I have never seen this 1971 OU/Tx footage before

[BigIslandSooner]

I am 60 years old, I started following OU sports in 1971, truth be told, I only learned that OU football was a thing the week before this game was played.

Jack Mildren was a god to 8 year old me and after seeing these plays, particularly the late pitches to Greg Pruitt, just seeing these Pruitt runs for the first time, man this was fun to watch! I'm going to go watch it again.

[inconnu]

I am 60 years old, I started following OU sports in 1971, truth be told, I only learned that OU football was a thing the week before this game was played.

Jack Mildren was a god to 11 year old me and after seeing these plays, particularly the late pitches to Greg Pruitt, just seeing these Pruitt runs for the first time, man this was fun to watch! I going to go watch it again.

That was a monumental game in OU football history, IMO. It was the beginning of the takedown of Darrell Royal as tx coach. (That was the first of 5 OU wins in a row over tx.)

[OU Chinaman]

...Fall of 1971 I was a HS senior at Putnam City.
I'd become acquainted with SOONER halfback Joe Wylie that summer, and he told me stories of how Mildren, Pruitt, Crosswhite and himself worked the triple option every chance they got.
Said Switzer arranged for the stadium lights in the south end zone to stay on after dark and how they ran the wishbone T left and right ad nauseum. (Wouldn't be allowed today)
But that September beginning with a 30-0 rout of SMU and continuing until the pen-ultimate Game of the Century, 1971, (even given the 35-31 loss), was the greatest OKLAHOMA Offense EVER, IMO!
The average rushing yds per game record,(460 plus per game) still stands. Likely never to be broken with the focus on passing the football so prevalent in the 21st century.

I remember reading the OKLAHOMAN after the texass win,and someone said they heard in the Press Box, "That move just gave me a head cold!" referring to the jump sideways 3yds juke Pruitt put on the ut defender in the open field.

Really hope someone somewhere collects restores and preserves ANY game film from 1971 for posterity.
It truly was the finest most pristine example of how the Wishbone T WAS EXECUTED TO PERFECTION!

[Fly]

I was lucky enough to get to attended the game of the century with my brother and a ole high school buddy that day. The seats
we had were in the Cornhusker sec though. One of the hardest loses to take.

Fly

[Pokerman]

Really hope someone somewhere collects restores and preserves ANY game film from 1971 for posterity.
It truly was the finest most pristine example of how the Wishbone T WAS EXECUTED TO PERFECTION! [/i]

I have a really big collection of OU games. Unfortunately, all I have from 1971 are the Nebraska and Auburn games.
Back then they were only allowed to be on TV once or twice a year as I recall.
I wish I had more of Joe Washington's games, but we were on probation much of his career and consequently not many games were televised.

[inconnu]

I was lucky enough to get to attended the game of the century with my brother and a ole high school buddy that day. The seats
we had were in the Cornhusker sec though. One of the hardest loses to take.

Fly

Several uncalled clips on that johnny Rodgers return for a TD, and late in the game the bugeaters QB was down(knee hit the ground), but it wasn't called. OU should have won that game.

I saw that "Game of the Century" live too, and the beatdown we put on txass in the RRS(the one shown above) in 1971 Those 2 games, and the Orange Bowl win over Penn State after the 1985 season, are easily the most memorable games I've ever seen live.

[BrngBkLilRed]

Back when football was football, it's been all downhill since the first soccer style place kicker

[Bronco]

I was also at that game. I had been to every one since 1963. They won almost every game before that one. I think we were 1-6 or so. I was in the South end zone pretty low, I think that was the game that the refs had us come back on the field for one play. Some players had removed their shoes.

[cushcreekmont]

I was the same OU class as Mildren. I filmed football practice and home games, but did not travel (except the bowl games).

Through all of fall practice, those of us filming (and we heard some coaches too) worried that our defense was terrible because they could not stop Pruitt.

After we slapped USC around, we knew OU was really good. OUr only concern was the terrible texsa bugaboo - 1 win in 13 years. I had to watch that game on TV and I still remember almost every detail. One that is lost now came with a third and long deep in OU territory and the game close. Roy Bell from Clinton, OK and was no longer a starter got the ball and fought his way for the first down. OU scored and texsa was done.

[pippen]

I was 13 going on 14 that fall and left the Cotton Bowl after this game convinced to the depths of my soul that we would win the National Championship. Left Memorial Stadium in tears that November - possibly the last time I bawled until my first son was born some 25 years later. Always wore #11 in my sports playing days, though it was in homage to Bob Warmack, not Mildren.

[TropicalSooner]

Bobby Warmack and Eddie Hinton were the stars of the team back in the day when I and my (now) wife were going to the games in the late 60s.
Great memories..........

[EMan]

71 OU-Tx Ticket3.jpg (47.36 KiB) Viewed 570 times

Yep, I was there!

From The Houston Post, October 10, 1971…

SOONER BOOM NOISIEST EVER
By Jack Gallagher

DALLAS – Twice Oklahoma was penalized Saturday for having too many on the field. The Texas Longhorns could have sworn the Sooners played with 12 men through the afternoon.

The extra man could have been Greg Pruitt, Oklahoma’s junior halfback from Houston didn’t play like two men. He played with all the precision and skill of 11 men. Pruitt was virtually an entire team as the vicious-hitting Sooners left Texas for dead in the ashes of the Cotton Bowl, 48-27.

Never had Boomer Sooner boomed as resoundingly since Darrell Royal became head coach at Texas in 1957.

Pruitt’s slashing speed combined with the artful runs of Jack Mildren and the power of Roy Bell and Leon Crosswhite resulted in the largest total ever made against a Royal-coached team. Oklahoma may still be running out the ramp and onto the midway of the Texas State Fair that opened here Saturday. At last count the Sooners’ rushing totaled 435 yards, another record yield for a Royal-coached UT team. There were 73,580 assembled beneath sunny skies and, to the Texas defense, it must have appeared they were all out in front of the OU ball carriers.

With his sprints around the corners and his bursts inside, Pruitt is the 1971 personification of the 1889 land rush in Oklahoma. He gained 216 yards in 20 carries, scored on runs of one, four and 20 yards, and at times, made a good Texas defense look as immobile as Bevo the huge Longhorn mascot.

Despite Oklahoma’s superiority, Texas had several chances to break through in the second half.

Playing more aggressively on defense, the Longhorns limited the Sooners to 91 yards rushing after intermission, but fumbles, interceptions and penalties bogged down Texas, and neither Donnie Wigginton nor Eddie Phillips moved the ball with any regularity.

Oklahoma’s fierce offense had much to do with UT’s ineffectiveness. Houstonian Albert Qualls and teammate Bruce Deloney were among the most vigorous defenders as Wigginton, Glenn Gaspard, Alan Moore and Don Burrisk left the field with wounds of one kind or another.

Phillips also appeared woozy near the finish, and sophomore Rob Riviere ended up quarterbacking the defending Southwest Conference champions.

In the second half Pruitt gained just 27 yards on eight carries. But by then the damage had been done as the Sooners entered the final 30 minutes ahead, 31-21.

In the first half OU scored on five of its seven possessions. Chuck Fairbanks, beating Royal for the first time, summoned his punter for the first time with a few seconds left in the third quarter, as Pruitt darting runs kept giving the Sooners great field position.

Thus, did the wishbone-T that Royal created return as a monster to crush its originator.

Mildren, his blond hair sticking out from behind his helmet, was the Frankenstein.

Twice his last-second pitches to Pruitt turned an ordinary gain into an extraordinary one. Pruitt tacked 34 yards onto the end of a Mildren pitch to the Texas 24. From the 10 Pruitt fought his way into the end zone for the touchdown that put OU ahead to stay, 21-14.

After Wigginton fumbled on Texas’ second play from scrimmage and Qualls recovered at the 24, Pruitt showed the Steers some more moves.

The 176-pound Elmore graduate broke over the right side, threw a stutter step at Mike Bayer, and then took one large stride to the right. Bayer stood there flatfooted as Pruitt’s gallop into the end zone completed the 20-yard play.

But Greg was human, as he proved with his fumble that broke the scoring ice. Hit by Malcolm Minnick and Glenn Gaspard, he fumbled and Bayer recovered at the Sooner 44. Wigginton passed 24 yards to Pat Kelly, then from the Sooner five-yard line, Donnie raced into the end zone.

For the fifth straight year, however, the team that scored first lost in the series that goes back to 1900.

Oklahoma required just seven plays to go 69 yards and tie it, Pruitt skipping the last yard on a pitch from Mildren. Wigginton’s 44-yard sprint, on which he ran to the right, cut back behind a Jerry Sisemore block and then outraced John Shelley to the end zone returned UT to the lead, 14-7.

Bell ran over Alan Lowry at the end of a 69-yard, seven play Sooner advance, the highlight of which was the second bit of Mildren-Pruitt magic.

Again Jack appeared stopped wide. Again he escaped long enough to toss back to Pruitt, who added 20 yards to the UT 10. Bell’s touchdown tied it, and before the half the Sooners added a 26-yard field goal by John Carroll, who also booted a 27-yarder in the second half.

Texas pulled within 28-21 on Wigginton’s 18-yard pass to Kelly and Bertelsen’s three-yard sprint into the end zone.

Early in the third quarter Tom Landry shook Mildren loose from the ball and Bayer recovered at the Sooner 22. But Steve Valek, who later in the period missed an extra point after the final UT touchdown, failed on a 33-yard field goal attempt that was wide to the right. Possibly the absence of Wigginton, who left the game earlier with separated ribs, unsettled Valek. Wigginton, Valek’s regular holder, was replaced by Riviere.

Mildren rode Albert Chandler’s block on a seven-yard keeper at the end of an 80-yard seven-play advance to give OU a 38-21 lead midway of the third quarter.
Jack’s only pass completion of the day set it up. His wobbly effort was underthrown and the wide-open Harrison had to slow down and catch it. But the play gained 40 yards to the Texas seven.

Jim Bertelsen’s second touchdown of the day also completed the Texas scoring late in the third quarter. Phillips, scrambling for yards when he wasn’t passing, completed two 16-yard passes to Kelly during the 80-yard, 12-play advance and a 13-yarder to Rick Davis before Bertelsen went the last 15 on a wide pitch right.

Now Texas trailed by just 11 points entering the fourth quarter and still had a chance. But Steakley fumbled Phillips’ perfect pitch at the OU 32 and Tommy Saunders recovered.

Trying to avert a second straight defeat in the Cotton Bowl, scene of a New Year’s day loss to Notre Dame, Texas got the ball back as the UT defense stopped the Sooners. This time Phillips, who looked groggy after taking several hard raps, made a poor pitch to Steakley and Driscoll recovered at the Texas 29.

Carroll’s 27-yard field goal increased the OU margin to 41-27. Then Phillips, trying to throw deep for Bertelsen, lobbed a pass which Steve O’Shaughnessy grabbed and returned 36 yards to the seven. Mildren sneaked the last yard.

Texas saw its 3-game regular season winning streak shattered. Moreover, the Steers suffered several serious injuries to starters.

The victory was only the third for Oklahoma in 14 games against Royal, and it was accomplished by three different coaches – Fairbanks, Jim McKenzie, and Bud Wilkinson.

In the midst of the devastation wreaked by the streaking Pruitt, Mildren was an able accomplice. Jack gained 111 yards in 27 carries, helped not a little by the blocking of Bell and Crosswhite.

Joe Wylie suited out but never appeared in the game. Bell replaced him and added a new dimension to the Sooner attack with cotton-candy perfect for OU in the Cotton Bowl.

How They Scored

First Quarter

Tex – Wigginton 5-yard run (Valek kick)
Okla – Pruitt 1-yard run (Carroll kick)
Tex – Wigginton 44-yard run (Valek kick)
Okla – Bell 3-yard run (Carroll kick)

Second Quarter

Okla – Pruitt 4-yard run (Carroll kick)
Okla – Pruitt 20-yard run (Carroll kick)
Tex – Bertelsen 3-yard run (Valek kick)
Okla – Carroll 26-yard FG

Third Quarter

Okla – Mildren 7-yard run (Carroll kick)
Tex – Bertelsen 15-yard run (kick failed)

Fourth Quarter

Okla – Carroll 27-yard FG
Okla – Mildren 1-yard run (Carroll kick)

A – 73,580

STATISTICS

Oklahoma

First Downs: 22
Rushes – Yardage: 72 – 435
Passing Yardage: 40
Return Yardage: 36
Passes: 1 – 2 – 1
Punts: 2 – 42
Fumbles Lost: 2
Yards Penalized: 85

Texas

First Downs: 23
Rushes – Yardage: 57 – 231
Passing Yardage: 148
Return Yardage: 4
Passes: 10 – 19 – 1
Punts: 5 – 40
Fumbles Lost: 4
Yards Penalized: 29

[humblesooner]

Pruitt was a special player.
Should have had Archie's second Heisman.

[Pokerman]

And all that goodness for $7.00.

[pippen]

Bobby Warmack and Eddie Hinton were the stars of the team back in the day when I and my (now) wife were going to the games in the late 60s.
Great memories..........

Warmack's pass to Zabel in the 1967 Kansas game is tied with Q's TD run in the Orange Bowl as my favorite Sooner football memories of all time. I saw both from behind the team in the opposite end zone and both opened up perfectly right in front of me.