Category Archives: University of Texas

NFL, University of Texas

Tausch, Terry (1959-2020)

University of Texas Upper Deck 2011, #41

CARD: University of Texas Upper Deck 2011
ACQUIRED: Ebay, 2024
FAILURE: TTM 2018, TTM 2021 C/o Home

CAREER SNAPSHOT:

  • After redshirting his Freshman year and converting from TE, OL Terry Tausch played from 1978-’81 for the Texas Longhorns.
  • A 4 year letterman, he earned all-conference honors in both 1980 and ’81.
  • A second round pick of the Minnesota Vikings in 1982.
  • He’d start 68 of 81 games with the Vikings through 1988.
  • Provided valuable depth in his final season with the San Fransisco 49ers in 1989- winning the Super Bowl.

ACCOLADES:

  • Texas Athletics Hall of Honor 2001

NOTES:

I had some very bad luck getting Terry. So I’d like to state for the record that I hadn’t found anything on Terry’s passing when I sent to him in 2021. Otherwise I’d seen a few successes post 2018 trickle through and I had no clue why mine didn’t get back.

On top of that I asked my old friend Spoodog if he had any certifieds of Terry since he had so many of the set. I’m just not sure what happened to him over the years. I reached out to him a few times but he didn’t even bother responding. He said some smarmy things to me about travel- then 6 months later did the same thing. Then he and his wife up and moved to Michigan. I hope they’re doing well though.

I went ahead and bit the bullet on this one and bought it off of EBay. It wasn’t terribly expensive. With that I’ve completed out the player portion of the 2011 UT Upper Deck set. Now all that remains is two Memorable Moments from the set.

EPITAPH:

3/27/2020- Terry passed away at his home in Plano suddenly at the age of 61. No cause of death was given.

NFL, University of Texas

Acker, Bill

CARD: Upper Deck University of Texas 2011 Certified
ACQUIRED: EBay, 2020

CAREER SNAPSHOT:

  • Bill Acker played DT for the Texas Longhorns from 1975-’79.
  • He posted a career high 14 sacks in 1978.
  • Over his 4 years at UT he had 29 career sacks.
  • Selected in the 6th round of the 1980 NFL Draft by the St. Louis Cardinals.
  • Bill was used at nosetackle for the entirety of his career in the NFL.
  • He played 2 seasons for the Cardinals in which he had .5 sacks and 1 fumble recovery in 4 starts.
  • Dressed for 8 contests in 1982 for the Chiefs.
  • After not making the roster of the Bengals in ’83, hopped over to the Bills for ’83 and ’84.
  • Was out of the league in 1985 and ’86 before playing 2 contests for the Chiefs in 1987.
  • Avid scuba diver and founder of the Manta Ray Bay Hotel and Yap Divers of Micronesia.

NOTES:

  • Scuba Diving Hall of Fame 2014
University of Texas

Shankle, Doug

UT Upper Deck 2011, #42

CARD: Upper Deck 2011 Certified
ACQUIRED: Ebay, 2020

CAREER SNAPSHOT:

  • Doug Shankle played MLB for the Texas Longhorns from 1978-’81.
  • Over his 4 years at UT he amassed a school record 325 solo tackles, and a school second best 478 total tackles.
  • Considerably underrated, he appears twice in the school 10 ten single season record books for total tackles with 144 and 106 respectively.
  • Ranked 7th in career tackles for loss with 41.
  • In 1980, against TCU he intercepted a pass for 21 yards and returned it for a TD.
  • After football, Doug went to work for Frito Lay.
  • A few years ago he also beat colon cancer, and his coach Fred Akers was kind enough to give him words of encouragement and be by his side.

NOTES:

I don’t know why Doug didn’t translate to the NFL. The first thought I have is back then, colleges didn’t necessarily see pro ball as the next step, so they didn’t rigorously train him to go there. Regardless Doug was long overdue for a card.

This card, I got… mid 2020. I realized that the market was ripe for picking out singles I needed from this set to close it out, and I aggressively pursued any and all that I needed that were reasonably priced. With COVID driving prices up, I was happy buying two autographs I needed and wanted instead of buying a box of over priced cards and getting possibly nothing.

Upper Deck did a great job with this set. I wish they’d do an update, but with Panini and Fanatics chomping at the bit to eat up market share, this may be out of UD’s control.