Larry Elkins Lawrence Clayton Elkins ( born July 28 , 1943 ) is a former American football player . He was a two - time All - American flanker at Baylor and later for the AFL ' s Houston Oilers . College career . Elkins was an all - around athletic star at Brownwood High School and turned down a $ 25 , 000 baseball offer to enroll at Baylor . One of the best receivers in Baylor history , Elkins caught seventy passes in 1963 to lead the nation . Elkins also played safety for the defense and returned kicks . In 1962 , he had a ninety - two - yard punt return against TCU . For his career , he caught 144 passes for 2 , 094 yards with a school - record nineteen touchdowns . He still shares Baylor ' s single - game record for receptions with twelve , which he caught against Texas in 1963 . He ranks number three in all - time career receptions and career receiving yards . Elkins was a consensus All - American his last two years ( 1963 , 1964 ) — Baylor ' s first - ever two - time consensus pick . He played in the 1965 East - West Shrine Game , Coaches All - America Game , and Hula Bowl . He was MVP of the Hula Bowl . Elkins was inducted into the Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame in 1976 and into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1994 . Professional career . He was drafted in the first round of the 1965 NFL Draft by the Green Bay Packers and in the first round of the 1965 AFL Draft by the Houston Oilers . He was with Houston from 1965 to 1968 . He suffered a knee injury in training camp with the Oilers in 1965 and was not on their active roster that year . His first season was 1966 . But Elkins ' pro career never really got off the ground . After going to the Steelers , he broke his collarbone in a 1969 preseason game after earning a starting job with the Pittsburgh Steelers . " Rather unlucky , I suppose , " he told the Baylor Line in 2001 . After football . After leaving football , Elkins became something of a globe - trotter . From 1971 to 1978 , he worked for Brown and Root Inc . in the safety , health , and claims department , both in the United States and in Europe . From 1979 - 82 , he worked with off - shore drilling companies in the Gulf of Mexico and in Africa . Elkins described the years of 1982 to 1989 as " various midlife crises endeavors , including stints with the artistic peoples in the entertainment business . " He spent ten months renovating parts of Robert Duvall ' s horse farm in Virginia and took the actor all over Texas to research accents for his 1983 movie " Tender Mercies " . When Duvall won the Oscar the movie that year , Elkins was there as his special guest . Duvall also asked him to find him the voice and character of Augustus McRae in Lonesome Dove . Elkins introduced himto the legendary quarterback , Sammy Baugh , who was retired to his ranch in Rotan , Texas . Elkins said he also rubbed shoulders with Gene Hackman , Robert De Niro , Meryl Streep , and Robert Redford during those years . After that , Elkins spent more than a dozen years in Saudi Arabia , where he was a consultant for the country ' s Ministry of Water , which managed twenty - six desalination plants and several pipelines and pumping stations along the Red Sea and Persian Gulf . Now Elkins has retired and moved back to his hometown of Brownwood , where he lives in a little bungalow on a hilltop overlooking Lake Brownwood .