Former Mojo star dies at 53

Former Oklahoma and Dallas Cowboys coach Barry Switzer had seen Daryl Hunt two weeks ago at a function for a former teammate.

Randy Quisenberry, a teammate and classmate of Hunt’s at Permian, had missed the Class of 1975’s 35th reunion but looked on the Internet and found pictures of Hunt dancing and smiling at the most recent get together.

John Wilkins, who coached Hunt at Permian, had seen his former player most recently when he was back in the Permian Basin in 2006 for his 50th birthday.

All three commented that Hunt looked fit, lean and like he could step back onto the field right now. Which made the phone call they received Saturday morning all the more shocking.

Hunt, the first African-American player at Permian, died of a heart attack Friday in Houston. He was 53.

“There’s no question it was a shock to me,” Switzer said. “I was stunned, angered, and I don’t understand it; but it’s not for us to understand.

“He was certainly one of the greatest players I ever coached and one of the greatest people. Everyone liked him,” Switzer said.

Hunt started at linebacker as a sophomore on Permian’s state championship team in 1972 and then called the defensive signals for the Panthers when Wilkins, an assistant in 1972, took over the program the following year.

Permian went 10-2 in 1973, losing 14-7 to Arlington Sam Houston in the second round of the playoffs and then missed the playoffs Hunt’s senior year.

Not, however, because of the play of Hunt, according to Wilkins.

“He loved to play the game,” Wilkins said. “He was a natural leader, but not a vocal leader; he did it right, leading by example.

“But not only was he a great football player, but he was also such a gentleman, always looked you in the eye and had a smile on his face. I just can’t hardly believe that he’s gone,” Wilkins said.

Quisenberry remembers those times as well, when Hunt would take recruiting trips all over the country and then come back and regal his friends and teammates with everything that was going on during the visits.

Hunt finally settled on the University of Oklahoma, where he would impress Switzer and coaching staff so much that he started as a freshman. When he left in 1979, he was the Sooners’ all-time leading tackler with 530 tackles, a mark that stands to this day.

The captain of the Oklahoma defense, he was a first-team All-American in 1977 and 1978 and earned All Big Eight honors from 1976-1978. Still, his career at Oklahoma almost wasn’t.

“When I went into his house to recruit him, his mother told me that she wasn’t interested in Oklahoma football, but what did Oklahoma academics have to offer,” Switzer said. “Both of his parents were educators, so I was grilled about everything academically that Oklahoma had to offer; we didn’t even talk about football.

“They wanted to know as much as they could, and I know now that his mother’s glad that he came to Oklahoma because he got a good education and was happy and successful,” Switzer said.

Despite all the accolades coming his way and the attention focused on his prowess on the football field, Quisenberry said that Hunt never lost the carefree attitude that had served him so well since they had first met at seventh-graders at Nimitz Junior High.

Especially when he would come back to the Permian Basin during Christmas break, after the Sooners had played in yet another bowl game.

“He would show us the new ring he had, “ Quisenberry said, laughing. “Every time we looked up, he was playing in another big game and then he would come home and just be Daryl.

“It was great to see him succeed, but he never really changed much. We met at Nimitz, played sports together, went to church together, and he was always the same, with a smile on his face for everyone he met.”

After college, Hunt went to play six seasons in the National Football League for the Houston Oilers, who drafted him in the sixth round in 1979.

Though he never found the success in Houston that he had in Odessa and Oklahoma, he found a new home and that’s where he settled down after his playing days were over. Still, he made his way back to Odessa as often as he could.

“I don’t think there were too many reunions that he missed,” Quisenberry said. “He was always there, and he was the life of the party — like the pictures of the 35th reunion.

“I talked to him about eight to 10 months ago and when I got the call this morning, I was stunned,” Quisenberry said. “It’s hard to believe.”