On October 12th 1963, an 8-year old boy was taken to the State Fair of Texas by his grandfather, legendary Texas lawyer R. Guy Carter, to witness the #1 Oklahoma Sooners defend their lofty ranking against our beloved #2 ranked Texas Longhorns. The young orange-blood watched with amazement as the Horns trounced the land thieves by a count of 28-7 in a landmark victory that arguably served as the launching point of the run of excellence in the decade of the 60’s by the Steers. The 8-year old would return to the Cotton Bowl that January to see Texas sink Roger Staubach’s Midshipmen to solidify Texas’ first consensus MNC in school history. Since that October day, that boy has been to every single Texas-OU game in the Cotton Bowl, which would make this coming Saturday his 50th. He posts among us here by the screen name of pop999. He’s also my dad. Not only has pop999 been to every single Texas-OU game since 1963, I’m pretty sure he’s never missed a play. He has certainly never left a game early. He’s been there for all the bad ones. He stayed until the bitter end of the 1972 game where Texas was shut out for the first time in his game attending/watching career 27-0, just as he was the next year when Oklahoma annihilated Texas 52-13. He was there for the ‘86 and ‘87 games, a span where Texas was outscored 91-21. He sat until the bitter ******* end of that horrible day on October 7th 2000 when Texas lost 63-14 in a cold Dallas rain. In fact, he stands by a comment he made later that afternoon when he said “my fraternity brother and I were the only ones in our section singing the Eyes of Texas at the end of the game.” He also took the 65-13 and 55-17 beat-downs in 2003 and 2011, respectively, the same way. But he also was there to see all the great wins by the Horns in that span too. He was there when Steve Worster willed his way into the endzone in 1968 when the Horns had to come from behind to defeat the dirt burglars 26-20. He saw another comeback the next year when Texas officially put the rest of the country on notice that the 1969 team could not be defeated (he also went to the Arkansas game that year, as he told us in this post ). He was there when the winless streak of the 70’s was finally ended in 1977 when the defense held OU to just 6 points during Earl Campbell’s Heisman campaign. He was also up in the Cotton Bowl stands for this and this. He was there the first time the game kicked off at 11:00 a.m. when Mack Brown won his first RRS as a head coach via the Horns’ 34-3 drubbing of the Sooners during Ricky’s Heisman campaign. And of course, he was there for the epic destruction of 2005 just as he was for the epic duel of 2008. Pop999 took me to my first RRS in 1992 and since that time, I’ve become his most frequent travelling partner at UT football games, especially the OU game (this year will be my 21st straight). I didn’t quite fully understand the greatness and the mystique of the rivalry the first few years that I went to the game. Really, I just thought it was something we attended every October when the Fair was open. But in 1996, Texas was favored to defeat a rather pathetic Sooner team by 3 TD’s and pop999 was rather offended by that line. He was playing a weekly pick ‘em contest that year and took the Sooners without hesitation. Being a naïve 12-year old at the time, I thought he was insane to think that the Sooners wouldn’t lose by more than that margin. But sure enough, whenever it appeared that Texas was on the brink of breaking the game open, the crimson shirts kept coming back at them and eventually won in that infamous overtime game 30-27. He explained to me later that night “the records of the teams don’t matter in this game. It’s a street fight. The only thing that matters is who wants it most.” He has often said, as you will later read, that the Super Midway at the State Fair is the perfect backdrop of the game because the Pirate Ship ride is the absolute perfect symbol for the game. As he puts it, “It goes back and forth. Oklahoma fans aren’t like other ones [aggies]; they know the ship will swing back the other way.” He was featured in an article in the Dallas Morning News seen here, an article which will be in tomorrow’s printed version for those living in the Park Cities area. In closing, here’s a perfect capture of what he’s been a part of in the last half-century, both good and bad. Hook ‘Em Horns, Dad, and here’s to getting win number 25 on Saturday!
That's quite a record. Congratulations to pop999. I've either listen on the radio, watched on TV, or attended (6) everyone of those games plus a couple before 1963. I'm not the glutton for punishment that your Dad is though. I've slammed the TV off in disgust more than once and I have a low tolerance for putting up with drunk Okies when I attend the games. Enjoy the game. Hook 'Em Horns.
Outstanding post HPS and congratulations to your Dad on his 50th TX - ou game - that is indeed a BIG milestone. You will always have special memories of not only these games but especially memories of sharing that time with your Dad - someone as passionate about the Horns as you are. FWIW: The 1963 TX - ou game (I was 10 years old) happens to be the first TX -ou game I watched on TV and 1968 was the first game I attended... with my Dad.
cool video. Great highlights and stories. Wish HBO would do one similar to what they did on Michigan OSU. Love the Armageddon music btw!
Thanks for the epistle, Bud. I appreciate your honoring me in this way. I'll do 20 more Texas-ou games if you're willing!. God sure has been good to me. I guess I'm sorta like Eric Liddell. Every time I go to the Texas-ou game with my family and friends, I feel God's pleasure. IHG
At the College World Series of 1981 I and a few others were fortunate to become friendly with the Mississippi State team and many of their fans and their bat girls. This relationship lasted in later years as we became friends with Will Clark, Raphiel Palmerro, Jeff Brantly, and Curtis Thigpen. But back to 1981, one of the girls I met was named Laurette, she told me her sister lived in Dallas and that her husband was the ticket manager for the Cotton Bowl. She was nice and pretty too and that Southern accent is kind of hard to resist. So after the World Series ended we kept in touch. Either by letters (yes back then you actually had to sit down and write a letter by hand) and on the phone. Then football season came and Texas won the SWC and was on their way to the Cotton Bowl to face the Alabama team of one Paul "Bear" Bryant. I asked Laurette if her brother-in-law could get some tickets. Well not only could he get some, but Laurette and her family were coming to Dallas for the game. So on New Year's Day of 1982 I met up with Laurette and her family and in her hand were four 50 yard line seat tickets to the game. I in turn presented her with a new Texas Jacket just like I was wearing. I got it at the UT Co-op right after my last exam before going home for Christmas break. So as you know we beat Alabama that day coming from a 10-0 defecit featuring the famous quarterback draw by QB Robert Brewer. It was a great game we enjoyed it very much. One thing I will always remember though is Coach Bryant in that famous hat leaning against the goal post during pre game warm ups. After the game we went out to eat and then watched the Orange Bowl on tv as Nebraska lost to Miami on that failed two point conversion. Then we said goodbye I had to get back home and they had get up early and head back to Starkville. It was a really good day and her family was nice too. So by now you must be asking "What in the Wide World of Sports" does this have to do with our honoree of this thread NBHorn7? Good question and it deserves a good answer and I have one. You see Coach Royal had a faithful assistant coach that had been with him even in their days at Washington. His name was Charlie Shira and I am sure many here including HPs knows of him. Well the week of that 1963 OU game Coach Shira's wife gave birth to a baby girl and the Texas team dedicated that game to her and assured him a win. Oh yeah, her name was Laurette. Coach Shira had gone with Emory Ballard to Mississippi State when he got the head coaching job there. Unfortunately Coach Shira died of cancer in the 70s in Starkville. The school named part of the new athletic facility after him. Laurette sent me pictures of it on campus. I would have posted pictures of this on here, but they are on my hard drive and so they can't be posted. I would have also posted a picture of a young UT college student NBHorn7 standing arm in arm with Laurette in our matching Texas Jackets in front of the famous Cotton Bowl sign above the main entrance. So congrats to HPslugga and pop999, your good memories of that day brought back one for me too and how they were related. The University of Texas should bring us all together as proud Horns. Sometimes it's amazing how we are related in our memories of our school in one way or another. BEAT OU!
Congrats on your Dad's milestone OU game! I will also be attending my 50th OU game, but I started in 1961. I couldn't make myself go a couple of times in the 70's when OU was cheating so badly, it was disgusting. But I decided it wasn't about them, and started going a few more times. My favorite was 1968, but there are lots of great ones.
Great story. That 1963 OU game was quite a start for a new fan. OU had gone to Cali. and handled #1 ranked USC in the game before they played UT and looked good doing it. I think you are right that that OU game was the launching point for the MNC and the great things to come in the '60s.
