Former Texas national championship QB Duke Carlisle dead at 84

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Duke Carlisle, the former Texas quarterback who led the Longhorns to an undefeated season and the national championship in 1964, died Friday after a battle with lung cancer.

Carlisle was named the game’s MVP in the 1963-64 Cotton Bowl victory over Roger Staubach and Navy for Texas’s first national title more than six decades ago.

Born Emmet Augustus Carlisle in Kaufman, Texas, in 1941, Carlisle was drafted by both the NFL (Packers) and the AFL (Chiefs), but never played in a professional game.

The former academic All-American worked as an investment banker in New York before eventually settling in Mississippi with a job in the oil business.

“He was really a humble, self-effacing guy,” Rich Terry, Carlisle’s son-in-law, told the Houston Chronicle. “He never pushed himself and never took himself seriously. He was such an invert and just a good guy.”

Carlisle also played on both offense and defense, manning a safety spot during his senior season under legendary Texas coach Darrell Royal, and he made a key defensive play during the perfect season with an interception against Baylor.

His 10-0 record as the starting quarterback in 1963 as a senior featured wins over top-ranked Oklahoma and Navy.

Carlisle threw for a then-Cotton Bowl record 234 yards with two touchdowns in a 28-6 win on Jan. 1 to outplay Staubach, the Heisman Trophy winner.

It marked the first of four national titles in program history: the Longhorns also won it all in 1969, 1970 and 2005.