Colt McCoy is best known for his success at playing the quarterback position for the University of Texas (UT) Longhorns based in Austin, Texas. In fact, his success as a college passer was so prolific that he attained benchmarks never before accomplished by anyone including setting the all-time record for most wins by a quarterback with a grand total of 45 over a four year career.
Chief amongst the numerous reasons for the success Colt experienced are his father Brad McCoy who played at UT in his youth and coached Colt in high school and Jordan Shipley who in addition to being a good friend and former roommate to Colt was also his favorite receiver during the four years that the two played together in college. Interestingly there is a link between Brad McCoy and Jordan Shipley that circumvents Colt altogether.
Jordan Shipley has a father named Bob Shipley who served as the high school football coach for his son, the record breaking wide receiver from a small town in central Texas with a population of 1,600 people. Bob Shipley played football at the University of Texas when he was a younger man and during that time he was teammates, friends, and even roommates with Brad McCoy, the man who would eventually become the father of Colt McCoy.
Jordan Shipley and Colt McCoy were born less than a year apart in the mid-1980s and grew up in tiny central Texas cities that are located about an hour and a half apart on opposite sides of the small Texas city of Abilene. Jordan was raised in Rotan, TX (population 1,611) while Colt grew up in Tuscola, TX (population 714) 80 miles south of Rotan.
Interestingly both Colt McCoy and Jordan Shipley had fathers that served as their high school football coaches at their respective schools and the two standout players played complimentary offensive positions with Colt being a quarterback and Shipley a wide receiver. Both players went onto become nationally renowned football stars while playing college football together in Austin, Texas which is only a bit more than 200 miles south of where the two boys grew up.
The relationship that Bob Shipley and Brad McCoy formed decades earlier came full circle when their two boys followed in their footsteps and became not only contributing players to the University of Texas Longhorns football program but more importantly good friends. The bond between the McCoy and Shipley families is a unique one that is filled with shared experiences that will likely continue for lifetimes and possibly into future generations.