NMSooner'80
12/24/2010, 12:59 PM
Nah!
Folks who followed OU basketball clear back to the late 70's know better. Even in the OU era of McCullough/Carrabine/Beal/Curry/Whitley/Stotts recall that KU had that holier-than-thou attitude about its players and moral superiority of its program in general.
I went to the OU-KU game up there in '79 and got to see a near-riot over a hard foul on KU golden boy Darnell Valentine. Ted Owens flipped out and went after Stotts, and their radio guy acted like it was a felonious assault. It was fun, though, a few weeks later, when OU won the regular season title anyway (over nearly-as-pompous KSU). And then OU won the tournament despite being dismissed as a "football school" who had no business competing with the "Big 3" (KU, KSU and Mizzou) of self-proclaimed Big 8 basketball.
It got only worse during the Tubbs era. In their minds, the Beakers represented truth, justice and the American way, and Billy's boys were the epitome of all evil. It culminated with the Mistake of '88, and their "classy" fans' attempts to rub it in mercilessly. I've also posted before about how the '88 Squawks were awarded the ridiculous "Cinderella" label, when the truth was that they underachieved most of that season. They were a consensus pre-season 1-2 pick in the Big 8 that year (along with Mizzou), and OU was a distant third, if that high.
I've never forgotten, or forgiven, that whole mindset back then. So of course, I was going to enjoy it thoroughly that KU flopped big-time as a true heavy favorite last March in OKC. And with clowns like Carl Henry in the stands (KU '84), it made it all the sweeter.
I thought about that whole UNI-KU masterpiece last night after seeing their score against UNM from late last night. Until OU can whack those pompous jerks again, I'll just settle for enjoying it when someone else of "big underdog" status does it for me.
Folks who followed OU basketball clear back to the late 70's know better. Even in the OU era of McCullough/Carrabine/Beal/Curry/Whitley/Stotts recall that KU had that holier-than-thou attitude about its players and moral superiority of its program in general.
I went to the OU-KU game up there in '79 and got to see a near-riot over a hard foul on KU golden boy Darnell Valentine. Ted Owens flipped out and went after Stotts, and their radio guy acted like it was a felonious assault. It was fun, though, a few weeks later, when OU won the regular season title anyway (over nearly-as-pompous KSU). And then OU won the tournament despite being dismissed as a "football school" who had no business competing with the "Big 3" (KU, KSU and Mizzou) of self-proclaimed Big 8 basketball.
It got only worse during the Tubbs era. In their minds, the Beakers represented truth, justice and the American way, and Billy's boys were the epitome of all evil. It culminated with the Mistake of '88, and their "classy" fans' attempts to rub it in mercilessly. I've also posted before about how the '88 Squawks were awarded the ridiculous "Cinderella" label, when the truth was that they underachieved most of that season. They were a consensus pre-season 1-2 pick in the Big 8 that year (along with Mizzou), and OU was a distant third, if that high.
I've never forgotten, or forgiven, that whole mindset back then. So of course, I was going to enjoy it thoroughly that KU flopped big-time as a true heavy favorite last March in OKC. And with clowns like Carl Henry in the stands (KU '84), it made it all the sweeter.
I thought about that whole UNI-KU masterpiece last night after seeing their score against UNM from late last night. Until OU can whack those pompous jerks again, I'll just settle for enjoying it when someone else of "big underdog" status does it for me.