Honoring Major Applewhite
By john • Sep 30th, 2007 • Category: major applewhite, texas longhornsBefore Vince Young saved Texas in the Rose Bowl of 2005 there was another guy who returned the team to being a major power. Standing 6′1″ with burnt orange hair to match his jersey color Major Applewhite became a legend for the fans of Texas.
Major Applewhite grew up a huge fan of the University of Alabama, even being named after Major Ogilvie a star for Alabama in the late 1970’s.
Despite being recruited from Catholic High School in Baton Rouge Applewhite by former Texas coach John Mackovic he initially wanted to play for Alabama but the school had already signed two other quarterbacks.
As a quarterback of the Texas Longhorns from 1998-2001 Applewhite helped restore the Longhorns to a national power.
The undersized Applewhite was cheered for his gritty heroics, ability to take a hit and his unmatched ability to rally his teammates.
Two games into his freshman season Applewhite became a starter and even led the Longhorns to a stunning victory of a seventh ranked Nebraska team which broke the Huskers 47 game home win streak.
During his final season with the Horns Applewhite had to battle the highly tottered Chris Simms for playtime. Simms was 6′5″ and considerably stronger then Applewhite. Following Simms three picks in the 2001 Big 12 Championship game and injury Applewhite led the Horns to a near comeback. He was allowed to start the Holiday Bowl where he threw for a school record 473 yards in a 47-43 win over Washington.
In total Applewhite set 8 school records. Many of his records are still on the books such as most touchdown passes (60) career yards (8,353), consecutive passes without an interception (156) and most yards in a game (473). Applewhite also holds the record for the longest pass play of 97 yards.
Following graduation Applewhite attended training camp for the New England Patriots but quit prior to the start of the season.
Since his time off the field Applewhite has spent time as the quarterbacks coach at Syracuse in 2005 and was the offensive coordinator at Rice in 2006. He is currently the offensive coordinator and quarterback’s coach at the University of Alabama.
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