Matthew McConaughey’s Longhorn Ford Thunderbird
Last week, ESPN traveled to Austin, TX to cover the University of Texas home game against Louisiana State University. Oscar award winning actor Matthew McConaughey was chosen to be ESPN’s College Gameday celebrity guest. It is important to note that McConaughey not only graduated from UT, but it was recently announced that he will be teaching a class on filmmaking this fall at the university, so he is technically a facility member now.
Professor McConaughey made a Texas sized entrance at the start of the pregame show in an epic show of state pride, school pride, and tribute to the film that started his career. Arriving to the game under a Killer Joe black cowboy hat while driving a burnt orange 1978 Ford T-bird with Boss Hogg sized longhorns on the hood. Foghat’s Slow Ride blaring out of the speakers as he parted the crowd of football fans assuring them that everything was going to be alright… alright, alright.
UT lost the game that day, but I digress.
The car is what originally attracted me into writing this story. Upon further analysis I found that whole scene is pretty inspiring. Austin, TX made McConaughey. Not just by graduating from UT, but his first acting role as Wooderson in the 1993 film Dazed and Confused which was set in Austin, TX during the late 1970s. You are watching someone come full circle and showing appreciation for the origins of his career and induction into pop culture.
I don’t think it’s crazy to say to say that Matthew McConaughey will be the unofficial king of Austin by the end of the fall semester. And to anyone who does not agree with that statement I have just one thing to say… you’d be a lot cooler if you did.
Jesus Behind the Wheel 