(In honor of the recent passing of Phil Robertson, I found this article I wrote about him 45 years ago on February 7, 1980 when I was outdoors editor for the Shreveport Journal.)
Joe Aillet should have realized earlier that he was fighting a losing battle. Phil Robertson, his promising quarterback, had other things on his mind and football was not number one on his list. This fact is best illustrated by the account of an incident still circulating around the hallowed halls at Louisiana Tech.
Coach Aillet called his troops over to the corner of the practice field one autumn afternoon and was giving them an old fashioned chewing out when he observed that quarterback Robertson was apparently not paying attention.
In fact Robertson was standing helmet across his heart, staring intently toward the heavens. Although the coach may have thought Robertson was appealing for divine intervention, this was not the case.
A huge flock of geese was winging its way southward over the practice field and for the moment at least, Phil Robertson was up there with them, caught in the same unexplainable restlessness that moves the geese toward the marsh.
“If Phil Robertson had taken his football as seriously as he did duck hunting, there is no doubt he could have been All American,” said a sports writer recently in discussing Robertson’s career at Tech during the 1960’s.
Bear Bryant, the long-time head coach at Alabama, is reported to have offered to trade his quarterback for eitherRobertson of his back-up, a blond haired sophomore named Terry Bradshaw.
While Bradshaw’s four Super Bowl rings attest to the fact that he is the best in the business at what he does he would undoubtedly still be riding the bench behind Robertson in duck calling – where Phil is making a name for himself.
Phil is the originator, designer and producer of a duck call that is catching on all over the country. Fifteen years of developing and testing have paid off for Robertson as he has come up with a duck call that he refers to as a “precision instrument structured to produce the exact tonality of a mallard hen.”
His call employs the use of curved double reeds that produce the rasp and hoarseness of a mallard hen. A comment by Al Bolen, a hunting companion, led to the naming of Robertson’s call. After watching Phil entice several flocks of ducks into the decoys, Bolen remarked, ‘You’re not calling them, you’re COMMANDING them!”
Robertson markets his call under the name of Duck Commander.
A recent issue of American Shotgunner magazine reported the results of tests run on duck calls. About Robertson’s Commander, the editors wrote, “This is a newly designed and patented double reed – a call that really sounds like a duck.”
Anyone interested in contacting Robertson for more info about his calls or where they can be purchased might write DuckCommander Co, Rt 3, Box 192X, West Monroe, LA 71291.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Robertson still holds the record at Tech for the most interceptions thrown during a single season. The reason, of course, is obvious. The ducks and geese were migrating and it’s awfully hard to keep an eye on yo