ACU’s Most Famous Alum

The Prickly Pear is an impressive, but partial, record of ACU’s long history. One curious oversight is the case of Randall Cobb, arguably ACU’s most famous Ex. The 1974 PP offers a brief glimpse of Cobb on the championship football team, a full back overshadowed by names like future Cowboy QB Clint Longley and Eagles running back Wilbert Montgomery.

Randall “Tex” Cobb’s fame was doubly-assured after leaving Abilene, first with a pro boxing career of 36 KOs leading to a 15 round endurance match against Larry Holmes, then as an actor with a long string of film and TV rolls from Uncommon Valor, Raising Arizona, and Fletch Lives to Miami Vice, X Files, and Walker, Texas Ranger. Strangely, Cobb’s resume has not yet landed him the university’s coveted alumni of the year honor. The near absence of Cobb in official records struck us as a strange oversight, in need of further investigation.

The reporting staff here at Weird ACU spent much of our holiday trying to uncover the cause of this slight. Given Randall’s brief stay at ACU, many sources suggest his typecasting as the dark malcontent began while on campus. A 2005 interview begins,

“Randall “Tex” Cobb, a former kickboxer and football player at Abilene Christian, once was suspended from the team when the coach saw him, clad only in jockstrap, standing on a dormitory roof. He had an English crossbow and was shooting flaming arrows at another dorm, screaming: “Get ready to die.”
http://www.thesweetscience.com/boxing-article/2209/remedy-deadly-dull-division/

Every time we’ve attempted to verify this tale, it gets bigger, proof at least of the mythical shadow Cobb continues to cast on ACU culture. Though he never graduated from our alma mater, he exemplifies the kind of weirdness all alumni aspire to. A year ago this month, the man who stood down Mulder, Fletch, and the Vietcong completed a bachelor of science degree at Temple University where he graduated magna cum laude. Asked for comment, Cobb noted,

“It was nice to have that opportunity to wear a robe, to step up there and not have to worry about bleeding.”
http://www.domelights.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t18295.html