Gary’s Blog – Soonerguys

1967 – the last time Oklahoma-Tennessee went down to the wire

Published on September 14, 2015 by admin

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The Soonerguys founder predicted a loss in our game against Tennessee. Had that happened it would have broken a long standing winning streak dating back to January 1, 1968.

This was the era when you still had to be good to play in a bowl game, and really good to play on New Years Day. Second ranked Tennessee met No. 3 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. It was Chuck Fairbanks’ first year as head coach, Steve Owens’ first year at running back and Bobby Warmack’s second year quarterbacking the team. Tennessee was favored.

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Sooners historically fall short of pre-season expectations

Published on September 7, 2015 by admin

In the fall of 1972 I entered the University of Oklahoma as a first year law student. I chose to attend OU for many reasons, not the least of which was the 1971 Thanksgiving day Nebraska game which, in my mind. presaged championship football during my three years at the University.

Imagine my surprise, upon arrival in Norman, to find that there was not universal acceptance of the “fact” that OU had the best team in the nation. This was back in the days of my youth when I started every football season with the unshakable belief that we would go undefeated and spend New Year’s evening celebrating another national championship after a rousing Sugar Bowl win.

I couldn’t believe we weren’t unanimously ranked No.1.

I remember sitting in the coffee shop in the student union with my fellow law students assuring each other that Oklahoma historically does better in those seasons where expectations were low at the beginning. None of us had any evidence of this “fact.” I think we were just trying to reassure ourselves that we were in the hunt for a national championship that year.

My recollections, however, raise an interesting point as we enter the 2015 season with a preseason ranking of 19. So, a little research:

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