1972-2009 I think I will go year by year and pick a favorite game that I attended in that year. I didn't attend my first true away game until 1981 so for the first nine seasons my favorite game will be either a home game or a Texas game. I will do a game every few days leading up to the start of the 2006 season. 1972 My first pick is going to be the first game of the season against Utah State. I know Utah State doesn't sound like much of a game to pick for a favorite but to me it was the beginning of a journey. A journey that was a little rocky in the 90's but then I guess all rides aren't smooth. A journey that has had way more highs then lows. I was 17 and this was the first year we got season tickets. Just to give you an Idea of how much things have changed, the first year we had season tickets the price of a ticket booklet with tickets for all six home games was $36.00. Each ticket was priced at $6.00 regardless who the opponent was. In comparison the OU/Texas ticket last year was $85.00 by itself. We had two seats and the total was $75.00 shipping and all. For all you youngsters out there that think I-35 has been there forever, well it hasn't. The Interstate from the Texas line to Purcell didn't open up until late 1970 the year before I got my drivers license and I am sure glad it did. It used to take forever to get to Norman when Hwy 77 was the only road north and I am not sure if we would have gotten tickets if Hwy 77 was the only way to get to Norman. My dad told my brother and me he was going to let me drive up to the game and be careful. I was a little nervous and didn't know where to park or anything else for that matter. I had only been to two other OU games, 1969 Kansas game and the 1971 Kansas game. I called Sooner04's uncle who was going to school at OU at the time and ask him where would be a good place to park. He said don't go to Lindsey Street but get off on Hwy 9 and take it to Chautauqua, then right on Timberdale and I could park at the corner of Timberdale and Asp. I parked there for many years until I joined the Touchdown Club and parked on the practice field, next to the stadium for many years. We get to the stadium and go inside as soon as the gates opened. Back in those days all the games started at 1:30 with the rare exception when you were on TV. The gates opened at 12:00 and my brother and I were in our seats just after that. Section 17 Row 63 Seats 29-30. There was an older couple that sat behind us for years named the Allen’s. I guess when you are 17 everybody is old so I would guess they were in their 50's. She was the sweetest lady and we had a lot of great people sat around us. As for the game itself it might as well have been for the National Championship as far as I was concern. Even though in the grand scheme of things it really wasn't that important a game, just because of how excited I was to be there and too know I would be getting to go to a lot of games that season. Little did I know at the time that a lot of games was going to be 196 home games in a row and going. I figured my dad and someone else might go to one of the games and I would miss one but I always managed to go either with my dad, brother, best friend Mel or sometimes my uncle. After the game a car in front of me leaving the parking lot hit another car and neither person even got out to look at the damage. I was more nervous getting out then I was getting there. That pretty much does it for 1972 and I will do 1973 later in the week. 1973 has several games that will rank as a favorite for that year just because it includes Nebraska and my first Texas game but I will pick just one game.
What were doing the Thanksgiving before '72? I was in the stands calling the idots wiith N's on their red cowboy hats f'n hillbillies.
My dad being the frugal person that he was said "I will not pay to go to a football game that I can watch for free on TV".
I thought this was an epitaph or something when I read the title. Which one of these smileys shows an expression of relief? :O :O
1973 If it weren't for 1974 and 2000 this would be my favorite year. What other team has started three brothers on the same defensive line. Watch out world you are about to get Selmonized. For all the great players on this team I just want to point out one guy that I felt never got the recognition he deserved. Rod Shoate got all the ink that year but David Smith was just as good a linebacker as Shoate. Boy how do I go about picking a favorite game out of this bunch? Easy, my very first OU/Texas game. Excited does not even begin to explain how I felt. That was one of the longest weeks of my life waiting for Saturday to come. I had Christmases come quicker when I was six years old then that Saturday did. But come it did and oh what a game it was. My best friend and I got up early and drove down to go to the fair to ride some rides prior to the game. We got there several hours before the game and I had my first Fletchers Corn dog and Orange Julius that day. We went inside the stadium as soon as it opened and watched the teams warm up. Little did I know how bad we were going to kick Texas. We sat in the south end zone and I was amazed how half the stadium cheered on every play. I'm sure most of you know the final score was 52-13 but it seemed like we would never stop scoring. About midway through the forth quarter this man, women and two kids, setting several rows in front of us, got up to leave. I was on the aisle and jumped up, pointed at them and yelled “A real fan doesn't leave until the game is over". Everyone around started cheering when I yelled that and they sheepishly went back to their seats until the game was over. The really sad thing about this game was I thought all OU/Texas games were like this and would all be that easy. Boy was I proven wrong over the years. On a side note this was my best friends’ third OU/Texas game in a row starting with the 1971 game and he hasn't missed one since 1971-2005. I just want to mention the Nebraska game from this year. If not for the Texas game being my first this would have been the game for 1973. The last time all three Selmons would line up shoulder to shoulder at home. The Sooners so dominated the Cornhuskers that day they never snapped the ball on the OU side of the fifty. That 1973 team may have been the best OU defense ever. Having almost everyone coming back I couldn't wait for 1974 to roll around and boy was I not disappointed.
1974 After coming so close to an undefeated season in 1973 and with almost everyone coming back I couldn’t wait for the season to start. The season didn’t exactly start with a bang. Baylor scraped and fought all afternoon and I started to wonder if this was going to be the year after all. The Texas game was much closer then it should have been and if not for the fact a freshman running back for Texas fumbled at midfield, we might have lost. A few years later that running back would become Texas first Heisman Trophy winner, Earl Campbell. As far as a favorite game from 1974 it was close between two games. Funny thing is that neither game was the Texas game. The runner-up game has to be Missouri. It rained the whole game but two things happened in that game I will never forget. The first was the hardest hit I have ever seen in a college game. The hit was made by Scott Hill on a Missouri player returning a kickoff. He came down the field full speed and just wiped the guy out. It was such a hard hit he knocked the guy out and he couldn’t even get up himself. Kyle Davis the OU center came over and sort of drags him to his feet and walks him off the field patting him on the back all the way to the sidelines. Everyone always talks about Scott Hills hit against Tony Dorsett but this was by far a harder hit then Tony ever got. The second thing that happened didn’t even occur on the field. I was listening to the game on my transistor radio, (yes I am that old), and had heard that #1 Ohio State had lost to Michigan State 16-13, which meant we would be # 1 if we won the game. Well about five minutes later the PA guy comes on and says “we have a final from the Ohio State game. Ohio State 13…………….Michigan State 15”. Well the crowd goes wild. Chants of “We’re # 1” rocked the stadium. The game itself almost came to a stop because of the noise. Then the PA guy came back on and said “We have a correction on the Ohio State/ Michigan State score”. Well you could have heard a pin drop. I already knew the correct score but thousands didn’t. Then the PA guy slowly say “Ohio State 13…………….Michigan State………………16” Well if there had been a roof on Owen Field it would have been blown off that day. Then again if there had been a roof I wouldn’t have had to sit in the rain all day. The game that gets the pick as my favorite game of 1974 is the OSU game. This game got picked for several reason but more then anything thing else because it was the last game I ever got to attend with my dad. The next summer he died of a massive heart attack and at the age of 19 I had lost not only my dad but one of my best football buddies. It was my dad that got me interested in OU football. Back in the early 60’s he told me stories of the 50’s Sooners and the 47 game winning streak. The first game I ever remember listening to, with my dad, was the 1965 OU/OSU game. After the game he didn’t talk for a long time and then he said “we should never lose to OSU" and that was all he said. Okay now to the game itself. The game was played the Saturday after Thanksgiving and two days earlier, on Thanksgiving Day, there had been an ice storm in the OKC/Norman area. When Saturday arrived the roads had cleared but when we got to the stadium all the concrete was covered in a glaze of ice. It was an adventure just getting up to row 63. This is it. The whole season boiled down to this one game. Win and a National Championship was possible. Lose and it’s all over. OU only led 16-13 starting the fourth quarter but things were about to change. OU scored to make it 23-13 early in the fourth quarter and then what might be my all time favorite play occurred. Joe Washington fields a punt on around the OSU forty-five yard line and the adventure begins. Joe disappeared into a pile of orange jerseys, in front of the OU bench and everyone started to set back down. Then all of a sudden out pops Joe. I am about half seated and leap to my feet, slipping on the ice, and falling into the person in front of me. It dominoed down about six or seven rows one person falling onto the person in front of them. My dad grabbed me pulling me back up all the while I never took my eyes off of Washington. After that it was all down hill as the Sooners ended up rolling OSU, completing its first undefeated season in almost 20 years. After the game, in the car on the way home, my dad and I talked about what a great year it had been and how we couldn’t wait for the next season to start. Well the next season started but I would never share another game with the person that made me fall in love with the Sooners.
