10 feet 1 inch tall. That’s how tall his statue is, and it’s an appropriate size because he is a Goliath in college football history.
R. C. Slocum statue unveiling at Kyle Field on September 4, 2026.
The Numbers
Hundreds, if not thousands, have written of Coach Slocum’s legendary accomplishments at Texas A&M spanning 53 years.
R.C. Slocum’s winning percentage was 86.5% in the Southwest Conference, the best in league history. Darrell Royal’s was 72.8%, the second-best in Southwest Conference history.
He remains the winningest head football coach in program history, compiling a 123-47-2 record from 1989-2002. Under his leadership, the Aggies never posted a losing season, captured four conference championships, and produced a record 29 straight Southwest Conference victories over a four-year stretch.
Known for his defensive philosophy, Slocum helped shape Texas A&M’s famed “Wrecking Crew” defense and coached dozens of future NFL players during his tenure. His achievements have also been recognized at the national level, including induction into the College Football Hall of Fame (2012) and receipt of the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award from the American Football Coaches Association in 2014.
Coach Slocum had 64 players drafted by the NFL, including eight first-round selections.
Coach Slocum completed his 53rd year representing Texas A&M on January 2, 2025. Few football coaches have done that. Eddie Robinson (1941-1997) and Amos Alonzo Stagg (1892-1946) stayed at a single college for over a half-century. In the modern era of college football, Coach Slocum’s tenure at one university is unheard of.
R.C. Slocum is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, the Southwest Conference Hall of Fame, and the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame. He also belongs to the Texas A&M University Athletics Hall of Fame, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, and the Museum of the Gulf Coast. And the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award.
And, this year is the recipient this year of the Lamar Hunt Lifetime Achievement Award.
Coach R.C. Slocum is the first Texas A&M Aggie to receive the Lamar Hunt Lifetime Achievement Award and the first recipient since 2019.
Established in 2006, the Lamar Hunt Lifetime Achievement Award is the Texas Sports Hall of Fame’s highest honor, recognizing individuals whose leadership, vision and service have made a lasting impact on sports in Texas and beyond.
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Faith and college football have a rich history. One of football’s founding fathers was Amos Alonzo Stagg. Initially, he intended to become a Presbyterian minister. However, he fulfilled his calling as the head coach at the University of Chicago.
He served as the head football coach at the International YMCA Training School (now called Springfield College (1890–1891), the University of Chicago (1892–1932), and the College of the Pacific (1933–1946)
Amos Alonzo Stagg was a pioneering coach. Stagg believed that athletics could help players develop spiritual integrity and Christian virtues. R.C. Slocum has received multiple awards, including the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award
More than a football coach.
Coach R.C. Slocum and Coach Darrell K Royal, the winningest football coach in Texas Longhorn history, were good friends. Both are legendary coaches, but more importantly to me, they are two of the best men I’ve ever known. I consider it a great honor and privilege to have called them friends.
If I were forced to choose two words to describe both, it would be character and integrity. Both have said that these qualities matter more than their many victories on a football field.
As a friend, what impresses me the most about R.C. Slocum is the man. His character, wisdom, and faith inspire me. Faith and Louisiana, not Texas, are where our paths first crossed. Our heritages include faith as the foundation, and a country doctor in Oakdale, Louisiana, who delivered us both five years apart. More on that later.
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On November 7, 1944, incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to an unprecedented fourth term as President of the United States. On the same day, a boy, Richard Copeland Slocum, was born in the tiniest Louisiana village of Dido. Dido was once in the heart of the outlaw and pirate-infested “No Man’s Land.”
The boy’s father was overseas fighting for his country in World War II. The following year, the boy’s parents divorced. His mother remarried, and the family moved to what amounts to project housing in Orange, Texas. He faces disappointment, heartbreak, and tragedy.
But his faith sustains him through it all. At age ten, he accepts Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and surrenders his life to Christ.
He wins countless awards and accolades and becomes friends with Presidents.
How does a poor kid from nothing more than a spot on a red dirt road do all that? By the rich mercy and grace of his Lord and Savior.
Today, at age 81, he stands with his “Proverbs 31” wife and helpmate of 26 years at his side. He is a shining example to football players and coaches and exemplifies excellence and character to all of us.
4th of July Week – July 8, 2002. 41st President George Herbert Walker Bush, Nel Slocum, Coach R.C. Slocum, and 43rd President George W. Bush. (photo courtesy of R.C. and Nel Slocum)
Walker’s Point (Bush compound), Kennebunkport, Maine. The estate served as the Summer White House of George H. W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States.
R.C. Slocum and his wife Nel have been blessed. They have spent a lot of time with former President George Herbert Walker Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush.
Nel Slocum explained this to me in a text: “We went to Greece three times [with George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush]. There were many functions and many private home visits. RC joined 41 on golf trips, bird hunts, and other activities. We have met people from all over at their apartment at the Bush School [on campus]. RC and 41 had the same personality. The President, Barbara, and I all had birthdays the same week in June. We celebrated those together a few times…like my 50th birthday in Greece.”
Nell continued: “Whoever thought that two from similar backgrounds would be so loved by two from their backgrounds? We have been so blessed…mostly because of RC. He is the best human I have ever known.”
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More than just the fundamentals of football.
Coach Slocum was the first to incorporate “Life Skills” into his program of teaching the fundamentals of football.
A common misconception is that the University of Texas and Texas A&M football coaches and players hate each other. Nothing could be further from the truth. Now, grant it; it’s one of the greatest rivalries in football history.
Coach Slocum said, “This game is not about hating the other school. It is about two great universities playing each other in a football game.” He added, “I never talked to my players about hating the other team. There is too much hate in this world.”
Darrell Royal and R.C. Slocum
Coach R.C. Slocum, Coach Mack Brown, Coach Darrell Royal, and John David Crow (1957 Texas A&M Heisman Trophy winner).
Event chairs Sam Slusser and Catherine Slusser, honoree Mack Brown, Peter Pisters, M.D., president of MD Anderson, honoree R.C. Slocum, and event chairs Patty Kelly and T. Mark Kelly on stage at A Conversation With a Living Legend® Houston February 3, 2026.
The Newswise headline read in February 2026: Led by college football coaching greats Mack Brown and R.C. Slocum, attendees at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s A Conversation With a Living Legend® Houston united in the mission to end cancer on Feb. 3. The event raised over $1.5 million to benefit cancer research.
Mack Brown and R.C. Slocum keeping it all in perspective with the Texas Longhorns’ Hook ’em Horns and Texas A&M’s thumbs-up.
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Coach Slocum has often said, “The most important thing in my life was growing up in a Christian home.” I asked him when and where he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior. He said, “Around age ten in Orange, Texas.”
“That’s your story. You used your platform for the glory of God,” I said.
Later, Coach Slocum told me, “The first Sunday after I was named head coach, I went down front at the end of church and asked the preacher if he and the church would pray that I would use my position to glorify God.” He also asked the church to pray that he would be an honorable representative of the Lord.
I asked him what his favorite scripture was. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding,” he replied. (Proverbs 3:5)
He then added another scripture, which was inscribed on a coffee cup. A nurse gave him this cup in the hospital while he was being treated for cancer. It read, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). His son later gave him a bracelet with Philippians 4:13 on it too.
Once you’re no longer a young whippersnapper, like me, you tend to ask more personal questions . “Have you decided Coach where you will be buried once you relocate to Heaven?,” I asked.
“The College Station Memorial Cemetery. It was designated as the Aggie Field of Honor,” he said. “My only request was they don’t bury me next to John David Crow. I don’t want to carry his golf clubs.”
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I shared with Coach Slocum how Dr. W.A. Criswell, the late pastor of First Baptist Dallas, had influenced me. Dr. Criswell and I were born on December 19, forty years apart. Indeed, that’s my 15-minute claim to fame. I’ve heard Dr. Criswell’s sermon, Whether We Live or Die, more than a dozen times. Dr. Criswell’s TheScarlet Thread Through the Bibleruns throughout the Bibleand is another favorite.
To my surprise, Coach Slocum told me Dr. Criswell once asked him to speak at First Baptist Dallas. This was the most prominent and largest Baptist Church in the world at the time.
This would be tantamount to Moses asking me to hike Mount Sinai with him to see a burning bush.
Now, I had to know the details. This is the church Billy Graham belonged to for 55 years.
The occasion was the 1992 Cotton Bowl Classic in Dallas. The Aggies were the Southwest Conference champions. A&M’s opponent was the Florida State Seminoles, coached by Bobby Bowden, a devout Christian and friend of Coach Slocum.
Dr. Criswell had invited Coach Bowden to speak, too. Coach Slocum called Coach Bowden and asked, “Are you going to do it?”
“Yeah, are you going to do it too?,” Coach Bowden asked.
“Perhaps.”
“What are you going to do, wait until you’re good enough?,” Coach Bowden asked.
Sometimes, it takes an older, trusted Christian friend and mentor to give us that “shove.” They can remind us to do what we’ve promised the Lord. This holds true even in the church, a platform where the greatest evangelist since the Apostle Paul belongs.
Their example is that we should all hike up a platform as high as Mount Sinai when given the opportunity.
Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God, But only he who sees, takes off his shoes. —Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Cotton Bowl, Dallas, Texas. Coach Bobby Bowden and Coach R.C. Slocum
Brandon Leone
Brandon Leone was a four-year Letterman on the Aggie Football Team
Coach Slocum’s influence extends to the lives of too many to mention in this article. I will highlight a few.
Former Four-Year Letterman on the Aggie Football Team Brandon Leone recently wrote online on “X.”
“@rcslocum a blessed retirement. One word when I think of him is IMPACT! Way more than the wins on the field, Coach made a huge impact on so many off of it!
“I can tell you personally he changed my life forever. I was a broken boy and left A&M a man!”
Coach Slocum responded, “This statement means so much to me. This is why I coached. I still remember those long talks we had. “You can’t do anything about your past, but you can make your future good.” You have done that. Love you Brandon.” R.C.
Texas A&M Aggies Running Back Brandon Leone
Dat Nguyen
Dat Nguyen played linebacker for seven seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. He also played college football for the Texas A&M Aggies and earned unanimous All-American honors. He is in the College Football Hall of Fame. He started 51 straight games for A&M, more than anyone in history.
Dat Nguyen spent most of his childhood in the Gulf Coast town of Rockport, Texas. He earned All-State honors and was recruited by Michigan, UCLA, Notre Dame, Texas, and Florida, and received scholarship offers from all of them.
I spoke to Dat Nguyen on January 18, 2025, while he was driving. We discussed Coach Slocum’s influence and why he chose Texas A&M.
Nguyen said, “I was so overwhelmed that I decided to pray the first prayer of my life. I was leaning toward Michigan but could not decide.”
“Well, then, why did you choose A&M?,” I asked.
“The following day, when I awoke, three words came to my mind: ‘Gig ‘Em Aggies.”‘
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I asked Dat Nguyen about the team devotionals. He said, “It was about prayer from day one.” He added that Coach Slocum said, “This is not about fame.”
“The team met and prayed for approximately 30 minutes before every game. Coach Slocum held them in a designated room in the hotel where they were staying. If they were playing at home, they were held in a local hotel where the team stayed.”
After my interview with Dat, I texted Coach Slocum to thank him for putting us in touch. I wanted to express my admiration for Dat Nguyen. Coach Slocum replied, “He is an amazing man. He started 51 straight games for A&M, More than anyone in history.”
Dat Nguyen has served on various boards of directors of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Coach later texted me, “He has been an inspiration to so many.”
My last question to Dat was, What is your favorite verse in the Bible? “Proverbs 3:5-8. I love the proverbs and psalms.”
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-8)
Dat Nguyen and Coach R.C. Slocum
Dr. Rick Rigsby
Today, Dr. Rick Rigsby is an internationally acclaimed motivational speaker and best-selling author.
Dr. Rick Rigsby spent over two decades teaching at various colleges. He spent most of his teaching career (1992-2007) at Texas A&M University. In addition to academic duties, Dr. Rigsby was hired by R. C. Slocum as the Life Skills Coach for the Aggie football team.
Dr. Rigsby and Coach Slocum met on an airplane headed to College Station. As a result of that “chance encounter,” Dr. Rigsby became A&M’s Life Skills Coordinator. Coach Slocum later described their encounter as Divine Providence.
In an interview, Coach Slocum stated their goal: “What are the things we would like a young man to become?” He asked Dr. Rick Rigsby, a speech communication assistant professor at A&M, to teach A&M football players about honesty and character. The job would soon expand to much more.
Dr. Rigsby would become their coach, motivator, instructor, chaplain, and, officially, A&M’s Life Skills Coordinator. He would teach them honesty in their relationships, how to live, manners, and how to handle interviews. The results are legendary in and out of the world of sports.
I spoke to Dr. Rigsby on January 20, 2025. He was everything I had heard and read, plus one of the most engaging people I’ve ever talked to.
He began by saying of his friend and former boss R.C. Slocum, “Everything he did reflected his faith.”
Dr. Rigsby shared things Coach Slocum would teach, such as “We win with class, we lose with dignity.” He also asked questions like, “What can we do to give these men a competitive edge for the rest of their lives?” And “Keep everything in perspective.”
Dr. Rigsby added, “He always looked at the bigger picture, far beyond football.” Coach Slocum told him, “I’m not going to be remembered by how many games I won and lost. How these young men turn out will determine my legacy.”
Like Dat Nguyen, I asked him about the team devotionals. He said, “R.C. Slocum always sat in the front row. We never met on Sunday. He preferred the players be in church on Sunday. His emphasis was never himself but others.”
“When and where were you saved,” I asked.
“On the side of the road near Chico, California, in November of 1978. I was 22.
In closing, Dr. Rigsby told me, “If R.C. Slocum called me today and said we have a mountain to climb. I’d be at his house before we got off the phone.”
Just one more question, I promise, “What’s your favorite scripture?”
“I have a hundred, that’s like choosing your favorite child,” he said. “It depends on the circumstances, but if push comes to shove, it would be Galatians 2:20-21.”
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20-21).
Nel Slocum, Dat Nguyen, Coach R.C. Slocum, Dr. Rick Rigsby, and John Harvey Slocum (Coach Slocum’s youngest son). November 7, 2024, Coach Slocum’s 80th Birthday. Photo courtesy of Dr. Rick Rigsby.
College Campus Revivals
CBN News reports, “Revival Sweeping Through College Campuses Impacting Tens of Thousands: ‘It’s a Movement.'”
“10,000 Students Pack Texas A&M Arena, Hundreds Born Again: Jesus Is Changing Lives.” CBN News
Texas A&M football players sometimes pray before games using Psalms 37:5. It says, “Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.”
Where does revival begin? It begins in the heart of a coach. On his first Sunday as head coach, R.C. Slocum said, “I walked to the front. It was at the end of the church service. I asked the preacher if he and the church would pray. I wanted the church to pray that I would use my position to glorify God.”
Where does revival begin? It begins in you. It begins in me. Revival starts with one person. They are not ashamed of their faith in the Lord. They humble themselves.
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from. (2 Chronicles 7:14)
Texas A&M Aggies defensive back Jaylon Jones says a prayer. This occurs before the game. The Texas A&M Aggies will play against the Arkansas Razorbacks. The game is on September 24, 2022, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
About that country doctor in Oakdale, Louisiana
As mentioned, my connection with Coach R.C. Slocum began not in Texas, but in two tiny country villages on Louisiana’s red dirt roads. Five years apart, Rigsby Hargrove, M.D., delivered Coach Slocum and me in Oakdale, Louisiana, at Hargrove Clinic.
Neither one of us ever lived in Oakdale. Dr. Hargrove was the closest doctor to Dido, where Coach Slocum’s mother lived, and to Longleaf, where my parents lived.
Our roots intertwined 100 years earlier. On May 12, 1854, Calvary Baptist Church in Bayou Chicot formed a mission church in Lone Pine. It was named First Baptist Church Lone Pine.
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Coach Richard Copeland “RC” Slocum was born in Oakdale, Louisiana, in 1944.
Coach Slocum texted me, “My birth father was Roscius Clinton Newell from Jonesborough, Tennessee. My adoptive father was Morris B. Slocum from Lone Pine, LA. My birth name was Roscius Clinton Newell Jr. (little R.C.), and I became Richard Copeland Slocum.”
Coach Slocum’s mother lived in Dido, Louisiana, between Lone Pine and Pitkin, Louisiana, when he was born. She grew up in Dido. Dido is 20-plus minutes from Longleaf, where my parents lived when I was born.
The above photo was taken at Longleaf Baptist Church the year before I was born. Pictured are my parents, Julian and Ruth Willis, and half-sister Marjorie. The Church is 23 miles from Dido, Louisiana, the first home of R.C. Slocum.
R.C. Slocum said, “The single most important thing in my life was that I grew up in a Christian home.” He has belonged to the same church in Bryan, Texas, for over a half-century. Coach Slocum attends a men’s weekly Bible study.
Dido is only seven miles from Occupy Baptist Church. My fourth Great-Grandfather, Joseph Willis, established the church in 1833 and is buried there.
My three sons, Aaron, Josh, and Adam Willis. Joseph Willis’s grave is at Occupy Baptist Church, seven miles from Dido, Louisiana.
Roscius Clinton Newell, the birth father, was in the Philippines when R.C. Slocum was born. He was serving in World War II at the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Soon after the war, R.C. Slocum’s parents divorced. His mother moved with R.C. to Lake Charles, Louisiana, to live with her sister. Within a year, Slocum’s mother remarried. His stepfather, Morris B. Slocum, adopted him and changed his name to Richard Copeland Slocum. The Roy Slocum mentioned in the documents below was R.C. Slocum’s stepfather’s brother.
The Slocums settled in Orange, Texas, where his stepfather worked in the shipyard and later as an auto mechanic. They lived in a duplex in a low-rent housing project that had served as military housing during World War II. Orange had an enormous shipbuilding industry for the World War II effort. The concern was where to house all the incoming workers and their families.
Riverside Housing Addition was the government’s answer. It was the largest residential project ever undertaken in the United States. The federal government acquired 348 acres on the west bank of the Sabine River at Orange.
Coach Slocum said, “It was like living in the projects. It was a rough place to grow up.” Coach Slocum used his experience growing up in the projects. This experience helped him understand his football players from a similar background.
Riverside Addition was located along the Sabine River. It was within walking distance of the shipyards. This location complied with fuel and tire rationing demands of World War II.
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My 4th Great-Grandfather, Joseph Willis, established Calvary Baptist in 1812. He founded the Louisiana Baptist Association in 1818 in Cheneyville, Louisiana, four miles from Lone Pine.
I attended Longleaf Baptist Church in Longleaf, Louisiana, until we moved to Clute, Texas, when I was four.
Coach R.C. Slocum’s grandfather donated the land for Lone Pine Baptist Church. His cousin, Marilyn Slocum Litton, lives about a hundred yards from that church at Slocum Corner. Coach Slocum said, “I spent a lot of time in Lone Pine as a kid.”
Over the years, Coach Slocum returned to Lone Pine, and I returned to Longleaf. We traveled the same red dirt roads in Central Louisiana.
G.W. Strother is Greene Wallace Strother, and JD Strother is John Strother, his older brother. They were maternal great-grandsons of Rev. Joseph Willis, my fourth Great-Grandfather and the first evangelical to preach Jesus west of the Mississippi River. The Strothers were my cousins. The Slocum and Willis families have been intertwined for over a century.
Reach out and touch Him today!
For she said to herself, “If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well. —Matthew 9:21
“Many today have just enough religion to inoculate them from knowing Christ.” —Randy Willis
