Longing for good old days
OU-Nebraska game brings memories of past clashes

By Berry Tramel

Published: December 1, 2006

In America, we love to romanticize. Love to look back longingly on times past.

The 1950s. Music. High school. We look back, remember the good, forget the bad, and eventually proclaim it all glorious.

If pressed, we grudgingly admit there was nothing fun about no air conditioning, that not every Beatles knockoff could sing and that not having a date on Friday night was a total drag.

Same with Oklahoma-Nebraska football.

The Sooner-Husker Big 12 title game has conjured memories of cold November days when he-men in scarlet and crimson would play tug o' war for the Big Eight title as America watched with Thanksgiving leftovers.

Sherwood Taylor, who as a Sooner safety in the '70s played in three of those epics and whose son now is the Cornhuskers' star quarterback, said, "I loved playing Nebraska. The game was usually freezing, and they'd be scraping snow off the field. The winner went to a big bowl, the loser went to a minor bowl."

Largely true. But some things about those salad days might surprise you.

In the two decades that define OU-Nebraska, the '70s and '80s, the Big Reds dueled on Thanksgiving weekend just eight times. That's right. Eight. And just four of the 20 games were played on Thanksgiving Friday.

In those two decades, OU and Nebraska each ran the table against the rest of the Big Eight only 12 times. Yes, that's still impressive. But listen to the romantics, and you'd think Missouri and Kansas and Colorado had cowered for two decades.

Jeff Leanna grew up in Nebraska and misses the OU-NU series so much, he started a campaign to get it restored on an annual basis.

At www.nu-ou-forever.org, you can sign a petition that will be delivered to, well, no one's exactly sure. But at least you will be doing something.

"I just think it's tradition," Leanna said. "Thanksgiving really involved waiting around on that Oklahoma-Nebraska game. Something I grew up with."

The longing isn't coming only from Cornland. Jeff Cloud, an OU grad and a state corporation commissioner, laments the loss of the series.

"I hated to see it go," Cloud said. "I think most of the country felt the same way. I just miss that series. It was under control from a rivalry standpoint. I wish there was a way to preserve it."

Well, the lovefest between OU and Nebraska probably was overstated. And after 2004, there's probably no getting it back.

That's the year Nebraska lineman Darren DeLone popped a jeering OU Ruf/Nek in pregame warmups and was charged with aggravated assault. A Cleveland County jury eventually found him not guilty.

That same year, Nebraska coach Bill Callahan trudged off Owen Field on the wrong end of a 30-3 whipping and said, "***** hillbillies," which wasn't very nice.

But still, this was not a rivalry of hatred.

"Seemed to be such a respectful series," Cloud said. "I've been to Lincoln four or five times, and it's been a fun experience, win or lose."

He offers two stories:

1986, OU wins a 20-17 wild one, and on his way out of the stadium, a Nebraska fan offered to buy the OU cap Cloud wore.

2001, Cloud and 10 friends journeyed to Lincoln in an motor home, pulled into a $10 parking lot near the stadium and tailgating Husker fans fed them breakfast burritos before the game and lunch after. "Pretty good deal for 88 cents a guy," Cloud said.

Nebraska fans, who had no Texas or Bedlam game to fall back on, still revere this series.

"People feel pretty strongly about bringing back such a game," said Leanna. He started his campaign last week and has gathered 1,115 signatures. His goal: 85,198 to equal the capacity of NU's Memorial Stadium.

"I really wish they would play every year," said Sherwood Taylor. "That's just a game that needs to be played every year."