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Rooster Andrews, who died last week at 84, often found himself the hub of Austin's celebrity wheel even when a couple of big names were just passing through.

A little background: For anyone who never heard of Rooster, which seems unlikely, the University of Texas' best beloved booster grew up in Dallas. He didn't grow much. Claimed to be 5 feet tall. Family called his story a stretch, and not just that one, either.

But many Rooster tales can be verified, as in the case of a couple of Texas recruits from more than 60 years ago.

Late in the summer of '44, Rooster roomed in an Austin boarding house with another Dallas kid, Bobby Layne, who was entering his freshman season. Rooster's job was to keep tabs on wayward players, which, with Layne, became a lifelong assignment.

Anyway, Texas' coach, D.X. Bible, called Rooster to tell him about a kid from Marshall named Y.A. Tittle. Buy a cot from the Army-Navy store, Bible told him, and let Tittle bunk with you and Layne.

Tittle showed up not long afterward. Even got a part-time job working for the sporting goods store where Rooster would get his start in the business.

On nights Layne didn't pitch for a semipro baseball team in town, he and Tittle would sometimes race barefoot down the middle of the street.

But the head-to-head competition in football never happened. Tittle had promised LSU coaches he was going to Baton Rouge, and he regretted the subterfuge.

An LSU coach drove to Austin late one night and told Tittle that, with Layne at UT, "You'll never play a down."

Tittle – who would play 17 pro seasons and finish in New York, where his 36 touchdown passes for the Giants in '63 remained a league record for more than 20 years – left Austin without a word to anyone.

In his '64 biography, Y.A. Tittle: I Pass!, he wrote: "I have often wondered what might have happened had I stayed at Texas. Maybe pro football never would have heard of Y.A. Tittle, or perhaps Bobby Layne's career would have been different. It's odd how fate steps in and changes the course of a man's life."

Not just one life, either. The next fall, Layne called Rooster as he was being discharged from the Merchant Marines. He'd served nine months with his high school pal, Doak Walker, and now both were on their way to Austin. Doak would room with them, just as Tittle had.

Said Rooster: "I went back to the Army-Navy store, got the same cot and put it between our beds."

When Rooster got to the station on Sunday to pick them up, only Layne got off the train.

"Where the hell is Doak?"

Back in Dallas, Layne said. He'll be here tomorrow.

Of course, he never showed. Maybe he stayed in Dallas because he ran into their old high school coach, Rusty Russell, then an assistant at SMU. Maybe his parents thought it time to put some distance between their boy and the hard-living Layne. Whatever it was, Doak called his buddy the next day and told him he was going to SMU.

Said Layne: "Well, I'll see you Saturday."

Texas beat SMU, 12-7, that week, with a pair of Highland Park stars on opposite sides of the field.

"So we lose Tittle," Rooster said nearly 60 years later, "and we lose Doak."

Now Texas has lost another Hall of Famer. Fortunately, Rooster's stories remain.

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