The Schooner Game
By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer
9/6/2006
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The horses, buggy got in the way of the 1985 OU-Washington game
NORMAN -- Tim Lashar had to get out of the way of a determined referee. Tony Casillas couldn't believe something else was going against his team. Barry Switzer said at the time it was a "dumb-assed" call.
Don James thought it was kind of exciting. Hugh Millen didn't seem to care one way or the other.
It's been 21 years, but some memories never fade.
When 15th-ranked Oklahoma hosts Washington on Saturday at Memorial Stadium, it'll mark the first meeting between the Sooners and Huskies since the Orange Bowl capped off the 1984 college football season and crowned a national champion some 2,500 miles away.
It was a game that cost the Sooners what might have been a run at three consecutive national championships. It was a game that Washington fans count among their greatest ever. It was a game that BYU would rather have never been played.
But it will always be remembered as the "Sooner Schooner" game -- the game that OU's sideline mascot drew a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and pushed the Sooners to the edge of Lashar's field goal range.
Whether or not Lashar's miss -- following 20 yards of penalties after he had made
a 22- yard chip shot -- ultimately cost the Sooners is debatable. Washington prevailed 28-17, so how much difference did three points make?
"It was one of the craziest things ever. I've never seen a flag thrown on our ponies, before or since," Switzer said recently. "But that wasn't the difference. It would've been closer. But they were better team that night."
"It was more of a distraction," said Millen, who came off the bench to spark two fourth-quarter touchdowns. "It was just kind of weird."
Here's how it happened:
Unbeaten BYU, which beat a shaky Michigan team in the Holiday Bowl two weeks earlier, was ranked No. 1. OU (9-1-1) was second, Florida third and Washington fourth. NBC asked both coaches to promote the matchup in the Orange Bowl as the national championship. Switzer obliged, but James, having to play BYU the next two years, declined.
After a scoreless third quarter, OU and Washington were tied at 14-14. The Sooners started the fateful drive late in the third quarter after Casillas recovered a fumble by starting quarterback Richard Sicuro. It was Sicuro's third turnover of the night, and the Sooners were gaining momentum.
When the drive stalled at the Washington 4-yard line, Lashar booted a 22-yard field goal. But tackle Mark Hutson, wearing a tight end number for special offensive packages, failed to report his jersey number to the officiating crew before lining up inside for field goal protection. That's a 5-yard penalty for illegal procedure, which took the points off the scoreboard.
But no one on the OU sideline saw the flag. Lashar and the kickoff unit were in front of the bench preparing to kick off. The Sooner Schooner -- the miniature covered wagon pulled by Shetland ponies Boomer and Sooner and driven by the Ruf/Neks spirit squad -- raced onto the field, per standard mascot procedure, for its post-score celebration.
The Schooner, however, got bogged down in some thick, wet grass, and almost came to a halt in front of the Washington bench. UW players got shouting-mad over what looked like a taunt, and the officiating crew responded with a 15-yard penalty flag.
Lashar had returned to the field and was placing his tee down for a 27-yard field goal, but the referee almost pushed him out of the way while marking off the additional penalty yardage.
"I'm like, where's this guy going?" said Lashar. "I just remember thinking, 'This is crazy.' I mean, all of a sudden it was a 20-yard penalty. I had never been a part of one of those before. And I'd certainly never been a part of something where the team's mascot had been called for unsportsmanlike conduct. So it was kind of surreal."
Lashar's second kick, from 42 yards, was blocked with an outside rush by safety Tim Peoples. Peoples was burned by Derrick Shepherd on a 69-yard slant pass for a touchdown on the last play of the first half, so blocking the kick was redemption.
Casillas, an All-American noseguard, was the lynchpin of the Sooners' No. 1-ranked rushing defense (68 yards per game), but against Washington became the target of a new game plan that netted the Huskies 192 yards on the ground.
Offensive line coach Dan Dorazio devised a series of checks to neutralize Casillas. If Casillas lined up over center Dan Eernissee, then Casillas was double-teamed and the Huskies handed off to Rick Fenney on fullback blast (Fenney gained 66 yards on nine carries). If Casillas lined up over a guard, he would be allowed through and trap-blocked out of the play by a tackle.
"I really believe that part of the running game is what won it for us, that game plan," said James, the Huskies' all-time winningest coach. "I couldn't tell you five other game plans in my whole coaching career, but it was that important to winning that game."
Casillas was frustrated by the scheme, but today he talks of it with admiration.
"The complexion of our defense was making the big play," Casillas said. "But they played against our strength. Great job of devising that game plan."
And when the Schooner was flagged, Casillas' frustration swelled.
"That's the old cliche," he said, "when things don't go your way, it's just one of those days."
Contrary to popular opinion, the sudden change wasn't exactly a momentum swing for the Huskies. Millen -- who began the year as the starter but was benched for a bad game late in the year -- came off the bench and promptly directed a three-and-out. And the Sooners were anything but sapped: Danny Bradley and Steve Sewell led a 32-yard drive that resulted in another Lashar field goal and put OU up 17-14 with 8:45.
Millen's second drive seemed headed for nowhere when Fenney recovered a fumble by Jacque Robinson (the game's MVP with 135 yards). But Millen hit Danny Greene for 29 yards on third-and-9, and the 74-yard drive resulted in a touchdown to Mark Pattison (Millen's high school teammate) and a 21-17 Husky lead.
Buster Rhymes fumbled the ensuing kickoff out of bounds ("terrible play," Switzer said), and Bradley's first-down pass was intercepted by linebacker Joe Kelly. Fenney scored to make it 28-17.
Despite the frantic finish, the Huskies' rushing strategy and the national championship implications, the game will always be known as "The Sooner Schooner Game."
"Hell," Switzer said, "the ponies don't know whether it was a score or not. They didn't know there was a penalty."
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John E. Hoover 581-8384
[email protected].