. The Trojans fielded the Pac-10’s supreme protection and beat No. 2 Oklahoma 28-24, handing Barry Switzer simply his tenth loss over the last 9 seasons.

But if the Aggies made up our minds to entice Pitt’s Jackie Sherrill with the most important contract in faculty soccer historical past in 1982, Sherrill mentioned he used to be right away instructed via Aggie boosters to convey Slocum house.

“I referred to as him, and I do not believe the telephone name lasted a couple of minute,” Sherrill mentioned. “He mentioned, ‘I am on my means.'”

The Aggies gained 3 Southwest Convention titles and beat Texas in 5 instantly seasons. Sherrill, like Bellard, had jolted this system from its shut eye. However Sherrill resigned in Dec. 1988 amid an NCAA investigation into mistaken advantages for avid gamers and Slocum took over, hoping to secure this system.

As a substitute, he grew to become it right into a system that chewed up the Southwest Convention. Below Slocum, A&M did not lose a convention sport between 1991 and 1994, going 42-5-1 total and 28-0-1 within the league. And he did it whilst keeping up one of the vital supreme reputations within the industry.

“I simply cannot believe any one, any trainer or any one that loves soccer, now not simply being loopy about R.C. Slocum,” mentioned Archie Manning, who turned into pals with Slocum when Peyton visited A&M on a recruiting shuttle. “He’s such dadgum just right corporate. He is cast gold.”

Slocum’s humble interest allowed him to construct a community with spectacular succeed in. The ones relationships helped Slocum forge the Aggies’ identification.

“Lemme inform you, I have by no means heard every other trainer ever say the rest destructive about R.C. Slocum,” Switzer mentioned, sooner than guffawing and announcing he did not get the similar grace in Texas. “Numerous ’em I checked out, I did not believe my buddy, however R.C. used to be a pal. His file speaks for itself. S—, I did not wish to have to move trainer in opposition to him.”

Slocum comes off as down-to-earth, however he constructed his identification via looking for out the most efficient brains within the industry. He sought out Wade Phillips and studied the nuances of Phillips’ attacking 3-4 protection. He visited Invoice Parcells and Invoice Belichick in New York to look at how they deployed Lawrence Taylor. He sought out Invoice Walsh to determine what he may just do this would make his cutting edge offenses maximum uncomfortable. Then he merged all of it along with the data of spacing, pace and matchups he realized from Bellard’s wishbone assault to shape what turned into referred to as the “Wrecking Group,” one of the crucial competitive, rapid and feared gadgets within the nation.

Slocum’s protection turned into referred to as Heisman killers. Between 1986 and 1990, the Aggies confronted 5 Heisman Trophy winners, going 4-1 in opposition to them, together with torching Ty Detmer in a 65-14 win within the 1990 Vacation Bowl, conserving BYU to minus-12 yards dashing and 185 yards of offense, as Detmer left the sport within the 3rd quarter with two separated shoulders after going 11 of 23 passing for 120 yards.

He did it via placing pace all over the place the sector, taking avid gamers like Johnny Holland, a quarterback recruit, and turning them into All-American linebackers. Towards No. 8 Houston, which set 26 NCAA data and averaged 624.9 yards in keeping with sport at the back of Andre Ware in 1989, Slocum performed one nostril take on, with 10 linebackers and defensive backs at the box, an early instance of contemporary hybrid defenses. The Aggies gained, 17-13 as they sacked Ware six occasions and compelled 3 interceptions.

“He used to be for sure the most efficient that I went up in opposition to as a defensive trainer,” mentioned John Jenkins, the mad scientist who used to be the Cougars’ trainer.

The protection fed off the raucous Kyle Box crowds, who in flip fed off the protection’s aggression. Enjoying at Texas A&M turned into one of the vital hardest street journeys within the nation, with the Aggies shedding most effective 11 house video games over Slocum’s 14 seasons.

Slocum understood that A&M — with its rural roots as an agriculture college and its distinctive traditions — wasn’t for everybody. He bought this system over the participant and did not cede any one to Texas, however he may just inform when a mother on the nation membership in Dallas wasn’t going to ship her son to put on maroon.

“He were given where,” mentioned Dykes. “He in point of fact understood what it used to be love to be an Aggie. He appealed to these other people.”

Campbell jokes about figuring out the place he belonged when a recruiter from Texas, the place he was hoping to play, mistook a black goat for a deer at his dad’s ranch, sooner than Slocum pulled up in his truck.

“When he were given out, he is like, ‘Guy, you guys were given those Spanish goats out right here! The ones are beautiful,’ Campbell mentioned. “That used to be a large deal to my dad.”

Texas needed to step up its sport. When Mack Brown arrived, the 2 coaches turned into pleasant competitors, like Broyles and Royal were. Slocum even had a longhorn steer named Mack Brown on his ranch.

“I really like R.C.,” Brown mentioned. “He is without equal soccer trainer. He may just trainer in highschool, center college or the NFL. He loves the state of Texas. He is for sure at the Mount Rushmore [of Texas football] while you take into accounts what he has executed for highschool coaches within the state. I might assume that no one is aware of extra and cares extra about Texas A&M soccer and highschool soccer within the state of Texas than R.C. Slocum.”

Even certainly one of Brown’s greatest stars, Colt McCoy, whose dad used to be a highschool trainer, has the same opinion.

McCoy, who set 47 college data for the Longhorns and spent 14 years within the NFL, used to be talking in February at a panel at the historical past of soccer at Schreiner College in Kerrville, Texas, when he let the orange-clad crowd in on a bit of secret.

“My dad despatched me to a Texas A&M soccer camp. This does not go away this room, OK?” McCoy mentioned to laughs from the gang. “He cherished R.C. Slocum. Trainer Slocum used to be an excellent guy. Had R.C. Slocum been the trainer at A&M when it used to be time for me to visit faculty, I have no idea what would’ve took place.”

R.C. Slocum and quarterback Branndon Stewart confer all the way through a sport in opposition to the Texas Longhorns. Brian Bahr/Allsport

NO AGGIE COACH since Endure Bryant left for Alabama in 1957 has long gone out on his personal phrases. Or even Slocum used to be no other. A&M is all about custom, in the end.

In 2002, the Aggies went 6-6, shedding 5 of them via a complete of 29 issues. They surprised No. 1 Oklahoma, 30-26, in November, however the rumors had lengthy been swirling that Slocum’s time used to be up. 4 days sooner than the season finale in opposition to No. 10 Texas, freshman defensive lineman Brandon Fails collapsed and died in his dorm from a blood clot that traveled to his lungs. The Aggies have been beaten. After which they misplaced to Texas, 50-20, and Slocum used to be fired after going 21-15 over his ultimate 3 seasons.

The transfer surprised his friends, even those that contributed to his dismissal.

“He is all the time been certainly one of my favorites,” former Texas Tech trainer Mike Leach, who used to be 2-1 in opposition to Slocum, instructed ESPN in 2022. “It used to be unnerving to play in opposition to him as a result of he is a training legend. Ahead of video games, you might be roughly excited to move shake R.C.’s hand. ‘We were given to fulfill R.C. Slocum!’ Who on the earth fires R.C. Slocum?”

Mike Leach and Slocum in 2001. Sean Meyers/Icon SMI

Slocum does not reside at the what-ifs. He by no means used to be ready to damage via and win a countrywide identify, however that is a rarity at faculties that were not born blue-bloods. Frank Beamer were given shut at Virginia Tech. Tom Osborne, who already had gained two as an assistant at Nebraska, did not win his first as a head trainer till his twenty second season, when he used to be 57. Don James used to be 58 when he gained one at Washington. Bobby Bowden gained his first at Florida State at 63. And of Slocum’s successors, most effective Kevin Sumlin had a greater file over his worst 3 seasons, going 23-16 to Slocum’s 21-15. (Franchione went 16-19; Mike Sherman, 19-19; Jimbo Fisher, 20-17.)

“Again all the way through that point, there have been a handful of those mythical coaches, guy,” Campbell mentioned. “Bobby Bowden, Tom Osborne… R.C. Slocum used to be in that. I were given it for years within the league: ‘R.C. Slocum, what a trainer.’ I used to be lucky as a way to play for him. The farther got rid of from him I used to be and for sure after I were given into teaching, I felt like my eyes have been open to in point of fact what he in point of fact used to be about.”

Bennett mentioned he used to be shocked at how deficient A&M’s amenities have been when he left LSU in 1995 to paintings for Slocum. Sumlin mentioned Oklahoma, the place he coached after the group of workers used to be fired, used to be a ways forward of the Aggies.

Campbell now and again wonders if, with the similar stage of funding that the Longhorns and Sooners had, and even just about the assets the Aggies have now, Slocum can have accomplished the similar good fortune as his contemporaries.

“What if we might have executed the similar factor with R.C.?” Campbell mentioned. “He all the time had groups in place to have good fortune and win championships. How have you learnt we aren’t going to win the massive one?”

Slocum recognizes fanatics all the way through a basketball sport in opposition to Alabama. Erik Williams-Imagn Photographs

SLOCUM ALWAYS KEPT his viewpoint. His son, John Harvey, used to be born with a middle defect and did not understand how lengthy he used to be going to reside till medical doctors fastened it with surgical operation in 1999, when he used to be in his 20s.

Slocum used to be main the Aggies in Nov. 1999 when the student-built bonfire, the 55-foot-tall rows of huge logs organized like a tiered cake constructed yearly sooner than the Texas sport, collapsed and killed 12 scholars. Slocum cancelled observe, despatched his avid gamers out to drag logs off the pile and assist with seek and rescue efforts. Then, he led the Aggies to an dissatisfied of No. 7 Texas days later.

“I assumed R.C. treated that scenario higher than any one most likely may just,” Brown instructed ESPN in 2021. “We have been forward 16-0 at halftime, [and] they got here again and beat us 21-16 proper on the finish. I am not certain that it wasn’t supreme for them to have gained that sport.”

It is one of the crucial necessary victories to Aggies in class historical past. However soccer used to be by no means crucial factor for Slocum.

“A man wrote me a letter one time announcing he stayed up all night time when we misplaced to Texas within the ultimate 5 seconds,” Slocum instructed ESPN when he used to be at the scorching seat in 2002. “I wrote him again and mentioned, ‘You already know what? Be grateful you have no actual issues to care for.'”

When Slocum used to be fired, he used to be disenchanted, however now not distraught. And he were given some not going recommendation from George H.W. Bush, the forty first president who decided on Texas A&M for his presidential library. Slocum and Bush turned into shut pals, with Slocum even taking Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev, the previous chief of the Soviet Union, to a cafe in Faculty Station as soon as for some Tex-Mex.

“I do know you might be in point of fact disenchanted and I do not blame you,” Bush instructed him. “I spent my entire grownup existence seeking to get myself ready to be the president and so they booted my butt out. I simply hope you’ll be able to take the prime street and transfer on along with your existence.”

Slocum had alternatives: Former Texas governor Mark White and Baylor booster Drayton McLane, the previous Houston Astros proprietor, contacted him on behalf of Baylor the morning after he used to be fired, announcing cash used to be no object. Houston would’ve introduced him no matter he sought after. The Arizona Cardinals introduced the head-coaching task. There have been extra over the following couple of years, however he grew to become all of them down.

The Aggies did not fireplace him, he’d say; only one or two other people did.

“I already idea I used to be a just right trainer,” Slocum mentioned. “I were given those people calling me about shifting, however I have had 30 years of avid gamers and pals and alumni. And for all the ones years, if I wasn’t doing one thing in soccer, I used to be doing it with Aggies.”

Former Tennessee trainer Phil Fulmer says that viewpoint modified his existence. After Fulmer, who gained a countrywide identify with the Vols, used to be compelled out in 2008, he confirmed up on the nationwide teaching conference decided to get every other task. Slocum grabbed him within the corridor and took him to the resort eating place.

Slocum passed the server a buck and requested for a roll of pennies as a befuddled Fulmer attempted to appreciate what used to be going down.

“He lays the pennies in the market and says, ‘How outdated are you?’ And I mentioned, neatly, I am 58. So he took 58 pennies off the desk. He mentioned, shall we embrace you reside until you might be 85, a just right lengthy age. He took 15 extra pennies off the desk and mentioned, perhaps the ones ultimate 5 years would possibly not be excellent. So he took 5 extra pennies off the desk and I am taking a look at the ones pennies, and that is the reason now not numerous pennies left.”

He instructed Fulmer you have to rely your pennies, however it is extra necessary to make your pennies rely.

“It hit me proper between the eyes. On the time I had six grandchildren — 9 now — and he mentioned, if you wish to chase that loopy game round, you pass forward, however I’ll experience my pennies and that is the reason it for me.”

Remaining fall, when Texas returned to Faculty Station for the longstanding competitors’ first assembly since 2011, Slocum waded in the course of the throngs at Aggie Park, the tailgating spot around the side road from Kyle Box, the type of scene that do not have been conceivable in 1972. It used to be filled with fanatics, however anyplace Slocum went, the seas parted.

Eyes were given huge. Did not subject the colour they have been dressed in. That is R.C. Slocum, fanatics whispered as they elbowed their pals. A number of thanked him for his years of provider to Texas A&M. However Slocum did not discriminate. He sought out Longhorn fanatics, welcoming them again and telling them how excited he used to be for the go back of the competition.

Slocum used to be a becoming ambassador. No one ever coached in additional A&M-Texas video games than Slocum: 30 in all. On his solution to the sector to soak up the pregame scene, he walked in the course of the Vivid soccer complicated, the only he helped get constructed however by no means labored in.

“Once they wanted assist, R.C. used to be there to do it,” Dodds mentioned. “And he most likely used to be underappreciated.”

However after his most cancers scare, there used to be a brand new realization: Slocum had all the time proven up. However simply because he is all the time been round doesn’t suggest he all the time will probably be.

In 2023, Aggie booster Wayne Roberts donated $7.5 million towards the renovation of the soccer heart, with one stipulation: He did not need his title at the development. He sought after R.C.’s. The development used to be renamed the Vivid-Slocum Middle. It used to be the easiest atmosphere for his ultimate house sport as an reliable Texas A&M worker after greater than a half-century.

He walked out of the development bearing his title, leaving all of the program higher than he discovered it.

“As you undergo your existence, you attempt to go away just right tracks,” he mentioned.

Now he can get again to residing. In December, he used to be commemorated at a receive advantages in Houston. His two sons, John Harvey and Shawn, have been there. So used to be his spouse Nel, her son, and all the granddaughters and their spouses.

“All of them had Aggie rings on,” Slocum mentioned. “We were given an image with all of ’em doing a Gig ‘Em. That night time it went via my thoughts, boy, you made the proper determination. A&M has been just right to me. It is been just right to our circle of relatives. I am nonetheless spending the pennies of my existence. I am in additional time at the moment. I believe I have already long gone in the course of the fourth quarter, however I am nonetheless enjoying.”