1971 Nebraska vs. Oklahoma football game
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| Nebraska vs. Oklahoma, 1971 The "Game of the Century" (1971 version) |
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| Conference Game | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | November 25, 1971 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Owen Field | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Norman, Oklahoma | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Network | ABC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Chris Schenkel and Bud Wilkinson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
November 25, 1971: The best lead written about the '71 Game of the Century came from Dave Kindred, who back then wrote for the Louisville Courier-Journal. He wrote, "They can quit playing now, they have played the perfect game." - ESPN's Beano Cook [1]
The University of Nebraska, defending National Champions, ranked Number 1 with a 29-game winning streak played the University of Oklahoma, ranked Number 2 with a national prominence dating back to the 50's when they won 3 national championships and a NCAA record 47 straight games.[2]
The teams combined for 17 of 22 first-team All-Big Eight players. Nebraska had the nation’s top-ranked defense. Oklahoma had the nation's most productive offense with their wishbone averaging over 472 rushing yards per game, a NCAA record. [3]
The cover of Sports Illustrated (Nov. 22, 1971) published the week of the game included photographs of Nebraska linebacker Bob Terrio and Oklahoma running back Greg Pruitt, nose-to-nose, beneath the headline: "Irresistible Oklahoma Meets Immovable Nebraska.’’[4]
The Husker "Blackshirts" defense included seven first-team All-Big Eight selections, four players who would earn consensus All-America recognition during their careers and two Outland Trophy winners: middle guard Rich Glover and tackle Larry Jacobson. Glover would win both the Outland and Lombardi awards in 1972 and eventually be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. They were joined in the starting lineup by end Willie Harper, like Glover, a two-time All-American. John Dutton, an All-American in 1973, was a sophomore backup. This defense is still considered by many to be the greatest in college football history. [5]
The Sooners' record-setting wishbone was led by All-American QB Jack Mildren who rushed for over 1,000 yards, but was also a very good passer. His weapons were Heisman candidate HB Greg Pruitt who averaged a stunning 9.5 yards per carry and speedy split end Jon Harrison. Future College Football Hall of Famer Tom Brahaney was the anchor at center.
The Husker offense was led by flanker, Johnny Rodgers, who would go on to win the Heisman Trophy the next season and bullish tailback Jeff Kinney, a future NFL first round draft pick. The Sooner defense was anchored by all-Big 8 defensive tackle Derland Moore, a future all-American and NFL Pro Bowler. [6]
ABC-TV would broadcast nationally to the largest audience ever, an estimated 55 million viewers and they had Chris Schenkel doing the play-by-play. Joining him in the booth for expert analysis was Oklahoma's legendary former coach, Bud Wilkinson, with Bill Fleming roaming around down on the sidelines. Before the game, Schenkel and Wilkinson emerged from the tunnel leading to the field, and when the Oklahoma crowd spotted Wilkinson, they erupted into applause. They came to their feet with admiration for the coach who had guided the Sooners to prominence with three national championships and an NCAA record 47-game winning streak in the decade of the fifties. [7]
The game was played at Owen Field in Norman, Oklahoma on Thanksgiving Day, on ABC in front of 55 million, at that time the largest television audience to ever watch a college football game. Not only at stake was the Big Eight title, but also the #1 ranking in the polls. However, the bowl trips had already been determined before the game, with Nebraska going to the Orange in Miami and Oklahoma headed for the Sugar in New Orleans. Two days after Thanksgiving, #5 Auburn (9-0) would host #3 Alabama (10-0) for the Southeastern Conference title, the two opponents that Oklahoma and Nebraska would play.[8]. Given the magnitude of the game, Devaney had even had his players' food flown in from Lincoln, in case gamblers attempted to induce a hotel chef to give the Huskers food poisoning.[9]
The game went back and forth. The Cornhuskers struck first, with Rodgers shocking the Sooners with a 72-yard punt return for a touchdown after the Sooners' first possession was stopped. The punt return remains one of college football's signature moments, though it remains controversial. Some observers and many Sooner fans claim Nebraska cornerback Joe Blahak appeared to clip Sooner receiver Jon Harrison as Rodgers stormed for the touchdown, but no penalty was called, primarily because Blahak blocked Harrison at an angle, which was not a penalty. Referees for the game have continued to deny that there was a clip on the play, even after having studied film footage of it, which is inconclusive due to Blahak's trajectory.
The first half was atypical for both teams, as the Cornhuskers' potent offense was stymied by the underrated Sooner defense; meanwhile, the Sooners devastating wishbone offense was blunted by the brutal Cornhusker defense, as the Sooners had several turnovers and were continually frustrated by Husker middle guard Rich Glover, who would end up with twenty-two tackles on the day despite lining up across from Sooner all-American center Tom Brahaney.
Nebraska held a 14-3 lead, but Oklahoma came back, relying almost entirely on Jack Mildren's arm and legs, and the Sooners grabbed the lead at halftime, 17-14, on two long passes from Mildren to Harrison with just seconds left in the first half. For the first time all season, the Cornhuskers were trailing in a game.
Relying on a power running game, the Huskers retook the lead and led 28-17 going into the fourth quarter. Quarterback Jack Mildren led the Sooners back, and Oklahoma led 31-28 with 7:05 to play. The Huskers got the ball back on their own 26-yard line. Getting to the Oklahoma 48, Husker quarterback Jerry Tagge threw to Rodgers, who broke tackles and ran all the way to the 15. Jeff Kinney then carried four times, the last resulting in his fourth touchdown of the game, and Nebraska led 35-31 with two minutes to go. Sacks of Mildren on third and fourth down in Sooner territory finished the game off as a Nebraska win.
This game, much more than the previous year's National Championship, made Nebraska a program with a national following. Already having sold every seat available at their Memorial Stadium since coach Bob Devaney arrived in 1962, they would be a perennial National Championship contender and a frequent presence on national TV, with fans across the country seeing banners at Memorial Stadium reading "Californians for Nebraska", "Floridians for Nebraska", and so on. Nebraska native Johnny Carson (an alumnus of NU) would often take pride in the Cornhuskers' accomplishments during his monologue as host of The Tonight Show, and fellow Nebraskan Dick Cavett would also mention them on his talk show.
The Cornhuskers went on to defeat the University of Alabama, by then ranked Number 2, 38-6 in the Orange Bowl, completing their back-to-back National Championships. Devaney coached for one more year, going 9-2-1, before becoming Nebraska's athletic director and handing the reins over to assistant Tom Osborne.
Pruitt ended up not winning the Heisman, which went to Auburn University quarterback Pat Sullivan. By a coincidence, Auburn was the team Oklahoma would end up playing, in the Sugar Bowl, and the Sooners won, 40-22. (By another coincidence, these two arch-rivals, Nebraska and Oklahoma, would end up playing each half of another nasty rivalry, Alabama and Auburn, and beat them both.)
Despite the defeat, Oklahoma's program was also relaunched by this game, and they would be a perennial National Championship contender throughout the 1970s and much of the 1980s. Oklahoma coach Chuck Fairbanks left the Sooners following the 1972 season to become the head coach of the New England Patriots of the NFL. Offensive coordinator Barry Switzer succeeded Fairbanks and compiled a 157-29-4 record from 1973 through 1988 and guided the Sooners to national championships in 1974, 1975, and 1985.
Nebraska vs. Oklahoma, considered a minor rivalry before this Game of the Century, became one of the biggest in the country, usually played on the day after Thanksgiving, until scandal caught up with Oklahoma in the late 1980s, sending it into a decline, which coincided with the rise of the football program at the University of Colorado, which began to replace Oklahoma as Nebraska's biggest rival.
Oklahoma would rise again in the late 1990s, as the Big Eight took on four Southwest Conference schools to become the Big 12, but since one of those four schools was Texas, and they already had a big rivalry with Oklahoma, that rivalry grew in importance. Since Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University were put in the Big 12 Southern Division, while Nebraska and the other Big Eight teams went into the Big 12 North, Nebraska and Oklahoma no longer even play each other every season, resulting in a further diminishing of that rivalry.
The Sporting News named the 1971 Cornhusker team the greatest team of the Twentieth Century in 1988.
