With his impressive freshman year performance, racking up 928 yards rushing in the regular season, Earl received the Southwest Conference Newcomer of the Year Award. More importantly, however, Earl successfully passed all of his classes that year and declared Speech Communications as his major.

The next year would bring many positive experiences to Earl Campbell's life. Not only did Earl find himself at the pinnacle of a successful collegiate career, but he was also much more comfortable with his life in Austin. During his freshman year, he found himself extremely homesick, missing his family and friends back home in Tyler.

But with the addition of his twin brothers, Tim and Steve, to the Longhorn football family at the beginning of the 1975 season, Earl was excited about having family close to him in Austin. He also established a familial relationship with his coach and mentor, Darrell Royal. He often visited Royal and his wife, Edith, at home and also became very close with their personal friends, especially Ernest and Joyce Owens who owned a customized Longhorn Trailways bus that provided a great place for their friends to tailgate in before and after football games. The importance of friends and family, a value instilled in Earl at a young age by his mother and best friend, Ann Campbell, was always so important to Earl. Ann extended that family bond to the Royal family as well. She would often write Coach Royal letters of encouragement during the season, promising that she would always keep Royal in her prayers.

The Horns finished the 1975 season with an impressive 11-2 record, including a win over Colorado in the Bluebonnet Bowl. Earl was voted the Bluebonnet Offensive Player of the Game Award, while his freshman brother, Tim, was named the Defensive Player of the Game. Earl was also named to the All-Southwest Conference and All-American teams, and he achieved his goal of rushing for over 1,000 yards in a single season.

While the 1975 season brought an extreme amount of personal and athletic success to Earl's life, his junior year was quite a different story. During summer practice, Earl took a pitchout from the quarterback, cut outside and began running up the field. He was stopped short of his destination but not by his tough defensive teammates. Earl heard a pop in his leg that sent him crashing to the grass. In his many years of playing football, he had never felt the kind of pain he was experiencing during that moment. The unstoppable "Tyler Rose" had torn a hamstring. Unfortunately, there are no immediate remedies for this injury. Earl had to accept this and begin to prepare for a long season of recovery. Although he was advised by the team doctors to rest and recover his leg for the first game, Earl was determined not to disappoint his team, the fans or himself. His effort would go unfounded, however. Injured, Earl rushed for only 23 yards on five carries, and the Horns suffered a tough defeat, 14-13, at the hands of a lesser Boston College team. And if that opening game loss wasn't tough enough to swallow, Earl and the Longhorns experienced one of their most embarrassing losses ever when they let North Texas State defeat them, 17-14, the next week. Although still in severe pain from his hamstring tear, Earl reeled out one of his best games against North Texas State, racking up 208 yards on 32 carries and even scoring one touchdown. But it would not be enough on this day.

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