{"id":14459,"date":"2014-04-21T19:04:28","date_gmt":"2014-04-21T19:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baylorproud.wpengine.com\/?p=14459"},"modified":"2024-07-09T15:59:53","modified_gmt":"2024-07-09T20:59:53","slug":"bob-bullock-a-texas-giant-and-baylor-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2014\/04\/bob-bullock-a-texas-giant-and-baylor-legend\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Bullock: A Texas giant and Baylor legend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-14461\" src=\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/bullock-apr14.jpg\" alt=\"Bob Bullock with Ann Richards\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/bullock-apr14.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/bullock-apr14-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/bullock-apr14-1024x512.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>He was never president, or even governor, but the Baylor Law School grad was once known as &#8220;the most powerful man in Texas.&#8221; Along the way, he not only shaped his home state of Texas, but helped set the stage for Baylor\u2019s athletic success today.<\/p>\n<p>In nearly four decades of Lone Star politics, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bob_Bullock\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bob Bullock<\/a> (JD &#8217;58) never lost an election. He served as a Texas representative (elected in his hometown of Hillsboro while still a Baylor Law student), assistant attorney general, secretary of state, comptroller and lieutenant governor. And in a state that grants extraordinary powers to the lieutenant governor, Bullock was ready to take full advantage.<\/p>\n<p>But his life was far more colorful than mere titles could suggest. When he died in 1999, he was described in <em>The New York Times<\/em> as an &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1999\/06\/19\/us\/bob-bullock-a-titan-of-texas-politics-is-dead-at-69.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">earthy, string-pulling, hard-living political giant<\/a>;&#8221; to those outside of Baylor, he might have seemed an unlikely ally, but Bullock\u2019s love for the university\u00a0never waned.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bob Bullock - God Bless Texas\" width=\"768\" height=\"432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PA5LYNFmrIg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Though Bullock\u00a0earned his bachelor&#8217;s degree from Texas Tech, he donated\u00a0his public papers to Baylor shortly before his death. That collection is today the <a href=\"https:\/\/library.web.baylor.edu\/visit\/baylor-collections-political-materials-w-r-poage-library\/bcpm-collections\/state-collections\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bob Bullock Archive<\/a> in the <a href=\"https:\/\/library.web.baylor.edu\/poage\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">W.R. Poage Legislative Library<\/a>, providing future generations with a treasure trove of first-hand documents examining Texas history at the end of the 20th\u00a0century.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, Bullock is also remembered for coming through for Baylor during the formation of the Big 12 in the mid 1990s. The stories of his influence have grown over the years, and tales of his methods have taken on a certain urban legend quality. But it is true that when it appeared that Baylor was going to be on the outside of the new league looking in, Bob Bullock &#8212; perhaps moreso than the more frequently recognized <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/2016\/01\/ann-richards-governor-trailblazer-and-baylor-legend\/\">Ann Richards<\/a> (BA &#8217;54), then-governor of Texas and another Baylor alum &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mrt.com\/news\/article\/Texas-politicians-led-by-Bob-Bullock-helped-7490182.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">stepped in and made sure Baylor had a seat at the table<\/a>. Their substantial political clout made\u00a0it possible for the Bears to experience the success on the national stage that we enjoy today.<\/p>\n<p>On April 21, 2001 &#8212; fittingly, San Jacinto Day &#8212; the Texas giant was honored when the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestoryoftexas.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bullock Texas State History Museum<\/a>\u00a0opened in Austin, named in his honor. He didn\u2019t live to see it, but he would undoubtedly have been proud of the project he had long championed.<\/p>\n<p>Sic \u2019em, Bob Bullock!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>He was never president, or even governor, but the Baylor Law School grad was once known as &#8220;the most powerful man in Texas.&#8221; Along the way, he not only shaped his home state of Texas, but helped set the stage for Baylor\u2019s athletic success today. In nearly four decades of Lone Star politics, Bob Bullock [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni","category-extraordinary-stories","category-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14459\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}