Iconoclast: Peter The Great, 4-0 against OU

Excessive celebration, spiking the ball, 15 yard penalty, replay the down. Peter the pretty good.

I hate that rule.

Really miss those spontaneous celebrations. Takes away from the joy of the game. I can understand the aversion to choreographed idiocy but the game has to allow for celebration.

I don’t think you give Gary Gibbs enough credit for his part in that streak as well.

A real good piece, Scipio. Highlights the axiomatic ‘too much credit, too much blame’ part of playing QB.

Shades of Tebow mania. Obviously Tim Tebow is a hell of a good football player but I think a lot has to do with the defense Urban and Charlie Strong have created. Plus, last year Harvin was a beast.

Love to get your thoughts on that Gator D in a post.

Thanks!

So this was intended for people who think Gardere was most responsible for four wins against OU? You could have just emailed it to Peter Gardere then.

I have always imagined Henry James to be a slightly less intellectual version of Floyd, Liberty’s henchman as played by Strother Martin. Am I far off?

I always thought “Peter the Great” was supposed to be ironic.

This is where I’d post a picture of Harrison Ford pointing emphatically, with the caption “How dare you Sir!” if I knew how do to that sort of thing.

Woody -
 
OU fans chanted “Graduate!” to him after the third game in the series. Perhaps they were voicing their personal G.E.D aspirations, but I’m pretty sure it was directed at him. I’ve seen and heard “Gardere 4-0, Against OU” dozens of times.

I would also love ppl to stop saying tebow " won two championships" last time I checked he played fullback on that 1st title team, chris leak was the qb on that one, and last year he tried to give the game to OU but oklahoma very nicely turned down the offer and said no thanks we would rather keep our losing streak alive…. If Ou wouldnt have choked inside the redzone in the first half twice, that thing would have been over before it started… But all hail tebow and his two titles, heck they already have given him a third one just ask espn they will tell ya.. I hope they do another series before the title game about the greatest teams of all time and have this florida team be number 1 , so that it will play out just like 05’

First someone posts highlights of the 91 Cotton Bowl, now this? Why don’t y’all just come to my house and piss and shit all over my gold-plated Adrian Walker scrapbook?

I agree Scip, the choreographed tomfoolery has no business in college football. Real life excitement, however, starts with the players and works its way into the fans. That crowd looks like it belongs at a Mexican futbol game.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is not only the greatest Western ever made, it’s the greatest movie ever made. It should be required watching in all elementary, middle and senior high schools. Instead of English or some goofy Chemistry class, a class on it should be mandatory for all degrees at UT. It has to be watched at least a dozen times to be fully appreciated.

The Gardere era wins over ou were bright spots in an otherwise dreary time in UT football history.

Quarterbacks get most of the credit historically for a teams wins or losses. This in not news and will not change.

Ransom, I cannot imagine what your commentary must have looked like back then.

Serious lack of orange in the stands. Did people wear orange in the DKR days and then just stop wearing it when we sucked? Or did Mack really invent this novel concept to wear school colors to games?

I loved the 90 game. The introduction of Butch Hadnot.

Great stuff. It is an interesting commentary on the fan base more than Pete. Not dissimilar to the Applewhite movement we all saw while he and SImms were both here.

By the way every Texas/OU game should be a 2:30 kick. I love the shadows in the second half creeping over the field and I can also blow through a lot more beer in wax cups in pregame. F 11 am.

Less mentioned is the fact he went 1-3 against A&M, but he did have a pretty good game in that one win.

Nothing else to add, but the Conroe alum rules explicitly require that on any thread mentioning the 91 OU game, I must mention Bubba “Baby Jesus” Jacques.

Danny White went to three straight NFC Championship games and he’s still viewed as nothing more than a cross-eyed fucktard. Print the legend..

ransomstoddard,

“The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is not only the greatest Western ever made, it’s the greatest movie ever made. It should be required watching in all elementary, middle and senior high schools.”

Here! Here!

Any person/team/coach/flock of birds that beats OU four straight deserves legend status

Pete Gardere is the 2nd biggest “myth” in Texas football history because he QB’ed a team that beat OU 4 years running. You nailed it down on the why to’s and wherefore’s.

I think I know who your 1st biggest myth is, but I don’t want to say it.

What? Sorry, I’m still watching replays of the ’89 game (one of the most enjoyable days of my life – sad, but true).

With respect to the lack of offense in the ‘91 game, consider that Shane Childers started at tailback. The Pistol didn’t have much to work with in ’91. What a defense though. Specifically, what a defensive line. Patton, Jeter, Dronett, Bo Robinson.

Fans wore white to the games more often than orange before Mack Brown showed up.

Yes, it should always kick off at 2:30. And it should always be at Fair Park, today’s fan preference for gold-plated urinals and flat screen televisions on the seat back in front of them notwithstanding.

“Resuming play . . . "

Oscar Giles with the sack to end the Johnny Walker game btw. I was at every single one of those games, but that was during my drinking phase at UT so I admittedly don’t remeber much of them. Nothing like a Texas/OU clip to get the blood boiling though.

We often sucked in that era, so it was important to have something to hang onto. “Peter the Great” was one such something.

So leave my fucking legends alone.

Well Texas did retire his jersey number.

Let’s not forget to give credit to Mr. Goode, whose foolish roughing call kept the dream alive for young Pete.

Stonie had a hell of a stop I must say. Crucial.

shockthenation,
I was a UT student during that era (‘89-’92) and can attest to the fact that the sea of burnt orange so common at DKR Memorial these days just wasn’t there back then. Very odd, but I guess it just hadn’t occurred to many folks then to go to the games wearing school colors. The Co-op and Bevo’s Bookstore didn’t have all that many burnt orange T-shirts for sale in those days ( I think I owned one burnt orange shirt while I was a student; most were white or grey). Mack does deserve a large portion of the credit for this phenomenon.

BTW, Scipio, nice read; it’s always fun to reminisce about that era and how, despite how incredibly mediocre/bad we were in those days (1990 being the big exception), OU still couldn’t find a way to beat us those 4 years. Especially after the awful stretch from ‘85-’88. Gardere was definitely the beneficiary of some incredible defensive efforts in those games. That ’91 team in particular has always chapped me something terrible — an absolute terror of a defense (No. 1 in the nation, if memory serves) but a completely impotent offense and terrible special teams (we lost the last Texas-Arkansas SWC game b/c our damn kicker missed an extra point and at least one chip-shot FG).

Long-time reader, first-time poster, BTW. Y’all do a great job on this site; I always come here first for all things Longhorn (you shame the Statesman’s coverage).

During my four years on campus (‘84-‘88) we didn’t beat OU or A&M, so the ’89 win over OU was a big deal. Another great thing about that clip is that you see Giles mocking the sooner "digging the grave" antics at the very end. That’s a move the sooners were doing throughout game.

What is interesting about the revisionist history is not that the QB gets all the credit (that’s a given), but that Gardere was beleaguered beyond belief during his time on campus. Maybe that’s why he gets so much love for the 4-0. He played some pretty shitty football for the majority of the time he was on campus, but he somehow managed to nut it up every year in Dallas. To me, that has to be why he is so revered: his performances against OU were such an anomaly compared to the rest of his career.

I used to see him on campus every day before one of my classes, and I remember feeling sorry for the guy. He took so much shit from the fans and the media, and he just looked miserable the whole time — walking with his head down, and not making eye contact with anybody as if he didn’t want to be recognized. I’m sure he went back to his dorm room and had a threesome with some Pi Phis while I went home and got baked and watched Rockford Files re-runs, but I still felt bad for the dude. I say give him the credit… for all the shit that he took, he deserves it.

Mitch. Peter’s play vs OU those 4 years pretty much mirrored his play in all the other games he played at Texas. He had two gawdawful games against OU that the defense simply won for the Horns anyway.

I used to sit a couple of rows from his parents during that time and got to know them fairly well. Dad Pete and I were in the old Dad’s Association which morphed into the Parent’s Association. Good people.

What HJ and Woody said. As a student in that era, I always thought of the “legend” as more of a dig at OU more than a deification of Gardere – that OU couldn’t beat a team that had such a mediocrity at QB. My seared memory of PG was the ’92 A&M game, with our stadium half-filled with white-shirted towel-twirling Aggies, chanting “Pee-ter…Pee-ter…” after that awful pick six he threw that put such an exclamation point on what had already been a brutal seal-clubbing. His 4-0 vs OU was always a bit of a joke for me and my buddies who suffered through those dark times.

I remember Gardere’s last game in 92, in Austin against the aggies. At the end of the game Gardere threw a pick six (I think that was probably his last pass in college). A friend of ours at the game freaked out. “Good!! I’m glad he did that! That’s how I want to remember the little son of a bitch!!”.

I think anyone who QB’d or was even saw significant playing time in such a rivalry, and went 4-0, deserves legend status. I assure we hated PG the second week in October as much as you hated him the last week of November.

Honest curious question on a UT board. Would you prefer to beat OU or TAMU, if you only had one?

FInally, ditto on all 2:30 and Fair Park sentiments. I hope both schools have the nuts that their existing AD’s have in shunning Jerry World and staying in Fair Park or going home and home. You cannot move the game to the Death Star and keep the tradition. Might as well start a new one on each others campus’.

Ouch. Dude’s a horn. No need to bag on him. I don’t see that as the point of the article.

Regarding the lack of orange in the stands, when I was at Texas, it was perfectly normal to show up to a Texas game wearing a navy blue polo shirt and khaki shorts. Maybe a Texas baseball cap.
 
Anyone wearing orange all over was either a kid, an old person, or a Super-Fan who gots lots of eye rolls.
 
Mack Brown changed that. The same transformation happened at SEC schools around the same time period.

Soonervino:
 
OU. Always.
 
raoulduke:
 
If you think the purpose of my article was to “bag on him” then, no, you don’t see its point.

I can remember a lot of the Texas clothing sold around campus was actually navy, and if I’m not mistaken a lot of the football programs from the Mackovic years had navy covers as well.

Yep, here’s one from 1992.

I remember finding an orange polo shirt and wearing it to a game in 1993. I was laughed at, and never wore it again. The sentiment seemed to be that I looked like I was 80 years old, wearing orange to a football game.

I went to Boston College’s season opener this year and I was actually blown away by the range of colors I saw people wearing. One thing they do that I think is kind of cool is that they give each student one t-shirt during their freshman year that is unique to their year. All the shirts are yellow, but the motto and logo is different every year. I like it because you see older people wearing these worn out shirts, and instantly recognize them as alumni from a specific year.

This was the result in the last home game I attended as a UT student:

“Peter Gardere ran for touchdowns of 50 and 11 yards and threw for another score today as Texas stopped a late 2-point conversion to defeat Texas A&M, 28-27.

Texas (10-1) broke a six-game Texas A&M winning streak in the series, which started in 1894."

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the last game I attended as a student. That Christmas stocking stuffer still haunts me.

QB’s – right or wrong – have always been judged more on big games won, than simple stats.

A QB that helps his team by not throwing interceptions, fumbling, or making poor audibles help win big games. NFL coaches now call it “managing the game.”

Looking back at some of those clips, Scip, I’m impressed by Gardere’s speed. He wasn’t just a pocket passer. I’d forgotten how many scores he got calling his own number.

Let’s not forget that Gardere was the first “passing” QB at UT capable of sustained flashes of mediocrity. Before that Todd Dodge, Brett Stafford and Shannon Kelly were vying for the all-time interceptions per attempt mark. Before them the QB was, more often than not, the third best tailback.

As a passing quarterback in an era where the forward pass was still a fairly racy concept on the 40 acres, he helped bring about the transition that resulted in Shea Morenz (more a recruiting victory than someone who produced on the field), James Brown, and other targets of cult adoration…

Scipio -

Was responding to nordberg’s story:

"Good!! I’m glad he did that! That’s how I want to remember the little son of a bitch!!".

And pointing out that bagging on Pete DIDN’T seem to be the point of your article. Sorry for the confusion.

—

Old Chip Brown Article

Orange, burnt or otherwise, is not really anybody’s color.

Gardere was great because he figureheaded the team that somehow rescued the season from the one game that mattered the most during his tenure.

Peter the Great defines almost every aspect of my love/hate for those longhorn teams. The wins over OU, the miserable losses to A&M. The 90 defensive line. The hope of Shea Morenz recruitment. etc.

He’s legend now. Plus, everytime I see a quarterback overthrow a wide receiver, I always think of how good the Cash brothers made him look in 1990 and how bad he looked in 91.

For those of us that went to school in the mid-late-80s, that Peter to Johnny Walker t.d. was THE highlight of Texas football. I was in the crowd and the place just erupted in a way that I’m not sure has been equalled. Haven’t felt that same euphoria until the 06 Rose Bowl.

Yes, it should always kick off at 2:30. And it should always be at Fair Park, today’s fan preference for gold-plated urinals and flat screen televisions on the seat back in front of them notwithstanding.

"Resuming play . . . "

FUCKIN-A, boys!!!! This 11 o’clock business is for the birds (or the sober).

Fair Park forever!!! For this series anyway.

And the “Resuming play…” reference to the dearly departed James Jennings is something only long and old timers will hold dear.

So what/who was the #1 myth in all of Longhorndom?

Johnny Walker caught that pass right in front of me, but I will always remember 2 other things from that game:

1. Mike Gaddis blowing his knee out in seeming HD Technicolor. Suddenly we had a chance.

2. Steroid-infested OU defensive lineman grabbing the helmet of one of our presumably-steroid-infested offensive linemen and beating him with it to start the game. Ejection, Sooner. Advantage, Texas.

Greatest game I’ve ever attended. I was so fucking drunk.