Farwell native Field joining UCLA elites

Former Farwell and University of Arkansas football player Bobby Field will be inducted into the University of California-Los Angeles Athletics Hall of Fame this month for his contributions as a football coach and administrator at the university.

Field, 69, spent 22 years on the UCLA football team's coaching staff, as a defensive coordinator and an assistant head coach, and 13 years as an athletics department administrator.

"It's kind of mind-boggling to me when you look at many of the people that are in the hall of fame, from Jackie Robinson to coach (John) Wooden to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Troy Aikman and many others," Field said.

A few of his thoughts on his career:

Question: How did a Texas native come to play football at the University of Arkansas?

Field: "It came down to a really tough decision between Arkansas and Texas Tech. Tech had been recruiting me the longest and was closest to my home. Being a small-town guy, being close to home felt good. It was a tough decision but ended up being the right one."

Q: How often do you get back to Farwell? Do you still have friends and family around here?

Field: "I have friends there, I don't have family there anymore. Trips back are kind of few and far between. I was there back in late July for a high school reunion, first one I've been to in 30 years. I have friends in the area so I have been back a few times."

Q: Who was the best college quarterback that you played against?

Field: "James Street was a great quarterback. You look at his record, I'm not sure he ever lost a game as a starting quarterback at Texas. He was a fantastic wishbone quarterback. I also played against Jim Plunkett. He won the Heisman trophy when we played against him my senior year. He's a Super Bowl winner, Heisman trophy winner, I think Super Bowl MVP."

Q: Who would rank as the best college football player you ever played against and why?

Field: "I would say that one of the best - I can't say who the best is - Jerry LeVias, the first African-American football player in the Southwest Conference. He was amazing. We played him in Little Rock one year, probably my junior year, and we were ahead of them maybe 30-0 in the fourth quarter and he ended up catching four touchdown passes in the fourth quarter. He was just an amazing wide receiver with speed and great hands and jumping ability, really a great player."

Q: What can you tell me about John Wooden?

Field: "One of the great men I've ever known. I had the good fortune of becoming very close to him in the last 12 years of his life.

"When I came to UCLA, the first day I walked into the locker room ... he had a locker right next to mine. He introduced himself to me and I was like, 'Oh my gosh.'

"Many years later I got reconnected with him. My wife had read a lot of his books but hadn't met him, so she said let's have him over for dinner. He came to dinner and that was really the beginning of a great friendship between him and me and my wife.

"Within the last 10 years of his life he was probably in our home 40 or 50 times for dinner."

Q: Your impressions of Troy Aikman?

Field: "One of the great players that I was around and really a great man and great human being. He was a great player with us at UCLA and went on to a Hall of Fame career.

"I liked him as a football player, I like him as much or more as a human being."

Q: What about Bear Bryant?

Field: "What an experience that was, to be able to work for him for the two years when I started my coaching career was absolutely a godsend. He's a fabulous football coach.

"Most people, when they hear the name Bear Bryant ,they think how tough and mean he could be. He was tough, but he was fair. He cared as much about his players on and off the field as much as any coach I've been around."

Q: Your administrative career included oversight of UCLA's rowing teams?

Field: "I didn't know anything about rowing and it was my first assignment when I moved into administration.

"There was a club team on campus not a part of the athletic department, so I oversaw the transition of bringing the club team under athletics and hiring the coach. I came to have a great appreciation for that sport. It may be the ultimate team sport that I've ever watched."

Q: Your wife, Valorie Kondos Field, has led UCLA's gymnastics team to six national championships. How has she influenced your life as a coach?

Field: "I would say that she does as good a job as any coach in any sport that I've ever been around in terms of coaching the whole person.

"I would say she is a life coach to her team, every bit as much or probably more than a gymnastics coach.

"I would say her greatest strength is being a mother figure to these young women on her team and being a life coach to them and helping them to leave UCLA having gained incredible maturity and life skills."

Q: You've spent most of your career behind the scenes. If you could do it all again, would you travel the same road?

Field: "I was very satisfied with my career. I loved it. I had opportunities a couple of times for head coaching jobs and opted not to do it. I came very close to doing it one time and decided not to do it and quite honestly never regretted it.

"I loved coaching a team sport, I loved working with young people and hopefully impacted their lives the way many coaches along the way impacted my life."