TX-OU 35 Years Ago: It Still Matters

Thank you. This should be posted every year before the OU game.

Great article! Amazing to remember they’ve always been the bad guys. Can I just go into a coma until Saturday now?!

“Sooners look like gomers”? I guess they are…

Soooo, its 11:04 and ou still sucks

srr50 – Outstanding article and summary. I remember it from my teen years, but reading it here brings back all the emotion.

This is like my “The Night Before Christmas”.

Ok, now it’s officially OU week.

That was my sophomore year. I wasn’t at the game, but I remember how hot it was that day. It was just an ordeal.

Went to my first OU game the next year, and Texas ended the winless streak behind Earl. It was glorious.

“Royal meanwhile, saw his power base eroded basically because OU was beating him regularly with an offense that he helped them put in, using black players from Texas that Royal couldn’t recruit.”

Fixed.

My first RRS game that I attended was in 1976.

I was four years old.

Thank you. This should be posted every year before the OU game.

It has been for a few years now. Don’t you track these things? Step up your game, Huck L. Berry!

Memories why don’t you try selling that shit to Earl, Johnny Johnson Lam & Ham & Alfred Jackson among others off of that team.

Fascinating. It was before my time and I had only heard grumblings of “spygate” through the years. So, in addition to being the dirtiest (or 2nd dirtiest) program over the years, they also cheated by spying? Freakin’ Oklahoma trash.

Memories: What you’ve stated about “black players that Texas couldn’t recruit”… Was this a result of academics or a holdover from segregation? I’m curious as to what you are speaking about as, like I stated, this was before my time.

Srr: great reading the first time, great reading this time. Thanks!

Great article. I attended that game. I still remember the feeling when we fumbled & Ou Sucks slowly drove for the td & before the PAT attempt it felt like watching a death. After the pat failure the patient survived but only in a vegetative state.
Years later I had business dealings & became good friends with an OU alum who owned the planes Barry & the Boys used for recruiting & unbeknownst to my friend, coke runs. We spent a couple of hours being shown the OU facilities & visiting with Switzer. The one recollection I have is Barry, sitting behind his desk with those eyes so full of shit.
  Later my friend told me he thought "Old Darrel was just losing it " until Barry told it was true. OU & Switzer had spied.
  By the way, the reason for the Switzer / Lacewell falling out is because Switzer slept with Lacewell’s wife.
 I hate to lose but I can handle losing in a fair contest. I hate a f**king cheat.
 OU named a building after this guy. Without wheels.

Ty regarding black players the first black UT schollie player in a game was 1970. The first OU black player was 1956 or 1957. In 1970 UT had about 42,000 students & I believe 10 were black.
 Switzer portrayed Royal as “unhip” to blacks & until Earl the story played pretty well. Royal loved country music which was much different from today. Switzer was a party guy who appealed to like minded players.
 Part of the irony is Royal grew up poor with black friends. He was not a racist.

Dear God Almighty in Heaven Above With Angels Weeping,

Sittler is not just an idiot, he’s starting to sound like the maroon bow-tied, conspiracy-obsessed, UT penis-envying president of A&M.

A few words of advice to Sittler and his fellow “UT is the Devillllllll!!!!” crowd: when Barry Switzer makes more sense than you, Just. Stop. Talking.

It was fun chanting OU Sucks when the President of the United States walked onto the field, surrounded by a cloud of security personnel. At the time, “sucks” had not yet become a casual term used to connote general negativity; it was specifically sexual and was never heard in public discourse. The chant was shockingly loud and I always thought that Gerald Ford, the good natured old football player, probably got a kick out of it but of course I have no way of knowing that for certain.
I jumped up and down and hugged a total stranger when OU hiked the ball over the holder’s head. The crowd was hysterical.
I’ve mellowed some since then, but would I like to do it all over again? Oh hell yes, from the accusatory and obscene chanting in the presence of the President, to twelve of us sleeping drunk in a single room at the old Adolphus Hotel, which was where my roommate scandalized the other girls by boinking his girlfriend when the lights went out.
God Bless UT.

I was at the game, and it was truly the most draining fan experience I have ever had. About ten years later, we are in a beer line at a Friday night party in Dallas before the game and started reminiscing about the ‘76 game. When we got to the part about the deep snapper sailing it over Von Schaman’s head, the OU guy in front of us turns around and, with his eyes lowered and his head slightly bowed, tells us he was the walk-on deep snapper that day. We bought him beer the rest of the night.

The deep snapper on that wonderful debacle of an extra point attempt was none other than Jody Farthing, from my high school. The same high school that brought us the Gundy brothers.

Oh, and I am only referring to the Sittler article and Switzer saying publicly that OU needs to stay w/ Texas throughout this realignment BS.

As for Switzer himself, I was in school during the late 80’s and every OU game I went to the Land Thieves blew us out by 40+ points. Thank god for boot flasks…

As an aside, the story I heard on Jimmy Johnson’s firing as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys went something like this: Jerry Jones and Jimmy were getting pissed at each other over who was more responsible for the Cowboys two Super Bowl victories in the early 90’s. It got so bad Jimmy threatened to quit and Jerry took him up on it by saying " I can get a chimpanzee to coach the Cowboys to win another Super Bowl".

Two weeks after Jimmy’s cleaned out his desk, Jones hires Switzer as head coach.

Two years later, the Cowboys win the Super Bowl for the 3rd time. Coincidence?

We should bring back the old days of colleagues helping colleagues. We should have Mack offer Stoops to help him install Greg Davis’s offense. You know, the one that set all the records we cherish so much here at Texas? As a gesture of collegiality, of course.

If that doesn’t work, I have another gesture for Bob.

One of my favorite BC posts of all-times. Thanks for posting again.

“Now you have coaches helping out-of-conferences foes prepare to play an in-conference rival.”

I would be interested to hear specific examples if there are any you could offer.

"Now you have coaches helping out-of-conferences foes prepare to play an in-conference rival."

I would be interested to hear specific examples if there are any you could offer.

I believe that refers to Stoops (or was it Pellini) calling Nick Saban unsolicited to offer insight about Texas before the NC game against Alabama.

I read this every year – wonderful work srr50. I now am indoctrinating my son into what OU is – your work is very helpful!

I believe that refers to Stoops (or was it Pellini) calling Nick Saban unsolicited to offer insight about Texas before the NC game against Alabama.

After additional thought I’m pretty sure it was Pellini. I believe he had a relationship with Saban, plus there was the appearance of it seeming like sour grapes since Pellini was just coming off of a very upsetting and disappointing loss to Texas in the Big12 Championship Game.

I’m just sayin…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOamsw24IvE

Stoops visited Tuscaloosa. He said it was to learn about how Saban runs practices. Yeah, that’s what coaches do when they’re (Stoops) getting ready for bowl games and finishing recruiting classes- they visit other programs to learn operational stuff. And coaches preparing for BCS CGs stop everything to teach them.

Stevo,

The best part of Switzer coaching the Cowboys was who the head of football operations was for the Cowboys at the time.

Switzer though is all class, how many other college legends lend their likeness to endorsing storage units?

It was my junior year and I was at the game. The Texas defense and kicking was unreal. .Man they were hitting, the Texas D was just murdering Oklahoma, big loud hits echoed thoughout the stadium. It was unbelievable how they were totally dominating the mighty OU offense. Then THE FUMBLE and the sick feeling as you watched OU march down the field followed by the brief joy of the botched extra point. Finally there was the empty feeling of the tie mixed with the relief that at least we didn’t lose. Everyone was miserable and pissed.

 I was privileged to know Coach Mike Campbell a decade after the game and I believe he thought that was his best coaching job ever. I don’t think he ever forgave Ivey Suber.

Wasn’t Ham Jones only a soph in 1976? I know he played through the ’78 season.

I’ve heard the same thing regarding the falling out between Switzer and Lacewell. Heard it happened on a staff trip to Hawaii.

These anecdotes/rumors? regarding Stoops and Pellini plus the history lesson about Switzer make me really appreciate Mack.

Switzer/Lacewell shows it is true that there is no honor among thieves. What a clsass act Switzer is, OU must be proud. I heard the bumper sticker around Norman read " Barry has it in for Larry".

Ha, I can’t imagine what it would be like being at that game, granted I was still 35 years away from being born.

I can’t tell you how annoying it is seeing how uneducated fans my generation are about the history behind this rivalry, it is what it is. awesome post, hook ’em.

I was astounded when Texas gave Suber the ball deep in Texas territory. He had few carries that year and was not an outstanding RB. Just give the ball to Earl, pick up a few yards and punt it away. The way the Texas D was playing that day, it was unlikely OU would drive 70 yards or more for a TD. An inexplicable play call ranking with Akers’ bonehead fourth quarter call with Georgia punting in the 1984 Cotton Bowl and Philip Geiger’s running through the punter in the CCG against CU.

Nice one, srr.

For the one millionth time, Fred did not tell Curry to field that punt.

This was my first ever TX/OU game. Reading this will make my blood boil all the way until some time next week. Fuck OU.

As far as coaches going out of conference to scout a team, Stoops said this week he and several coaches visited Boise earlier this year. For 2 days they studied the offense. You have figure they were studying Harsins play calling tendencys, as they viewed plenty of film.

Great read every year. Thanks srr.

I had heard that Barry had sent Larry on a recruiting trip and Lacewell came home early for some reason to find Barry and Mrs. Lacewell.

DKR recruited black players while head coach at UDub in 1956. He recruited and signed a black player in 1967. I forgot his name, and he never made it to campus. He had no trouble recruiting black players. That is pure revisionism. Look at the players he recruited that were All-SWC/America under Akers. They were all hurt in 1976.

By the way, as a kid I was a big fan of Ivy Suber’s, but I was crushed when Raymond Clayborn switched from RB to CB.

Wasn’t the 1976 game shown on tape delay? I remember some pre-1977 game was because of OU’s probation, and my parents and I kept all electronic devices off until the delayed broadcast.

Those cheating bastards!

The ’76 game was on ABC live. The ’77 game was delayed.

My first Texas-OU game as well. 75,000 pissed off fans. I had to be separated from an OU fan after the game and I am the biggest puss on the planet. great read

Actually BIH, the 1977 game was live in Austin and Tulsa. There was an NCAA “local exception rule” in place back then that let you televise the game live in the two teams home markets.

Now I haven’t the foggiest idea as to why it was Tulsa and not Oklahoma City.

I recall reading that DKR was so emotionally drained that he threw up after the game.

I was at the game (my junior year, my 3rd OU game) and can’t describe how disappointing it was. You would think that tying the #3 team after losing the previous 5 years would be satisfying, but fans of both teams reacted as if it was a loss.

However, it made the 1977 game all the more sweet.

I was about six weeks old for that ‘76 game. Evidently my dad kept going apeshit while watching the game and kept waking me up from my afternoon nap. In hindsight I really shouldn’t have been sleeping through that game anyway.

I bow to your obvious knowledge, srr. (grin)

Didn’t the local exception telecast come up late in the week? I said “delayed” because I thought I recalled that that was the original plan. Since I was at the game (um, as you were), I didn’t care about the TV options back home.

No we knew about it on Sunday — and as I now recall the Tulsa station got to broadcast the game because they were the nearest ABC affiliate.

Oh the stories I could tell about the 1977 game. :)

We’ll have to meet up one of these months. Basketball game of your choice.

SRR,

Don’t leave us hanging re: 1977

Love re-reading this every year; it really gets at the heart of the rivalry. Damn that lying, cheating bastard Switzer.
It’s 12:23 a.m. and OU still sucks! Kickoff in less than 36 hours!

To Offtacklle. Jody Farthing was not the deep snapper it was Lucky. bad Jody Farthing is dead. Poor guy can’t defend himself. If you went to school with that fine boy you would not say that about him.I’m sure Jim Darnell would agree with me. I bet Jim Darnell had no idea you even existed .What a fine young man he was.Jealously is the work of the devil,

OFFTACKLE. The deep snapper that day was a walk on. Get your facts straight. Your stupid statement about Jody Farthing is so unfair to a great Sooner. I checked in his stats they were great.if you went to high school with him I might understand how a whimp like you could make a statement about a dead Sooner Football Player. He was state heavy weight champion at your school. It said he he played offense and defense in high school. He played both ways never leaving the field.when he graduated from O.U. He received academic awards.Do you consider yourself a Bomber?

Off tackle there is no caparison between Jody Farthing and the Gundys. Cale Gundy was called a chicken by his own teammates . He faked it in Colorado He was scared to get hit

Regarding the falling out between Lacewell and Switzer, i heard it involved Lacewell catching Switzer screwing around with his wife.

Another vote for one of the most physical games of the series was the year of the 13-13 tie and Bosworth shooting off his steroid influenced mouth about how much he hated everything Texas all during the week prior to the game.

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