Well I couldn't sleep so here is 1975. 1975 Boy this year started out looking like we would have a cake walk to back to back titles only to end up being a wild roller coaster ride. With everyone back how could we get beat? The real question is how did we win a National Title? Barry Switzer held all of his star players out of spring drills and I don’t think that helped anything when the season started, and have heard Switzer himself say it was a mistake. There were several weird things about 1975. One being OU played the first game that I know of on a Friday night. If OU had ever played a game on any day but a Saturday I don’t know about it. When OU went to play the Miami Hurricane it was played on a Friday night and to this day I don’t know why. My future wife and I had gone to eat and OU was up 20-7 at halftime and I thought when we came back from eating it would be 48-7. Boy was I stunned when I turned the radio on and we were only up 20-17. Miami out gained us and from listening to it outplayed us. OU was coming off of big back to back wins over Oregon and Pitt, who was one year away from winning the National Championship, so I had little reason to believe the Miami game would be any different. The following week is going to be my favorite game of the season pick. Funny how this game, being my favorite game that I saw that year, isn’t because OU destroyed a team that day, but in a lot of way because it came to symbolize the entire season. The OU/Colorado game was not pretty but it was unforgettable. My granddad went to the game with me that week and when it was over everyone in the stadium was drained. OU was up 14-0 and had the ball right before the half but fumbled it away deep in our end of the field letting CU score right before the half. CU tied the game up 14-14 in the second half but OU countered to make it 21-14. Colorado scored to make it 21-20 with less then two minutes to play and everyone just knew Colorado would go for two to try to take the lead and win the game. To our surprise they came out with the kicking team to try to tie it instead. Everyone was yelling to watch for a fake, still not believing they were going to kick the ball. But kick it they did and it was wide right. Of course, with about a minute to play, Colorado tried an onside kick but OU recovered and just ran out the clock, as CU had no time-outs left. Then as Steve Davis took a knee something happened that I had never experienced before at an OU game. There was booing. There were actually people that were upset that we weren’t trying to run something to try to score with a one point lead and less then a minute to play. I for one was just happy to have a win. I remember reading once where Larry Lacewell had come out of the press box after the game and was walking across the field to the locker room when a lady stopped him all irate and demanded to know why we hadn’t tried to score there at the end. Lacewell told her “Lady we didn’t want to run the score up on them”. Something else happened that day on the other side of the county that would come back to surprise everyone later in the season. Ohio State killed UCLA in a game which at the time just seemed like Ohio State winning big on its way to a possible National Championship. Later that year came one of the greatest games in OU history when Little Joe pulled our bacon out of the fire in Columbia. A lot of people think that when Washington scored the touchdown and two point conversion the game was over but Missouri attempted a field goal at the end of the game that would have won it. I was setting in my car listening to the game when Mike Treps said “The kick is up, it’s long enough…..and it’s GOOOOOOOOOOOD” at that point my heart sank. Then he yells “Its NO GOOOOOD……I MEAN IT”S GOOD BECAUSE IT”S NO GOOD!!!!!!!” Boy listening to Mike Treps was sometimes an adventure in itself. If I could pick one OU game that I wish I had been at this might be it. The only other game that would come close, and it would be very close is the 1986 OU/Nebraska game. Later that year I saw something I had never seen before at an OU football game and that would be a lose. The OU/KU game may be the sloppiest game I have ever seen us play. Funny story right before the game I was talking to Mrs. Allen behind me and said “Boy it sure is hard to get excited about this game with Nebraska coming up”. Was that the kiss of death or what? Talk about booing boy that day there was tons of it. I was truly embarrassed at the way our fans acted that day. When that game was over I thought all hopes of a title were gone. After playing Missouri and then coming home and dispatching Nebraska we played in the Orange Bowl against Michigan. The only problem was Ohio State was #1 and playing the same UCLA team they had killed earlier in the season. With no reason to think the outcome would be any different and that Ohio State was going to win I watched the Rose Bowl anyway. Funny how things can turn around as UCLA kicked OSU and opened the door for us the claim the title. The Rose Bowl ended right before the Orange Bowl started so everyone knew what was at stake. And the rest, as they say is history. I will try not to get so verbose from here on out and just do a favorite game story and not a season recap. Well, except for, maybe 2000 since I went to every game that year for the first time.
my dad still talks about that KU game. nolan cromwell... a little before my time. i was 1! but i'll be with you when you get to 1979...
I can't wait to see how the heck you pick a favorite game in 1999-2000. The Orange Bowl was the topper...but so many great games were played that year. After going 7-5 and losing the Liberty Bowl...we never stood a chance in a bunch of those games going into that season and yet we went 13-0. Truely a great year.
1976 This was not a stellar year in OU football but some things happened worth mentioning. Florida State came to town with a new head coach named Bobby Bowden. I wonder if he ever amounted to anything as a coach? I am going to jump right into my favorite game for 1976. This will be the first “favorite game” that isn’t a win. Then again it wasn’t a lose. Okay you figured it out it’s the OU/Texas game. This was my future wife first OU/Texas game but she really just wanted to see the President of the United States. We left Ardmore early since Gerald Ford was going to cut the ribbon to open the fair. Only problem was this wasn’t even the opening day of the fair. We got there way early and as we drove down I-35 there were people stationed on the overpasses armed with rifles. It was really kind of eerie seeing all of this. We parked at the fair grounds and got right up at the front so we could see the president. He was supposed to be there at 10:00 but he was late. The president of the fair got up and introduced some of the fair board members. The Marine Corp band played a couple of songs then the fair board president got up and said that Ford was running late but was on his way. At this point some guy in the crowd yells “tell an Aggie joke”. The crowd erupted in laughter and the fair president said he better not. The Marine band played a couple more songs and at this point the fair board president gets up and says “Did you here the one about the Aggie and the….” This brought the house down. Well Ford finally showed up, talked a while (this being an election year and all) and then finally cuts the ribbon. We messed around the fair awhile and then went inside the stadium. This is where the infamous “Who are those two assholes with Switzer” line came from as Switzer, Ford and Royal all walked out to midfield for the coin toss. This was also the “spy game” where Royal about had a stroke over us spying on his practices. The game itself wasn’t pretty and we never could generate any offense. Finally in the forth quarter down 6-0 we got the ball on a fumble recovery and put together the only drive we had all day. After we scored with less then two minutes to go I was sure we had victory in our grasp. WRONG! The snap on the PAT was high and we never got the kick off. I was hoping we would try an onside kick but didn’t. Everyone left the stadium feeling like they had lost. It’s kind of funny how the season went after that. We lost to OSU and Colorado but beat Nebraska and still ended up in a three way tie for the conference title. One quick story about the OSU game. My granddad went to the game with me and we left really early to go have lunch with my brother, who was attending OU at the time. This was back in the CB radio days and I had one in my car. Up just south of Purcell everyone started yelling for all northbound traffic to watch out because there was someone going the wrong way on the interstate. Sure enough here comes this old lady driving the wrong way down I-35. She was yelling and pointing at all the cars that were veering off the road to get away from her. After all that excitement I started pounding on the steering wheel and my granddad ask what was wrong. It was because I just realized I had left the tickets in Ardmore. Around we go and start back to Ardmore. Needless to say I exceeded the speed limit going back to Ardmore. Tickets in hand and off we go back to Norman. I had called my brother from the house to let him know what had happened and we wouldn’t have time to meet up with him. We got to the parking lot right before the game started and headed for the stadium. We had just gotten in our seats and had just sat down when Terry Miller took off down the sidelines for a touchdown. Boy that was a rotten day. That sure wasn’t my favorite game for 1976.
1977 This year had to be better then 1976 and it was. Some games were closer then they should have been (Vanderbilt) but this was also the year of one of the most famous games in OU history. I said earlier that the 75 Missouri game and the 86 Nebraska games were ones that I really wish I had been able to attend in person. Well when I said that I had forgotten the Ohio State game of 77. I watched the game with my friend Mel and at halftime he predicted the final score and nailed it. Enough about the Woody Hayes game as I wasn’t there so onto my favorite game I attended in 1977. The Nebraska game was always the one game every year I was afraid we would lose. They would always start off the season just killing everyone and I was afraid we would be one of them. So go figure then from 72-77 we won every time. Not that we should have won all of those games but we did. The weather that day was one of the best November days I had seen at an OU game and the Sooners won pretty convincingly over the Cornhuskers. Really the only thing that stands out about this game was how many oranges rained down on the field after every score and the fact if we win we are the Big 8 Champions and go to Miami to play in the Orange Bowl. OU scored a bunch of points that day and the game really wasn’t close so there were times both end zones were completely covered in oranges. The way the other bowl games worked out that New Years Day we had a chance to win another National Championship if we beat Arkansas. Boy did that not happen. I never saw it coming and I guess most other Sooner fans didn’t either. I’m sure most people have heard the Larry Lacewell thing but who knows if that is true or not? Regardless we lost and in doing so our chance to claim another title.
1978 The best OU team I ever saw not to win a National Title. I have debated this team as being the best, against the 86 team, but I have Heard Barry Switzer say 78 was the best and I agree. This team was so much fun to watch with Thomas Lott, Billy Sims, Kenny King, Victor Hicks and David Overstreet running the offense. There were some close games like Stanford and the heart stopper against Kansas but if we don’t turn the ball over nobody plays us close and we win them all. Problem is we did turn the ball over, got played close and didn’t win them all. After worrying about beating Nebraska from 72-77 this was the year I was sure we were going to win. Wrong again. Turnovers did us in that day in Lincoln and cost us a NC. My favorite game attended in 1978 is the OSU game. It was a favorite game not just because of the game itself but what happened that day. As far as the game itself Billy Sims clinched the Heisman that day and OU rolled OSU but the real excitement was what was going on in Lincoln, Nebraska and what happened after the game. The Cornhusker fans went from total ecstasy the week before, finally getting Tom Osborne his first victory against OU, to losing to an unranked Missouri team and having to face us in an Orange Bowl rematch. My wife had gone to the game with me and after the game we headed to the car. My wife has no real interest in college football, although she loves men’s and women’s college basketball. We walked to the car and started home still not having a clue where OU was going bowling. They came out of a commercial and said they were in the OU locker room and getting ready to announce where OU was playing. I pulled the car over and parked, turning the radio up. When they announced we were playing Nebraska I started hooping and hollering (notice the redneck lingo). My wife said “what’s the big deal OU plays Nebraska every year”. And I said “but not in the Orange Bowl they don’t”. I drove home with a huge smile on my face and I am smiling right now thinking about it again. http://www.jimsoklahomasportspage.com/videos/theface.wmv The Orange Bowl was not nearly as close as the final score as Nebraska scored on the last play of the game against our second team defense to make the final score respectable. The 1978 season was a great year minus one fumble on the three yard line.
2000 against a&m. i got tickets thru the a&m office and they were trying to break a noise record and put us in folding chairs on the track 10 feet behind the ou bench. i had to stand on my chair because i'm a little fella and when torrance ran back the interception i lost my balance on the chair and fell into this loud mouth a&m lady and she fell to the ground. i didn't think i was gonna get out of there alive. i'd like to take credit for the tko but it was an accident. no one else thought so. then i ran on the field afterwards and spanked q on his left butt cheek. that dude was smaller than me (i'm 5'8) and he had his helmet on. by far the best game i've ever seen.
1979 This was another one of those years we could have won a National Championship but for one game. The only lose of the season was to Texas and I will mention this game only for the simple reason it was the only OU/Texas game my granddad ever attended. We got there early and did some state fair stuff, corny dogs, etc. They used to have gondola ride that would take you from one end of the fair grounds to the other, and we had ridden it many times in the past but not this day. Strange thing as we were going to the stadium there were some teenage kids in one of the gondolas and while it was stopped taking on passengers, they were rocking this thing back and forth big time. They were probably fifty or sixty feet in the air and my granddad said, “Those idiots are going to cause that thing to come off that cable and crash if they don’t stop.” Well it wasn’t that day but instead the last day of the fair and that very thing happened. I don’t remember how many people got killed but that was the end of that ride at the fair. The next year all that was left was the stations where you got on and off and some of the towers that hadn’t been taken down. Now on to my favorite game of 1979. This one was easy. It’s the Nebraska game hands down. A cold, gray, overcast day in November. What better setting for Billy Sims last game at home and he sure didn’t disappoint. The week before against Missouri Billy had rushed for well over 200 yards and this Saturday would be no different. If not for a bogus clip call on Freddie Nixon Billy might have had over 300 yards that day. Early in the third quarter Forrest Valora sped unguarded down field and J. C. Watts hit him in full stride for a TD. He was so wide open I always said it looked like he went out early for practice on that play. This is also the game where Nebraska ran the Fumble Rooskie play for a touchdown. What a lot of people don’t realize is it wasn’t the first time in the game they ran it. It was just the first time it worked. They had run it earlier in the game and I just thought it was a fumble, when I saw the ball on the ground. My best friend’s brother said “They just tried to run a guard around play.” I said “are you sure” and he said “I’m positive.” Later in the game they ran it for a TD and the late Mike Babb got crushed. After the game Barry Switzer runs out and leaps into Billy’s arms. That was one of my all time favorite games. One more thing about the 1979 season. Most of the Heisman ballots had already been mailed in before Billy’s last two games, in which he rushed for over 500 yards. If the voters had waited until after our last two games Billy would be the second back to back winner.
1980 New decade and with two National Championships in the 70’s no reason not to have high hopes in the 80’s. One of the big games in 1980 was the Stanford game. Stanford had already lost a game and stood at 2-1 when they came to Norman so I wasn’t too concerned even though they had John Elway. The next part of this I posted in another thread about the Stanford game. We left Ardmore and it was pouring down rain. We get to Norman and it's pouring down rain. We go to the stadium and it's pouring down rain. (See where I am going with this?) Anyway we get inside set down and right before the game starts they come over the PA and say tag # so-and-so has left their lights on. I jokingly say to the guy with me "hey run back to the car and make sure I turned my lights off". After sitting in the rain and watching Elway pick us apart all afternoon, we get back to the car only to find out I really did leave my lights on. I got out opened the hood and the next car by stopped and ask if I needed a jump. I could not believe anyone would stop as no one was in a very good mood. Car started and we drove all the way back home in, you guessed it, the rain. I loved Bobby Proctor but it sure seemed like the passing teams just ate our lunch. In his defense that day we couldn't keep our feet because of the wet turf but I really doubt it would have made any difference. Now my favorite game of 1980 was the North Carolina game. The Tarheels came in undefeated and I believe ranked 5th in the nation. Famous Amos Lawrence and Lawrence (LT) Taylor were coming to town. Boy was it a bad day to be wearing blue. We dominated them so bad it wasn’t funny. One thing that made this game sort of unusual was the fact we played them in the middle of the conference season. I don’t recall ever doing that before. When you stop and think that I got to see Elway and LT play in Norman in the same year it is pretty amazing. There may never have been another season where players from two different teams came to Norman and ended up possibly the great offensive and defensive players in NFL history.
I planed on being finished doing these before the season started so I better get after it. 1981 This was the start of the worst three year period in Barry Switzers career. Sad thing was there was so much talent on the team, this year and the next two years that we should have had a much better record then we did. One of the players on this 81 team was Thomas Benson from Ardmore. I would say him and Rafael Denson are the two best players to ever come out of Ardmore. Benson returned punts and played defense with a vengeance at Ardmore. He went 75 miles up the road and seemed lost all the time. Him and Jackie Shipp may have been two of the most gifted backers on the same team but they never seemed to be in the right place at the right time. After we lost the last second game at USC it was like we never really recovered. The next week we tied Iowa State and then lost to Texas. My favorite game of 1981 is going to be my first true away game at OSU. The game was played the Saturday after Thanksgiving and it was the hardest time I ever had getting around at a game. On Thanksgiving Day I went deer hunting with my brother-in-law and got home around 11:00. My wife was cooking Thanksgiving dinner and her whole family was coming over around 12:00. I jumped in the shower and was going to put my dirty clothes in the utility room when I ran into the ottoman while turning to watch something that was going on in the football game on TV. Needless to say I broke my toe. I went to the emergency room and the just taped it to the toe next to it, gave me some pain pills and told me to see my doctor on Monday. The Saturday of the game it rained all the way from Ardmore to Stillwater and rained off and on most of the game. I was on crutches, couldn’t put a shoe on my left foot so I just had a sock on and my foot was soaked, and cold all day. Fortunately we played one of our better games of the year and won 27-3. That was the first time I had ever been to Stillwater and it sure made me appreciate Norman and Memorial Stadium even more. A little follow up on my toe. On Monday I called my podiatrist in Oklahoma City and he said come on up. When I got there they X-Rayed it and he said it had already started to heal and they were going to have to break it again to get it set! Then he said “Why didn’t you come up on Friday after you broke it and we would have had to have done this?” I figured they were closed so I didn’t call. It hurt 50 times worse when they broke it again then when I broke it the first time.
1982 Feeling that 1981 was just a reloading year I was all ready for the 1982 season to start. It was better then 1981 but not what it should have been considering the talent. During and after this season there started to be some heat on Switzer from the media and some of the fans but I was not in that camp. We lost at home to West Virginia and some guy that looked like a Super Bowl winning QB named Jeff Hostetler and to USC, in a game that featured the first shutout I had ever seen OU endure. This was also the year of my first trip to Nebraska. But my favorite game of 1982 was the Texas game. I went to the game with my best friend and his family. We always ate at The Southern Kitchen, which sadly is no longer there, after the OU/Texas game and had a 6:00 reservation. Our seats weren’t with theirs so his dad told us “I don’t care what the score is or how much time is left in the game head out of the stadium at 5:30 so we can get there by 6:00.” During the game some player from Philadelphia, Mississippi took a hand off, faked the reverse, kept the ball and took it to the house. I wonder whatever happened to that guy. The game went back and forth and at 5:30 OU had the ball and a 28-24 lead. We have the ball and are driving but we have a third down and I think about six yards for a first down. If we don’t convert on third down we are going to have to punt the ball back to Texas and they would have one last shot at winning the game. By this time it is 5:40 and this friend of mine and I are already in trouble but we had to see what happened on third down. OU came to the line and Kelly Phelps ran the sweetest naked bootleg I have ever seen. The whole Texas defense bit and he picked up more then enough for a first down. Knowing Texas couldn’t stop the clock we shagged it out of the stadium and to the butt chewing we knew we were going to get but it was well worth it. This game would have to be one of my top five favorite OU/Texas games. One story about the Nebraska game. We flew up day of the game, bused to the Holiday Inn where they fed us and then to the game. When we landed in Lincoln it was 23 degrees and never got any warmer all day. At the game there were these two old women, just guessing, in their early sixties, who were Nebraska fans setting behind us. All first half they kept saying “What’s so special about Dupree?” Well in the second half he rips off this long TD run and I turned around and said “That’s what’s so special.” Late in the game Nebraska is ahead but we have the ball and are driving when this one old lady said to the other, “Those SOB’s are going to beat us again.” I wish she had been right but it was not to be. One more note about 1982. What are the odds of playing teams at home, two years in a row that would have players that would be Super Bowl winning QBs in Elway and Hostetler?
I was at my Alam Mater NSU FB game that afternoon and when the PA come on with the score there was dead silence in the stadium then groans. Just couldn't believe it.
