Boomer69 wrote: Tue Nov 02, 2021 8:42 pm
Boomer69 - and I hope this isn’t too long for anyone. My Sooner football experiences go back to the 1950's, but my dads went way back to the 'teens.
I grew up on the prairie in Osage County and was an OU fan due to my father. He was born in Locust Grove, Indian Territory (pre-statehood) but grew up in Sperry playing single-wing football. He remembered first liking OU with his dad in the very early years of the 20th century and could recall following Coach Bennie Owen and the Sooners when they won the 1920 Missouri Valley Conference championship. He remained a fan until his death in 1988.
I was born in 1951 and so had to be an OU fan too. We only got two decent TV channels out on the prairie, both out of Tulsa, but by turning the antenna mounted on a tall pole we could just barely get a fuzzy WKY-Oklahoma City and watch The Bud Wilkinson Show. Even through the static and snowy reception we’d watch him move those wooden men on the board and explain plays. Good times!
I was a decent high school player and in 1969 was on the OU Boomers freshman team. Since in those days frosh could not be on the varsity, we only played four games, winning all four. The only close game was the first against Tulsa, and they had a really good QB who almost brought them back at the end. He was just this year inducted into the Pro Football HOF – Drew Pearson. He was initially a QB but switched to receiver and his career took off. And he was a really good QB too! I’ll bet a lot of us on this board can remember many of the notable players on that 1969 Boomer team: Greg Pruitt, Joe Wylie, Leon Crosswhite, Tom Brahaney, Gary Baccus, Albert Chandler, Eddie Foster, Dave Robertson, Ray Hamilton, Derland Moore, and others. Lots of NFL guys there and many were in the 1971 “Game Of The Century.” Thus, I took Boomer69 for my username.
I had a non-football knee injury in the Spring of 1970 and was done for the year. Medicine was not nearly as advanced as today. We didn't have a lot of money so I decided I’d give up the deferment, leave school and volunteer for the draft to later get back with the G.I. Bill. But it took the entire year before I could pass the physical. Everyone said during those times that if you had at least one eye and half a brain they’d take you, but I guess knees were a different criteria. Of course, my mother was horrified because… well, there was a war on but I finally passed and got inducted on 5 January of 1971.
Closing this long story, I ended up in the Army infantry, going to Airborne Training then through the Ranger Course, trying to get all the training I could get as an 11B Infantryman before deploying to Vietnam assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade. After completing Ranger School just three days before Thanksgiving, then watching us lose to Nebraska in that 1971 game, my orders were changed to stateside as the 173rd was standing down in RVN and coming to Fort Campbell, KY.
I enjoyed the Army life, got married and had a child then ended up staying 20-1/2 years and retired a Sergeant Major, which included duty in both the 1st and 2nd Ranger Battalions. I was able to finish my BS and then an MBA before retiring then headed into civilian life. I never made it back for school at OU, but I’ve seen or heard a lot of football all these years, beginning as a very young boy sitting with my father listening to Sooner games on the radio. I have to say though, those four games as a Boomer in OU uniform with my dad in the stands in his Sooner gear, plus seeing him in the football offices talking to Coach Chuck Fairbanks, that was one of the greatest things I’ve experienced. Very long – but cheers to all!
