{"id":3843,"date":"2016-12-07T19:19:39","date_gmt":"2016-12-08T01:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/?p=3843"},"modified":"2022-12-07T09:00:31","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T15:00:31","slug":"oklahomaauburn-sugar-bowl-1972-my-recollection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/?p=3843","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma\/Auburn Sugar Bowl 1972, My Recollection"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It was New Year’s Day 1972 and I was in New Orleans, Louisiana to watch my Oklahoma Sooners take on the Auburn Tigers of the Southeastern Conference.\u00a0 The trip from Oklahoma\u00a0City to the\u00a0“Big Easy” was by pickup truck, driven by my Dad, on New Years Eve morning, giving us (my best friend Dale was also along for the experience) some hours to prepare for a joyous and exciting night in the French Quarter that evening.\u00a0We began the trip very early, around\u00a0three am, as was\u00a0my Dad’s routine when traveling.\u00a0 Leave early and get a\u00a0couple of hundred miles out-of-the-way before the sun comes up.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

I was of age, turning eighteen the previous January, and though I had been to the “Crescent City” a few times before, as a child and not knowing the ways of the world, this time I was aware of the sins of this religious but sinful city.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

My Dad had the great idea to park his truck (with a camper over the bed) close to the French Quarter and\u00a0have us spend\u00a0the balance of the evening,\u00a0and the coming of the New Year, taking in the festivities that the\u00a0Quarter had for it’s visitors\u00a0on this party night.\u00a0 We found\u00a0 a very nice seafood restaurant somewhere close to St. Charles Street and my Dad treated Dale and myself to a full bodied shrimp dinner, including a tasty shrimp cocktail.\u00a0 The dinner was interrupted when Dale, not that familiar with eating fried jumbo shrimp (fabulous freshly just caught out of the Gulf), tried to cut one of the succulent little fellows with a knife and it flew off the table to the floor, with onlookers noticing the miscue.\u00a0 He fumbled that shrimp like the Oklahoma Sooners wishbone did on the football field that season.\u00a0 But getting that\u00a0crustacean back on his plate, it went down smoothly as did the Sooners as they ran up and down the field that season mindless of the fumblitis of the Sooner backs.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

After dinner the three of us spent the next hours (until the coming of the new year) by walking the streets of the French Quarter, doing what you do on this night.\u00a0 This was the first time in my life I had the opportunity to buy liquor-by-the-drink\u00a0on a public street, the first time I had viewed “almost” naked women swinging on bars, in and out of store windows, just one floor off the street, and the first time I had to take a pee in an alley because there was a need and not a good place to relieve myself.\u00a0 It was a night that I would not forget.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

Once we were full of the night at the French Quarter we got back into the truck and motored over to a side street close to Tulane Stadium to wait out the few hours before we walked to the gate to\u00a0 enter the old steel venue of Tulane Stadium that had eighty-two thousand seats for the historic Sugar Bowl.\u00a0 It was an easy wait as I got some sleep in the back of the pick-up.\u00a0\u00a0With a kickoff at eleven o’clock in the morning a rooster start was good with me as my Dad had plans to drive back to Oklahoma City once the game concluded.\u00a0 My classes at Oklahoma City University were to start in a day or two and spending an extra night on the road was not good.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

The game was very exciting for Sooner fans.\u00a0 Having good seats in the stadium, at the forty yard line about fifty rows up, it was also the first college game I had attended where I could purchase beer.\u00a0 That was nice, even if I was not that much of a alcoholic at the time\u00a0 The beer of choice in Orleans was Pearl, which was a local and favorite of the citizens of this area.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

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Going into the game Oklahoma had lost to Nebraska in the “Game of the Century” in Norman, 35-31.\u00a0 The Big Red of the South, ranked third in the country,\u00a0was looking to win the Sugar Bowl and insure at least a third place finish in the national rankings, which consisted of the Associated Press and the United Press International.\u00a0 The “AP” vote was the media of college football casting ballots and the “UPI” was the Coach’s poll.\u00a0 Both crowned National Champions at the end of the bowl season.\u00a0 The “mythical” national championship for the 1971 season\u00a0was Nebraska’s for the taking if they could beat Alabama in the Orange Bowl later in the day.\u00a0 Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Colorado had a historic opportunity to finish one, two, and three in the rankings if all three won their bowl games. Colorado had already taken care of the Houston Cougars New Year’s evening with a convincing 29-17 win in the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl (in Houston).\u00a0 With wins over Alabama and Auburn, the top three would be the first time one conference held those spots in history.\u00a0 Nebraska did take care of the Crimson Tide, with ease, 38-6, in a match-up between number one and number two.\u00a0 It was Alabama’s first loss of the season.\u00a0 Auburn’s 9-1\u00a0record (a loss to Alabama in the Iron Bowl 31-7)\u00a0put them in 5th coming into this Sugar Bowl to face OU, and\u00a0the War\u00a0Eagle\u00a0had the Heisman Trophy winner Pat Sullivan as their quarterback.\u00a0 Folks in the Midland’s thought\u00a0OU’s great running back\u00a0Greg Pruitt (3rd in the voting) or\u00a0Cornell’s\u00a0All-American Ed Marinaro, also a running back, were better than Sullivan.\u00a0Sullivan nipped Marinaro for the Trophy.\u00a0 Sooner quarterback, senior Jack Mildren, was my choice that year, and Mildren, who finished 6th in the voting, completely outplayed Sullivan in this Sugar Bowl.\u00a0 OU had the game won at half and played out the second half in a ho hum fashion, winning the game 40-22.\u00a0 It was a game that Auburn had no clue to the Sooner wishbone. Coach Chuck Fairbanks and his\u00a0offense, lead by Mildren and Pruitt, directed by offensive coordinator and future Sooner all-time head coach, Barry Switzer, rushed 439 yards and only passed for 11.\u00a0 Auburn was stymied on the ground with only 40 yards rushing and Sullivan did pass for 250 yards but it was too little as OU lead 31-0 at the half.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

My interest in the game was high throughout as I knew Auburn was a top quality opponent and even though the SEC was not as highly regarded as it is today, any win over major programs such as Auburn was significant with the stakes they were playing for that morning.\u00a0 It was the first meeting between the two programs, with the second, as we know, coming up in a few weeks in the Superdome for the 2017 Sugar Bowl.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

After the game I walked through the exit of Tulane Stadium for the first and only time, as the grand old stadium was soon to be wrecked by the ball in a short time.\u00a0 I have been back to New Orleans many times and on occasion I have been to the site where the\u00a0stadium stood.\u00a0 If you didn’t know where you are when looking for the hollowed ground of Tulane Stadium, you would not recognize it as\u00a0the place where it stood.\u00a0 I have a\u00a0 thing about going to places where famous\u00a0structures once stood and this is one of those.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

Our trip back home was uneventful and we got home around one am the next morning.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

I came back to Oklahoma City with two\u00a0items with\u00a0my memories.\u00a0 My number one son\u00a0has my 1972 Sugar Bowl program and Auburn\u00a0pennant, both put away for my grandchildren. The Auburn pennant has the Sugar Bowl trophy on it.\u00a0\u00a0And I still remember those Auburn fans that were completely\u00a0surprised by the powerful Sooners that day. They did not know how their team was run out of the stadium that day.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

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UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA: “Turning on his blistering speed, Oklahoma’s Greg Pruitt leaves Tommy Yearout of Auburn sprawled in his wake as he heads upfield.” Staff COLOR photo taken 1\/1\/72. University of Oklahoma defeated Auburn 40-22 in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on 1\/1\/72.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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