Top of the Queue- Volume VII Newsletter #21 – October 4 , 2023
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THE TEXAS-OU RIVALRY
TEXAS-OKLAHOMA -AND A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT!
Norman Fitzroy Maclean (December 23, 1902 – August 2, 1990) was an American author and scholar noted for his book “A River Runs Through It.” In the movie rendition of his book, there is a profound statement about how rivers reveal the history of time.
Watching the movie, my thoughts focused on the essence of time as told by the Red River. The movie quote goes:
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words….” (AND OU STILL SUCKS).
Bill Little, in 2011, described the Texas-OU game as a kaleidoscope. An optical instrument with varying symmetrical colorful patterns displayed on rotation. It is ever-changing in beauty and form, yet somehow always the same. So it is with the Texas-Oklahoma game. It is a montage of sights, sounds, and smells. It is a corny dog, a roller coaster ride, a tour of new cars, and a livestock show on the Fairgrounds. The stadium is split down the middle, with burnt orange and red. Friday Before The Game, Dallas is both Sodom And Gomorrah, Only More Fun. OU And Texas fans arrested wear the experience as a badge of honor—a defining moment In their life journey worthy of sharing in their eulogy.
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TEXAS-OU: THE HOT WAR
It is naughty by nature, this sublimely brutal Texas-OU football rivalry. Half the crowd crammed inside the cobwebbed old Cotton Bowl, like ninety-two thousand steamed sardines, will go wild at the outcome of each play. Conversely, half will sink to their seats, hands on heads, dazed by the failure of a two-yard gain or three-yard loss.
The intensity from the gladiators is turned up to eleven. At least.
“You don’t want to get caught standing around, counting your change,” Tyson King, a rugged linebacker for the Horns in the mid-’90s, once said.
In a TLSN interview last year, All-America kicker Jeff Ward reflected on his first taste of Texas-OU combat, the ’84 game played in a relentless downpour. “The game was played in an angry way, and the entire stadium had an angry vibe, for good reason,” Ward said. His field goal for the top-ranked Horns as time ran out ended the game in a 15-15 stalemate.
Lance Taylor recalled being told by Texas linebackers Morgan Copeland and Mark Hamilton while being recruited out of El Paso’s Coronado High that there was nothing like playing in the Texas-OU game.
“They were right,” Taylor testified. “Walking down the tunnel, it felt like you were walking on air. Then you come out to bright sunlight, half burnt orange and half crimson all around. The loudest cheers and boos
I have ever heard at one time.”
For the full story of Larry Carlson’s “Hot War” article, click on
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(TLSN’s Larry Carlson teaches sports media at Texas State in San Marcos. He is a member of the Football Writers Association of America. Write to him at lc13@txstate.edu)
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Texas-O.U. is full of winning streaks and losses. Coach Royal said, “That streak ends when one team gets tired of hearing about it and is good enough to do something about it.”
In 1903, a peculiar play took place that cannot be repeated. According to the rule at the time, if a team blocked an opponent’s punt, but the kicking team recovered the punt, they could punt the ball again. During the game between Oklahoma and Longhorn, Howard Marsh from Oklahoma blocked the Longhorn punt three times, and each time the Longhorns recovered the ball. However, the third punt recovery was made in the end zone, resulting in Oklahoma’s safety.
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1947 The “Sisco game”
Darrell Royal intercepts a Bobby Layne pass, but there was a penalty flag on the play, and the interception was negated.
Known as the “Sisco Game” by O.U. fans in honor (or dishonor) of referee Jack Sisco, The game turned on a disputed play as time expired in the first half with the score tied at 7-7.
Texas quarterback Bobby Layne’s handoff to halfback Jimmy Canady bounced back to Layne, who pitched it to Randall Clay, who ran for a touchdown.
O.U.’s head coach claimed Clay’s knee touched down, but Referee Sisco disagreed. As Texas pulled away in the second half, O.U. fans threw bottles and cushions onto the field and hanged Sisco in effigy after the game.
After the game, the Sooner fans were so upset they started hurling bottles at the players on the sideline, so Royal wisely ran to the middle of the field near the 50-yard line, reasoning that a fan would have to possess a great arm to hit him from there.
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Royal and his OU and Texas Roots
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1952 • No. 12 Oklahoma 49, Texas 20
Oklahoma beats Texas 49 to 20. O.U. Coach Wilkinson leaves his first team in the game until the 58th minute of the game. This angers a lot of Horns. O.U. sports writer John Cronley titles an article for the paper “ The sighs of Texas are upon O.U.
O.U.‘s Billy Vessels wins the Heisman.
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1977 Randy McEachern’s Dream
During the previous six years, Texas’s record against O.U. was 0-5-1. However, in 1977, Texas finally beat the Sooners.
In the book Oklahoma vs. Texas, the author Robert Heard chronicled the O.U. and Texas game in 1977. History will show that Randy McEachern was 4th team quarterback, not 3rd team quarterback when he helped pull off one of the most significant momentum-changing games in U.T. football. Before the season, quarterback Ted Constanzo underwent knee surgery for a racquetball injury, so Akers moved Randy from defense to 3rd team quarterback.
“A month before the O.U. game, Randy told his parents about “his crazy dream.” Randy says, “I dreamt the quarterback got hurt, and we were behind, and I went in and won the game.” Robert Heard continues his story. He says that Randy’s parents were listening to the O.U. game, and when McBath went down, his mother and father looked at each other. “When Aune went down,” Randy’s father got a sheet of paper and wrote in big letters, “Randy’s dream.” When the Horns won the game, Randy’s father took that paper and completed the sentence, “Randy’s dream comes true.”
RANDY MCEACHERN ???? (squarespace.com)
2022 RANDY MCEACHERN’S ???? (squarespace.com)
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2008 Texas 45 OU 35
No. 1 Oklahoma faced off against No. 5 Texas in an offensive shootout. Neither team had been held to under 35 points that year, and fans were eager to see touchdown after touchdown.
They weren’t disappointed.
Quarterback Sam Bradford threw three touchdowns in the first half alone. Colt McCoy answered with three scores of his own in the second half, with two touchdowns within the game’s last eight minutes.
This was the highest-scoring game of the Red River Rivalry and was the most viewed, as a record 92,182 fans packed the Dallas stadium.
ESPN analyst Ivan Maisel called the game “one of the best college football games of this or any season” and said, “If you went to see your team play Saturday, if you didn’t have the good fortune of wearing burnt orange or crimson in Fair Park on a sunlit fall Saturday if you made the mistake of watching some other game, get thee to YouTube. Buy, cheat, or steal your way to a copy and watch No. 5 Texas beat No. 1 Oklahoma 45-35.”
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Kissing Your Sister – 1976 and 1984 Texas and OU tie By Larry Carlson
If You Ask Texas Fans Of A Certain Vintage, Say, Those Born After 1965, Two Nasty, Mean, Vicious Ties Rough Up The Wardrobe And Still Rankle. Both Came Against Oklahoma.
1976- TEXAS VS OKLAHOMA
The buildup to the 1976 contest was the strangest ever. Darrell Royal’s Texas teams had won 12 of the first 14 matchups against his alma mater. But now OU had won five straight. Royal had called out Barry Switzer and his coaching staff for spying and cheating. Switzer had hooted derisively and mentioned that some coaches got outworked because they were busier with guitar-picking friends than with recruiting and football preparations.
Texas was offensively overmatched in ’76, struggling with a walk-on QB as the starter. During warmups, Oklahoma fans rained down insults on Royal, waves of curses, boos, and taunts that washed over the former OU star like waves of putrid garbage.
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1984- TEXAS VS OU
Come October ’84, UT was number one in the polls, OU at number two. The game was played in relentless rain on a dark, gloomy afternoon that would dampen Fletcher’s corny dogs and cotton candy and the trajectory of Longhorn football.
UT All-America kicker Jeff Ward recalled in a TLSN interview last year that the buildup to the big game was even hotter than usual. Besides the 1-2 punch in the rankings, Texas had already beaten eleventh-ranked Auburn and bullied fourth-ranked Penn State 28-3. There was plenty of trash talk between Austin and Norman.
“You might even say that week created the character that became ‘The Boz’ (OU linebacker Brian Bosworth, from Irving MacArthur),” Ward said. “His comments were posted all over our locker room, but we had no idea who he was.”
Texas took it to the Boz and his Okies early on. A 25-yard TD pass from Todd Dodge to Bill Boy Bryant gave Texas an early 7-0 lead. The Horns expanded the advantage to 10-zip at half, thanks to a 40-yard FG by Ward. The Sooners stormed back in the rain, taking a 15-10 lead to enter the final quarter. For the rest of the story, click on
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2020 “#11 and What Might Have Been “by Larry Carlson
Ehlinger, as captain of the ship, never lost the locker room, it would appear. A reluctant hero to legions of Longhorn backers, Sam became a symbol of the strangest season ever. It happened on the day in October when, cliched as it might sound, Ehlinger essentially “willed” his team back into a tie with Oklahoma and an overtime lead. Millions watched at home as Ehlinger waged what at times seemed like a one-man war against OU. Despite the heroics, it didn’t end with a W. For the rest of the story on Sam Ehlinger, the link is :
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In the book, Game of My Life, Donnie Little shares his experience walking down the tunnel. He said, “Going down the tunnel definitely gives you goosebumps. You’ve got people on one side, screaming and calling you the worst names, and the other half is cheering for you. You definitely want to show up. You didn’t want to have a lackluster performance. If you could play every game with the kind of intensity you have against Oklahoma, you’d be an All-American. …. On a good day, I could throw the ball 60 yards. When you come through the tunnel and you are out there warming up, I could have thrown it 70 yards.”
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PETER THE GREAT
by Larry Carlson ( lc13@txstate.edu )
There’s a word in the American lexicon that is more overused, abused — and certainly more misused — than even iconic, awesome, and incredible.
That word is – “Unique.”
Sorry, but there are no degrees. Nobody is more unique than anyone else. No barbecue joint is the most unique. That diving catch was not pretty unique.
Individuals are unique. So are snowflakes. Tacos, not so much. It’s the same for movies.
This is probably a futile, down-the-rabbit-hole chase into English usage. Forgive me. I guess I’ve overstayed my time in the classroom. Thirty-five years of trying. Dang. Down the drain, as young Mr. Blutarski confessed in Dean Wormer’s office. (See Faber College: Knowledge Is Good)
Given all that, Peter Gardere does, indeed, hold a unique spot in the Texas-OU record books.
Those who bleed burnt orange know this.
He’s the lone star to go 4-0 as a starting quarterback for the Longhorns and Sooners in their longstanding football feud.
That’s right. Nobody else has done it.
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Peter comes from a family with great athletic royalty genes. Peter is the grandson of George, the First, Gardere, a 143-pound quarterback who led his team to victories against Alabama and Rice in 1922 before suffering a career-ending jaw injury against Southwestern.
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29 years later, Peter the Great’s dad, George, the Second, Gardere, a defensive back at Texas in 1951 suffered a grotesque season-ending broken neck on the first play of the first game in 1953. George Gardere’s football career was one play and 8 seconds against Kentucky. Frank Medina was the first one to reach Peter after the injury. George, The first, Gardere looked at the injury to his son on the x-ray and fainted. George’s neck was broken in half.
After the successful surgery, Coach Price told Gardere’s parents that George was given another year’s eligibility. George’s mother was shocked that Coach Price would extend such an offer under the circumstances and declined the offer as only mothers can do with a resounding “NO”.
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In What it Means to be a Longhorn by Bill Little, Coach Pat Patterson says to Doug English about the tunnel, ” No place for a timid man, is it?”
In 100 Things..…… Jenna McEachern states that Pat Culpepper likened smiling to the cameras during pre-game introductions to “laughing before you land at Iwo Jima.”
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