Barry Switzer’s first game as OKLAHOMA’S head coach….

ITS 1973 ON A FOOTBALL NIGHT IN WACO…OKLAHOMA visits the BAYLOR BEARS

Chuck Fairbanks had resigned.  The memories of another great season in (1972) that followed the Sooners near miss in the Game of the Century in 1971’s loss to the Nebraska Cornhuskers were fresh.  The projected starting quarterback for OU, Kerry Jackson, was suspended from the team (another story).  Barry Switzer, the young offensive coordinator at OU was hired to replace Chuck Fairbanks. Untested and full of bravado. his team was also in flux, including the quarterback position, the vital link in the wishbone offense.  An inexperienced sophomore from Sallisaw, OK, Steve Davis, won the start, and would take control of a wishbone that had run roughshod over various foes for the better part of two years.

Davis, starting out at the bottom of a long list of hopefuls when he arrived in Norman the year before, was not the kid that the coaches expected to play much for the Big Red in 1973, or in any year of his schooling at the university.  Davis, the future Baptist preacher, along with a slew of highly recruited players that made Norman home, had a lot to prove that Saturday night in Texas. None knew that Switzer would be a three time national title coach on that summer night, and his new quarterback would be, when his career was over, the winningest starting quarterback in NCAA history (still to this day).

Game one, after a month of practice, would be in Floyd Casey Stadium, Waco, Texas.  The 1973 season would either be a continuation of “feed the monster” that had again made his home in Norman, or a brief stopover and another move of this fire breather to another campus in say Austin, Ann Arbor, or Los Angeles, where this lizard had his cousins already making their lair.

I had traveled to Waco, a rather small Texas city many times in my 22 years as of this game.  Waco is a city, but on the lower end of the spectrum.  It is not much, and I am sure many think where I come from is also not much with regard to the word city.  Oklahoma City, my hometown, is more like a “big town” and you could say Waco is like that too….but town without the big might be more to the truth.   Where my favorite drink of the day was born, Mr. Pepper had become the Doctor many years ago and his elixir was my life saver on any day, especially at 10, 2 and 4, if you get my drift.

My Uncle Billy, a brother of my Mother, lived close to the Veteran’s Hospital in Waco for the better part of thirty years, as of his discharge from the US Army after World War II.  He was required to check in on a routine basis.  Billy was not a war hero, but was given an honorable discharge.  He never saw battle in the 45th Infantry Division, but that was not his fault.  He had mental issues but was considered a good soldier none the less.  Waco is where the government sent him.

A place of really no importance, unless you live there. Point being that on our regular visits as a family to Waco, always in the summer, Waco in early September would be like Waco in middle July. Hot as hell, no clouds, and plenty of Texas grasslands surrounding the Brazos River, with absolutely nothing of interest.  OU was in for a hot Saturday night in Waco.  Not good in any respect.  On that early fall the Sooners would be playing on a  hot carpet (unnatural grass for me, not artificial turf for most everyone else) in a shit hole of stadium, miles away from the Brazos and the beautiful Baylor campus.  Not a great place to open a season.  Hell never is.   And for Barry Switzer and Steve Davis and company, not a picture perfect place to start a career.  But OU did have the Bears on the schedule and the men in green and gold would be a good test for this Sooner team.  Or that was the though before the early evening kickoff.

Taped in the locker of Steve Davis, #7, OU’s starting qb of 1973:

“…..with Kerry Jackson, this Sooner Wishbone would have been devastating.  Without him, Oklahoma my have to bone up on some wishes.”

Tinker Owens,  little brother of Steve, and one of the starting wideouts for OU (with Billy Brooks the other), had been sold on Baylor’s abilities and their team for this game.

“This is their bowl game,” Coach Switzer would warn Owens and the team about the Bears.  They were hopeful to challenge the Texas Longhorns for the 73 Southwest Conference Championship.  And the game could come down to the wire.

The sophomore Owens was somewhat worried too as his quarterbacks, Steve Davis and Scott Hill, had never played a down of varsity ball.  Plus the fact that practices had not gone well as of the passing game. Owens would say:

“Steve’s (Davis) throwing the ball real well, but his timing’s so bad you run out of bounds trying to catch it, or it’s behind you or something.  When he has you go out for a pass you can’t tell where it’s going for sure.”

It was a good thing that the Sooners, with only three returning starters on offense, would not rely of the pass to move the ball, being a wishbone running team most of the time.

OU had some preseason rankings but not in the Top Ten as of the past two years. Sports Illustrated had the Sooners 15th going into the season and with four teams on the schedule ranked in the top twelve, OU would have to find a way to get good real fast. USC, the defending national champs were up next with Texas coming up in October.

From my personal rankings before the season, I had the Sooners 14th, with USC number one, Texas at two, Nebraska at seven, Oklahoma State at nine, and Colorado at fifteen.  The Associated Press had OU at 11th preseason, tied with Colorado.  The  AP also had OU fourth in the Big 8, behind favorite Nebraska, followed by Colorado and Oklahoma State.  For sure, OU was not the darling to win the conference, or for that matter, be a true national contender, as of such a strong schedule and a new fresh team full of underclassmen.

As for the game, the Sooners jumped on Baylor from the start, scoring three first quarter touchdowns.  On their second possession, OU marched 76 yards in 12 plays, with Steve Davis running it in from the three.  After the ensuing kickoff, the Baylor offense fumbled it away a play later and it took the Sooner offensae four plays, starting on the BU 24, for another TD.  Davis fumbled in the end zone on that fourth play, but Eddie Foster the excellent offensive lineman fell on the ball for the second six.   It would be a night like that and the half time score was 35-0 with total dominance by OU on both sides of the ball.

Baylor head coach Grant Teaff remarked, “They whipped us every way a team can.”

The Sooner offensive line, not given credit in preseason practices, was a total smashing machine, as the rushing yardage of 480 that night.  It could have been more if the starters had played more than the two and one half quarters they did.  Davis was 3 for 6 in the passing game, but it was not needed.   The rush game was just too much for the Bears.

In the final score of 42-14, a misleading one as the Big Red could have scored more in the 2nd half (OU played 50 players that night), OU had lost one of their halfbacks for the year. Grant Burget suffered a knee when hit by an opponents helmet. He was finished for 1973 but his fill in, Waymon Clark, a junior college transfer, took up the slack and rushed for 113 yards in 11 carries.

Joe Washington was the flashy star that night for the Sooners, getting 113 yards on 14 carries, as the “dazzling” sophomore from Port Arthur, TX, debuted his  silver trimmed in red and coated with gloss shoes.  At 5’10 (generous) and 174 lbs. “Little Joe’s legendary run was still one week away.

Washington “was absolutely phenomenal,” raved Texas coach Darrell Royal, who scouted the game.  “He has the best acceleration I’ve seen.”

The happy Switzer was talkative and philosophical about the win.

“We though the game had to be won with an assaulting type of running attack.  We had to have success running right at ’em without having to throw the ball.  I’ve always believed that you must first have success in the running game and then you sorry about throwing the ball.”

Tinker Owens summed it up when he commented, “We can’t really feel we beat a powerhouse, ’cause we didn’t’.”

With the fine tuning of an offense that needed to cut down on fumbles and get better running the ‘bone, the Sooner offense was now primed to be a contender for not only the conference title but for something bigger, national honors.   1973 and the following in 1974 and 1975 seasons would be at time of glory on Owen Field.   OU had actually reloaded in 1974 under a new and much enthusiastic coach.  The “monster” had a shitload of opponents meat” awaiting and all was well.  OU’s offense played winning ball against Baylor.  And the defense, as of defensive coordinator Larry Lacewell, would not be Galen Hall’s  (offensive coordinator) little brother. That was proven that Saturday night on  Floyd Casey’s turf in Waco.  The talent of the Selmon brothers, Rod Shoate, and Jimbo Elrod, coupled with the names of Powers, Pope, Hughes, and Keeton in the secondary, would be the blocks of the foundation that would become the best defense in the nation for the next three years.

It only began in Waco but it would get better and better as it was truly FOOTBALL TIME IN OKLAHOMA (for the ages).