during his tenure, royal oversaw the integration of african-americans into the ut athletics program. at that time, while ut began admitting black students in 1956 and opening the athletics program to them in 1963, there were no black student-athletes well into the late 1960s. in 2005, royal retrospectively noted that "things they are a-changing. but they weren't changing that quickly around here at the time.". he offered a scholarship to julius whittier of san antonio after the last recipient dropped out due to poor academic performance, and whittier became the first black student-athlete to play for the texas longhorns football team. whittier went on to graduate from the lyndon b. johnson school of public affairs in 1976 with a master's degree and works as a chief prosecutor with the dallas district attorney's office.