Little Joe Washington says "Suck it Texas!"

[OUVarsityXV]

I saw this on ESPN. I was absolutely blown away. I love Joe Washington and I have his autograph on my RUF/NEK paddle hangining in my room. A two time All-American, two time National Champion and college football HOF, he needs no introduction to Sooner fans. Brief summary of the story: former President LBJ tried to recruit him, he spurned LBJ and went to OU. If that doesn't get you fired up GET OFF OF THIS BOARD. BOOMER!!!!

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7522643/recruiting-joe-washington-turned-lyndon-b-johnson-texas-longhorns

[LVSOONER15]

Joe Washington made the right decision.

[OUDoc]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3GT9UN7nDo

[KantoSooner]

Ah, it was beautiful to watch him run.

[badger]

As much as black recruits were shunning Texas, I wonder if big money whorns weren't part of their dissuasion, like they were trying to cling to the past, even at the cost of getting good student-athletes. Considering what a role they have in persuading top recruits to Texas these days (everyone knows it goes on, don't try to deny it), it's not entirely far-fetched that they would also do what they could to keep them out of Texas in a different era.

[StoopTroup]

Maybe LBJ would have gotten him to come if he'd taken a picture with him and shook his hand....

DKR exploding in his pants....lol http://www.soonerfans.com/images/icons/rickperry.gif

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2012/0131/ncf_a_lbj_576.jpg

[KantoSooner]

Badger, of course the monied Horn boosters tended to want to stay lily white. As did the same group at OU. The difference was that, in OU's case, our administration had a bit stronger spine and took advantage of a brief moment after WWII when the old ways hadn't gotten reinstated fully. And then you had the serendipity of someone like Prentiss Gaut who made the decision to integrate suddenly look like brilliance.

[virginiasooner]

Memories of racism go deep. And why wasn't Darrell Royal recruiting the black players earlier than 1970 (like 1960)? Fans like one thing: WINNING. As long as their team is winning, the team could consist of a bunch of pink fairies and the fans will be there.

Remember Sylvester Croom, who was the first black coach (at Mississippi State) in the SEC? Played for Alabama, was from Tuscaloosa, but NEVER set foot on campus while he was in high school. This was in the 1970s! Face it -- Royal (and Bear Bryant) faced up to the fact they could not longer be the powerhouses if all the black talent left the state, and if they wanted to stay on top, that meant recruiting black players. Kenny King, whose choice was down to OU and A&M chose OU because everyone sat together. At A&M, the black players sat on one side of the room, and the white players sat on the other side.

[Seamus]

**** Darrell Royal in his ***.

And **** LBJ, too -- and I'm a Democrat.

"I will not send American boys eight or ten thousand miles blah blah blah" my arse.

[StoopTroup]

Honestly....I don't think the decision to integrate suddenly looked like brilliance.

The decision to integrate was the right thing to do. It's what our Founder's Wrote in words that are forever enshrined in our Country's National Archives. What is amazing is that it took some Wars and sports to bring to light that integrating was the right thing to do. The words that were written over 225 years ago were brilliant but the actions of people were not many times. When the integration began...we began to actually make the words really mean something. We the people mean all People. Our Wars changed it and then our peacetime realization that We the People fought those Wars together for the betterment of our beloved Country started to become evident across this land when guys like Prentiss didn't let the Peacetime end the fact that we are all together in making America the great Country our Founder's wrote about. I won't ever think that integration was some small thing that just happened. Many people like Prentiss could have avoided the hardships they endured and just gone a different direction. Instead they took advantage of the opportunities and endured the hardships that others to this day do not understand were monumental for them as Student's and Athletes.

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

Joe Washington made the right decision.LBJ HAD TO be a turn-off. Royal prolly didn't know Lyndon was trying to help out the cows...

[badger]

Badger, of course the monied Horn boosters tended to want to stay lily white. As did the same group at OU. The difference was that, in OU's case, our administration had a bit stronger spine and took advantage of a brief moment after WWII when the old ways hadn't gotten reinstated fully. And then you had the serendipity of someone like Prentiss Gaut who made the decision to integrate suddenly look like brilliance.

We had the right coaches for the job too. Whereas Barry Switzer asks "Is that cracklin' bread I smell?" most coaches probably would have been like "OK miss, good luck to your son at UT" and left.

The story, in case you didn't read it:


That's the story about recruiting Andre Johnson, a D-back out of Houston. Bobby Procter, one of Switzer's assistants, had been dispatched to Houston to make an in-home call on the Johnsons. When he returned, he reported that Mrs. Johnson met him at the front door and wouldn't let him in. She told him that Andre was going to Texas and nowhere but Texas.

Barry decided to give it a try. When he showed up at the Johnson home, Mrs. Johnson answered the door and spoke to him through a closed screen door. She told him she knew who he was and said her son was not going to OU, he was going to Texas. And she asked Barry to leave.

Barry had grown up in a black neighborhood and his best friend was a black kid. He spent lots of time at his buddy's house and loved a dish that his friend's mother often fixed called "cracklin' bread. It was strictly soul food... not something you would find in a white family's kitchen.

As Barry stood on the Johnson's porch he caught a whiff of something he remembered well from his childhood. He said, "Mrs. Johnson, is that cracklin' bread I smell?" Mrs. Johnson replied, "What would YOU know about cracklin' bread?" Barry explained about his friend's mother and told Mrs. Johnson that he loved craclin' bread and hadn't had any in years. At that point, she let Barry in the house, took him to the kitchen and fed him two pans of cracklin' bread. When Barry left the Johnson home later that evening, he had another pan of cracklin' bread that Mrs Johnson had given him for the trip back to Norman...AND... a signed letter of intent from Andre. Barry was the King and still is.

[KantoSooner]

StoopTroup, we're singing from teh same sheet music. My point was that there was not that much to separate the feelings of Joe Okie and Bubba Horn at that moment in history. We got lucky and had a bunch of factors come together to make it work for OU long before Texas got started.
and part of that was in the fantastic skills of some of the early recruits. Had they all been duds, it would have been much harder for the coaches and admin to keep things going. A lot of things broke the right way.

[47straight]

Somehow, a bunch of allegedly redneck, backwards, bible-believing, mouth-breathing hillbillies integrated their team more than 15 years earlier than the oh-so-progressive university of texas at austin.

[stoopified]

Always Lil Joe was a smart man,just further proof.

[StoopTroup]

StoopTroup, we're singing from teh same sheet music. My point was that there was not that much to separate the feelings of Joe Okie and Bubba Horn at that moment in history. We got lucky and had a bunch of factors come together to make it work for OU long before Texas got started.
and part of that was in the fantastic skills of some of the early recruits. Had they all been duds, it would have been much harder for the coaches and admin to keep things going. A lot of things broke the right way.

No problem. Thanks for expanding.

Just saw this...


Even the President of the United States was unable to out-recruit Barry Switzer:
http://twitter.com/#!/OU_Football