When the Longhorns Came to Norman

There are a number of monumental and milestone marker type games in a football program's history, games that help shape tradition. Oklahoma fans were preparing to welcome the Texas Longhorns into Oklahoma Territory for the first time ever on Thanksgiving Day, 1901, and The Daily Oklahoman underlined the anticipation leading up to the epic contest.

"One of the best football games ever played in Oklahoma will be seen on the Oklahoma University gridiron November 25. Without doubt this is the hardest contest the Oklahoma boys will have this year and they are making preparations for it. The team has been playing snappy ball the last two or three weeks, defeating Kingfisher with a score of 28 to 6 and Fairmount College, Wichita with a score of 42-0. Texas has held the championship of the south for three years. She has defeated Vanderbilt University and Nashville University. Oklahoma's first game this year was with Texas with a score of 12-6, in favor of Texas, the last touchdown being made 56 seconds before time was called. This indicates that Oklahoma played them a hot game on their own grounds; and with the advantage of the home "grid" she expects to do some swipin' that will go down in football history."

Four days before this historic game was to take place The Daily Oklahoman ran articles ensuring that fans would indeed have transportation via the Santa Fe Rail before and after the game. In addition, they summed up the excitement building in the area: "Mass meetings are being held, colors and yells being adopted to give the home team all the encouragement it is possible to give in this way."

Every fan on either side of the epic rivalry between Oklahoma and Texas knows how exciting the weeks leading up to the contest can be. Disgust for the burnt orange burns deep in every Sooner. The anticipation of the game is stopped only by the stomach-churning fear and nightmare of actually losing the game. Knowing how long that year in between losses can be makes everything one-million times worse. Win the game and the next year will be there before you can blink an eye. Lose the game and the next year will equal the longest in your lifetime.

Local accounts of this epic game on November 25, 1901, claim that over three thousand people attended. Though it would take 28 times that much to fill the stands for a home game today, it was a staggering number for the University at the time. Showing just how much the public was taking up this game. Texas won the toss and got the ball first, scoring within the first 10 minutes of the game. After failing on the conversion the Longhorns led 5-0. The Daily Oklahoman recapped it:

"The Texas half back was a star of the first magnitude. In the second half he made good on an eighty yard run that raised the score to 11-0 in favor of the Texas Steers...Texas rested often, made use of various subterfuges for time and played the game. The game was well worth witnessing and was warmly contested from start to finish."

Harold Keith gave his recap of the game:
Texas won, 11-0. Watson's 55-yard touchdown return of a varsity punt cinched the game midway of the last half. The varsity excited the home crowd just before the half ended when McCoy sped around end for 40 yards. Roberts shot off tackle for 20 and big Tribbey, dragging the Texan players like an engine pulling a string of box cars, bucked to the Texas ten-yard line. But here the first half ended and the drive was wasted. ...The game itself had been disappointing. Although the varsity had hoped for victory on its home field after playing Texas so evenly at Austin earlier in the season, the Longhorns had triumphed decisively. The explanation seemed to lie in the fact that Texas had played a longer schedule and a far stronger class of opponents and because of both, had improved more than the varsity. Also, they possessed too much subterfuge and smooth organization. The varsity had fumbled three times in the last half because of mistaken signals.

It had become obvious that the university needed a stronger and a longer schedule. And with Fred Roberts obliged to refuse the coachship in 1902 because of increasing duties on his farm, a full-time coach also seemed a necessity.

The seventh season of Oklahoma football and the only season as Head Coach for Fred Roberts was over. If not for playing the University of Texas the season was quite successful for the boys from that University in Norman, Oklahoma Territory. Texas defeated Oklahoma twice by a combined score of 23-6 and Oklahoma won the rest of their three games by a combined 87-6.

University fans would have to get used to disappointment against the "Steers" for the next several years. Not until the first legend graced Oklahoma's sidelines would they ever defeat Texas. Despite this fact Oklahoma football was rapidly gaining respect due to their successes in the area. Players like Fred Roberts and Frank McCoy were giving Oklahoma what players like the names of Vessels, Owens, Selmon, and Simms would down the line.

Even though Boyd supported Roberts call for more players on the football team to practice with the football team instead of spending time in the downtown gymnasium, he valued the gym as much as he did his chapel services. David W. Levy commented on this passion in The University of Oklahoma, A History:

If Boyd placed a high value on moral behavior, he also greatly valued physical fitness. Even before the opening of the gymnasium on the ground floor of the University building during the 1901-1902 school year, the University rented a place in downtown Norman where students could exercise. It was open from 3:00 in the afternoon until 9:00 at night, and two afternoons each week were given over to women students. When "Physical Culture," as it was called, moved to the campus, Boyd hired a former Olympian, D.C. Hall of Brown University, to supervise the program for men and Kate McBride to do the same for women; the pair married in 1905 and worked together at the University until 1906.

President Boyd believed in health of the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of the person. He continued to grow a University out of the barren, burnt prairie and his athletics unit was beginning to prosper.

Sources

1. Oklahoma Kickoff by Harold Keith
2. The Daily Oklahoman Archives
3. Rites of Autumn: The Story of College Football by Richard Whittingham