(Updated from my Yahoo Contributor Network published
article from this time in 2008)
Getting older has its positives and negatives. Sometimes one can better
recall specific details from 51 years ago than 51 minutes ago.
Such is the case of December 6, 1969. The site was Razorback Stadium. The event was No. 1 Texas against No. 2 Arkansas. Both were perennial national powers of the now-defunct Southwestern Conference.
Each team had already captured a national championship in the 1960's.
Both were returning powerhouses. The game was normally played in October. But
due to the quest for incredible TV ratings, ABC Sports executive Roone Arledge
was able to work a deal with Arkansas coach Frank Broyles to move the game to
early December.
I still recall how everything worked out to perfection. Well....not for
a longtime Missouri Tigers fan. Mizzou was undefeated until being done in by a
long fourth quarter touchdown pass from Colorado quarterback Bobby Anderson in
the rarefied air of Boulder.
Also,
while Texas enjoyed a November bye week, Bo Schembechler's Michigan Wolverines
knocked off Big 10 rival and the current No. 1 team, Woody Hayes' Ohio State
Buckeyes. Although Penn State was also undefeated at the time, featuring future
National Football League greats Franco Harris, Lydell Mitchell and Jack Ham,
the Nittany Lions' Independent classification often left them underrated.
So, it
all came down to a shootout between Coach Darrell Royals' Longhorns and
Broyles' Razorbacks.
I will
never forget the major spread in the old TV Guide, which billed this as
"The Game of the Century." In fact, President Richard Nixon was
flying to Fayetteville to present a national championship plaque to the victor.
How excited I was...being a big-time fan of all four major sports since
sometime late in 1963!
Back
then, college football was much more a ground game than today. The game matched
the Longhorns' highly vaunted Wishbone running attack against the stingy
Razorbacks' defense. It was kind of like World War I trench warfare prior to
World War II air assaults.
Now
giving way to Wikipedia.org/Texas_vs._Arkansas football game, so I can get all
details straight, Texas had averaged 44 points a game, and Arkansas had
surrendered just 6.8. Texas had won 18 straight, and Arkansas 15 straight.
In
this battle, Texas uncustomarily turned the ball over six times. A first
quarter one-yard TD run by Bill Burnett and a late third quarter 29-yard
scoring strike from Bill Montgomery to Chuck Dicus gave Arkansas a 14-0 lead
headed into the fourth quarter.
Due to
all the Texas miscues, quarterback James Street decided not to pitch the ball
as much in the game's final quarter. He not only scrambled into the end zone to
start the fourth quarter, but followed that up with a two-point conversion run,
cutting the margin to 14-8.
Midway
through the fourth quarter, Montgomery drove Arkansas 73 yards down to the
Texas seven. A field goal would likely have put the game out of reach. But
Montgomery went to the air, and Texas intercepted.
With less than five minutes remaining, Texas faced a 4th-and-3 from its own 43. That's when Randy Peschel made a dramatic grab in double coverage for a 44-yard gain. Just two plays later, future Los Angeles Rams' running back, Jim Bertelson, scored the TD, and Happy Feller converted the PATD on a high snap from center to give Texas a 15-14 lead with 3:58 left.
But
Montgomery was again picked off, this time by outside linebacker Tom Campbell
at the 21 with less than a minute remaining.
Ironically,
it was also Campbell who intercepted Notre Dame quarterback Joe Theismann on
the final drive in the ensuing Cotton Bowl. That cemented Texas' claim to their
national title, 21-17 in the New Year's Day Cotton Bowl. The only logical
challenger would have been also undefeated Penn State, a 10-3 winner over
once-beaten Missouri in the Orange Bowl.
