Self is not first to durn down his alma mater

Darrell Royal slept on it.

Barry Switzer slept on it.

Bill Self slept on it.

A good alma mater is worth a good night's sleep.

Self had the same opportunity that Royal and Switzer had many gridirons ago. Return home. Go back to the old campus, the beloved college where they played ball and sang the school song, where they graduated and coached, where they made lifelong friends and lifelong memories.

Self made the same decision Switzer and Royal made.

He stayed put.

Self on Thursday committed to staying on as basketball coach at Kansas, turning down Oklahoma State's homecoming plea.

Alma mater ties run deep. But so do plum circumstances, which is why Royal stayed at Texas instead of going to Oklahoma, and why Switzer stayed at Oklahoma instead of going to Arkansas, and why Self stayed at Kansas.

Self said Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder did "an unbelievable job of striking the right chord" in his pitch to Self. And he didn't mean money.

Most everyone has a soft spot somewhere in their heart for the old times. Old home place. Old friends. Old romance. Old school.

"Absolutely," said Royal, the 83-year-old Texas coaching legend. "There would be something wrong with him if he didn't."

Self said Holder's spiel was provocative. Self said he was "seriously interested" in listening. I believe him. Switzer and Royal listened, too.

Royal turned down Oklahoma in December 1965, after Gomer Jones' disappointing two-year run as the Sooner football coach.

OU came at him with sentimentality -- restore the luster to the program built by Royal's coach, Bud Wilkinson -- and big money: six-year contract, $32,000 annual salary that would climb past $50,000 with outside incomes. Hefty cash during the LBJ administration.

Royal thought about it a couple of days and declined. His listed reasons are sort of quaint compared to 21st-century negotiations: Texas gave him the security of a full professorship, Texas faculty had embraced football without resentment and the Longhorns' blossoming success.

"I don't think it's wise to jump when you're in the middle of the stream," Royal said this week from his Austin home.

Back then, Royal wasn't sure how it would fall on the wisdom scale, even though he had taken the 'Horns to the 1963 national title and would get them there again in 1969.

"I hope it was the wise decision," Royal told The Oklahoman in 1965. "I just hope I haven't made anybody mad at the University of Oklahoma or anybody mad at the University of Texas."

That's a fate Self surely has avoided. No one in Kansas can be upset with him -- in the same week in which he coached the Jayhawks to the NCAA title, Self turned down untold millions to stay on Mount Oread.

And it's a fate Switzer avoided in 1976 because he kept the courtship with Arkansas largely out of the press.

Switzer's Razorback coach, Frank Broyles, was retiring to become full-time athletic director. Broyles wanted Switzer, who had coached the Sooners to national championships in 1974 and 1975.

"They were going to pay me a hell of a lot more," Switzer said.

But Switzer told Broyles no, and after Broyles told Switzer to sleep on it, the next day the answer remained the same.

"I remember the exact conversation," Switzer said. "I said, 'Frank, I really, really appreciate it. No job in the world I'd rather have, other than the one I'm at.' I gave him the reasons why."

Thomas Lott. Kenny King. Billy Sims. Daryl Hunt. Greg Roberts. And a dozen more great players recruited in 1975.

"'Frank, I've recruited a great class,'" Switzer told Broyles. "'I'm going to have some great teams. Even though Arkansas's a good job, I've got so much invested here."

So much invested here. Think about that. Sounds like a pretty good description of how Self must have felt the last couple of days.

Royal remained a Longhorn and Switzer remained a Sooner, but both say their feelings for their alma mater never wavered.

"I pulled for Oklahoma every time, always have, except against where I'm employed." Royal said. "I'm proud to be an Okie. Oklahoma's always special to me. Always will be."

Switzer still goes over to Fayetteville for football reunions. He's headed there later this spring.

"I've got great ties to Arkansas," Switzer said. "Great state. Great people."

Self says the same thing about Oklahoma State and I believe him. Says there are only two schools at which he would want to work. "The one here (KU) and the one in Stillwater."

Different places, different sport, different decades, but Barry Switzer and Darrell Royal know the feeling.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)