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View Full Version : This oldster remembers: the game that started it all (OU-MU '77)



NMSooner'80
2/3/2012, 06:27 PM
(previously posted on "another" site)

If you were there, you'll probably agree. Without this game (the atmosphere and the win), who knows where OU men's basketball would be now?

This was the epic 1977 showdown between two-time defending Big 8 champ Mizzou and the upstart kids (mostly freshman and sophomores) from OU. It followed another great game, the Saturday classic between OU and Kansas State. OU won that one, 64-63, in front of what had been the largest crowd to ever see a game in Norman. That one came down to the last shot, which KSU missed, and the place erupted. So you knew that the game four days later, on a Wednesday, would be huge. It also helped that OU would be playing for a share of the league title.

The OU Daily even previewed the game by saying, "you might want to leave at noon, and that's from the (nearby) Kraettli Apartments." They weren't wrong. Students had pretty much all of the west side of LNC seats (general admission), and they filled it up quickly. By 6 p.m., the whole west side of the arena was packed, and the rest of the arena was filling up for the first time ever.

Sometimes I think we even intimidated our own team in pregame. The OU team's first shootaround was met with a standing ovation, and of course "Sit Down Norm" Stewart and Company received thuderous boos upon their first entrance.

OU barely led in the game but hung tough until the final two minutes. It was still 63-58, Mizzou, when OU made its move. Aaron Curry hit a floater off the left wing to make it 63-60, then a Mizzou turnover led to another Curry pull-up in almost the same spot. That cut it to 63-62, and the place was about to explode.

Missouri tried to run a four-corners, which led to a foul and a one-and-one by MU's Jim Kennedy, one of their seniors. He missed, but still got the rebound, with about 30 seconds left. But, John McCullough was able to force another turnover, and OU got the ball back for the chance to win (and only its second lead of the game). So after a timeout, Cary Carrabine got open for a 15-footer but missed. Long-armed freshman Al Beal snared the long rebound and took it back up and in with 12 seconds to play. Timeout, Missouri! (and I still remember my brother telling me a buddy of his at Ardmore High, listening on KMOX-AM, said you could barely hear anything on the radio when Beal scored - it was that loud)

After the timeout, Missouri ran a play for all-league forward Kim Anderson. He got open from just outside the foul line but missed with two seconds left. Carrabine grabbed the rebound and was fouled with one second left, and the arena probably shoot to its foundation from the crowd reaction. Carrabine, who had a rare one-and-one miss in the K-State game, then made both, and that was it. The '79 media guide had the photo from the upper deck, of that scene, and it showed students jumping the retaining wall (and some guy, and it wasn't me, even got on to the court to congratulate Terry Stotts), before Carrabine went to the line).

This was also back in the day when only one road led in and out of the then-new Lloyd Noble Center. A bunch of us went "cross country" to Chautauqua, and it was still slow to get out of the parking area. But, we just sat back and enjoyed all the postgame radio coverage that John Brooks did.

The game didn't mark the beginning of a huge dynasty, although I think it set the stage for the '79 league title run (injuries killed OU's season in '78). But I still believe it showed people that basketball was a great event and worthy of their time. It may also explain why so many people who were OU students at the time became such big basketball fans. The '82 NIT run also helped make OU basketball become what it did once a kid named Tisdale arrived later that fall.

Soonerjeepman
2/4/2012, 05:22 PM
great read...course I'm a basketball guy in general but was raised on OU football...course I even watch baseball, women's ball, softball...etc..if it's on I watch it. Usually go to the ku OU baseball game up here...actually was at ksu in 82 went to see Tisdale at the old Ahearn arena..

BOOMER SOONER

StoopTroup
2/4/2012, 06:16 PM
I remember OU playing Tulsa in the Convention Center and TU scored 60 points on OU in the 1st half and OU with Wayman ultimately lost the game. Tubbs told the media he would never play in Tulsa again. Another one of his famous Quotes. I was at the Game and it was hard to see us lose but TU was on fire that night. . Hell of a B-Ball Game as Wayman took it upon himself to try and bring OU back in the 2nd half.

Billy apologized.

I think that was the 83 season?

NMSooner'80
2/4/2012, 08:37 PM
I remember OU playing Tulsa in the Convention Center and TU scored 60 points on OU in the 1st half and OU with Wayman ultimately lost the game. Tubbs told the media he would never play in Tulsa again. Another one of his famous Quotes. I was at the Game and it was hard to see us lose but TU was on fire that night. . Hell of a B-Ball Game as Wayman took it upon himself to try and bring OU back in the 2nd half.

Billy apologized.

I think that was the 83 season?


That was in '85. I was living in OKC at the time, and it was a big deal (mainly because some of the Oklahoma media, especially in Tulsa, didn't like Tubbs.

NMSooner'80
2/4/2012, 08:44 PM
P.S. - later in the '85 season, the Sooners got assigned to the NCAA sub-regionals at ORU. Naturally, the Tulsa fans showed up to root for whoever OU was playing. My brother, who was in OU Med School then, went to both games. He said some idiot showed up with a sign in blue, for the OU-North Carolina A&T game (first round), that read something like, "Hey OU, Remember Jan. 16th?" (or whatever the date of that game was. I also heard the guy got that sign too close to some OU fans near the concourse, and they let him and his sign have it with various types of garbage.

So OU wound up winning, then the next afternoon, TU lost in Albuquerque to UTEP in the western sub-regional and was eliminated. As a result, some enterprising OU fan mocked that sign with one that read, "Hey Tulsa, Remember yesterday?"

Two years later, OU drew Tulsa in the first round. I was in Tulsa the day after, at a state tournament game, and the Tulsa papers and TU fans were just giddy about the matchup. They all seemed to think it was easy-money for yet another TU win. They were wrong, although it was close.

I think Kelvin played TU a few times in the All-College and won all but one meeting.

TitoMorelli
2/5/2012, 12:00 AM
Great stories, NM - thanks for posting.



Hurricane fans = pokie fans who can actually read and write.

jcvsooner
2/6/2012, 12:02 AM
Great story. Thanks for sharing it. It was before my time, and while I've heard some about those late '70s teams, I haven't heard an account of that game. Good stuff.

StoopTroup
2/6/2012, 01:13 AM
When TU had Richardson and his Ed Beshara patented Polka Dot Ties they had some decent players. As a Basketball Fan and a Father and Uncle who were season ticket holders, I got to see a lot of TU Games. OU vs TU was a good rivalry then. Some TU fans did get a bit uppity like NM said. Me? I liked it if OU won and whoever TU played that wasn't OU. oSu? Can't stand them never have been able to.

StoopTroup
2/6/2012, 01:21 AM
My 2nd Brother graduated in 1982 and went to OU. Then 3 years later my youngest went. Had a Sister too. We watched OU football and basketball from 83-95 pretty closely. Lots of great games and concerts. Salad Days for us. I became a Football Season ticket holder in 1995 and we have had 12 seats together for Football Games.

I miss Wayman and Najera and Erdman. Good Times.

kbsooner21
2/6/2012, 10:04 AM
Awesome stories! Thanks for sharing

badger
2/6/2012, 12:57 PM
I wish I had fun mens basketball stories to tell. Alas, I was assigned to the womens games and $100+ for season basketball tickets was out of my time and money budget when I was a student, but I still make it to games for both teams when I can.

Fun times. I'm glad Billy is still around for Sooner broadcasts.

NMSooner'80
2/6/2012, 02:14 PM
When TU had Richardson and his Ed Beshara patented Polka Dot Ties they had some decent players. As a Basketball Fan and a Father and Uncle who were season ticket holders, I got to see a lot of TU Games. OU vs TU was a good rivalry then. Some TU fans did get a bit uppity like NM said. Me? I liked it if OU won and whoever TU played that wasn't OU. oSu? Can't stand them never have been able to.

I think the animosity towards OU by Tulsa folks has long since disappeared, especially since the '87 win by OU. But unfortunately, it was pretty real, at least from their side, from what I remember.

Agree 100% with the OSU sentiment. I got cured of any "root for them when they're not playing OU" feelings when I got invited to a game up there when I was still in high school. In '74, they had a regional TV game with Colorado on a Saturday afternoon in mid-November, and OU wasn't at home - so I went with a friend and his family. Everything was way more anti-OU for the TV cameras, and I think even their team got caught up in looking past underdog CU. Colorado wiped the field with them, and the loudest cheer heard at the Rust Bucket was early in the game when they announced that OU was trailing at Kansas, 7-0. Never mind it was the third play of the game, and we wound up rolling KU, 45-14. They cared more about that potential OU loss (as if, that season) than they did about their own team's poor effort as a slight favorite.

NMSooner'80
2/6/2012, 02:19 PM
I wish I had fun mens basketball stories to tell. Alas, I was assigned to the womens games and $100+ for season basketball tickets was out of my time and money budget when I was a student, but I still make it to games for both teams when I can.

Fun times. I'm glad Billy is still around for Sooner broadcasts.

You also probably weren't even born when that 1977 game was played. The students rocked the place, and it was the first year that they ever sold out the then-new LNC. We paid something like $12 for a punch-card for the 12 home games that year. All you needed was that, plus a student ID, and you got the run of the huge general admission section on the west side of the arena.

Tubbs was hired in March of 1980. I did some work in the OU basketball office, for a PR project that counted for school credit, and I was there for the Bliss-Tubbs transition. The grad assistant, a guy named Gary Ginn, stayed on until the semester was over, and he was in charge of evaluating my work for the "internship" credit.

And, by the way, the whole epic downfall of Bliss over 20 years later (and three jobs after his OU stint), still makes me shocked and sad.