A Texas Athletics Hall of Honor member, Cotten was an All-Southwest Conference quarterback who directed Darrell Royal’s famed Flip-Flop offense.
Mike Cotten, a former University of Texas Football player (1959-61) and 1981 Texas Athletics Hall of Honor inductee, passed away Saturday after a brief illness. He was 84 years old.
Born in Uvalde, Texas, on December 12, 1939, and a native of Austin, Cotten was a two-year starter at quarterback and a 1961 All-Southwest Conference honoree, who directed Darrell Royal’s famed Flip-Flop offense.
Cotten was a lifelong Longhorn, who coming out of Austin High School never considered any other school or visited another campus. He was even a neighbor of Royal in Austin during that time.
After leading the Austin High Maroons to the state semifinals, Cotten enrolled at the Texas and promptly led the freshman team to an unbeaten season, a first for that team since 1941.
When he moved to varsity the next year in 1959, he shared quarterbacking duties with Bobby Lackey and played defensive back on a team that went 9–2, shared the SWC title, and finished No. 4 in the nation before falling to No. 1 Syracuse in the Cotton Bowl.
He took over as the starting quarterback as a junior in 1960, and although the team finished with a 7-3 record, it posted a win over No. 11 Baylor and closed the season with a 3-3 tie against No. 9 Alabama in the Bluebonnet Bowl. He led the team in both scoring and total offense that year.
As a senior in 1961, he was elected co-captain with Don Talbert and directed Royal’s famed offense, which was one of the most potent attacks in Southwest Conference history. Although a significant portion of that offense came in the rushing game led by All-American tailback James Saxton, Cotten was always the ultimate team player, who just wanted to win.
Despite that, Cotten led the SWC in passing touchdowns with seven. He received acclaim after the 1962 Cotton Bowl when his play in leading Texas to a 12-7 victory over No. 5 Ole Miss resulted in being voted the game’s Outstanding Player. That game concluded a 10-1 season during which the Longhorns held the nation’s No. 1 ranking for most of the year until a 6-0 upset by TCU.
Though Cotten was an outstanding field general, passer and runner, probably his greatest single contribution to the Longhorns’ success was in his leadership that provided both team guidance and morale, especially in winning its last two games following the upset for a No. 3 final ranking.
Cotten finished 17-4-1 in two seasons as the starting quarterback and won every game he played against rivals Oklahoma and Texas A&M.
A government major at UT, Cotten knew what he wanted from the time he entered Texas, which was to practice law. He went to the UT Law School in 1962 and graduated in 1965. After a three-year stint as a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps with duty in Vietnam, Cotten joined the law firm of Clark and Thomas in 1968. That firm was later Clark, Thomas, Winters & Shapiro, and Cotten became a partner in 1975.
Along with being a Hall of Honor member, Cotten was one of the original members of the Stadium Veterans Committee, which formed in 1996.
Cotten is survived by his daughters, Ashley Putman of Austin and Lesley Childress of Jackson, Miss.