Louisiana Tech held a ceremony during Thursday’s game honoring two former quarterbacks: football legend Terry Bradshaw and Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson.
Phil Robertson, who played quarterback at Louisiana Tech, was the first string quarterback ahead of Terry Bradshaw and set a record of passing in a single game.
“The quarterback playing ahead of me, Phil Robertson, loved hunting more than he loved football,” Terry Bradshaw wrote in his 2001 book It’s Only a Game.
Phil Robertson, who played quarterback at Louisiana Tech, was the first string quarterback ahead of Terry Bradshaw and set a record of passing in a single game
“He’d come to practice directly from the woods, squirrel tails hanging out of his pockets, duck feathers on his clothes. Clearly he was a fine shot, so no one complained too much.”
Phil Robertson was benched for Terry Bradshaw for being distracted. The Duck Dynasty patriarch himself said he was distracted during his playing days.
“One time a bunch of geese came over and I was over there with the coach and talking about techniques or whatever, a big skull session on the practice field. I heard these geese,” Phil Robertson told ESPN.
“Remember we were practicing in the fall of the year – and the grand passage as we call it – the ducks and geese were coming from Canada. I heard these blues and snow geese coming over and I sort of fell into a trance. Of course I had my headgear next to my chest and I’m looking toward the sky and finally one of them coaches looked around, and he started cursing at me, <<What the hell you doing son? Get over here! What are you looking up at?>> I said, <<A bunch of them geese, Coach. Boy they pretty, ain’t they?>> He said, <<Get your butt over here>>.”
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Although the Duck Dynasty family, a close-knit clan who own and operate a thriving duck call and decoy business called Duck Commander, may be in the limelight, there are still a few things you might not know about the Robertsons.
Here’s a list of the top 10 fun facts you didn’t know about the Robertsons – Phil, Miss Kay, Uncle Si, Jase, Willie, Jep and their wives:
1. Jase, Willie and Jep Robertson actually have a fourth brother, Alan (Al). Alan Robertson is the oldest of the bunch, and may make a special appearance in the upcoming Season 4 of Duck Dynasty.
2. Miss Kay Robertson’s favorite meal to make is fried frogs, and apparently there are two ways to cook them. Jase Robertson recommends soaking them in lemon juice first, and Miss Kay says you can fry them or sauté them in butter to make them extra delicious.
3. Phil Robertson recently ran into his old football friend, Terry Bradshaw, at the airport. When the two men attended Louisiana Tech University, Phil Robertson played first string quarterback ahead of Terry Bradshaw.
The self-proclaimed rednecks of Duck Dynasty are everywhere, from the country music awards, to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
4. Contrary to popular belief, the tea Uncle Si always drinks is unsweetened.
5. The Duck Dynasty clan appeared in Darius Rucker’s Wagon Wheel music video, a remake of the popular Old Crow Medicine Show song.
6. Jase, Willie and Jep’ Robertsons wives actually do love their husband’s beards, and prefer them to the “preppy look” the men used to have.
7. In addition to his huge truck seen on the show, Willie Robertson drives a camouflage BMW.
8. Miss Kay isn’t the only “Miss” of the family. Everyone calls the women of the show by their first names, and adds “Miss” at the beginning. It’s the proper Southern thing to do.
9. The Duck Commander warehouse actually has a store in it. People travel from all over to see the Robertsons, and sometimes hundreds of people are lined up outside at a time. The family claims to know which state is having Spring Break based on all the license plates in the parking lot.
10. Uncle Si Robertson’s favorite way to eat dove is with cream cheese, jalapenos and wrapped in bacon, which is probably another Miss Kay specialty.
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In the late 1960s in Ruston, Louisiana, two Bulldog quarterbacks’ life paths diverged sharply.
One was Terry Bradshaw, who went on to attain the top pick in the 1970 NFL Draft, a lengthy career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, four Super Bowl victories, a spot in the Hall of Fame and a second career in front of the camera.
The other one was Phil Robertson, who was ahead of Terry Bradshaw on Louisiana Tech’s depth chart but gave up football with one year of eligibility remaining because the game and any future in it interfered with his heart’s dearest passion: duck-hunting season.
“At the time, no one quite understood what exactly was my problem because I didn’t put football as the ultimate goal, being this stud hoss football player, but what they didn’t see then, they get it now,” Phil Robertson said.
“Because as it turns out, what am I talking about now?”
Phil Robertson, now 67, was referring to the duck call business he started out of his home, which became the Duck Commander regime and led some 40 years later to the creation of Duck Dynasty, which airs on A&E.
Coming out of Vivian, Louisiana’s North Caddo High School, Phil Alexander Robertson said he fielded offers to join the football programs at LSU, Ole Miss, Baylor and Rice, but chose Louisiana Tech to remain close to home. After redshirting his freshman year, he was joined by some soon-to-be famous company on the depth chart.
“The quarterback playing ahead of me, Phil Robertson, loved hunting more than he loved football,” Terry Bradshaw wrote in his autobiography, It’s Only a Game.
“He’d come to practice directly from the woods, squirrel tails hanging out of his pockets, duck feathers on his clothes. Clearly he was a fine shot, so no one complained too much.”
Asked whether there was any truth to the squirrel tails anecdote, Robertson one-upped his own legend:”Squirrel guts! Squirrel guts hangin’ out my pocket!”
He spoke fondly of Terry Bradshaw and of his time with the Bulldogs, though he’s never been back since giving up football. “Bradshaw’s a great guy,” Phil Robertson said.
Phil Robertson was ahead of Terry Bradshaw on Louisiana Tech’s depth chart but gave up football because the game and any future in it interfered with his heart’s dearest passion duck-hunting season
“I was the one that named him the Blond Bomber, and while he was at Tech, I said <<Son, you’ve got the want to and the drive to play in the NFL, you got a great arm>>, and I said <<You got brains>>, and when I got to brains, Bradshaw said, <<Are you serious about the brains?>> I said, <<Well, you have enough sense to play in the NFL>>. As it turned out, I put it this way, he must’ve been smart enough to win four Super Bowls.”
After three letter-winning seasons and with one year of eligibility remaining, Phil Robertson had had enough. He says he spurned interest from the Washington Redskins and went after the ducks full time in the fall while completing his undergraduate degree. “Bradshaw will tell the story better than I do,” Phil Robertson said.
“To put it bluntly, he was very happy that I chose ducks because he moved up a slot. I was blessed with a good arm, or Bradshaw wouldn’t have been playing second string to me.
“But you gotta remember, my heart was then and to this day — let me put it this way: Throwing a touchdown pass to a guy running down the sideline, and he runs down with the ball for six, it was fun. However, in my case, it was much more fun to be standing down in some flooded timber with about 35 or 40 mallard ducks comin’ down on top of me in the woods. That did my heart more good than all the football in the world.”
Phil Robertson went to work as a schoolteacher for several years after graduating from Tech, obtaining his master’s degree in education via night classes, with a concentration in English.
“I kinda liked ol’ Shakespeare and them guys, you know,” Phil Robertson said.
“I went back and got my master’s just in case. I thought, if I ever needed it, I’d have the sheepskin to show people no matter how dumb I looked, actually I was about half intelligent. I got the degree to let ‘em know I wasn’t as dumb as I acted.”
And all the while, Phil Robertson continued to hone his hunting craft. Dissatisfied with commercial duck calls, he began producing and selling his own about 40 years ago. These led to a series of duck-hunting videos that began 25 years ago, which led in turn to stints on the Outdoor Channel. Then came the call from A&E.
“Let’s face it, the bar has been set pretty low for you to get on American television these days. I think they said, <<Why don’t we try a functional family>>, and somebody said well, that’s a novel idea. Round here, you know, there’s no outbursts, belligerence, cursing, gettin’ drunk, dope, no, we’re all Godly people, so maybe it’s a little switch for a change. We’re not actually rednecks, but we probably could be called goodoleboys,” Phil Robertson said.
The Duckmen are under no-shave, no-laundry policies during the 10-week season.
“We shower our bodies during the hunting season, but under no circumstances do we ever wash our clothes,” Phil Robertson said. “We hang ‘em up and let ‘em air dry. We begin to look like the landscape around us, you know what I’m sayin’? Oh, they’ll get it. Hey, life is good, life is good.”
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