I wanted to add this to the end of my 2001 summary. I think this was the game that the skies opened up at the end of the game and Dean drove his wicked looking Sooner motorcycle home in a monsoon. If that was the game, it was one of the funniest stories I have ever heard in my life.
24, these are awesome. I'm glad you mentioned KSU 2000's crowd being the loudest you've ever heard, I completely agree. Not even A&M before 4th and inches last year came close to that.
2002 My favorite game of 2002 was the Alabama game. Bama was down but I had waited for a chance to see them play us since the Blue Bonnet Bowl in 1970. Of coarse this wasn’t Bear Bryant bringing in the Tide but it was still a game between two teams that had a combined 39 National Championships. Never has there been an invasion into Norman like the Alabama fans. The Lloyd Noble parking lot was full of motor homes and travel trailers, the likes of which, I have never seen. It was incredible. OU should have won the game going away but let the Tide score 24 points in the second half and trailed 27-23 until Nate Hybl drove the Sooners down field, aided by a great shovel pass and run by Renaldo Works that gained 39 yards with him jumping over and alluding Crimson defenders all over the field. Alabama drove to the OU 43 yard line and appeared to be getting in position to try and tie the game with a field goal when Eric Bassey picked a mishandled ball out of mid air and returned it for a touchdown. The final score was no indication of how close the game had really been. A few other things about the 2002 season and some of the games I attended. Missouri is not a good place to play a night game. The natives have to much time to drink and get nasty. When we lined up to attempt a field goal to take the lead with about 6:30 minutes to play I didn’t look I was just going to let the crowd tell me if it was good or not. I was standing between my youngest son and a friend and for the longest time there was just silence. Then they both started high fiving each other over my head and yelling TOUCHDOWN!!!! I like to never figure out what happened until they calmed down enough to explain it to me. After the OSU game we stopped just outside of Stillwater to get something to drink and this smart-alecky kid that was working there said “We just cost you a chance to play in a BCS game” to which I replied “You must not know much about football because all we have to do is beat Colorado next week and we are in”. He just looked at me with a blank stare on his face and said “I didn’t know that”. Reliant Stadium is without a doubt the nicest football stadium I have ever been in. Jerry World will have some ways to go to top it in my opinion. It is the American Airlines Center of football stadiums. Tickets were a dime a dozen and we ended up on the 40 yard line with end zone tickets. I had bought six tickets off of a guy in Nebraska for twenty bucks and he paid the shipping. I almost felt bad for him, almost. At the end of the season my youngest son and I had attended every game home and away up until the Rose Bowl. Looking back I wish I had gone but I was ready to stay home and watch one on TV. So after 39 games in a row home and away the steak was over.
24, Thanks so much for this effort. It brings back so many (mostly) happy memories. My first in-person game was OU 45 Texiz 0 in '56 and I've been a rabid Crimson n' Creamer ever since. My favorite over-the-radio game was the '75 Mizzou tilt. My dad (RIP) was an MU grad and we listened to the game together as we sipped cognac and savored some fine cigars on the back porch of his home. COLD!!! He was joyously anticipating victory when Joe W. cut loose for the winning TD and extra points. Well, he had just lighted a fresh (smuggled) Cuban and, sad to say, Pop stood, threw it down, and did a tap dance on it. Oh well. (Not trying to be a wise-arse, but it's "tickets for SALE", not "sell". And "better THAN", not "then". 'K?) I hope you'll chronicle the Sooners' achievements for years to come, including a few more National C'Ship seasons. Thanks again, LF
2003 Boy this was one of those years I had several games that vied for a spot as my favorite game. There was the Texas game. It was the first time I had gone to the Cotton Bowl with both my boys and my oldest sons’ first OU/Texas game. My wife was pretty upset with me for quite a while after this game because the boys and I missed my nieces wedding to go to the game. Back at Christmas 2002 my sister-in-law had said that Brandi, her daughter, was getting married in October. Red flags went up and I ask what day. When she said October 11th I was pretty sure I was going to be in trouble. I was right I was in trouble. As soon as everyone had gone home I jumped on the internet and sure enough OU/Texas jumped up on the monitor. I started telling my wife in August I would not be going to the wedding but it wasn’t until a week before the game the she finally realized I wasn’t kidding. Boy it was doghouse city for a while. Another game the made the short list was A&M. Boy if there was ever a game 100 points would have been a sure thing this was it. I had never been to a college game where they let the clock run on out of bounds plays and after first downs were made, just to keep the score down. Then to take a knee to keep from scoring was the final insult to the Aggies. The Antonio Perkins show or the UCLA game, whichever you want to call it, also made the list. 277 yards and three scores on seven returns to break two NCAA records was amazing. I remember walking back to the car after the game and some UCLA fans were bad mouthing us when an OU fan said “If you guys didn’t have a dumb *** for a coach you would have quit punting to Perkins way before the third return for a touchdown”. That was pretty much the end of that conversation. But my favorite game of 2003 was the Alabama game. Tuscaloosa ranks second, only to Notre Dame, for the friendliest fans. My oldest son and I took off on Friday and drove to our friends’ house in Florence, Alabama. They are transplanted Okies and OU fans so it’s all good. Upon arrival we chowed down on some seriously great steaks (don’t tell Paul McCartney) and then visited a while before going to bed. Up the next morning and off to Tuscaloosa. We got there several hours prior to the game but never went to the Game Day set but instead visited the Bear Bryant museum. I had been once before in 2001 but my son had never been so I went though it again with him. The stadium was not nearly as loud as I figured it would be and even less so when Blake Ferguson threw the pass to Michael Thompson on the fake punt, for a first down. You could feel the air go out of the stadium and what little air was left disappeared on the next play as Jason White hooked up with Brandon Jones for a TD. It was a great win in tradition rich stadium. After the game, as we were driving back to Florence, the people calling into the radio station about the game had nothing but good things to say about OU and our fans and to a person said they hoped that we could continue the series in the future. I really thought a lot more highly of the Bama fans after experiencing a game there.
Man your old. I was one year old when that game was played. The way I type and spell it's a wonder I didn't have "Tickets for sail" :O
You are most gracious, Sir, most gracious indeed. Yep, my dad, the long-suffering UofM Tiger, had only himself to blame for making me a Sooner. After all, he took me to the '56 stomping of YooTee because he wanted me to "take an interest in something besides girls, fishing, hunting, and the trumpet". Hey, I was only thirteen. There was time. Two weeks before the Old Cannoncocker (I was born at Ft. Sill) died, he called me to his side and forgave me for two things; Being an Armor officer instead of Artillery like him and being a rabid Sooner. RIP, Colonel, and thanks for the gift of making me a Sooner. 24, my best to you and yours. LF
Sooner 24 + Loyal Fan, My first game was the '71 GOC - Dad got us into the stadium with Sherriff's passes, but that's another story. Considering your vast Sooner knowledge, how many National Championships do you count that we came within one play or one game from winning since 1970. Here are my thoughts: 1971 - the play, Jack Mildren over throws Harrison in the waning minutes of the game. The shuckers didn't have a db within 10 yards and it would have easily been a TD. Big 8 finishes 1-2-3, only time in NCAA history one conference finished with the Top 3 slots. 1973 - the game, SUC. Don't know what it is, but we have always had trouble with the SoCali boys. 1977 - the game, OB and the Holtz hog ambush. Had OU one, it was thought there may have been split polls. Too much partying on SoBe for Barry on the boys. 1978 - the play, Billy fumbles on the shucker 3-yd line cementing a Little Red victory. OU would later pound the huskers in the OB, but the eastern media gives the MNC to Alabama. 1979 - the game, T-sips slip by the 'bone with a 16-7 win. 1986 - the game, Jimmy's 'Canes in the OB. It was painfully clear athletic defenses had passed the 'Bone and it was on it's way out after being the sexy offense for almost two decades. 1987 - the game, an OB classic with the 'Canes. 2003 - the game, OU defense spots LSU 14 points in the Sugar Bowl. Despite a notable comeback, LSU defense was too much. Had OU won, the BCS would have been in a total tailspin after the Big XII debacle. Your thoughts?? BOOMER PLaw
I have one: 1984 Season - 1985 Orange Bowl vs. Washington Although OU is 9-1-1 and BYU has completed a perfect season, AP voters are asked before the game how they would vote if OU beat UW by 14 points or more. The majority of voters state they would pick OU as National Champion if this scenario unfolded. It wasn't meant to be as OU kicks a field goal to go up 20-14, but are penalized for the schooner coming on to the field. After that it is all UW as they go on to beat us 28-17.
we were badly outcoached in that game. they played a 2-5 on defense and had us confused all night. same story for our defense. tony casillias, by his own admission, was confused basically all night as to what they were trying to do.
2004 Once again there were several games that could be number one in 2004. The Nebraska game with its crazy ending. Maybe the Big 12 Championship game and the beat down of the Buffs. The K-State game with Mo Dampeer wearing a helmet two sizes too small and it coming off after every play. But for 2004 it would have to be the Texas game and the 12-0 shut out. Adrian Peterson running for 225 yards and ripping off the big gain on his first carry of the game set the tone. The defense was outstanding and no other team shut Vince Young down like this crew did. Five in a row is pretty special.
2005 2005 was a strange season. When we lost to TCU it came out of nowhere. UCLA thumping us pretty handily was unexpected. The best Texas team I have ever seen put a major whipping on us so as strange as the season was I guess I will pick a strange game for my favorite game of 2005. Baylor. Funny how Baylor could ever be a favorite game but this one makes it just by the fact it was the 250th OU game I had attended. Going to the game that day I never dreamed that we would have to go two overtimes to beat the Bears. Typing this today I still can’t believe it. When Baylor scored on a 55-yard touchdown pass with 1:17 to go and then made the two point conversion to tie it all I could think of was we were going to lose to Baylor on my 250th game. After the first overtime I was still thinking the same thing. After the game was over I don’t ever remember feeling so drained. It wasn’t pretty but somehow the Sooners pulled out a victory for my 250th game. I started this thread last year and it was suppose to be 1972-2005 but I never got around to finishing it before the season started so I will go ahead a do a 2006 season favorite game later.
Re: Tillman's leap of '83. I was eight years old "cartwheeling" through the living room at about a 6.7 on the Richter scale when I stopped dead in my tracks because some man on TV in a Sooner uniform was flying through the air like somekind of superhero. I asked my parents who that guy was and they told me, "that's Spencer Tillman, and he's making everybody forget about Marcus Dupree."
Re: 1984 1984 What a precursor to the events in Oregon. That Texas game was the oddest bunch of officiating up until the Duck-saster. The Texas officiating could at least try to blame rain and a dark field. Anyway, in an Orwellian turn of events, that Oregon ****e took me back to that sickening feeling from 22 years back in rainy Dallas, (like some kind of Leary induced flashback) and I screamed into the air of my living room,and to whatever guests were listening, about how the NCAA must have gone back in time to find officials these days. After '84 Texas I thought it could not get any worse. Alas, it was happeing all over again. Strangely enough the Orange Bowl against Washington with the unsportsmanlike call was just as perplexing to a boy just getting initiated to the concepts of fair play and to being a lifelong Sooner fan. Stupid horses. "Doesn't anybody care about the rules? This is not 'Nam. There are rules." Walter Sobchak
1985 Who can still hear Keith Jackson's call of Keith Jackson's reverse run? Here's what I'm hearing: "It's Jackson... The tightend... On a reverse to the outside... He's got blockers down the sideline... He's got one man to beat... He's runnin' outta gas... Touchdown..." Considering that run seemed to last forever (he really was runnin' outta gas), there had to be more play-by-play to it than this. I just repeated the whole thing in my head with Jackson's voice and uncanny knack for the dramatic pause and it could be right on. Anybody with a link to the highlight? 24, this memory lane stuff is primo nistalgiano.
2005 Would probably have to agree with you on Baylor. Perhaps for no other reason than I had been out of work all week with what seemed like bubonic plague. I dragged myself to the upper deck wandering if I would make it the top or just ending up rolling back down to the bottom, bouncing off the concrete before landing in a mixture of Disani and corndog condoments. Hoping to avoid as many people and prospective bowling pin-like obstacles, I got up to stumble back down the ramp when it seemed that we had El Oso Baptiste in hand. Just as I reached ground floor and made it out the gate without any casualties, Gute drops the ball. followed by The PA's announcement sent me into a panic of being faced with the predicament of getting back in and climbing that babylonian ramp or running to my car to listen to the old mezzanine guys from "the muppet show" (this is why I love Bob and Merv) as the Sooners exercised the fighting spirit of these "never say die davidians." My sickly running (somewhere between a crawl and a sprint) to my car probably put people in mind of "the muppet show" as well. Why do we run so funny when we're sick. Maybe it's just me. I vowed that my first early exit would be my last. And I also had to take the next week off from work, too. The sprint/crawl used up a whole 6 days of available energy.
2004 That Texas A&M whirl wind at Kyle Field was really something, too. I was put in mind early of '02 Alabama because of the trickery and it coming from a Francione coached team. Revelie could have been calling plays for the aggies because we looked like a Pop Warner club trying to stop the fake kicks and so on. I remember being ready to concede the game and our NC chances when my sister suggested we hit some more buffalo wings for some wizardly Sooner Magic. With a forehead bathed in sweat we watched them plow back behind the legendary performances of one- armed AD and gimp-stricken JW. One of my favorite Sooner comebacks.
2006 The 2006 season may have been as strange a season as I ever seen. On the other hand it might have been one of my favorites. We started out months before the first kickoff with the news Bomar and Quinn had been kicked off the team permanently. With that Paul Thompson switched from back from wide receiver to quarterback. The only other start of his career ended in a lose to TCU so there were a lot of questions going into the season. The first game of the year was not one for the record book as we beat UAB 24-17. The highlight of the game was a 69 yard screen pass that AD took to the house for a 21-17 lead. It was not pretty but it was a win. Next up was Washington and a 37-20 win. Washington wasn’t very good but they were better than UAB so it a good win. It was off to Eugene and our third meeting with the Ducks in three years. If not for the screw job and the lousy fans this might have been my favorite game of 2006. My youngest son and I met up with a couple of friends that flew a different airline up and head to McMinnville where we got to go inside Howard Hughes, Spruce Goose. Next it was off to the Pacific and some sight seeing. We hit the coast at Lincoln City and stopped to eat dinner at Mo’s. We sat and watch otters playing in the ocean while dining on some knock dead seafood. After dinner we headed south down the coast. Breathtaking is the only way to describe some of the scenery we saw. We drove as far south as Newport before heading to Eugene. We got to the Hilton and checked in around 9 PM. The next day it was off to the game. Three things, the stadium is not that loud, on the PA before halftime they had to beg people to come back after the half and the fans make OSU fans look like winners. After the screw job we walked back to the Hilton and drove back to the coast for some more sight seeing. We drove to Florence and then north up the coast. We went as far north as the Heceta Head Lighthouse State Park. The Pacific at sunset is awesome. Back to football. My favorite game of 2006 is the Texas Tech game. Sort of like the 2005 Baylor game being my favorite, Texas Tech in 2006 makes the list by virtue of it marking 35 years in a row without missing a home game. We trailed Tech 24-17 at the half and just like the Baylor game I wondered if the game that would mark 35 years in a row might end up being a lose. In the second half the Sooners came out and scored 17 points while shutting out the Red Raiders for a 34-24 win. To end up winning the Big 12 Championship, playing with a backup quarterback, the screw job in Eugene, without AD for most of the season and to play in a BCS game with all of that was incredible. I think this might have been Bob Stoops best coaching job ever just to keep this team together. I also want to mention Paul Thompson who is one of the classiest guys that ever donned an OU uniform. We could use a whole team of players with his character. Well this marks the end of my 35 year journey down memory lane. In that time I have witnessed 4 National Titles, two Heisman winners, Butkus award winners, Lombardi winners and numerous All-Americans. I have seen two 20 plus game winning streaks, and a season that we didn’t win a single home game. I have sat through monsoons, blistering heat, sub-freezing temps and days that the weather was perfect. I have a program and the ticket stub from every game I have ever attended. My wife said if the house ever caught fire it would go up like a matchstick from all the paper. The Texas Tech game was the 260th OU football game I have seen and maybe, just maybe, I have another 260 games left to see. Somehow I doubt it. I hope you have enjoyed reading my ramblings as much as I have reliving them. BOOMER SOONER!!!!
"One last thing about 1987. If Jamelle Holieway doesn’t tear his leg up in the OSU game we beat Miami, in my opinion, even playing in their backyard." Completely agree. JH's hanta yo was much bigger than CT's.
2007 I figured what the heck I might as well do 2007. Since I am not going to the Fiesta Bowl and I am only doing games I have seen in person here we go. The OSU game was a lot of fun just from the standpoint it was OSU and the "Greatest Offense in the World" was shut down too not even being the "Greatest Offense in the State" made it a memorable game. Everyone was excited about Miami coming to town and it would have been great if both teams had played like it was 1985/86/87. The hype just didn't live up to the final score. Colorado might have made the favorite game if not for the fact we didn't realize that games are 60 minutes even in the mountains. Tulsa was a fun trip and I had a great time at Dean’s soonerfans.com tailgate but it was just Tulsa on a Friday night so it didn't make my favorite game. So my favorite game of 2007 had to be Missouri at home. I believe this was the loudest I had heard the stadium since the 2000 Nebraska game. When the 4th quarter stated and we were behind I wasn't sure if we were going to win but the Fock was rocking and I don't think anyone sat the whole fourth quarter. The Sooner's played as well in the last stanza as they had at anytime this season and overwhelmed the Tigers. Missouri can say they gave it away but the fact is we took it from them. See you after the 2008 season. I attended every home game of the season to make it 36 years in a row without missing a home game. That is a total of 209 home games in a row and 269 games total, home and away, since I attended my first OU game.
