Doris Dellinger - Digital Collections - Oklahoma State University

Doris Dellinger O K L A H O M A

Centennial Histories Series

Connnnittee

W. David Baird LeRoy H. Fischer B. Curtis Hamm Harry Heath Beulah Hirschlein Vernon Parcher

Murl Rogers J. L. Sanderson Warren Shull Milton Usry Odell Walker Eric I. Williams

Robert B. Kamm, Director Ann Carlson, Editor Carolyn Hanneman, Assistant Editor

CENTENNIAl 1890•1990

m.

A History of the Oklahoma State University Intercollegiate Athletics

by Doris Dellinger

OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY / Stillwater

Published by Oklahoma State University Centennial Histories Series, Stillwater, Oklahoma 74078

Copyright © 1987 by Board of Regents for Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dellinger, Doris A history of the Oklahonna State University intercollegiate athletics.

(Centennial histories series) Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Oklahoma State University—Athletics—History. I. Title. II. Series.

GV691.043D45 1987 796' .07' 1176634 87-24053

ISBN 0-914956-30-2

Contents

Foreword ix

Preface xi

Prologue 3

1 The Prairie Playing Fields 5 1890-1899

2 The Douglas Cup Controversy 17 1900-1903

3 The Football That Floated Away 27 1901-1904

4 The Doldrums Finally End 35 1904-1909

5 Hard Work and Bull Dog Grit 45 1910-1915

6 Builder of Men 55

7 When the Tigers Roared 61 1915-1917

8 Widening Horizons 67 1917-1924

9 The Name They Coined for Looky 75

10 The Cowboys Saddle Up 81 1924-1929

11 Riding With Waldorf 89 1929-1934

12 Filling the A.D.'s Chair 99 1934-1936

13 They Called Him Mister 107

14 Big Henry and Little Henry 113 1936-1938

15 Christening Gallagher Hall 119 1938-1940

16 The Fabled Forties 129 1940-1944

17 The Revolutionary Kurland 137

18 The Golden Decade Starts 145 1944-1945

19 Reaching the Heights 151 1945-1946

20 Fenimore to Armstrong 157

21 What Goes Up . . . 165 1946-1950

22 The Golden Decade Closes 111 1950-1954

23 Track's Heritage Preserved 189

24 Uphill Battles and the Big Eight 197 1954-1957

25 Recruiting Goes Global 211 1957-1960

26 The Newcomers Fare Well 223 1960-1963

27 The Golf Dynasty Soars 233

28 Cutchin's Lean Brigades 239 1963-1966

29 The Pokes Do It Again 251 1966-1969

30 Mr. Iba's Farewell 263 1969-1972

31 Enter Title IX 275

32 Orange Power 281 1972-1976

33 Probation and Recovery 297 1976-1978

34 Reshaping the Program 309 1978-1980

35 The Mountain Ahead 321

36 Superb Facilities Added 329 1980-1982

37 36th NCAA Team Title 343 1982-1983

38 Roderick Returns 353

39 The Year of the Cowboy! 361 1984-Epilogue 375 Appendices 383

1 Conference Team Championships 383 2 NCAA Team Championships 387 3 Baseball All-Americans 388 4 Men's Basketball All-Americans 388 5 Football All-Americans 389 6 Men's Golf All-Americans 390 7 Women's Golf All-Americans 390 8 Gymnastics All-Americans 391 9 Softball All-Americans 391

10 Swimming All-Americans 391 11 Women's Tennis All-Americans 392 12 Men's Tennis All-Americans 392 13 Track NCAA All-Americans 393 14 Wrestling All-Americans 395 15 Olympians 399 16 Bowl Games 401

Selected Bibliography 403 Index 409

Foreword

Oklahoma State University Intercollegiate Athletics is the fourth of twenty-five volumes in the Oklahoma State University Centennial Histories Series, following Historic Old Central, College of Veterinary Medicine, and College of Business Administration.

Athletics have been integral in the life of Oklahoma A. and M./Oklahoma State University since the earliest years. In the realm of intercollegiate athletics, OSU has established a winning spirit and tradition matched by few institutions of higher education. Only the University of Southern California and the University of California at Los Angeles have won more National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) team championships in all sports.

Initially, athletic activities were confined to the campus, with various organizations competing against each other. OSU, in fact, has today in its Colvin Center and on its many intramural and leisure-time playing fields, one of the nation's most elaborate programs in ' 'non-intercollegiate" athletics. It is well to note that although the present volume is about intercollegiate athletics, OSU has always had and continues to provide opportunities for participation in athletics for all of its students.

It is well to note, also, that OSU's record through the years (with but few exceptions) has been one of recognizing those who participate in athletics (whether intercollegiate or intramural) as being students, first of all, and as athletes, second. At a time when we are hearing so much about ' 'student athletes," it is gratifying to know that a healthy perspective on this matter has existed on this campus since its founding.

Of special note, too, is the fact that OSU has been able to serve well.

and to compete successfully in intercollegiate athletics with fewer dollars (and lesser facilities, in some cases) than have many other major universities. OSU's record is one of strong leadership and management, and of excellent coaching—with the inspiration and motivation of athletes having been important, as well. Strong alumni support and loyalty (through both good and bad times) have also contributed significantly.

The story of intercollegiate athletics at OSU during its first 100 years is indeed an exciting one. In the pages that follow, Doris Dellinger tells the story in a most delightful and rousing manner. It's hard for a reader to put the book aside once reading has begun! A "student" of OSU athletics for many years and the author of an earlier volume entitled Ride 'em, Cowboys! (the history of wrestling at OSU), she writes with firm knowledge, great skill, charm, and enthusiasm.

The Centennial Histories Committee is grateful to all who have shared in the production of Intercollegiate Athletics. Special appreciation is expressed to Vice President Richard Poole, coordinator of OSU's overall Centennial observance, who originally conceived the idea of a Centennial Histories Project. He and President L. L. Boger have been most supportive of the project. Dr. Ralph Hamilton, director of Public Information Services; Gerald Eby, head of University Publications Services; Edward Pharr, manager of University Printing Services; Heather Lloyd, reference librarian; and their staffs have assisted generously. Ann Carlson, as editor for the entire series and ably assisted by Carolyn Hanneman, has brought keen insight to the project and has worked devotedly to assure high quality volumes.

In the publication of Oklahoma State University Intercollegiate Athletics, special appreciation is expressed to the two athletic directors who served during the preparation time of the volume, Messrs. Richard Young and Myron Roderick. Their interest, support and encouragement helped to make Intercollegiate Athletics a reality.

Robert B. Kamm, Director Centennial Histories Project President Emeritus Oklahoma State University

September 1987

Preface

Years ago I wouldn't have agreed with myself today at all. History, I finally see, is simply people. And people don't belong on

a dusty bookshelf. Knowledge of the events that swirled around them, challenging their abilities and skills, enlivens our understanding of both the past and the present. It enriches us, providing something tangible to carry on.

The history of athletics at Oklahoma State University is a living stream that broadens with each year, racing along with increasing power for long periods, flooding and receding, meandering quietly in dry spells, shifting its banks, changing as its quality changes, annually receiving new strength from hundreds of vital rivulets and tributaries in Oklahoma and beyond.

Life in the raw new Oklahoma Territory was rugged, demanding, when OSU was born in the last century as Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College. The miracle is not how well the nationally respected university and its vigorous athletic program are thriving today, but that the little prairie school survived at all.

And the exciting part that blows the final dust from the pages of the past is that the spirited mixture of grit and common sense, vitality, humor, and willingness to work for what we want has come pouring through the generations to the Cowboys and the Cowgirls of Oklahoma State University.

Although the athletes themselves have woven a colorful history with their achievements, those who wrote about them are my personal heroes. Without a lively flood of stories extending more than ninety years, the flavor and zest of sports events at A&M would now be beyond recall

and records set by recent OSU giants cumbersome to pin down. While secretary to the president in 1914, Randle Perdue was the first

to turn out endless press releases that told the new state how its student athletes in Stillwater were faring. In the 1930s Weldon Barnes was named the first sports publicity director. Following him was Otis Wile, whose manuscript detailing athletics at OSU is the starting point for serious research—and fun to read. As sports information director, Pat Quinn continued the tradition of working with the press, developing prize-winning press guides, and promoting the university. Special thanks for access to records aiid photographs go also to Pat's successor, Steve Buzzard, and to Lisa Little Smith; to Walter Hamilton for his thorough research work under the guidance of Dr. Jerry Gill; to Bill Piatt at KSPI Radio; and Ron and Rex Holt at the StiJJwater NewsPress.

Athletic Director Myron Roderick and Student Health Services Director Dr. Donald L. Cooper provided excellent insights into university sports programs and athletes. Heather Lloyd led me through the surprising possibilities housed in the Special Collections of Edmon Low Library. Carolyn Hanneman patiently standardized my endnotes. Ann Carlson was invaluable as a friend and as the Centennial Histories Editor, while my husband. Bob, was a constant source of nationwide sports history. But the book was possible primarily because my parents, Estell L. and Helen Williams of Ponca City, sent their daughter—and three grandsons—to Oklahoma State University.

Doris Dellinger Class of 1976

June 1987

A History of the Oklahoma State University Intercollegiate Athletics

CENTENNIAL HISTORIES SERIES

Prologue

A century ago, Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College was almost a radical experiment. Early settlers who had come from around the world to claim free land for their homes weren't sure what to think of the young college. It was neither a traditional university imparting only formal knowledge nor a normal school to educate teachers.

A surprising new system advocated by the United States Congress in 1862 called for a blend of effective farming and engineering theories, and practical, hands-on training in fields and shops, along with the typical classic college curriculum of the era. Under the Morrill Act, that concept took root across the country.

In Stillwater, Oklahoma Territory, unplowed prairie soon framed a single red brick building which housed all the courses offered by OAMC. High-spirited, impromptu games after classes prompted the beginning of an athletic program which has become an integral part of present-day Oklahoma State University's goal to develop physical skills to complement mental skills. By 1986, 175 permanent structures have risen on rolling campus lawns around the original Old Central building.

As the college has grown into a university, the athletic program and facilities have also expanded, fostering impressive achievements.

By the end of 1987, Oklahoma State Cowboys and Cowgirls had won 169 conference team championships, 99 of them in the Big Eight since 1957. OSU had won 37 National Collegiate Athletic Association team championships, more than any other school in the United States with the exception of the University of Southern California and the University of California at Los Angeles. Eighty-six individual athletes have become NCAA champions. From the program has sprung a steady flow

Oklahoma State University 3

of All-Americans and Olympians. Dozens, primarily in golf, football, and baseball, have exchanged Orange and Black uniforms for those of professional athletes.

A campus of champions in academics and in varsity sports, Oklahoma State University continues to nurture the giants of the prairie.

Centennial Histories Series

1 The Prairie Playing Fields 1890-1899

In 1891, young men in copper-toed farm boots scoured the lush folds of buffalo grass from the prairie to outline impromptu playing fields. From early pickup games arose a broad-based athletic program that would send Oklahoma State University soaring to national prominence in the decades ahead, claiming undreamed of football bowl games and national championships in wrestling, basketball, baseball, golf, and cross country.

The energetic wearers of the sturdy boots that carved those early baseball diamonds and football fields in Stillwater, Oklahoma Territory, were anything but typical college men of the day. The reasons for their presence were simple. To survive, the new college needed students. And, since there was no high school in the frontier community, parents in the area welcomed the opportunity for advanced classwork and perhaps better lives for their children.^

Some were as young as thirteen that first year, bewildered at finding themselves enrolled as college preparatory students, studying under two real professors at the fledgling school housed in the Congregational Church at Sixth and Duncan. Other male students were already in their mid-20s, veterans of the great Land Run of 1889, in which some had staked homesteads. They had their land. Now they needed to master ways in which to make it flourish.^

For the first decade and a half, the school, which would be known for the next sixty-six years as Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, had little time and few financial resources to establish an athletic framework. No gymnasium, coach, athletic association or sports equipment awaited those early students. The first few high-spirited


games proved to be a common denominator for the young men—and for the young women who cheered them on.^

From the beginning, the college's benefits appealed to those from all walks of life. Tuition was free. Board and room could be had for $2.50 to $3.00 per week. Student clubs would spring up, providing "good board" at $1.75 to $1.90 per week. Books cost from $2.00 to $3.00 per term. Not until 1899 would the college begin to charge a whole dollar per term for "incidentals," to aid its slender budget.*

But times were hard and money scarce. Although the number of students gradually rose to sixty-five by that first spring of 1892, that figure does not tell the whole story. So limited was the average family's income that many pupils came, then left when their finances were exhausted, only to return when they could afford more schooling.^

In addition, the harsh realities of settling a new land led the Territorial Legislature at Guthrie to direct the school's Agricultural Experiment Station to decipher ways in which the unfamiliar soil could best nurture the thousands of settlers who had come in the land run. Because of the urgency involved, all students were promptly caught up in tasks related to experimental crops.

There were those in the surrounding farming communities who guffawed, "Send a boy to college to learn to farm?" Presumably, had an athletic program been attempted in those days of struggle, there would have been an even greater outburst: "What? Send boys and girls to school to learn to play?"

There was little free time for recreation of any kind in A&M's earliest years. Mornings were filled nonstop with recitations and textbook studies; afternoon classes were followed by work in the fields, the barns and the greenhouse. "Be it known to all that the college is very intimately connected with the Experiment station," it was noted wryly by Oscar M. Morris, a member of the first graduating class of 1896.^

And in those first few years there were also military drills—squads of awkward young farmers uniformed as cadets, and girls in sailor hats and long, billowing dresses, struggling through unfamiliar marching routines in the Oklahoma wind. That novelty sprang from an interpretation of the law for land-grant schools that provided that all able-bodied students should take military training.

Only the precious lunch hour remained for youthful spirits to soar, but soar they did. During the first three years when the preparatory and college classes met in Stillwater's churches, some prep school students were so young that tag was still popular. But for the older boys, there was definite bliss in putting their heavy, square-toed boots to work outlining a baseball diamond.

Provided, of course, they could manage to scrape up a ball whose buckskin cover was still almost intact. And if it wasn't, there were those

6 Centennial Histories Series

who had become old hands at wielding a needle and tightening laces.^ There were no bench-warmers when A&M men took to the playing

fields. There may have been some tentative football games among classmates meeting that first year, but most appealing was the nation's favorite pastime, baseball.

"We played town-type baseball," Ed Jarrell, another member of the class of 1896, wrote. "Suppose twenty-four students wanted to play. We would let the leaders make alternate choices of players until each leader had a 12-member team. Frequently we rotated the nine players, allowing all students to participate in the game. We used the same method of choosing members of our Rugby-type of football teams."

Players gained ample exercise and he reminisced, "we had a whale of a lot of fun.'' Outside of an occasional class game of football or baseball, all A&M sports in the first two years were merged into one day— Washington's Birthday. The celebration consisted of a game of football; a foot race; sack, three-legged, potato and pie-eating races; along with running jump, high jump, and tug-of-war. The lively freshmen usually managed to make off with all the events except the tug-of-war.«

In 1894, the first all-purpose classroom structure was completed on the new campus, a treeless, 200-acre expanse of bare prairie far northwest of town. There, enormous possibilities began to unfold. Foot races, class fights, improved playing fields, and catch-as-catch-can wrestling

Track men tested their speed on a graded path circling an alfalfa field. Firing the starting gun was Dr. L. L. Lewis, the chief force behind making sports available at the new college. Lewis Field was named in his honor. Early track men are (left to right) Charles Morrow, William Johnson, Arthur Tarr, Bobby Burns, Ralph Treeman, and Virgil Sutton.


bouts provided intense physical activity. There were tugs-of-war with knotted lariats across the horse pond southwest of the red brick College Building, known in later years as Old Central.^

As A&M strengthened its educational and agricultural roots, there was growing interest in pairing sound bodies with sound minds. Athletics occupied the students' conversations. Was physical improvement something which should be added to the expanding curriculum? The CoJJege Mirror summed up the discussions:

"The question of to-day is: What is the proper selection to be made from the numerous sports and games for the attainment of the best physical training? There are games that, as the rules and regulations have been for the last few years, are as brutal and barbarous as those practiced by the ancients. For instance, think of the many promising young men killed or crippled every year in the comparatively modern game of base-ball. It is useless to mention either boxing or prizefighting, for they are both legalized and encouraged in a game of foot-ball as played by the leading elevens.

"There should necessarily be more than one sport in an institution, as persons of different constitutions require sports of different natures. One student may be built for an oarsman, and find his delight in that exercise; another may be a player of base-ball, while another may be so constituted as to demand a sport that requires less muscular energy, such as tennis or bicycling. But after all there is, perhaps, no race or contest, sport or pastime, which, in all its features, can excel base-ball, the great national game of America. "^°

The revival of physical culture for the masses was a comparatively recent one in the late 1800s. The trend to include physical culture was underway in the majority of colleges and public schools, with many institutions providing well-equipped gymnasiums. Now interest was springing up in the western states.^^

Each class in the new college and the preparatory department, separate from each other for most of their studies, found it entertaining to choose its own colors and write its own vivacious yells and songs for interclass rivalries. But one day, the students in Professor George Holter's chemistry class selected orange and black as the colors for the college as a whole. That done, they also nicknamed the student body the "Tigers." By adopting both the colors and the name of Princeton University, the Oklahomans reflected admiration for the eastern school. The choice was also a compliment to well-liked faculty member Harry Thompson, son of a Princeton-educated clergyman. Unlikely as a tiger on the prairie might be, the nickname gave A&M a much-needed sense of identity. Later newspapers would refer to the college as ' 'The Princeton of the West. "12

The A&M faculty settled on athletics as a suitable celebration to com-


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Little time could be spared for games in the formative years of A&M, but the annual Field Day honored the Oklahoma Land Run and gave students an opportunity to excel at track events. Earl Myers, class of 1899, who starred in 1898, poses with an advertisement for the games. The best athletes qualified for territorial competition and gave the school many pre-statehood successes.

memorate the vigorous run that opened the Oklahoma Territory on April 22, 1889. Field Day was inaugurated in 1895 on Oklahoma Day. Designed to become an annual feature of the school, it launched one of the earliest traditions. Oscar Morris was named "athlete" and the sophomores scored the most points in the day's events. Of that first multi-sports competition for A&M students, the CoJJege Mirror later teased: "Erwin Lewis thinks he would have won the (ten-mile) bicycle race on Field Day if he had not been compelled to stop and oil his machine. "^^

At the same time, A&M was beginning to make a name for itself on a territory-wide basis. The high point of the school year was the Oratorical Contest at Guthrie that linked the three state institutions of the time, Oklahoma University at Norman, Central Normal at Edmond, and Oklahoma A&M. Athletic events would be added to the contest, but in 1895, the air was filled with music, spellbinding oratory, the scent of flowers, and the cheers of supporters.

In the three-year interval when the central Assembly Building provided the only classrooms on the campus, overcrowding already was becoming a problem. The need for expansion was felt by faculty and

Oklahoma State University

student body alike. Yet, with territorial politics overriding every facet of education at A&M, the young school was fortunate to have survived. In the first eight years, four college presidents came and went, making continuity and a cohesive building program difficult.

Interest in athletics continued in 1896, when an editorial in the Mirror read: "We are glad to see the recent movement for athletic exercises among the students. If well continued, it will accomplish great good. Education in its fullest sense is the development of human powers of body, mind, and soul to the greatest possible degree. If it is the duty of every one to become all that is within his possibilities, the duty to secure all the education possible is manifest. In this sense, education is not the mere learning of a few facts and figures, however important that may be; but it is the growth into all that nature has placed within man's capabilities to become."^^

At A&M, class fights and informal games continued on the campus. The annual contest of the Inter-Collegiate Oratorical Association again took place in Guthrie on December 31.

"Let us show our sister colleges by sending a large delegation, that we are not as much asleep as they suppose," the campus paper urged. "Let us show our college spirit.' ' Although football was part of the competition that year, A&M could not yet field a team.^^

It certainly wasn't for lack of energy and muscle that during early years the Tigers could not keep up a first-rate team. "The time required to train and practice for foot ball is not at the command of many of the huskiest boys," the student paper explained soberly. "They must work or leave—it is better that they should work.''^^

Fulfilling its role as the school's conscience, the January 1898 Mirror commented crisply, "The Agricultural College believes in College athletic [sicl as a help to good health, to physical and mental training and to cultivation of courage, quick decisions and self reliance in emergencies. It does not believe in them as a substitute for study, lecture room and laboratory work. The recent development of interest in football playing is gratifying. Mr. [John] Fields is 'covering himself with glory' as a [volunteer] coach. "^^ By February the gridiron was laid out and the boys were said to be playing football in "dead earnest." In March, lawn tennis was underway.^^

In April that year, after such a promising start, the Mirror chided the students about their athletic spirit, asking: "Have we such a spirit? If we have, it must be hibernating. And as the chilling blasts of winter are past, it is time to come out with the bat, ball and mask. Foot-ball has been vindicated and may safely rest on its laurels until next fall. By that time the broken ribs, dislocated noses and skinned shins will have healed and the pain be forgotten. Other educational institutions in the Territory have already organized their teams for the spring sports.


Outlined against the empty prairie about 1899, the A&M football team huddles to hear the play. Most of the squad had never seen a game. John Fields, director of the experiment station, was the referee.

Shall we be laggards?"^^ While women did not take part in Field Day each April 22, they were

urged to "manifest some interest" and to "lend your presence and voice. "20 With the entire student body on hand, the fifth annual Field Day was a great success in 1899. It consisted of runs, jumps, shot puts, hammer throws, bicycle races, ball throws and high kicks. After the ten-mile bike race, won by C. R. Donart, came the baseball game in which the regular students trounced the special students, 15-5.

An initial breakthrough occurred that year in the quest for sports. After a successful campaign, A&M's girls were the first to be assigned a regularly scheduled class in physical culture. By May, forty-eight were participating in exercises two mornings a week in the chapel.

In May 1899, Professor George Means took the opportunity to teach the principles of trigonometry while his sophomores laid out the baseball diamond with precision. The tennis players accepted challenges from Kingfisher College and were represented by Messrs. L. D. Stowe and Galveston Abercrombie. The college also hosted perhaps the first out-of-town baseball team, the Chilocco Indian School.^^

By early fall that year enrollment was up to 250 students.22 The uproar for and against the rough sport of football was reaching a crest. Should the new game be outlawed in the United States? In answer to an inquiry from a representative of the Kansas City Journal at Guthrie, A&M President Angelo C. Scott disclosed the attitude of the Agricultural and


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Rivalries intensified annually as A&M prepared for the intercollegiate meet. C. E. Morrow, putting the shot, was one of the top competitors.

Mechanical College toward football in September 1899: "We encourage the game without reserve, except that the participants in it must preserve their standing in their classes. Occasional accidents on the field are to be deplored, certainly; but even the elements of risk and danger I do not regard as an unmixed evil. Besides giving health and strength, the game develops self-reliance and courage. We expect to have a strong team the coming season, and shall give it our fullest encouragement. "^^

President Scott's resounding endorsement was the voice of a true fan. Not an athlete himself and always in delicate health, attributed to chronic insomnia and a childhood accident, he sometimes fainted on the grandstand floor during an especially exciting game. But his admiration for the skills of sportsmen made him one of the college's most avid fans. Sharing that intense interest were the students and the residents of Stillwater.24

On Saturday, September 17, 1899, young men of the college interested in athletic sports organized the Athletic Association.

When football practice began in October, the captains were William K. Bradford and Clayton T. Doss, whose goal was to be ready to meet all comers by Thanksgiving. There were difficulties. Many of the players had never seen a football game. Despite being unprepared for intercollegiate athletics, they were challenged for matches with Kingfisher College and the State Agricultural College of Texas. There also were immediate plans to construct four first-class tennis courts just north of the new Library Building, and the preparatory class defeated the Stillwater High School baseball team.^s


And then came That Football Game. In A&M's first wholehearted venture beyond the environs of Still

water, the football team reinforced by town residents, still without a coach, in uniforms largely sewn by family members at home, gallantly accepted a match. Kingfisher College, a powerhouse in territorial days, would close its doors in later years. The afternoon's results are quickly told by a pair of newspaper stories.

The Kingfisher Free Press account: "The Kingfisher college football team has covered itself with glory.

Smarting under its humiliating defeat at Norman, it put on a double dose of fresh war paint, and proceeded to wipe the face of the earth with the clodhoppers and blacksmiths of the Agricultural college, and left their carcasses to bleach and blister on the barren plains of Stillwater. It was a full grown skunk, and its stifling odor drives the turkey buzzards crazy.

"The score—? "Oh, yes, it delights us to print it. "Thusly: "Kingfisher college—22. "A. and M. clodhoppers and blacksmiths—A figure 9 with its tail

cutoff!" The CoJJege Paper responded: "Our report. (Written before receiving the above.) KINGFISHER—22,

A. and M. COLLEGE—0. "That is the record of a game of foot ball played at Guthrie on the

1st day of November between two teams, one of which had played foot ball for three years, the other for three weeks. We were 'the other' and feel greatly pleased at the small score which was made against our team. Our boys learned something of foot ball and incidentally made things very interesting for the team from Kingfisher. The 'large and appreciative audience,' consisting of loyal enthusiasts from the two colleges and a short half dozen from somewhere else, saw a clean, gentlemanly game of football. While it is always far pleasanter to win than to lose, the small-ness of the score was a surprise to those acquainted with the preliminary practice of the two teams."^^

A&M alumnus Frank D. Northup described that first venture in a letter written in 1945:

"That 1899 game with Kingfisher is still vivid in my memory. I went with John Fields, early faculty member and director of the experiment station, who was a strong advocate of college athletics, and I served as his aide. We had no coach.

"Gary Bur dick, a newcomer to Stillwater that fall and a young attorney, played on our team. He had played the game at Kansas University, being a graduate of that school. Soft, without even so much as a practice, Burdick went into action with all the energy he possessed. His


Long before A&M could afford to hire a football coach, each class organized its own sports team. As sophomores, the class of 1902 took the college championship of 1899-1900. It must have been an exhausting battle, but the team rallied for a victory photograph. On the bottom row (from the left), are Charles Smeltzer, Jim Curtain, George Janeway, and Rex Shively; second row, A. W. Flower, Virgil Sutton, and Ralph Kratka; standing, Frank L. Rector, C. V. Jones, Wallace Thornberry, and Fred Gillett.

knowledge of the game, having played on the KU team, made him a mark early in the game and the Kingfisher huskies centered on him. For days afterward he was black and blue all over. The trip back, by train from Guthrie to Orlando, and from Orlando to Stillwater by hack, over rough roads, was a constant groan. Another player, who clerked in a downtown dry goods store and not long off the Washburn College team at Topeka, also played with us, as did John Slack, who later was chief of the fire department.

"N. T. Gilbert was a casualty, also, having bitten his tongue until it hung lopsided. But the boys, just together for three weeks, didn't do


so badly. Kingfisher had been playing for three years and under the leadership of the late Major Jack Alley constituted a well-performing group. At Orlando, waiting for the train south to Guthrie, Fields assembled the boys in the baggage room in the depot and went over our proposed procedure. I recall a question asked by a big farm lad living near Marshall. 'Professor Fields, is there anything in them rules that says a big feller can't run over a little feller?' Fields said, 'No, that is just the penalty a little fellow pays for being little.'

"We had the notion the Kingfisher team was composed of a lot of little chaps. What an erroneous notion that was! The big boy came out of the game, not only having failed to run over a little one but not even able to catch up with one. What running over was done, he was on the underside!"

John Fields recovered from his first coaching loss. He later left teaching and, in the early 1920s, narrowly lost the governorship of Oklahoma to Jack Walton.27

By the time talk of that first game had begun to simmer down, the long-anticipated campus football game between the sophomores and freshmen came off in December. Heavy rains had left the weather disagreeable and the ground soft, but spirits were high. The entire enrollment, the faculty and a large number from town witnessed the great event. Each student was provided a large tin horn which he blew ' 'with unceasing vigor" as the sophomores won handily, 17-0.28

While the Princeton of the West was expanding, the country landscape around the campus was also undergoing change with the same unceasing vigor.

"In 1898 there was hardly a house to be seen directly east of the college," the CoJJege Paper proclaimed. "Now it is a hard matter to see anything but houses, about 25 having been built since that time."^^ To the south, small fields of corn and kaffir corn had been supplanted by cottages, reflecting the rapid growth of the town as well as of A&M.

Two hundred seventy students were attending classes and the teaching force consisted of eighteen instructors. Even in December, the tennis courts were crowded every afternoon. Ten years after the opening of land in the territory, the young A&M College was beginning to thrive. Already it could boast three completed buildings, the Central Building, a stone Shops Building on the site of present day Gundersen Hall, and a two-story brick Chemistry Building. The east half of the Library Building, later known as Williams Hall, was under construction.^^

The severe struggles of Stillwater citizens to gain and support the school seemed wonderfully repaid.


Endnotes

1. Alfred Edwin Jarrell, "The Founding of Oklahoma A. and M. College: A Memoir," Chronicles of Oklahoma, vol. 34, no. 3 (Autumn 1956), p. 324.

2. Record Book Committee, compiler. "Selections from the Record Book of the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, 1891-1941. Compiled on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding of the College," vol. 2, copy 2, p. 59.

3. Jarrell, p. 320.

4. Oklahoma A. and M. College Paper, 30 May 1899, p. 35.

5. J. H. Adams, "When the College Was Young," Oklahoma A. and M. College l\/lagazine, vol. 1, no. 4 (December 1929), p. 9.

6. Oklahoma A. and A//. College Mirror, 15 May 1895, p. 2.

7. Jarrell, pp. 324, 320.

8. Oklahoma A. and M. College Mirror, 15 April 1896, pp. 1-2.

9. Early days of the college and the establishment of Old Central, the first academic building on campus, is recounted in the first volume of the Centennial Histories Series, Historic Old Central by Dr. LeRoy H. Fischer.

10. Oklahoma A. and M. College Mirror, 15 May 1895, p. 5.

11. Oklahoma A. and M.College Mirror, 15 December 1895, p. 1

12. Philip Reed Rulon, Oklahoma State University—Since 1890 (Stillwater: Oklahoma State University Press, 1975), p. 108.

13. Oklahoma A. and M. College Mirror, 15 May 1896, pp. 4, 6.

14. Oklahoma A. and M. College Mirror, 15 December 1897, p. 4.

15. Oklahoma A. and M. College Mirror, 15 December 1897, p. 8.

16. College Paper, 1 October 1900, p. 63.

17. Oklahoma A. and M. College Mirror, January 1898, p. 8.

18. Oklahoma A. and M. College Mirror, February 1898, p. 8.

19. Oklahoma A. and M. College Mirror, April 1898, p. 3.

20. Oklahoma A. and M. College Mirror, April 1898, p. 5.

21. College Paper, 15 May 1899, pp. 12, 9, 7.


23. College Paper, 1 October 1899, p. 56. 24. Mrs. A. C. Scott, "Biographical Notebook of Angelo Scott," p. 9, in Angelo C. Scott Col

lection, Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.


26. College Paper, 1 December 1899, p. 84.

27. Otis Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs: The Chronological Story of Sports at Oklahoma State University From the Beginning in the 1890s Through the 1960s," pp. 9-11, manuscript, Special Collections, Edmon Low Library.

28. College Paper, 1 January 1900, p. 104.

29. College Paper, 1 November 1899, p. 73.

30. College Paper, 1 December 1899; R. Morton House, "That Wonderful A. &. M. Class of 1903," Stillwater, Oklahoma, p. 2, manuscript, Oklahoma State University Museum, Stillwater, Oklahoma.


2 The Douglas Cup Controversy 1900-1903

When athletic recognition first came to A&M in the form of the Douglas Cup, it triggered both acclaim and an uproar that ricocheted across Oklahoma and Indian Territories.

Vigorous track and field competition in 1900, 1901, and 1902 gave birth to the spirited and often bitter rivalry that has continued across the years between Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma. In the second of those first three years of Oklahoma Intercollegiate Athletic Association meets at the Guthrie Fair Grounds, the storied "Bedlam Series" was inaugurated.

Standing less than a foot high with its wooden base, the modest silver Douglas Cup was the first championship team trophy ever won by the ' 'farmers and blacksmiths" of the small college on the Payne County prairie. It heralded a dominant athletic program that would earn hundreds of team and individual championships in state, regional, national and Olympic competition of the years ahead.

The Douglas Cup itself led a life of unexpected adventure. Encouraged by A&M President Angelo C. Scott, Guthrie jeweler A.

E. Douglas offered the cup as a trophy, to be awarded to the winner of the intercollegiate championship meet. It would become the permanent possession of the first school to win the meet three times. After each field event—the biggest annual sporting activity in the entire territory— the cup traveled to Stillwater. The third trip was meant to be the final one. The Douglas Cup was proudly exhibited in the only area available, the zoological display case in the lobby of the Library, later known as Williams Hall.

Then it disappeared.


1'JM.f I

i ^ i

^---^t^^M

On May 23, 1902, the A&M track team won the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Athletic Association Meet for the third time, capturing the Douglas Cup. With Doc Lewis in the center, the team composed of five 1902 men, six 1903 men, five 1904 men, and four 1905 men pose with the little cup that made A&M the toast of the territory.

The cup was discovered missing from the case in November 1902. Printed stories and memoirs attest that, following the presence of "two well-dressed, strange boys" on campus, it was spirited south to Norman. The commotion stirred the students for days. Aging tales vary as to when and how the cup was retrieved, by whom and from whom. Some said the returned trophy then was buried beneath Old Central by the athletes who had triumphantly carried it home to Stillwater.

But in 1912, when excavation for Gundersen Hall began on the former site of the old stone Shops Building, the trophy was dug up by laborers. By then, }. H. Connell was the college president. The victorious athletes of the turn of the century had long since graduated. Its significance dimmed or forgotten, the cup was given to a recent A&M graduate, track coach Edward C. Gallagher.

In 1930, R. Morton House, a distance runner and the flag-bearer for all three of the victorious teams, returned to Stillwater. House was handed the memento by Gallagher, then the athletic director. In 1941, House, last surviving team member, presented the Douglas Cup to the A&M Alumni Association. It then took its place on display in the Student Union among tall, handsome trophies commemorating more recent achievements.

Small, dulled by its long burial and its age, the cup went almost unnoticed as late as the 1960s. New displays were created and eventu-


ally it was relegated to the college museum. On a shadowy gray metal shelf in the museum storeroom, swathed in plastic and elbowed by other cups with their own past glories, the historic sports trophy awaits the next chapter of its adventures.

The story of how the Douglas Cup came to A&M triumphantly, a prized acknowledgment of the school's first athletic heroes, began during the winter of 1899 when the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Athletic Association was organized. Oklahoma A&M College, Alva Normal College (later named Northwestern), Kingfisher College, Central Normal at Edmond and Oklahoma University made up the membership. The same schools also banded together to enlarge the Intercollegiate Oratorical Association. Annual track and field events were to be held each May in Guthrie, the territorial capital, on a Friday afternoon. The speech competition was to follow in the evening at the Royal Opera House.

One winter morning during chapel. President Scott electrified the students by discussing the prospect of proving A&M's supremacy in athletics through the intercollegiate games. There were still no physical education classes for men, nor were any genuine facilities available. Equipment and funds also were non-existent. But there were volunteer coaches among the professors. Enthusiasm for the grand struggle rose at once.^

The challenge would take some scrambling by students and faculty alike to prepare a campus track for the serious practice required. The Field Day track meet in April would test the college team's ability to compete in the first territorial meet in Guthrie.

There were some who had begun to see the potential for making athletic teams self-supporting. Since state and federal funds allocated to a land-grant school could not be diverted to sports, the novel prospect of actually making money from sports events was intriguing. At some of the eastern colleges, football already was bringing money into the athletic programs. For the 1899 football season, the University of Wisconsin received $27,987.85. Total expenditures were $24,981.04, leaving an amazing financial gain of $3,006.8112

But before Oklahoma A&M could hope to follow that pattern, adequate playing fields were essential. Mathematics professor George Means took the initiative and staked out a quarter-mile track around the athletic field. The track was ten feet wide and 1,320 feet around the inside edge. A straight hundred-yard stretch ran north and south. With that layout, onlookers predicted, "Our sprinters ought to make some fine records, especially if the day happens to be windy."^

Another sport gained instant popularity that frozen February of 1900,

when students were able to skate on the college pond. But territorial

Oklahoma weather was as capricious before statehood as it has been

since, and the Athletic Association was able to field its first practice base-


ball game of the season February 19. Led by Captain J. E. Kelley, the first team trounced the scrubs, 10-5. March saw interest in lawn tennis again spring up.

Still, as the sixth annual Field Day drew closer, the CoJJege Paper complained in its March 1 issue that no work was being done on the track. If the track were not completed, the meet would have to be at the Payne County fairground, as in previous years. There apparently were drawbacks to the fairground facility. More important, the growing pride of the student body yearned for acceptable athletic facilities on the campus. Besides, with a fine track, those excelling at the Field Day events would have a better chance at winning the intercollegiate competition May 24.*

"Alfalfa seems to have thrived better on that piece of land than athletics give promise of doing," the student paper said sternly. "Talking will not make tracks—not quarter-mile tracks on an athletic field." Scraped out of a close-cropped alfalfa field, the stiff-stubbled infield intact, the track lay just east of present-day Crutchfield Hall.^

With warmer weather, enthusiasm regained a high pitch. Many of the contestants who came out for track struggled with events they had never seen or heard of before.

During practice, "Doc Lew," Dr. L. L. Lewis, head of the zoology department, followed athletes entered in the mile walk around the track on his bicycle. Coaxing the students on, he pedaled while he explained the difference between a running and a walking "hip-wiggle." He predicted field meet judges in Guthrie would rule a "running hip-wiggler" ineligible to score.

Both Doc Lew and John Fields of the experiment station were apt to buttonhole unsuspecting students who had never aspired to go out for track and say, "Sutton, why don't you enter the hurdles?" The first high hurdles race ended with every hurdle being knocked over. Feet and ankles were sore. But by that time, Lewis and Fields were off cajoling Joe Slaybaugh, Wallace Thornberry, and House to enter the pole vault.

"How stiff and heavy that vaulting pole was and how hard that ground was that we had to land on!" House said later. "We all went over the bar in a sitting position, with our feet in heavy rubber-soled shoes, wearing full length trousers and long sleeved shirts, none of which helped us over the bar, or improved our score."

When the Field Day dawned on Monday, April 23, it was at the athletic grounds on the A&M campus. The track was ready. College and class colors were prominently displayed in the crowd, while flags and banners fluttered in the soft breeze. The program was a full one, with a 100-yard dash, 16-pound shot put, 220-yard dash, 16-pound hammer throw, running broad jump and 440-yard dash. Other events included the half-mile run, one-mile walk, 120-yard hurdles, the running high


Over he went, in sitting position and wearing heavy shoes and street clothes. The crowd cheered Morton House's 8 foot 3 inch pole vault as he tried out for A&M's Douglas Cup team. Those landings on lightly spaded ground were hard on feet and knees, but House made the team and carried the school's flag in the territory-wide competition at Guthrie in 1900, 1901, and 1902.

jump, mile run, and the 220-yard hurdles race.^ Spectators gasped as House vaulted 8 feet, 3 inches, landing in a

spaded patch of dirt. Slaybaugh equalled that, and Thornberry topped both, sailing over the bar at 8 feet, 6 inches. No spectator dared to imagine that eighty five years later, in the Oklahoma Invitational Meet at Norman, a modern A&M hero would soar 19 feet, 2V2 inches— approximately two stories above the ground—to set a national record.^

The successful Field Day over, the track and field team was ready. May 4, 1900, was a day unlike any other in Stillwater's brief his

tory. The town could now boast train service, alleviating many of the former hardships of travel on cow trails and unpaved roads. The special round-trip fare for the occasion was $1.55. From cow-catcher to rear platform, the Santa Fe's first special excursion train departing the Ninth Avenue depot was clad in orange and black streamers. Arthur W. Anderson, the school's oratorical contestant, the athletic team, and more than 350 excited fans from both college and community swung aboard five coaches at 8:30 A.M., filled with Douglas Cup aspirations.^


For most of Stillwater, it was the first real holiday in the eleven arduous years since the Land Run. The leisurely train ride through the Stillwater Valley and beyond was an unexpected opportunity to relish the springtime beauty of the land in which they now lived. By 11 A.M. the elegant territorial capital city of Guthrie was in view.

Serenaded by the Alva Normal School band, the A&M delegation formed in colunms of four and, with flags flying, marched up Oklahoma Avenue to the Royal Hotel and Opera House. The Stillwater band played several selections and "we yelled a few to let them know we were there," the CoJJege Paper reported.^ Downing a hasty meal, the fans escorted their team to the Guthrie Fair Grounds and race track. After the quarter-mile track at home, Guthrie's mile track looked terribly long to the A&M men.

Inexplicably, the OU athletes were absent. Instead, they had chosen to play baseball at Alva that day. Delays in the program in Guthrie kept Alva from completing all the events before leaving for home to meet and defeat the University of Oklahoma, 14-2. The student body at Kingfisher, too small to offer competition in track events, won both singles and doubles in tennis. However, no points were awarded for tennis.^°

The athletic events included the mile walk, mile bicycle race, standing broad jump, the hop, skip and jump, and the hammer throw. At the end of the meet, A&M had won with 55 points. Central Normal had 44, Alva 13, and Kingfisher 0. The judges, it was noted, "especially endeared themselves to the boys by getting out and rustling around, acquiring fully as much dirt as anybody in the operation."^^

After an uproarious celebration supper at the hotel, everyone adjourned next door to the opera house, where Arthur Anderson placed second in oratory to a young lady from Central Normal.

The train left for home at 1 A.M. and the noise of the weary but exhilarated crowd prevented sleep for anyone before arrival in Stillwater around 4 o'clock. Students, faculty, and townspeople savored the day's exciting events that led to the winning of the Douglas Cup.

For weeks thereafter, Anderson haunted the Library stack room. Something about the winning oration reminded him of an article he had once read. Intercollegiate rules required competitors to write original material; plagiarism was considered a heinous offense. President Scott later announced in chapel that Anderson had found the article, which was the oration used by the winner. The A&M senior then was awarded first place by the oratorical association.

The following year. Field Day at A&M saw records tumble, the competitors striving to excel so the school could win a second leg on the Douglas Cup. As an added attraction, the first basketball game followed the customary track events. As a sport, it was a novelty with great crowd appeal. Most of the students and townspeople never had seen the game.


The court was dirt, there was no backboard, and the wind always blew. But the girls' basketball team of OAMC always drew a crowd. Bleachers would have provided a little comfort, but hardy fans viewed this 1901 practice standing along the grassy sidelines and seated in wagons and carriages. It was another six years before men's basketball got underway.

It was, for one thing, played out-of-doors on an improvised dirt court. And, more surprising to onlookers, it was played by the girls of A&M. The sophomores slipped past the juniors, 10-9. Although highly interested as spectators, the men showed no interest in developing teams of their own. It was clearly a girls' game!

Larger, more boisterous crowds, surrounded by more bands and more flags, found their way to Guthrie for the second Oklahoma Intercollegiate Athletic Meet May 24, 1901. Twenty A&M athletes were ready. The University of Oklahoma team, having realized the importance of the competition that had fired the entire territory's enthusiasm, came in force, attired in identical track suits. Clad far less elegantly, and sharply aware of it for the first time, the Tigers at least were the only competitors to erect a dressing tent on the grounds.

This time, with the shifting of the first place in oratory and A&M's victory in track and field the previous year, the feeling of friendly rivalry had faded. The antagonistic crowd numbered several thousand, all pulling for their own schools instead of for fine individual performances. And with the university on hand, the competition was intense, yet A&M won with 64 points. OU scored 47, Alva 12, Central 2, and Kingfisher 0. Kingfisher took both singles and doubles in tennis, but again received


no points.^2 Elated, the exuberant A&M following quickly ate supper, then took

the train to Edmond for the oratorical contest in the college auditorium. Although Marion Marie Woodson presented an excellent oration, the Stillwater contingent had considered the judges might be affected by tensions surrounding the two meets. They were not surprised when a coed from OU received first place and Woodson second.

Once again Angelo Scott and his students boarded the black and orange-decorated train with the Douglas Cup. Back in Guthrie, the train stopped for stragglers who had not made the trip to Edmond, then slowly steamed on toward Stillwater. Cinders and smoke from the locomotive blended with dirt from the roadbed and crossings and poured through the opened car v\dndows and doors.

"Hot and dirty as we were, the town met us at the station and rejoiced with us, for we 'farmers from the sticks' had met our rivals and proved the fallacy of a 'superior race,' " House observed.^^

The bright prospects for capturing the Douglas Cup permanently in 1902 created an infectious excitement across the campus. Rivalry between Charles Morrow and Arthur Tarr, sprinters and shot putters, was tense for the inter-class track meet April 22.

The fastest man in school was Bobby Burns, who owned a pair of spiked shoes. The rest of the team could only manage rubber-soled shoes. Each did the best he could to provide his own homemade equipment— heavy, hot and poorly fitted. One 1903 graduate estimated 95 percent of the A&M students worked at jobs paying ten cents an hour to sustain themselves. Athletics were still a luxury the college could not afford.

But the zest was as hearty as ever as the crowd spilled over the Guthrie grandstand May 23. The weather was perfect. Of the five schools in the association, only Northwestern of Alva did not appear. All the events ran smoothly. By late afternoon only the pole vault was yet to be completed. This was the most spirited contest of the day, narrowed down to A&M and OU when no other school entered the event. There would be no third place.

When the vaulting began near dusk, the score was A&M 52 1/2, OU 51, Central 4 1/2, and Kingfisher 0. Five points would be awarded to the winner, three for second place. Supporters for both schools could scarcely contain themselves. Widespread interest had drawn more than 5,000 fans to the fairgrounds that day.

And then it began in the stands. A rumble, then a roar. "Beat OU! Beat OU!" the crowd chanted for the first time. Tension mounted among the athletes. From across the field floated the "A&M College Song" written by President Scott:

"Oh, we are the students of the A.M.C. Ki Yi! Ki Ye!


The wearers of the Black and the Orange, we Rip Zip! Hooray! We haven't any great excess of cash. Yell A.M.C! And that's why we don't do anything rash, 0-K-L-A!"i^

A&M was winning with a vault OU had not equalled. The opponents complained about the lack of light and the Norman athletes asked for a postponement. But judges ruled that the meet could not be postponed because it had been called for that specific date. At any rate, it would soon have to be called for darkness. OU should proceed with the contest, the officials advised. Or it would be possible to divide the event's eight points equally between the contestants. Or OU could concede the event and the meet, but declined to do so.

The debate continued. Darkness ended it. Because A&M had scored the highest vault, the official score was

A&M 57 1/2, OU 54, Central 4 1/2, and Kingfisher 0. President Scott and Dr. Lewis accepted the Cup, while jeweler Douglas announced he would offer an even more handsome trophy for next year's meet.

Excitement was running higher than ever as the crowd hastened to the hotel to eat, then settled down next door in the Royal Opera House. Having bowed twice to young women orators, A&M now produced a charming, beautifully dressed blonde, Alice E. Jenkins. She was at home on the platform and had mastered her subject well. First place was hers!^^

Late into the night, the train was filled with the college yell. "Guthrie, Coyle, Vinco, Perkins, and Mehan had no doubt of our supremacy when we passed through their towns, ' ' an early graduate recalled. ' 'When we arrived at Stillwater, the overloaded train could hardly unload because of the crowded platform.'' In the middle of the night, half the town was there, wild with joy. The noise rode the south wind all the way to Yost Lake, where it was said fish did not bite much for a week.^^

A&M had the best orator, the best athletes, the best band, the biggest crowd and the best-looking girls, according to the StiJJwater Gazette. The CoJJege Paper said those who went to Guthrie had the worth of their money; those who didn't go, couldn't buy anything like it.

The following day the team, with Doc Lewis holding the cup, was officially photographed. All was well in Stillwater. Later, a letter arrived from OU athletic officials (not university officials). The team had returned to Guthrie for a postponed pole vault contest, the letter read, as they had announced the night of May 23, and vaulted. As no competitors had appeared, they were winners by default. Would the A&M athletic department deliver the Douglas Cup to them within ten days?

A&M would not. Because there were no witnesses, competitors, officials, judges, or


records, the unsanctioned event was viewed as illegal. President Scott, Dr. Lewis, and Director Fields advised the athletes to pay no attention to the demand.

Officers of the Territorial Athletic Board were students. The president that year was from OU, the vice president from A&M, the secretary from Central, the treasurer from Northwestern. Kingfisher was represented but did not hold an office. Soon after the fall term opened in 1902, the board called its annual meeting in Guthrie. Kingfisher and Northwestern felt a distaste for the uproar that had developed, dividing loyalties across the territory. They did not appear. ^

The agenda was brief. The president declared a quorum present. The secretary moved that A&M's membership in the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Athletic Association be declared void. There was no discussion. By a vote of 2-1, A&M College was expelled from competition.

Although the school was reinstated by the association in 1904, the momentum developed by three victorious years as the finest athletes in Oklahoma Territory was gone. Gone, too was the token of that spirit. But strong inter-class rivalries continued on the campus and after several faltering years, A&M's intercollegiate athletic prowess again came to light.

And so did that durable first trophy, the Douglas Cup.

Endnotes

1. R. Morton House, "In the Beginning," pp. 1, 2, 4, 8, 9, undated manuscript, Oklahoma State University Museum, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

2. Oklahoma A. and M. College Paper,A February 1900, p. 110.

3. College Paper, 1 February 1900, p. 120.

4. College Paper, 1 March 1900, pp. 129, 136-137.

5. College Paper, 1 March 1900, p. 129.

6. House, p. 4.

7. House, p. 4; Dan O'Kane, "Encore! Encore!" Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 56, no. 4 (July 1985), p. 20.

8. House, p. 2; College Paper, 1 May 1900, p. 18.

9. College Paper, 1 May 1900, p. 18.

10. House, p. 2.

11. College Paper, 1 May 1900, p. 19.

12. House, pp. 2-4.

13. House, p. 4.

14. House, p. 5.

15. House, p. 6; College Paper, July 1902, pp. 59-60.

16. House, p. 6.

17. House, p. 7.


3 The Football That Floated Away 1901-1904

The toast of the territory after its second intercollegiate track and field victory in Guthrie in the spring of 1901, Oklahoma A&M proceeded to form the school's first all-college football team during the fall session. School spirit soared even higher. For ten years each class had been competing vigorously against the others. Now students were urged to put class loyalty behind them and learn the new plays together.

The opener with territorial power Kingfisher College was a stiff challenge. As early as 1897 Kingfisher and the University of Oklahoma were meeting for football, and Kingfisher already had trounced the campus-and-community team playing under the A&M name in 1899.^

Still without the benefit of a paid coach, a slender Tiger squad of only fourteen traveled to the season's initial game. "Kingfisher won the choice of goals and took the up-hill side of a very slanting field," the CoJJege Paper reported later. The 12-0 score was uphill, too, but not as steep as it might have been.^

Oklahoma A&M's first football victory came in the season's second game against Northwestern Normal. The game was played at neither Alva nor Stillwater. In the days when transportation was an arduous, time-consuming process, games often were scheduled at a convenient central location. That first victorious game was staged at Perry in mid-afternoon on October 12. Twenty-four miles of muddy country roads made it impossible for all but the hardiest A&M students to attend the game.

Eight minutes into the game, A. W. Flower scored the first touchdown ever for the Orange and Black. As the afternoon wore on, Charles Morrow crossed the goal line for two more 5-point touchdowns and


In the fall of 1901, the first varsity football team played five games. This first team, composed of members from four different classes, consisted of (bottom row) Joseph Thornberry, Charles Morrow; (middle row) Ralph Kratka, George Janeway (business manager), Alva Pierce; (top row) R. Morton House, W. Thornberry, Charles Hughes, A. W. Flower, Rex Shively, Joseph Houska, and Charles Edgerton.

Arthur Tarr kicked two goals. J. W. Thornberry and Joe Houska carried the ball for frequent Tiger gains in the 17-0 game. And then it was over. The first triumph deserved a celebration—despite the lack of fans from Stillwater—and celebrate the A&M team did.^

Nighttime travel across the dark and sodden prairie in a horse-drawn hack or wagon was considered not only imprudent, but hazardous. Thus the return trip was postponed until daylight. The team spent the night at a Perry hotel. For the excited men, there was a hilarious meal in the hotel dining room. The fun began with a bit of biscuit throwing. And that led to one thing and another, all very mild. Nevertheless, "the drummers and other guests that night complained that the football fellows kept up a racket until well past bedtime."*

In the first intercollegiate football game ever played on the OAMC campus, the Tigers faced the Braves of Chilocco Indian School. In the early days, Chilocco fielded skilled college teams which met all the schools in northern Oklahoma. In this third game, it took a 110-yard run to defeat A&M. In 1901, the standard playing field was 110 yards


long and 53 yards wide.^ After a 40-yard run by Rex Shively, Ralph Kratka took the ball across

the line and the Tigers led, 5-0. Virgil Sutton's attempted field goal missed. Then, "by a series of line plays and fakes, the A&M team succeeded in getting the ball within a foot of the goal l ine," the CoJJege Paper reported. "Wallace Thornberry was given the ball and he rammed over the goal line but didn't know it and did not holler, 'Down,' ' ' which would have finished the play.^ The rules at that time required ballcarriers to shout "Down" when there was no hope for further advancement. The referee would then declare the play completed.^

"Then the ball was snatched from Thornberry's hands and the Redskin player was halfway down the field before our boys realized what had happened. The Indians kicked an easy goal and won 6-5," the story said wistfully.

Kingfisher defeated the Tigers a second time that season, this time by the narrower margin of 11-5 in Stillwater. On Thanksgiving Day "an aggregation of ex-football players and Indians" from Pawnee arrived at A&M. Play was ragged in the short halves of 20 and 15 minutes. The Tigers scored in both, downing the Pawnees, 12-0.^

Playing five games, the varsity had scored 39 points and held opponents to 29, for a 2-3 record. The enormous momentum fed by those respectable first efforts might easily have swept A&M on to an exciting schedule the next fall, launching an early tradition for greatness. But a football tragedy dashed those hopes. Instead, the dynamic team was dismantled. There was no intercollegiate football for Oklahoma A&M in 1902.9

Sports v^iter Otis Wile, who for years compiled a football almanac read and admired in college football offices and newspaper sports departments across the country, once explained the lack of games that year was long considered the result of the high spirits and "biscuit throwing" in Perry following the school's first football victory—a black mark for the school which had always been known for its gentlemanly behavior.

However, in recent years, a manuscript by Morton House, of the class of 1903, described an unscheduled game that took place on an off weekend: "A promiscuously assembled team was made up on the campus, some regular players and some not, to travel to a neighboring town which had challenged us to play an unscheduled game with a team made up of their own town boys, who were untrained, without a coach, and unusually tough."

The unnamed team's line was almost impenetrable. The boys from Stillwater decided to use a flying wedge to buck their opponent 's line, with Houska, a freshman but the strongest Tiger, at the head of the wedge. The other team dogpiled the point man, according to House,


and crushed his chest. "The next day our fine and generally admired student, Joe Houska,

a wonderful boy from Kremlin, Oklahoma, died," House wrote. The faculty immediately ruled that no scheduled football would be played in 1902. Further, no home games would be played off-campus in the future. 1°

Although dealt a serious blow, athletics grew stronger. In March 1903, constitution and by-laws were adopted by the Athletic Association. Every student—young man and young woman—taking part in athletic contests was required to be a member and pay the 25 cents dues. Membership entitled the athlete to use the gymnasium, and every student was encouraged to do so for at least fifteen minutes a day.^^

When football practice could be resumed in the fall of 1903, there was no lack of enthusiasm among the players or the student body. What was lacking, however, was skill, and a knowledgeable coach paid to teach football. Despite high hopes and an outpouring of energy by the Tigers, they were thumped by Epworth University and the Oklahoma State Military Institute, both of Oklahoma City. A game with the University Preparatory School of Tonkawa ended scoreless, and a rematch with the military academy was a 6-6 tie.^^

Not until 1905 did A&M's team manage to score a touchdown against Central of Edmond for a 5-0 victory, and another in a 6-5 loss to the Tulsa Business Men, forerunners of Tulsa's Chamber of Commerce. In eleven of the fifteen games from 1903 to the end of the 1905 season, the Orange and Black was held scoreless.^^

It was with a less than glittering record, then, that A&M faced the University of Oklahoma. The game, arranged by fans in the territorial capital, took place on November 5, 1904, at the old Island Park on the banks of the often turbulent Cottonwood Creek. The Sooners had begun the sport in 1895 and, by the time they met the Tigers, were firmly established. Fred Ewing already was OU's fifth football coach.

Although the 75-0 OU romp was a disaster for A&M, the widely-reported game has been remembered primarily because of the strange first touchdown, scored after an impromptu game of water polo in the icy waters of the Cottonwood. At that time, either team could recover a loose ball off the playing field. And if ever a ball was loose, that one wasl^*

Guthrie's OkJahoma State Capitol published an account of the strange play under the headline "Swam Ten Yards to Touchdown."

"Ed Cook, left half back for Oklahoma University, swam ten yards for the first touchdown of the game with the A. and M. College of Stillwater at Island Park yesterday afternoon, a thing which perhaps never occurred before in the history of football.

"With the ball six inches from the goal line. Captain [O. P.] Calla-


han of the Stillwater team attempted to punt. The pigskin went straight up in the air and the wind wafted the ball back toward the south. The scrimmage for it began on the bank of the Cottonwood behind Stillwater's goal. The ball was knocked into the river. [W. L.] Burlison and [R. C] Baird for Stillwater and [Ed] Cook, [Frank] Long, and [T. Becker] Mathews for the University plunged in after it. Baird was first to get his hands on the elusive oval, but only sent it further into the stream. Cook finally secured it after a ten yard swim."^^

Roy E. Waggoner, an OU tackle, received his medical degree at Norman before practicing in Stillwater. For years, he was the A&M team physician. He became one of the few owning the "O" jacket of both state teams. Dr. Waggoner once said of the odd event, "There was a cold north wind and we just about froze in those wet uniforms. But we climbed back out of the creek and tried to keep warm playing." At least one who plunged in is said to have remembered belatedly that he couldn't swim.

Cook, who recovered the punt, later finished his education and playing years at Stillwater, because subjects he needed were not available at OU before statehood. He became a letterman for both schools.

Since the "agriculturists" had been faring well against OU in track and oratory, Guthrie industrialist John Coyle had anticipated an A&M

When basketball was introduced to the campus, it was a popular outdoor sport, played in the fall and winter by women students. The young women showed their talents on the court and in the domestic science classroom, stitching up their own black uniforms trimmed with crimson braid. An early team was composed of (front row) Stella Nelson, Lila Nelson, Mary Milholland, Esther North; (second row) Abrigale Nelson, Pearl Holmes, Mamie Houston, Mary Jarrell, and Mary Nielson.


victory and gave the Tigers a seven-course dinner after the game. In later years, the 1904 game became such a nostalgic favorite across

the state that surviving OU and A&M team members met annually until the late 1950s for a luncheon preceding the Aggie-Sooner game.^^

Football fortunes were at an all-time low at the beginning of the century, but women's basketball had become a campus favorite. Interest had begun to rise in 1901 when the first basketball game followed the Field Day events. The girls proved they were skilled off the court as well, stitching up their playing uniforms in the A&M sewing laboratory. Long dark bloomers and middy blouses formed the standard playing attire.^^

In 1902, the CoJJege Paper observed: "The basket ball game between the College and the High School young ladies, which was played on October 11, was well attended and much enthusiasm was displayed on both sides. The game was characterized by the number of fouls on both sides, but with more practice the teams will have less of this. The playing of the College team was all that could be expected, and we feel sure that before long it will make an excellent showing."^^ The score? The college 14, the high school 4.

By 1904, a schedule had begun involving other colleges. The StiJJwater Democrat announced somewhat informally that autumn, "The college basketball team will pull hair with the Kingfisher team at this place next Wednesday. Everybody should turn out and see the girls scratch. "^^ In the outdoor event at the College Athletic Grounds, A&M won 18-4, despite November's chill.

Serious indeed were class meetings at which cheers were composed and rehearsed. There was nothing casual about it. A rousing cheer could add "ginger, pep and jazz" to any event. OAMC's favorite cheer rang at the end of the singing of the school's favorite song: "Ki-yi! Ki-ye! Rip, zip, hooray! O-A-M-C, O-K-L-A!"20

It was also an era when the first few telephones were being used in Stillwater. Workmen had laid a brick walk southeast of the campus so the students could walk to town, but the old boardwalk at the entrance to the college remained a headache. Boards there were warped and loose, and the whole boardwalk—although better than nothing in muddy weather—tended to foster a seasick motion, swaying when walked upon.

Silent movies were beginning to make their way to town. Programs at Stillwater's large Grand Opera House on East Ninth offered traveling troupes which presented opera, minstrel and vaudeville shows. Dr. Scott's chorus class staged H.M.S. Pinafore and the Mikado there. College plays, dances, community festivities, and church cantatas were held there, as well. Indoor plumbing was still to come for most, and radio and television were far in the future.

Golf was, as one graduate put it, "still in Scotland." Stillwater had no night clubs, no autos, and no airplanes, although it was now linked


Sports facilities were almost nonexistent at the turn of the century. In the spring of 1906, tennis courts (on the right) were located just west of Knoblock Street where the Seretean Center now stands. The outdoor basketball court was located immediately northwest of the tennis courts.

to the rest of the world by a railroad spur. Paved highways would be unknown for another thirty years. Baseball was great fun, but who could afford the expense of suiting up or could manage transportation to meet other teams?2i

Basketball wasn't viewed as a competitive sport. When Baker University in Kansas wanted to hire Forrest C. Allen as basketball coach, the game's inventor. Dr. James Naismith, took it as a great joke. "You can't coach basketball!" he declared. "You just play it."22 Nonetheless, ' 'Phog" Allen would become one of the great basketball coaches in history and a staunch opponent of A&M for some thirty years.

State politics were touchy. The 1903 seniors hanged the governor in effigy at Morrison's Corner Drug Store for vetoing a much-needed appropriation for campus improvements, but escaped reprimand. One group or another was always hoisting its class colors to the apex of Old Central's roof in the bright Oklahoma moonlight. Horse racing and prize fighting were out, of course. Why, that would lead to gambling. Nor had an auditorium or stadium been constructed in the 14-year-old town.23

"But, boy! We enjoyed what we had ," one athlete said later. "The world was ours and we were earning our college degrees, getting ready to meet all opposition and conquer the world. "2*


Endnotes

1. Otis Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs: The Chronological Story of Sports at Oklahoma State University From the Beginning in the 1890s Through the 1960s," pp. 21, 9, manuscript, Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

2. Oklahoma A. and M. College Paper, 1 November 1901, p. 116.

3. College Paper, 1 November 1901, pp. 117-118.

4. Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs," pp. 23-24.

5. College Paper, 1 November 1901, p. 118; Frank G. Menke, The Encyclopedia of Sports, fifth revised edition (Cranbury, New Jersey: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1975), p. 411.


7. Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs," p. 23.

8. College Paper, 2 December 1901, pp. 153-154.


10. R. Morton House, "That Wonderful A. & M. Class of 1903," p. 7, undated manuscript, Oklahoma State University Museum, Stillwater, Oklahoma.


12. College Paper, March 1903, p. 49, 15 October 1903, p. 95.


14. College Paper, December 1904, p. 54; Jim Weeks, The Sooners: A Story of Oklahoma Football {\-\unts\/\lle, Alabama: Strode Publishers, 1974), p. 18.

15. College Paper, December 1904, p. 54.

16. Otis Wile, "Veterans of '04 OU-Aggie Game Will Rally Saturday," Payne County Historical Review, vol. 2, no. 2 (October 1981), p. 28.

17. House, p. 12.

18. College Paper, November 1902, p. 102.



21. House, pp. 10, 19.

22. Dr. Forrest C. Allen, Coach 'Phog" Allen's Sports Stories for You and Youth (Lawrence, Kansas: Allen Press, 1947), p. 175.

23. House, pp. 15, 18.

24. House, p. 19.


4 The Doldrums Finally End 1904 -1909

As the years sped by, the sports program at Oklahoma A&M College gradually settled into a routine. Rules governing athletics adopted by the faculty in 1904 called for approval of all contests before final arrangements were made by the Athletic Association. Team members had to be in good academic standing and were required to have permission from all instructors before leaving for off-campus competition. Those found to be ineligible could be suspended if they accompanied the team; the captain or manager could be suspended indefinitely if he allowed an ineligible player to travel.

That last rule later would trigger a spirited student walkout headed by a young athlete named Ed Gallagher in defense of the college's first paid—and first fired—football coach.

The school fielded its first baseball team in 1904. In 1905, the Southwest Normal School of Weatherford was admitted to the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Athletic Association, its sixth member. OAMC's first cross country run was held April 5. Practice for spring events was still being done by the A&M students, with faculty members volunteering their time. While other schools already provided trainers, A&M athletes struggled on their own to raise money to hire one to build "a first class team to compete with other colleges of the Territory. "^

Athletic meetings often were held on the athletic field just north of Morrill Hall under the shade of the tamarisk hedge. That may have been the scene where team hopefuls met the school's first official coach and physical director, F. A. McCoy.^ Whether he was Frank McCoy, 1905 A&M letterman, isn't clear, but the College Paper noted that the new director was "one of the most competent men in the West in athletics. ' '


McCoy quickly learned athletic funds were very low and since, as the CoJJege Paper put it, "It is money that makes the mare go ," finances were one of his greatest difficulties.^ As the newspaper saw it, a second "handicap" lay in the high athletic standards which precluded A&M's meeting many of the school's rough-and-tumble competitors in the athletic world on even terms. Being known as "gentlemanly" could be quite a strain at times.

All across the country during the winter of 1905-06, football was on trial for its young life. College men loved the game. Their families did not. Deaths and crippling injuries were caused by mass plays using raw strength and great weight. More than one mother made her A&M-bound son promise not to play football in those years. Parents in other states were extracting the same pledge from their sons.

A&M's Angelo Scott was not the first college president to be queried about his stand on the sport. Many college leaders banned or threatened to ban football at once if rules allowing brute force were not changed drastically.

The furious debate boiled all the way to the top. Finally, when President Theodore Roosevelt lashed out, saying the game must be made safer, it was. By 1906, advocates of football had ruled out nearly all mass formations, banned hurdling, allowed the newfangled forward pass and installed other much-needed safety measures.*

A fine rain was falling and the field was muddy when the A&M College football team edged the Normal School at Edmond, 5-0, on October 30, 1905. Fumbles were frequent for both teams, but the game marked the highly welcomed first victory in three years.^

Lackluster games followed, even when Lt. Boyd A. Hill succeeded McCoy in 1906 as physical director and volunteer football coach. Hill had completed his college work at Edmond after severe illness forced him to leave during his senior year at West Point in 1902. After teaching at Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas, Hill came to A&M.

With prospects presumably looking up, the Athletic Association voted in 1906 to award sweaters monogrammed with an orange " O " to first team football players. That winter, too, saw Hill handpicking men in gym classes for special exhibitions.^

Talk of impending single statehood uniting the old Oklahoma and Indian Territories dominated the campus throughout 1907. The changes that lay ahead were infinitely more exciting than anything connected with college football. By the end of 1907 A&M had won only 5 of 32 games and tied 7. Determined to help, the Girls' Rooters Club was formed. The Girls' Athletic Association also came into being at that time "to inspire more enthusiasm in athletics in general and especially in such outdoor sports as tennis and basket ball."^

After years of watching the women's basketball skills grow, the men


formed a team during the winter of 1907. The Tigers downed an Oklahoma City team, 13-9; lost to Henry Kendall College (later Tulsa University), 31-24, before upending Kendall, 37-22; and bowed to OU, 37-19 and 41-9. Undreamed of then, in thirty-eight years A&M would bring home the first of two consecutive national championships. The school's home court was housed at the north end of an armory and shops building where the College of Business Administration Building would stand in future years. Hungry students with 15 cents for a hearty plate lunch also found Ben Banks' College Cafeteria a popular spot in that same building.

A&M's first tentative steps toward national fame on the basketball courts of America were in keeping with its over-all athletic growth. The floor was small; the goals were simply nailed against the walls. The college couldn't afford the cost of illuminating the building for practice. That was carried on outdoors, still customary at many schools then, with the gymnasium lighted only for the four or so games each year.

Walter Jessee, the college's first three-sport star, was outstanding in football, track and basketball. He once defined the "improvements" made for growing numbers of basketball fans in the cramped gym.

"There were no seats for spectators, but later on a crude row of bleachers was set up along one side of the court and chicken wire strung in front of the row of seats," he wrote, presumably to protect onlookers. The whole arrangement was informal. When the seats were put in along one side, the goals were no longer centered at the ends of the court.^

!V

I* f* f

While still considered an outdoor sport, basketball games were now played in the Shops Building and Gymnasium, later known as Civil Engineering. Seating was cramped and the goals were off-centered, but the sport was gaining fans. For three or four special match-ups each year, the college allowed the lights to be turned on. The new tennis courts built in 1910 can be seen to the rear of Morrill Hall.


And no one bothered to change them. Victor Herbert was, inadvertently, responsible for a deeply

entrenched facet of A&M athletic tradition, the waving song. His lyricist was the school's speech instructor H. G. "Seldy" Seldomridge, and the year was 1908. Seldomridge had gone to Columbia University to scout for a senior class play. While there he heard "In Old New York," the hit song from the operetta. The Red MiJJ. Even blase New Yorkers were humming the lilting air on the city streets. Seldy returned to Oklahoma humming it, too.

Shortly thereafter he incorporated "In Old New York" into the closing number of a college follies show being rehearsed in Stillwater's Grand Opera House. But as he studied the stage decorated in orange and black for a campus scene, complete with Japanese lanterns, OAMC pennants and a large bonfire, Seldy knew New York's praises were completely out of place in a southwestern college setting.

"Suddenly OAMC flashed to my mind," he explained in 1941. He asked the 30-voice choir to take a break, grabbed a piece of wrapping paper, rested it on a box backstage, hummed, and scribbled. In less than ten minutes he had the alternate lyrics that would enliven sports events far beyond opening night!

For that finale, a letterman representing each sport joined the chorus on stage. The students added their own memorable touch. As they swayed and sang "OAMC! OAMC! We'll sing your praise tonight," they waved in unison to the audience.

"It almost raised the roof of the old building," noted Seldomridge, who left the campus in 1910. Exhilarated, the crowd surged to its feet and returned the rhythmic wave. It took two encores before the campus and community gathering was willing to relinquish the emotion of the moment.

"From that night on, you could frequently hear someone on campus whistling the tune," he recalled, touched that OAMC's waving song was even remembered as late as 1941.^

At last the school moved in 1908 to strengthen its football fortunes. Ed E. Parry, a University of Chicago graduate, was hired as A&M's first paid coach, handling all major sports in season. A&M's football head coaching duties also included basketball and baseball until 1929, when an era of greater specialization began. Although gym class was now required and exercises, floor work, dumbbell and Indian club drills, horizontal bar, short horse, and parallel bars were taught. Parry was the first faculty member whose assignment was strictly coaching.

He began work at once with the crack A&M track team in the spring of 1908, providing an explosion of campus interest. First, Parry's slim six-man squad ran away with one of the most prestigious events in the school's history, the Southwest Track and Field Championships held


(|||||i||i||i|P

Biiiiiiiiiiii

Always strong contenders in track, early OAMC men excelled at 220-yard hurdles. Facilities were elementary, but the thinclads were full of ginger. With telephones linking the campus to the rest of the world, who could ask for more?

far away in Austin, Texas. Captain Gallagher, "the fastest man in the Southwest," excelled in

dashes and hurdles, along with teammates Will Potter in the 440 and 880, Jessee in hurdles, C. A. Wood in 440 and relay, Obie Baird in the dashes and relay, and David L. Holmes in the long jump, sprints and relay. The Stillwater men amassed 42 points. Texas University was second with 29, Oklahoma University had 26, and Texas A&M 18.

The Oklahoma Intercollegiate Track and Field Contest came on the heels of the Austin triumph. The Oklahoma City meet was closely contested by OAMC and Central Normal, with the Tigers from A&M winning. By now, the college also was a member of the Southwestern Athletic Association and the Amateur Athletic Association of America. A commencement week trouncing of the Kansas Aggie trackmen of Manhattan capped the school year.

That fall of 1908, with Gallagher as captain and Parry as coach, the first A&M football team to have a winning season blossomed with four victories and three defeats. Money materialized somehow and the Athletic Association received fifteen complete football uniforms, with fifteen extra shirts, shoes, and headgear! The old improvised suits could be handed down to the scrubs.^^

The Daily Oklahoman observed of the 1908 A&M-OU game in Stillwater, "The game lasted two hours, was attended by 1,000 people, and was full of ginger throughout. In the beginning it appeared to be an easy victory for OU, but the work of A&M's Gallagher and others routed the good fortunes and to the end it was a stiff fight." It was 0-0 at the half.


but the Aggies tired and OU wrapped it up, 18-0.^^ There would be decades ahead when 18-0 would have been prefera

ble to the scores the school at Norman managed to attain, but the A&M campus newspaper, now named the Orange and Black, fumed, "What is the matter with the A&M football teamT''^^

Twice the track team had traveled beyond the state line. Now it was time for A&M's football team to do the same. The men headed north to play Southwestern at Winfield, Kansas, on a Thursday and Kansas State at Manhattan on Saturday. Playing without Captain Gallagher and a teammate named Ben Cover, the team finally blanked Winfield, 6-0. Gallagher met the team that night, and they boarded a train for Manhattan to face the powerful Aggies.

Although the Kansans flattened their tired visitors, 40-10, the Kansas City Star said Gallagher's run nearly the length of the gridiron for a touchdown during the first three minutes of play "sure gave Manhattan a horrible fright." Bob Stebbins swept end for 25 yards for the only other score before Kansas State settled down to serious work. Three-quarters of a century later, Gallagher's 99-yard run in that game still would stand as a school record.^^

On Thanksgiving Day, A&M avenged an early-season loss to Edmond with a 17-0 victory, thus earning the title of "champion foot ball team of the state. "^* Already the successful coach was anticipating the spring sports. That November, he urged, "Let every man who has the right 'spirit' get out and identify himself with some form of athletics. No one knows; you may be an undiscovered Gallagher or some other 'world beater,' who can step out and help A. and M. to its front rank, where she rightfully belongs. "^^

In the season's final game, Chilocco's Braves were trailing 30-0 when darkness forced the game to be called with ten minutes remaining. Ineligible because he had been dismissed from classes for "disobedience," Ben Cover was allowed to play in the away game by Coach Parry, a move which cost the school's first football coach his job.

Since Chilocco was not a member of the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Parry maintained he had not broken the rule of eligibility. Although dominant schools in the Oklahoma Intercollegiate group were openly ignoring the regulations, OAMC President J. H. Connell, like his predecessor Angelo Scott, believed in upholding the rules.

As the controversy over Parry's dismissal swept the school, the state watched. On December 13, 1908, the OkJahoman assessed the situation: "Four hundred of the 500 members of the student body . . . walked out on strike" over the discharge of Coach Ed Parry of the football team. At a meeting of the student body, Ed Gallagher, captain of the football team, declared the charges against Parry unwarranted. "A high pitch of excitement" existed, and students declared they would not return


to school until Parry was reinstated."^ President Connell was in accord with the State Board of Agriculture.

As student spokesman, Gallagher was said to be equally firm, but the story did not linger in the headlines. Parry did not return. The students did.

In the fall, illness struck young Hill, the physical director. His wife was serving as director of physical culture for women. Hill died December 31, 1908, in Stillwater.''

W. E. Schreiber, noted Harvard athlete named to one of the first All-America teams chosen by Walter Camp, took over Hill's assignments as well as those of Parry. The following spring the baseball team appeared in uniform and a new vaulting pole and standards arrived for the track men. As physical training director, Schreiber played a vital role m the expanding college during its formative years.

During his senior year, Gallagher was named assistant physical director and was given responsibility for the track team, while A&M awaited the arrival of new track coach R. A. Young. During his years as a student, the fleet Gallagher was the best-known athlete in the state For three of his four years on the track team, he had been the star, setting state records for the 100-yard dash (9.8 seconds), the 220-yard dash (216 seconds), and in the 220-yard hurdles (24.6 seconds) that stood for more than two decades.

Busy in campus activities as he sped to athletic fame, the slim Irishman was president of his senior class. His leadership was recognized by a gold watch, a token of esteem from students and faculty in 1909 Upon graduation, Gallagher elected to remain at A&M on the faculty

Ed Gallagher was known across the Southwest for his great track time Althouoh not his he^t speed, he finished this 220-yard dash in 22.2 seconds. Gallagher also exce^ ed at football bu he would gam international renown for developing champions and the sporf of restHng


^ 1%

The 1909 football team was the champion college football team of the state. Identified as "1909 OAMC The Lineup Squad," this hearty bunch was ready for action.

His name would echo through the history of Oklahoma A&M College as the school's first major athletic hero, but his contributions in years ahead would overshadow even those tremendous early accomplishments.

Joining Schreiber to take over football, basketball, and baseball was Coach Paul Jones Davis, a star at Dickinson College of Pennsylvania. He had been listed in the Spaulding Voothall Guide for having booted the second longest kick of the time, a 58-yard field goal against Pittsburgh in 1905. Davis was expected to help bring the fledgling athletic program at A&M to fruition and he did.^^

*'Mr. Davis has the hurry up idea in his coaching work, notices the little things, compels the big things, seems to know each man's duty, inspires confidence, and above all, he is the 'boss' on the athletic field," the Orange and Black reported with satisfaction. **He asserts he can put out a successful team if we will furnish football shoes and spirit. Spirit is the important thing."^^

The school's first really successful gridiron coach, Davis fired his teams to 29 victories, losing 15 and tying one, from 1909 to 1914. His baseball teams were standouts as well. The O.A. Association was formed in 1909 by student and alumni lettermen to support the athletic program. James K. Ross was president. To raise funds for letter sweaters, the Pastime Theatre held a benefit showing.20

In the fall of 1909, a concerted push was on to establish the Tiger nickname. Football jerseys were black with orange-striped sleeves, echoing the Princeton Tigers' famous uniforms. To bolster the image, the Varsity Store presented a 7-foot banner on which a crouching tiger held a football in its paws, the Orange and BJack reported. '^Consequently we should all call the team the Tigers."21

But an exotic jungle beast as a mascot or nickname still made little


By 1909 an old pastime had become a sport with renewed interest. Coach Paul Jones Davis became the new coach of football, basketball, and baseball.

sense to students and fans alike. The nickname never really caught on. The teams were most often known in the early newspapers and among loyal followers as the Oklahoma Aggies.

With Gallagher coaching the track team in addition to working with gymnasium classes, A&M won its seventh state track championship in eleven years. Shining in the OAMC trophy case now were sixteen major track trophies, from the modest Douglas Cup to the towering Southwestern Intercollegiate Athletic Association cup.22

Records which then thrilled fans have long since fallen. But the stalwarts of track were running in knee-length pants on turf tracks. Starting blocks were yet to come into use. Precision stopwatches were not available. Fiberglass poles, light-weight running spikes and all-weather surfaces were undreamed of. And still the men of A&M won.

After years of haphazard coaching, the athletic staff was now providing expert instruction and the essential strength that comes from continuity was visible in the improved teams they sent forth.


Endnotes

1. Oklahoma A. and M. College Paper, March 1905, p. 97.

2. College Paper, June 1905, p. 118; Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College Annual Catalogue, 1905- 1906, With Announcements for 1906-1907, p. 6 and Erratum following Index.

3. College Paper, October 1905, p. 12.

4. R. Morton House, "That Wonderful A. and M. Class of 1903," p. 3, undated manuscript, Oklahoma State University Museum, Stillwater, Oklahoma; Frank G. Menke, The Encyclopedia of Sports, 5th revised edition (Cranbury, New Jersey: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1975), p. 409.



7. Oklahoma A. and M. College Orange and Black, September 1908, pp. 42, 49.

8. Otis Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs: The Chronological Story of Sports at Oklahoma State University From the Beginning in the 1890s Through the 1960s," pp. 47- 48, manuscript. Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

9. Record Book Committee, compiler. "Selections from the Record Book of the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, 1891 -1941. Compiled on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding of the College," vol. 1, copy 2, p. 25.

10. Orange and Black, April 1908, p. 14; Wile, pp. 41-43.

11. Wile, p. 44.

12. Orange and Black, October 1908, p. 34.

13. Wile, p. 45.

14. Orange and Black, November 1908, pp. 3-5.

15. Orange and Black, November 1908, p. 6.

16. Oklahoma City Daily Oklahoman, 13 December 1908, p. 1.

17. Wile, p. 37.

18. Orange and Black, January 1909, p. 16, 10 September 1913, pp. 1, 4; Wile, pp. 49, 56; 1911 Redskin, p. 120, Oklahoma A. and M. College Yearbook.


20. Wile, p. 75; Orange and Black, November 1909, p. 10, December 1909, p. 13.


22. Wile, p. 56.


5 Hard Work and Bull Dog Grit 1910-1915

The first towering figure on the athletic scene at Oklahoma A&M College was Dr. Lowery Layman Lewis. Along with John Fields, early Agricultural Experiment Station head, Lewis forged the school's fledgling sports program.

He arrived in Stillwater in 1896 as professor of veterinary medicine. Undaunted by the single brick Assembly Building on the campus and an enrollment of 130, the 26-year-old Tennessee native rose from professor to dean. A versatile leader, Lewis became dean of veterinary medicine and later dean of the School of Science and Literature. He served under five presidents and was interim president from 1914 to 1915, when J. W. Cantwell was appointed to succeed J. H. Connell.

While he was not officially linked with sports at A&M, the enthusiastic Dean Lewis took the initiative in organizing early track and football teams, encouraging students to sample different events and to participate for their school. He helped schedule games, and was always on hand at events as an official or an ardent rooter. Before long, he was recognized as **the most beloved figure" in territorial scholastic circles. To students, he was known affectionately as *'Old Doc Lew."

Under his guidance, the quarter-mile running track was laid out. Dean Lewis also helped locate the football field, placing it in a north-south position north of Morrill Hall. Although gridirons were traditionally located in that direction, Oklahoma's strong prevailing winds soon convinced all concerned that a field extending east-west would leave the games' outcome less to the caprice of the wind and more to the efforts of the football teams.

In later years, architects would again stress the north-south configu-


ration. The agriculture-oriented administration, more mindful than most of the need to cooperate with the elements, retained the east-west layout for the field.2

The patron saint of early-day athletics had been an integral part of the campus for fourteen years when in 1910 the Athletic Association heartily endorsed the suggestion to honor Dean Lewis by naming the athletic grounds Lewis Field. The entire student body agreed. The request gained quick approval for the man "who has labored for more than ten years in the interests of A&M athletics.' ' When sturdier bleacher seating was erected for football games, the facility continued to bear his name.

That same year, the Redskin, first of the college yearbooks, was dedicated to Doc Lew, as was a later edition. Then only 40, Dr. Lewis served term after term on the Athletic Council, a governing board that handled matters of eligibility, event scheduling, and other problems confronting the athletic program.

Men's basketball had come on strong, filling the little gymnasium to capacity for home games in the winter of 1909-10. With Athletic Director W. E. Schreiber coaching. Central Normal was trounced 55-6. The scoring gap was a symptom of Oklahoma schools' ever-present struggle to improve facilities faster than there were funds to do so. Central's plight was typical. The Normalites still had an outdoor court and were unable to practice in bad weather.

Two losses in the brief season could be chalked up to height. The University of Oklahoma had a center who was reputed to be seven feet tall. And the Shawnee Athletic Club played in a building with a very low ceiling, where the ball rattled around amid the rafters much of the time.

A&M's 1910-11 successes led the Orange and BJack to expound that in no field of athletics has Coach Davis' ability to infuse into his men the rugged bull dog spirit so necessary for athletic success shown than that displayed by his proteges. And the Redskin echoed, ' 'Hard work and Bull Dog grit is what makes us fast on the track."*

Apparently neither ingredient was available to the cagers, for no basketball team was fielded in 1911. However, as the weather warmed, students and faculty kept the school's three grass tennis courts busy and the West End Racquet Club accepted challenges from other parts of the state. Inter-class sports continued to flourish.

Although baseball had been dropped for two years, A&M was back on the diamond in 1909 and by 1910 fielded a team which ranked among the state's best. The squad took the 1912 state championship after what may remain the longest baseball game in Oklahoma A&M's history.^ After twenty long innings during a sandstorm, the score was 1-1 for the state's keenest rivals. ''Darkness Stops Great Contest," the Daily Oklahoman


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Wind-whipped Aggies and Sooners battled through 20 innings in a wild sandstorm for the 1912 state collegiate baseball championship. Tied at 1-1 by dark on an unlighted field in Norman, the gallant teams resumed play the following day. A&M cinched its second consecutive crown, 4-3.

headlined the story. "Norman, Apr. 25—Great met Great on Boyd Field Thursday after

noon when the Sooners and the Aggies clashed for the collegiate baseball championship of the state and neither of the superb aggregations went down to defeat. For 20 innings they fought until darkness closed the most memorable athletic contest of any kind ever held on Boyd Field and the players were borne off on the shoulders of their admirers with the score 1-1.

"In every department both teams showed gilt-edged ability and the


contest was remarkably fast and clean, savoring rather of big league ball than a college contest. While the work of all twenty men who participated was brilliant, it is to the opposing pitchers that the laurels of the great battle belong. Josh Billings and Ray Courtright, the two premier collegiate twirlers, fought each other to a standstill and neither had an appreciable advantage.^

So strong was the gale from the south that play was halted nearly every other inning, to let the sand roll by, then settle.^

A&M's Billings struck out twenty, while Courtright had fifteen. Eight safe hits were garnered off Billings, the story said, and six off Courtright's delivery. Each walked one man and neither had a wild pitch nor a hit batsman scored against him. The game was scoreless until it was tied in the eleventh inning. In the next nine innings, neither side could force across the winning run.^

The highlight of the game came in the fourteenth when Aggie pitcher Billings swung on the ball "with terrific force and it shot like a bullet for Courtright's head. He threw up his hands and caught it before the crowd . . . knew where it was gone."

As he left the plate, Billings gallantly tipped his cap to his opponent.^ The following day's game lacked the tense twilight drama of that

history-setting game, but saw the Aggies wrap up their second consecutive title as Oklahoma champions, 4-3.

A phenomenal track season followed the baseball heroics. After a 93-24 victory over Arkansas here. May 3 found the team in Soonerland. An Oklahoman sports writer exclaimed, "In one of the most spectacular track meets ever seen on Boyd Field, the Oklahoma A&M College defeated the University of Oklahoma here . . . by a score of 69-48. [Taft] Talbot of the Aggies easily was the all-round man, scoring 21 of the points made by his school." The Sooners showed superiority only in the weights.^°

Across the country football groundsmen were busy in the fall of 1912, changing the length of the playing field. Until then 110 yards long, the dimensions were changed to provide for 100-yard fields with 10 yards behind each goal.^^

A rash of monumental football scores captivated Aggieland from 1911 to 1913. It all started in 1911 with an 84-0 victory over small Kingfisher. For the next three consecutive season openers, scores skyrocketed. In 1912 Central Normal went down to the unaccustomed tune of 81-0 as Coach Davis sent every man into the game. On the sidelines, cheerleaders Red Tarver and L. D. Harrison aided Porter's "Ragtime Military Band" in keeping things lively. A full-throated response poured from the Rooters Club organized by Tarver.^2

Members of the 1912 football varsity were the first to be awarded " O " blankets. Howard T. Bonar, class of 1913 and an end on the 1912


They clowned for the crowd and mugged for the camera, but yell leaders L. D. Harrison and Red Tarver kept enthusiasm at fever pitch during the athletic events and did much to control fans' behavior during cross-state rivalries.

team, received the first from Coach Davis. Fifty years later in 1962 at homecoming festivities, Bonar would return the black wool blanket to the school for display.

In 1913, the lettermen dropped the historic O.A. emblem then being awarded athletes at many A&M colleges. The men now favored a distinctive 10-inch black " O " for football lettermen, 9-inch Old English letter for baseball, 9-inch oval for track, and 9-inch round letter for basket-ball.13

The 1913 season saw Central State tripped, 81-0; Blackwell Baptist College swallowed, 79-0; and the Oklahoma Methodists leveled, 90-0. Phillips was a 112-3 casualty and 1914 was even worse for the Enid school, 134-0. There were other lopsided scores as well. Steps were soon underway to toughen future schedules.

Always a mainstay in school pride, track provided unaccustomed disappointments in 1913. A&M bowed to the Texas Longhorns, 67-50, and OU took the Oklahoma Intercollegiate, 44-34. But the third loss was even more of a shock to the campus.

Baker University of Baldwin, Kansas, that state's oldest school, offered young track coach and physical instructor Ed Gallagher the position of head of athletics and coach of all sports. He would be working


nine months of the year instead of twelve in the "next largest gymnasium in the West" and at a much improved salary. In the four years after his graduation from A&M, Gallagher had guided his teams twice to state championships, twice defeated Arkansas University and topped OU in two of three duals.

When Gallagher accepted the offer, the Orange and Black sighed, "surprise and disappointment was evident on every side."^*

John M. Corbett became the new director of athletics in 1913, following the valued Schreiber's departure. A. M. Colville was added to the staff as Corbett's assistant and Claude M. Allen, 1908 Olympic vaulter, was hired to boost the fortunes of the track team. The athletic budget was aided by the sale of season tickets for all sports at $6 per fan; $5 for a student. Entry to individual games was generally 50 cents, although for major events it climbed to $1.

The year of 1914 saw tennis become a varsity sport, joining football, track and baseball. Although A&M lost, 4-2, the diamond schedule was spiced by a meeting with the touring Chinese University baseball team from Honolulu. Men's basketball was allowed to lapse in 1913-14 but would resume the next year.

Another winning football year was unfolding that fall when a fiery disaster, the second on campus within two months, began just as the Harvest Carnival Day parade was forming. In an era of severe drought, elegant Morrill Hall had been completely devastated by a nighttime fire on August 7; school and research records and equipment vanished in a maze of twisted steel and sodden ashes.

Around noon on October 16, smoke began to pour from the upper floors of the brick Women's Building, later known as Gardiner Hall and, after 1983, as the Bartlett Center for the Studio Arts. Many of A&M's 850 students were costumed for the parade and evening's carnival on the school lawn following the game. Amid the townspeople, football players, and other volunteer firefighters rescuing the girls' personal belongings were a clown in red and white tights, a French chef, a German peasant, and other carnival participants.^^

No lives were lost, but the Harvest Carnival's drama had its effect on the afternoon football game with Henry Kendall College. The players helped to battle the fire until time to suit up for the 2 P.M. game. Weary, the men seemed fated to settle for a 6-6 tie, until Clay Woodson took a pass from Fay Foster into the end zone for a 13-6 victory.^^

Had the Boyd Field grandstand in Norman been covered on November 6, the 400 Aggie rooters "wearing buttons bearing the faces of the seventeen squad men and decorated with the glorious orange and black would have unroofed the structure." The 1915 Redskin, lyric with joy, said the Tiger heroes "plugged, ploughed and rammed horns with the Sooners" until Woodson stepped across the chalked line for the first


score ever made against the University of Oklahoma. ^ "For once 'Red' Tarver and the Tiger band were utterly unable to

corral the chaotic cheering which, issuing individually and without restraint, whirled in one voluminous vortex of noise—and whirled and whirled," the yearbook exulted.^^ The fact that OU won 28-6 failed to dim Aggie enthusiasm.

Coach Davis' sixth football varsity sported a 6-2-1 season. Soaring scores led to 327 points in nine games for A&M, with opponents held to 71. That 1914 team was Davis' finest, but during his tenure OAMC teams scored an astounding 1,261 points while holding rivals to 293. The sharply uneven skills among teams then scheduled, while providing excitement for Tiger fans, was obvious. The improving A&M varsities merited rivals with greater ability.

In a major step forward, Oklahoma A&M bolstered the school's athletic position by helping to form the Southwest Intercollegiate Athletic Conference on December 8, 1914, at Houston, Texas. Other charter members were the University of Texas, Texas A&M, Rice Institute, Baylor, Oklahoma and Arkansas Universities, and Southwestern University of Texas. A&M's Corbett was named vice president.

After years of regional play, conferences now springing up around

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Against the tragic, fire-blackened outlines of Morrill and Gardiner Halls in 1914 stand the line markers for an A&M Tigers football game. As a nickname. Tigers never really caught on; Aggies and Cowboys were always more familiar terms. The field then stretched in the traditional north-south configuration north of Morrill, but Oklahoma winds soon convinced all concerned that an east-west field was advisable.


the country would strengthen the various sports, just as emerging educational organizations were aiding academic growth.

On April 1, 1915, a smorgasbord of sports provided something for every fan in the old gym. A newcomer, wrestling, was introduced. Try-out bouts were alternated with boxing contests and gymnasium exhibitions. The previous fall. Athletic Director Corbett had assigned A. M. Colville the task of working with novice wrestlers. Now they were training hard for OAMC's initial dual with the University of Texas team, old hands at the sport.

The feather, light, welter, middle and heavyweights "tusseled each other around the mat" in a manner which made "old lovers of the art who were present warm again with enthusiasm. "^^ It was the beginning of a long love affair.

That first real taste of interscholastic wrestling competition, staged in the auditorium, came on April 2. The Aggies lost to Texas by two falls and a decision, over one fall and a draw. Dan Cooley's fall for A&M came in 55 seconds. Herman Dose held a 135-pound Longhorn named Bradfield to a draw through the customary three 10-minute periods. The previous year the tough Texans had downed the University of Nebraska, foremost wrestling power in the West. The stalwart A&M team's efforts had the fans on their feet, cheering. Wrestling was here to stay.

A few days later the men's gymnasium team defeated OU at Norman. The sport gained varsity status, but was discontinued at that level after 1920.

Three of the school's fastest men were sent to the prestigious Kansas City Athletic Club's indoor track meet in the spring of 1915. It marked the school's first effort at that competition and none placed. A&M had yet to acquire indoor training facilities for the sport.

The football success standards of Coach Davis had not gone unnoticed in athletic circles beyond Oklahoma. And it did not escape attention that for four consecutive years he put together baseball teams that won the state championship, defending it against all Oklahoma teams.

At least three institutions courted him with financial offers A&M could not approach, and he decided to leave. The popular Aggie mentor's last team was the baseball varsity. Frank Vaughn, veteran pitcher, and Jeff Campbell, football captain-elect, presented a two-foot loving cup to Davis on behalf of the " O " Association.20

Replacing Davis was A. C. "Pink" Griffith, who had directed the efforts of University of Idaho teams for more than ten years. Griffith's contract with the State Board of Agriculture, A&M's governing body, had a wry twist. His salary was $1,800 a year, but the board wagered $200 that he could not produce a championship team. If he did, the board agreed that Griffith's salary would be $2,000.

With an enviable record just behind him, the new coach accepted


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Lawn tennis courts were always in demand at Oklahoma A&M. These three courts were constructed in 1910 north of Morrill Hall. When students were not challenging each other, faculty members and their families competed in the stylish sport.

the unusual wager. But in the next two seasons, his record at A&M would produce only eight wins against nine losses and a tie. The $200 went uncollected by the stocky red-haired Griffith.

In the summer DeWitt Hunt, new head of industrial arts education and engineering shopwork, and other faculty members built tennis courts near Crutchfield Hall, then devised a roller to maintain the courts. Another significant campus addition was that of band leader Boh Makovsky, a talented musician whose contributions to spirit-raising music by the Oklahoma A&M College band for athletic events quickly became part of the school's tradition.

Just as the football coaching position was filled. Athletic Director Corbett departed. A&M began to search for a man to lead the college to greater acclaim in the Southwest Conference. In September, a delighted campus learned that new president Dr. J. W. Cantwell had persuaded a prominent alumnus to return. The director also would coach track and direct physical training.

And he would become known in the next twenty-five years as the greatest wrestling coach America ever produced.

Ed Gallagher was coming back from Baker.

Endnotes

1. Additional information about Dr. L. L. Lewis can be found in another book in the Centennial Histories Series, A History of the Oklahoma State University College of Veterinary Medicine, by Dr. Eric I. Williams.

2. Author's personal communication with J. L Sanderson, 15 April 1985, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

3. Oklahoma A. and M. College Orange and Black, February 1910, p. 17.


4. 1910 Redskin, p. 167, Oklahoma A. and M. College Yearbook.

5. 1910 Redskin, p. 149; 1912 Redskin, p. 130.

6. Oklahoma City Daily Oklahoman, 26 April 1912, p. 8.

7. Greg Mosier interview with Randle Perdue, winter 1984, Athletics Centennial History Collection, Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

8. 1913 Redskin, p. 136.

9. Daily Oklahoman, 26 April 1912, p. 8.

10. Daily Oklahoman, 4 May 1912, p. 8.

11. Frank G. Menke, The Encyclopedia of Sports, 5th revised edition (Cranbury, NJ: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1975), p. 412.

12. Orange and Black, 9 October 1912, p. 1.

13. Orange and Black, 10 December 1913, p. 1.

14. Orange and Black, 10 September 1913, pp. 1, 4.

15. Philip Reed Rulon, Oklahoma State University—Since 1890 (Stillwater: Oklahoma State University Press, 1975), p. 148.

16. 1915 Redskin, p. 174.

17. 1915 Redskin, pp. 171, 174-175.

18. 1915 Redskin, p. 171.

19. Orange and Black, 6 March 1915, p. 1

20. Orange and Black, 12 June 1915, p. 1.


6 Builder of Men

The start of Oklahoma A&M's wrestling dynasty was simplicity itself. In 1916, Ed Gallagher began to develop the sport because no one else had.

In his heart, Gallagher was a football player first, a track man second. In between those two seasons in the pre-World War I years, he sensed a void. A superb gymnast, the youthful athletic director coached that sport and fencing as well. Tennis had become a varsity sport in 1914. Baseball and basketball were played, dropped, resumed. But he searched for another sport, one that would involve men of all sizes.

During his two years at Baker University, along with other sports, Gallagher had coached basketball, even defeating one of legendary coach Forrest C. "Phog" Allen's University of Kansas teams. But at A&M, basketball's star would not rise until the arrival of another athletic giant, Henry P. Iba, in the mid-thirties.

Wrestling filled the gap. Long the province of the east coast's Ivy League schools, the ancient

sport took root in Oklahoma and flourished almost overnight, ushering in decades of national and international acclaim for Oklahoma and its agricultural school at Stillwater. The newcomer soon ceased to be a harmless fill-in for the mid-winter gap between the school's two key sports. By forging an amazing string of seventeen national Amateur Athletic Union and National Collegiate Athletic Association championships from 1925 to the spring of his death in 1940, Gallagher's men—and their ardent A&M fans—molded catch-as-catch-can wrestling into a major sport.

The taste of national and Olympic acclaim was a heady experience for A&M, Stillwater, and the state of Oklahoma. In less than two decades,


the rowdy new state became a source of outstanding competition at many of its colleges. High school programs began to burgeon. As Gallagher's graduates began to coach in and beyond the state, the sport reflected the continuing strength, vigor and adventurous spirit of the frontier.

Ed Gallagher's greatest strength lay in his use of psychology, his ability to convince his athletes to do their best under all conditions. "The Old Master" was matter-of-fact as he told his teams, "Well, you're supposed to win. That's all there is to it. And if you want to win bad enough, you CAN win . "

The difference between winning and losing, Gallagher reminded them, was minute: one escape, or one movement of the hands, or one last effort at the right time. Winning was simply the right thing to do. And the Gallagher men believed him. During a match, he watched in apparent calm from the sidelines. And, if a wrestler didn't win, the revered coach was never angered.

"Do your best and if it satisfies you, it satisfies me , " he often said. "Why is it you always have a good wrestling team?" fans always

asked. The answer was always, "As soon as I get a national champion, I start figuring out a way to beat him, because everybody else is, too."

Those national champions would graduate, then confidently return the following year to wrestle in AAU competition. But on tap to meet— and defeat—them would be formidable unknowns from Gallagher's wrestling room. That skill in diagnosing athletes' strengths and weaknesses was invaluable in determining the approach he used, individually instructing each man. There was never a recognizable "Gallagher style;" and no two of his wrestlers ever wrestled alike.

Always a superb athlete, the slim and wiry Gallagher took to the rough canvas mats with his early teams. Nor was the coach's young family immune.

"Every week in our front room, he would have me or my brothers down on the floor, working on this and that ," son Kenny reminisced in 1985. "He'd say, 'Put your foot this way. Turn your toe out a little and then tu rn . ' " The session would continue as he visualized a new aspect of a motion that could be used on the mats in the wrestling room.

Little slogans became his hallmark as Gallagher plied them to emphasize his convictions. "He who hoots with the owls at night cannot soar with the eagles by day," was a favorite. Another was, "There never was a horse that couldn't be rode, nor a man who couldn't be throwed." To his pupils, the slogans were gospel.

While sports medicine was a concept whose time had yet to come, the coach was as thorough in his personal research as he was meticulous in small matters.

Wrestlers working to lose weight were expected to stay "properly sugared" with doses of Karo syrup, honey or brown sugar diluted with


Early fame throughout the Southwest came to Oklahoma A&M as Edward C. Gallagher set records as a track and football star in 1909. But permanent renown arrived when, as athletic director, Gallagher shaped farm boys into national champions and founded a wrestling dynasty that gained international prominence.

water. That rule stemmed from Gallagher's interest in glycogen, the form in which sugar is used in the body and rebuilds through oxidation to create glycogen once more. It was his theory that the process, which involved part of the sugar turning to lactic acid and water, was the reason for the "oxygen debt," which caused hard breathing during exertion and for a while thereafter.

He even had his wrestlers lace their shoes a specific way. The men used a flat shoestring and laced it flat. When they put scissors on, the laces would then offer less friction.

Minor touches like those made the team feel A&M was ahead of everybody. Bolstered by conditioning, confidence and innovative holds, the teams were able to continue their national dominance. For the most part, they were no stronger than their opponents in those days of hard farm work and summer jobs. But they were in superb shape and if Mr. Gallagher thought they should win, they set about doing so.

Gallagher was a disciplinarian. He reserved the right to remove a man from the team if he didn't train and the right to let anyone wrestle. There


were no complaints though, because he had tryouts, and he kept a large squad of wrestlers.

A classic example was the on-going Melvin Clodfelter and Clarence Berryman struggle. Berryman made the Olympic team in 1928 and Clodfelter made it in 1932. They were both the same weight at the same time. They would try out every week and the one who made the weight also made the line-up. When they tried out again the following Monday or Tuesday, the coach observed the one who hadn't been in the match would win. If Clodfelter wrestled against the University of Oklahoma, then Berryman would beat him the next week at try-outs.

"He never believed you could lose much weight and remain strong or ever brought his guys down in weight nearly as much as they do nowadays," one former wrestler explained. By careful observation, long before scientific studies were initiated, Gallagher realized that pulling weight severely sapped needed strength. Even a national champion would still be weaker than usual on Tuesday after wrestling the preceding Saturday night. The coach remained convinced of it in the Berryman-Clodfelter case as they wrestled week after week.

Wrestling legends circle Gallagher Hall like unseen halos, but one story concerned an outstanding grappler, Sam Barnes. Sam never won a national championship. But on one occasion he wrestled Rex Peery, a national champion at 118, and drew. The next day he challenged Ross Flood, also a reigning national champion, and drew. The third day at 135, he challenged Ralph Rasor and drew. Thus in three consecutive days he met and wrestled to a standstill three of the country's finest, but couldn't make the team!

Under Gallagher, men like Andy Hesser soared far beyond the early potential they displayed. Gallagher assured Andy, "If you can ever be equal to a man at the end of a match or toward the end of a match, you can beat h im." In perfect condition, Hesser worked with such diligence that he forced his opponents to work far harder than they were prepared to. Joe McDaniel, who was only third in high school, became a three-time national champion under Gallagher.

Dual meet line-ups frequently underwent change. Every time the coach could put in a boy who hadn't gotten to wrestle much and who could win, he did. Gallagher would take aside the man who was displaced in the line-up and quietly remove any sting by saying, "Look, you're already a national champion. Let Sam wrestle. You're a little tired. Take the week off. Rest u p . "

He used as many men as possible every year because he never coached one year at a time. By using so many men, he was coaching three or four years ahead of time in preparation for the time one of his men would meet a potential champion at Iowa State who worked on legs. Already Gallagher would be anticipating that by developing a


sophomore who was strong on upper body moves. By the time the two met two or three seasons into the future, the outcome was certain in the mild-mannered, but fiercely competitive A&M coach's mind.

For years the coach drove an open touring car. The college had yet to be able to purchase school buses and automobiles, so the Gallagher family Ford became familiar to his athletes.

"They used to gripe like heck because when he drove, he 'd get to talking to them and he drove terribly," a son admitted.

The meager athletic budget was further impoverished during the Great Depression of the thirties. And so were faculty members. In 1932, through searing necessity. Governor "Alfalfa Bill" Murray ordered state employees' salaries cut in half. It was as devastating a blow to faculty families as it was to the heart of education itself.

For students, survival became as difficult as it had been in the school's earliest years. Many made their way to Stillwater not knowing how they could survive. Somehow life went on at the college and so did a tempered athletic program. Gallagher concentrated on holding together his staff as best he could and improving facilities dollar by stubborn dollar.

His own answer to the Depression was undoubtedly echoed in the family life of many of A&M's teachers. When students were hungry or homeless, he simply took them to the Gallagher house, not even pausing to call ahead. But the father of six stretched his help even further— sometimes to the discomfit of his offspring.

"I saw one of Dad's wrestlers one time. We were about the same size and both had small feet," a son said. "I said, 'That's a good-lookin' pair of shoes you got there. Where'd you get them?' He said, 'Well, your dad gave them to me. ' He gave my shoes to the guy 'cause he didn't have any."i

Nor did the president of the National Wrestling Coaches Association reform. Thereafter, as the Depression settled unrelentingly on Oklahoma, his children grew accustomed to meeting their limited wardrobes crossing the campus.

At matside. Coach Gallagher continued to electrify American college sportsmen with his coaching skills, and national magazines and newspapers wrote often of his championship feats. Like his modern counterparts, some facet of the sport was on his mind 24 hours a day. At his wife's urging, he penned a pair of books on the sport, delineating some of the more than 500 holds he knew.

A proud man, to his teams he always seemed content with life, never looking back at the greater financial freedom his electrical engineering degree might have brought. Over the years there were opportunities to go elsewhere, but Gallagher remained A&M's athletic director until 1932, when crippling palsy caused his health to break. In the fall of 1938, he


relinquished his post as director of men's physical education to concentrate on wrestling. With quiet Irish tenacity he continued to stretch his wrestling guidance beyond his failing body's abilities.

The competitive fire was never banked, not even by declining health. A good golfer, even when he was shaking with palsy, he could hit the ball about 165 yards straight down the middle of the fairway. In later years, he shot about 45 on nine holes.

Toward the end, the dean of American wrestling coaches grew very frail. While most observed the disease's visible ravages on his once-strong frame, his friends and fans refrained from commenting upon it. Deeper changes went almost unnoticed. To still his shaking hands, Gallagher would sit on them during matches. Warmed by his favorite deep red sweater, the coach could issue only whispered instructions. Few knew he was unable to feed himself that last year. When the team traveled in 1939, Stanley Henson, a national champion who would become a surgeon, would feed him.

Mrs. Gallagher felt her husband did his best coaching that year, from a psychological standpoint. What man could fail to hear the gallant coach's whispery wisdom and not heed it as he stepped onto the mat?

In his twenty-third year as A&M's wrestling coach, Gallagher's team brought him his eleventh NCAA crown in thirteen attempts since the tourney's inception in 1928. For him, the Gallagher men won 138 dual matches, lost only 5, tied 4.

In his day, the quiet Irishman earned the respect of some of the biggest sports writers in the country, and of wrestling's participants and fans. They called him the Maestro. Inevitably, each of Gallagher's successors has been measured against his inventive mind, the winning pace he kept, and the sturdy moral tone he set.

At the National Wrestling Hall of Fame on the OSU campus, more than forty years after paying their final respects to him, strong, successful Gallagher Men sometimes stand for long minutes, eyes often brimful, as unexpectedly they glimpse again that familiar old sweater.

Endnotes

1. Author interview with Kenneth Gallagher, 11 February 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection, Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.


7 When the Tigers Roared 1915-1917

Under football coach Paul Jones Davis, Oklahoma A&M College supporters had reached the comfortable position of expecting frequent victories—and seeing their expectations reached. But a tough schedule greeted Davis' successor, A. C. Griffith, in 1915. With athletic scholarships still unknown, athletes found jobs on campus and in town for 12.5 cents an hour. At OU and other schools in the Southwest, the going rate was 20 cents, and indignant Aggies were plumping for better pay.

As the opening game at Missouri neared, plans were made to inform the campus and local residents of each touchdown. Households were still without radios and fans were always eager for the latest word of athletic events. One novel method of communication called for use of the power plant whistle.

The Orange and Black announced that the score would be telegraphed. The rival score would be blown first. If it was zero, one long blast and two short ones would be followed by a 30-second interval. Then the home score, a short blast for each point. Thus, if A&M beat Missouri, 6-0, six short blasts would be given.^

At the quarter, the work rhythms of Stillwater slowed as the town paused to listen for the score. Six short blasts ensued. Later the news would spread that A&M's Herman Scott had sped into the end zone. Twice more the whistle had less cheering news as the strong Missouri team fought back, taking the game, 13-6.

In the fifth game, forward passes carried the triumphant Aggies past Baker University, 30-7, the first time aerial plays had been so successful for A&M. Every score was made directly or indirectly through forward passes as Jeff Campbell and Roy "Wash" Kenny squirted across


The gymnasium team made its first appearance as a college sport in 1914, brought home the Southwest Conference title in 1917, and was undefeated through 1920.

on plays set up by passing. Carl "Chief" Mahseet punted for 73 yards.^ By the season's tenth game, A&M was 4-4-1. Seven thousand fans,

the largest football crowd the state had experienced, made up the Thanksgiving Day crowd in Oklahoma City as the Aggies met the undefeated Sooners. Despite an early score by A&M—and a thousand cheering OAMC fans—the powerful OU team stormed ahead, 26-7.

"Pink" Griffith's basketball squad, facing Oklahoma competitors only, was still playing in the pocket-sized gym. Most of the team had simply moved indoors from the football field and begun the basketball schedule, winning seven and dropping eight.

Then came the first serious efforts in a sport that had been encouraged by new Athletic Director Ed Gallagher "to fill the gap" until spring sports could get under way. On February 12, 1916, wrestling exhibitions were sandwiched into the first men's gymnasium meet at A&M. Kansas State Normal College of Emporia was the visitor for the occasion; the two followed the same format in a return meet two weeks later. Without a detailed scoring system, wrestling results were simply tacked onto the gymasium scores.

For the school's first and only full-scale wrestling match that year, the fierce Texas Longhorns took delight in proving, 22 1/2 to 2 1/2, just how far Gallagher's young matmen still had to go. In Austin, during an April 21 track meet, the Texans outclassed the beginning grapplers by four falls, with only one draw. Undaunted, the resilient Aggies chalked it up to experience.

A year later, they soared past Emporia Normal, 15-10, drew with


Arkansas, and trounced Texas, 20-5, to claim the Southwest Conference championship. That Texas dual saw stalwart little Captain Bill Smith triumph at 125 pounds—and return to the mat to win again at 150 pounds.

The possibilities for developing moves in the sport began to captivate the young coach. He began to devote himself to wrestling, combining his knowledge of leverage and other engineering principles with the motions of an agile mind and body. The results were apparent on the mat. Unaware of the national and international achievements that lay ahead, Gallagher and his men quietly launched Oklahoma A&M's wrestling dynasty.

When the school celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in January 1916, the sports program—painfully begun and maintained only with careful budgeting of insufficient funds—was firmly established. This time Griffith's baseball team defeated a touring team from Chinese University in Hawaii, but struggled through the longest road trip yet, meeting Henry Kendall, Arkansas, Rolla Mines, Missouri, Emporia State and Haskell within nine days, for a 5-9 season.

Meanwhile, Gallagher strove to change track fortunes, but A&M slipped to second in the Oklahoma Intercollegiate, the meet the school so often had won. One historian pointed out, "The glamor was beginning to fade in what had once been a spirited event with stout competition from the state's several normal schools. They soon would have a conference of their own and the Aggies and Sooners would turn to their own conferences, the Southwest, the Missouri Valley, and eventually, the Big Eight. "3

More than 500 season tickets were sold in the fall of 1916-17, bolstering the budget. A&M students and alumni viewed an eye-popping 90-0 rout over Northwestern of Alva in the October 17 opener at home. The familiar Harvest Carnival hoopla was attendant, but the event had been renamed the Tiger Roundup, as the drive to perpetuate the unpopular nickname persisted. Cliff Gallagher, Ed's younger brother, Jack Bris-co and "Sticky-Fingers Joe" Walters were standouts in the school's first grid meeting with Texas in San Antonio. The Longhorns prevailed, 14-7, but the Southwest Conference crowd applauded the spunky cowboys from Oklahoma.

Despite a strong team and high hopes, a heart-breaking 41-7 loss to OU on a cold Thanksgiving in Oklahoma City proved to be the last football game at A&M for a discouraged Coach Griffith. His teams had a record of 8-9-1, and Griffith lost his $200 bet with the regents. In late spring, he accepted the post of athletic director and coach at New Mexico A&M.

Over at Peck's Corner, C. P. and H. L. Peck began the first of several post-season oyster suppers for the varsity. Named captain for the 1917 team, Thurman Gay would forego that honor. By fall. World War I would


involve Gay and thousands of Oklahoma men. By the spring of 1917, the chicken wire that now protected the

"capacity crowd" of 150 from the basketball in the tiny gym was almost a footnote in history. Plans were unveiled for a $100,000 gym and armory, "the finest in the Southwest." The ample structure would have seating for 1,500, with work starting in 90 days. Celebrating the Oklahoma Legislature's promise of "more than a million for new buildings for the next biennium," A&M granted a holiday from classwork.* The entire student body took a special train for a picnic celebration in Ripley Hills.

That same April, the playing field suddenly shrank in importance as the battlefield beckoned with the United States' declaration of war. The Orange and Black headlined, "700 A&M Cadets and 36 ROTC Officers Stand Ready for Bugle Call."^ After three baseball games, the schedule was cancelled. Gallagher's track squad won two meets, but the Oklahoma Intercollegiate was not held. All across America, the exodus to training camps and foreign shores had begun.

For the next two years, colleges found themselves constantly shifting athletic lineups with each new enlistment. When Earl A. Pritchard, former University of Illinois football star, arrived on campus as football, basketball and baseball coach, he was keenly aware that it would be a rocky year for sports. Still, the school was determined to carry on at least a modified program. With sixty-three A&M men already commissioned officers that fall, only two football lettermen returned.

Almost daily new stars were added to the big service flag hanging above the college auditorium stage. Already represented were Kenny, Gay, Scott, Virgil Rinehart, Earl Horton, Claude Sale, Roy Newton, John Wilson, Carl Weaver, W. C. Kramp, Albert Hacker, Millard Harnden, Mort Woodson, Bullet Forrester, J. C. Cooter, C. H. McElroy, Oscar McNeely, Charles Percival, Phil Wilber, Gail Mitchell, Clive Murray, cheerleader Red Tarver, and other leading campus names. Eventually, the name of nearly every upperclassman found its place on the huge banner.^

Despite the slim turnout, promising freshmen and sophomores brightened Coach Pritchard's outlook when school opened. Reed Col-diron became the quarterback and Stillwater High School grad Wilbur Ray proved versatile. A major find was Watonga's Guy Lookabaugh. Although Lookabaugh would play for only one year before enlisting, when he returned in 1924, he would become known for his amazing football and Olympic wrestling prowess.

Although scoreless in three outings, the Orange and Black tripped Warrensburg and Central State, lost to Texas, 7-3, and plowed under greatly weakened Henry Kendall of Tulsa, 41-2. A practice game against Camp MacArthur's service team turned into a 39-0 Aggie loss, but ena-


- ": ^ ^

In 1916 the Tiger grid team attempted unsuccessfully to "Hang It on O.U." The next fall found five former A&M football captains, (from left) Thurman (Dutch) Gay, Roy W. (Wash) Kenny, Jeff Campbell, Clay Woodson, and Walter (Ploughboy) Marker, starting military duty at Fort Roots, Arkansas. Still, the war-depleted Tigers of 1917 managed to stun the Sooners, 9-0, for the first time in the rivalry's history.

IIHANGITONC

bled the coach to shift his lineup in preparation for the annual A&M-Sooner confrontation. That same week OU was steamrolling Kendall, 80-0.

It wasn't a year to expect magnificent things of a wartime team, but A&M fans headed for Oklahoma City on Thanksgiving, just in case the new coach had a miracle tucked up his sleeve. Although the special train rolled as usual, many students and townspeople set out early, going all the way by private motorcar. Reserved seats were $1.50. At a steep 50 cents, the automobile parking fee was astonishing.

And so was the game. "Tigers Triumph Over Sooners First Time in History of Game," the

school paper proclaimed. In their twelfth gridiron clash—after long years of waiting—the "Aggie eleven, without a single substitution," smashed the Sooners, 9-0. This time it was the Norman school's fumbles that turned the tide in favor of the aggressive Aggies. Oklahoma A&M gained 214 yards to the University's 71.

"A crowd of 5,000 witnessed the complete overthrow of the Sooners, whose years of successive victories over A. and M. had seemed to give


them a perpetual title to the state championship," the Daily Oklahoman's "sporting" editor wrote for the Orange and Black. "The 1917 Aggie eleven achieved a clean-cut, decisive victory. Coach Pritchard's players worked with machine-like precision and teamwork, pitted against the individualistic play of the Sooners, turned the trick where so many Aggie teams before them had failed.

"Captain [Cliff] Gallagher made several fair gains, but it was Lookabaugh's plunges through center for gains, time after time, that thrilled the big crowd," the story continued. "The Aggie line proved a lot better than the Sooners expected. Lourance, [Fred] Stafford, [Fred] Percy and [Raymond "Pug"] Ethridge tore big holes in the Sooner defense, compelling Coach [Bennie] Owen to rush in reinforcements in the first six minutes of the first quarter.

"Pep, ginger and jazz were everywhere," the college newspaper added. Excited Aggie fans wound around the field in a snake dance at halftime. And when the final whistle was blown, "bedlam broke loose."

Back in Stillwater, the long silent bell in Old Central awaiting this one victory began to ring. "Whistles, bells and gunshots made the Battle of Verdun seem like a small boy's Fourth of July," the euphoric college writer penned. Bonfires sprang up across the darkening town and the celebration began.

The special train chugged in at 3 A.M., only to be met by 300 excited citizens, eager to be told it was indeed true, avid for every scrap of news about key plays. As the victorious team and game-goers stepped off the train, the jubilation burst forth again. Bigger bonfires were lighted, and school yells and songs rang across the quiet streets all over again.

Sleep was in remarkably short supply for townspeople, faculty and students the night the Tigers of A&M finally roared.^

Endnotes

1. OklahomaA. and M. College Orange and Black, 27 September 1915, p. 1; Otis Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs: The Chronological Story of Sports at Oklahoma State University From the Beginning in the 1890s Through the 1960s," p. 81, manuscript. Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

2. Wile, p. 82.

3. Wile, p. 83.

4. John H. Kephart, "A Pictorial Study of Oklahoma A. and M. College, 1891-1942" (Master of Science thesis, Oklahoma A. and M. College, 1942), p. 16.

5. Orange and Black, 9 April 1917, p. 1.

6. Wile, pp. 89-90.

7. Orange and Black, 1 December 1917, p. 1.


8 Widening Horizons 1917-1924

Oklahoma A&M's long-term athletic goals of the decade and a half following the war were elevated sharply as a result of the victory over Oklahoma University on Thanksgiving Day of 1917. For their role, the new lettermen wore miniature gold footballs on their watch fobs, gifts from the student body. There were also the traditional " O " sweaters and blankets from the school. Congratulatory letters flooded the campus from "Somewhere in France" as the news heartened those in service.

During the war years with schedules abbreviated, enrollment down, and revenue almost nonexistent, the sports budget was a source of continual struggle for Athletic Director Edward C. Gallagher. Even with the $1,462 share from the Thanksgiving game with the Sooners and activity ticket sales of $1,619, Gallagher still lacked $265.41 to pay the final 1917-18 bills. The $32.84 proceeds from the sophomore- freshman tug-of-war were welcomed.

Despite fiscal problems, the 30-year-old director began scheduling tougher opponents for his teams, as well as planning for better facilities.

Following a 4-2 season using the "Tiger shift" in 1918, Head Coach Pritchard resigned. His two-year record had provided eight victories— including the first-ever against OU—against seven losses. His replacement for two subsequent seasons was James E. Pixlee, who would struggle through a barren 3-10-3 record despite his fine earlier years at Missouri Wesleyan.

The chief diversion on campus was "sidewalk superintending" the handsome new Armory and Gymnasium as it rose north of Morrill Hall. In the interim, the old gym was needed. The basketball team found itself banished, playing home games in the livestock pavilion, which seated


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Capacity crowas of 150 packed Ine coiiege caieteria lor oaskeioaii games until the $102,000 Gymnasium and Armory building opened in 1920. Students were overwhelmed with the spacious new gym and its seating for 1,500. When construction plans were announced three years earlier, students were given a holiday, complete with train trip to Ripley Hills and an all-school picnic.

875. The dirt floor did not lend itself to dribbling and the short season was merciful. Basketball, wrestling, baseball, and track and field took on intramural tones. Wrestling was canceled in 1918 and 1919. In mute testimony to the debilitated sports program, there were now 640 stars on the college's service flag.

Gallagher, always innovative, included the hand grenade throw in events for the annual high school track meet hosted by A&M. The grenade was tossed from a six and a half-foot trench, with efforts judged on accuracy and distance.^

By 1918-19, 1,445 OAMC men were in service. The college was one of 400 with a Student Army Training Corps program, and military uniforms were a more familiar sight than athletic uniforms. The country's massive Spanish influenza epidemic engulfed the Stillwater area on the heels of the football season opener, a victory over the Haskell Indians October 5. Football was suspended as A&M struggled with more than 400 cases of flu. In November play was resumed, but fans were warned "to minimize cheering as it irritates the throat and invites flu." Many schools banned cheering.^

Along with other fine athletes, the loss of tackle Roy "Wash" Kenny was reported. Kenny, with his senior year yet to complete, was missing


in action while fighting in France and presumed dead. In March 1919, he stunned the campus when he dropped by to visit friends and say he'd be back that fall. To underline his safe return, Kenny took part in the day's track workout, putting the shot 38 feet, a foot less than his school record. Other veterans would be joining him that fall, as well.

Although far from normal, the sports year also was far from boring. That spring the baseball team was fired by Wilbur Ray, Phil and Herbert Wilber, John Houck, Silas Barrett, Walter Weaver, the third Weaver brother on A&M teams, Don Foster and others. Outstanding in football, basketball, baseball, and track, "Wib" Ray was the first to amass four letters in one school year. In track, Floyd Beanblossom's triple jump record, 48 feet, 8 inches, would stand in record books for another fifty years. Volunteer tennis coach DeWitt Hunt saw Don Brunskill, Rolo Fewell, and Raymond Ahern become his first lettermen.

The mammoth new $102,000 gymnasium was finally completed in the fall of 1919. Seating for more than the total school enrollment of 1,500 was provided, Gallagher announced. The three-story building featured a 90 by 47V2-foot basketball court, a 20 by 60-foot swimming pool, an overall measurement of 180 by 75 feet, and was considered the finest facility in Oklahoma and the surrounding Southwestern states. Along with basketball and wrestling, there now was an opportunity for indoor track to flourish, as well.^

At the same time, the athletic field was moved to its permanent site on the northeast edge of the campus. It continued to be known as Lewis Field. To get the 1919 football season off to a good start, $2,000 in equipment had been.ordered for new Coach Pixlee's squad of sixty, including veterans. With the hostilities over, a sense of well-being settled on the campus. But the tenacles of war were still felt in small ways. The sixteen lettermen couldn't be awarded their sweaters until the following year because of a national shortage of wool. Most of America's wool had gone into uniforms, overcoats, and pea jackets.

Fumbles and misfortune awaited football fans that year, partly the result of a stronger schedule. One method of showing the progress of away games was the grid-graph report at the gymnasium. There a miniature "football" attached to a wire on the player board was moved back and forth as play-by-play reports arrived sent by telegraph to the campus. As students clustered to watch, groans and cheers followed the progress of the football on the grid-graph.

Henry Kendall College of Tulsa was a mighty force in 1919, but A&M managed to hold the visitors to a 7-1 tie. A 450-foot strip of motion picture film of the game was marketed and shown at state theaters at the behest of Glen Condon, a longtime newspaperman and Tulsa theater-owner. Condon believed it to be the first motion picture of sports competition in Stillwater, and possibly in Oklahoma.*


When the wrestling team met up with Nebraska in the third and final dual of the year in 1920, Ward Chase and Guy Lookabaugh were already campus heroes. Lookabaugh's amazing triumph at not one but two weights against Nebraska's more experienced men cinched A&M's victory. Although mat news was painfully slow to spread in those days, traditional wrestling powers to the north and east soon heard rumblings of a potent team rising in the Southwest. Completing the spring sweep, Gallagher's trackmen took the Oklahoma Intercollegiate, with Lewis Dickerson toppling the state two-mile record in 9:59.

A&M cagers edged Southwestern of Weatherford, 29-28, following dedication ceremonies of the new Gymnasium and Armory in 1920. The formal opening of both the gym and the new Science Hall saw Governor J. B. A. Robertson and John A. Whitehurst, president of the Board of Agriculture, attending the ceremonies.

Since 1915, after each two-year stay, football coaches had been departing with regularity, lured by greener financial pastures. Pixlee's second season in 1920 was pockmarked by rugged encounters with good teams, the result of the toughened schedule. Returning World War I veterans had used the last of their eligibility. Freshmen were no longer eligible. Pixlee's resignation in December followed a winless season, the first time since 1905 that a team had not produced a single victory. His basketball team was nearly as lackluster, 2-11, but Pixlee's own career had been successful before his stay in Stillwater and it would be again at Westminster College of Missouri.

Recruiting athletes was almost an unknown practice at OAMC until this era. Those who came to study the school's specialties were welcome to try out for sports. Stillwater High School stars were encouraged to play for A&M while they completed their schooling. But the administration was beginning to be aware of the need to go outside the college's geographic area and attract top athletes from the rest of the state and outside its borders.

Even the wrestlers had their hands full, losing on a trip north to strongly-entrenched Nebraska and Iowa State, but taking the Southwest Conference title with the help of Frank "Snake" Briscoe. The wrestlers would go nearly eleven years before losing again.

Walter Weaver captained the baseball team and collected the last of his nine letters in football, basketball, and baseball. Funds were scraped up to send Floyd Beanblossom to the famed Penn Relays, where he placed second in the triple jump. In the Missouri Valley Invitational, Dickerson placed fourth in the mile. Budget or no budget, Gallagher was beginning to reach out with regularity for broader experiences essential to the development of his athletes.^

When the search committee hired John Frederick Maulbetsch as the new head football coach, they were hiring a skilled, colorful, and confi-


Demure in long skirts and black hose, the modern misses of this tennis team were right in style with the latest in wooden tennis racquets. Today's abbreviated court wear would have been enough to cause expulsion from school.

dent man. "I'll beat OU for you in two years," the cocky 150-pounder promised

the committee.^ He almost managed it during his second year, but had to settle for a 3-3 tie. Maully's selection also removed a powerful competitor in Phillips University at Enid, where he had coached since his All-America days at the University of Michigan.

Maulbetsch was known for starting practice neatly attired in a suit, then casting aside coat and hat before rapidly wrecking his trousers demonstrating a play. At the behest of his wife, he finally did his coaching safely attired in a football uniform. For the next eight years Maully stayed, coaxing 28 wins from his teams, against 37 losses and 6 ties. One of his starting ends was Bonnie Nicholson, who was the last man to earn nine letters until 1960 when Dick Soergel duplicated that achievement.

On a festive November 3,1921, the Harvest Carnival was held in conjunction with the formal inauguration of the new college president, James B. Eskridge. Alumni were invited to return for homecoming during the Washburn game. That marked the separation of the events. From that year on, the annual homecoming celebration continued. The Harvest Carnival tradition faded shortly thereafter.

That fall Dickerson led A&M's cross country team to the Southwest


^ ,„.J^^,,.

Coach Ed Gallagher's (right) cross country team won the Southwest Championship in 1921 at College Station, Texas, on Thanksgiving Day.

Conference championship at College Station, Texas. Another first was the all-college swimming championship inaugurated by physical education instructor Tom Aycock in the new gym's small pool.

The mat team snatched the Southwest Conference title from Texas and Texas A&M, with Captain Briscoe, Ivan Foster, Jess Foliart, and Tom Dale taking individual honors. Against Oklahoma, strongman Briscoe duplicated Lookabaugh's earlier feat by gaining a victory at 158 pounds, then returning to take the 175-pound match as well.

In Oklahoma City for the Oklahoma Intercollegiate, the track men, after a 1-2 season under Coach Gallagher, romped away with 85 points and the championship, leaving behind Southwestern 17, Central State 13, Southeastern 8, Northwestern 5, Tulsa 4, East Central 3, and OCU 0.

The lively quest to rename the school "Oklahoma State" bobbed up again in 1921-22. Under former athletic star Walter Weaver, now the editor, the Orange and Black began to carry "Oklahoma State" in its masthead and in all news stories, but the State Board of Agriculture, A&M's governing board, voted down the change. A more descriptive name change would come, but not for thirty-five more years.

Sports were on an upswing in 1922. Enrollment had swelled to 2,793. For homecoming, the old wooden stands on the south side of Lewis Field were supplemented by much-needed new bleachers on the north. OU's contingent arrived by special train and raised the attendance to 6,500.


Dedicated fans stood behind both goals and along the sidelines. At half-time, in a burst of brotherhood, the crowd pitched in $379.84—then a sizable sum—to aid construction of a new stadium in Norman. The Orange and Black unexpectedly held the Crimson to a 3-3 tie, and the streets were filled with dancing A&M students.^

Bright spots the following spring of 1923 occurred when Ralph Hig-gins took the 100-yard dash and Frank Davis the mile as A&M hosted the Southwest Conference track championships. Vernon Waldrop went undefeated in eight tennis matches and M. L. Cobb and Sidney Bowles won the state doubles as volunteer Coach DeWitt Hunt's varsity gained momentum.

Women were not totally forgotten in a sports arena dominated by men. In 1920 the Women's Athletic Association was organized from the old Girls' Athletic Association. By 1923, even with membership now based on athletic ability alone, total membership doubled any previous year. The 1923 Redskin commented: "One remarkable thing about the whole proposition is that many of the best athletes among the women are the best students. It is combining and balancing intellectual and physical aspirations."^

A vintage sports year kept Aggies happy in 1924. In April, new President Bradford Knapp announced plans for gradual pay-as-we-go construction of a football and track stadium. The goal of the first phase was $50,000. The old wooden stands had privately worried the administration and were to be torn down. Concrete tennis courts, a cinder track, and sod for the football field were part of the improvements. Gallagher led the drive with the aid of faculty members F. W. Redlich and Dean C. H. McElroy, Stillwater merchant John L. Bishop, and Tulsa banker and A&M alumnus T.J . Hartman. Within two months, nearly half the amount had been raised.^

Golf had its introduction as an intercollegiate sport that spring when physical education instructor Tom Aycock coached B. F. Ellis and James D. Grout on the local sand greens course for a meet with Texas Christian University and Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Their results were not recorded in the student newspaper, but the start had been made for a program that would eventually keep the school's name among each year's top national contenders.

Having breezed through the regular wrestling season, Coach Gallagher polished such mat stars as Lookabaugh, Clifford Keen, Harold DeMarsh, Jess Foliart, Leycester "Sal ly" Bringham, Gerald Northrip, and Edd Roberts for the Olympic Games tryouts that summer. Orion Stuteville of Central Normal, who had trained under Gallagher and would enter A&M in the fall, and Lookabaugh earned places on the United States team for the Games in Paris. An injury kept Stuteville from advancing; Lookabaugh was the first Oklahoman to wear the Olympic


shield. Lookabaugh's final year of eligibility came in the fall of 1924. Another

football giant, George Connor, decided to bypass his senior year and work, but the pleas of the 3,000 students convinced Connor to rejoin the team. The single new stadium section was available when the largest crowd thus far began arriving. With other stalwarts including Gordon "Skeet" Peery and fleet Ralph Higgins, the grid team drove to an impressive 6-2-1 season. The 6-0 defeat of OU on Lewis Field set the victory bell in Old Central clanging for hours.

The push to broaden Oklahoma A&M's athletic horizons had been successful, but President Knapp and Athletic Director Gallagher had no intention of slowing their efforts to keep it progressing. December 9 found the men at the annual meeting of Missouri Valley Conference officials. Their continued goal was for the admission of A&M into the Valley conference, whose members were the Universities of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri, Drake, Washington of St. Louis, Iowa State College, Kansas State College, and Grinnell College.

That night the campus received a wire from the jubilant Knapp: "We win great victory; future of A&M athletics assured; Aggies voted in Valley."^^

Endnotes

Otis Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs: The Chronological Story of Sports at Oklahoma State University From the Beginning in the 1890s Through the 1960s," p. 96, manuscript. Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Wile,

Wile,

Wile,

p. 97.

p. 100.

pp. 103-104

1922 Redskin, p.

Wile,

Wile,

Wile,

p. 113.

•; 1920 Redskin, p.

66.

p. 118; 1923 Redskin, p. 103.

p. 130.

1923 Redskin, p.

Wile, p. 136.

143.

187, Oklahoma A. and M. College Yearbook.


9 The Name They Coined for Looky

His peculiar rolling gait was akin to that of a sailor too long at sea, or the waddle of a waterfowl. Before and after World War I, that distinctive walk identified Guy "Looky" Lookabaugh anywhere on the small Oklahoma A&M campus. Ribbing the Watonga lad about his bow-legged stride, his friends also dubbed him "Ducky." But on the gridiron he soared downfield like a falcon, bucking the center of the line and ripping through. On the wrestling mat, he was just as formidable, a tenacious and persistent competitor.

Guy Lookabaugh's athletic prowess and dedication led him beyond Oklahoma, across an ocean to the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, and, later, widespread recognition as the "SuperAggie." One of a kind.

Orphaned at five, he was reared by relatives on a farm. In later years he said of his youth, "I kind of liked to be on top. Kind of liked to do my best, whatever it was."^ Accustomed to the chores that accompany farming, he wasn't drawn to organized sports. When he was about thirteen, Lookabaugh viewed part of a football game at the State Fair in Oklahoma City. He had yet to see a basketball or wresting event.

"You never can tell, though," he added. "I was wrestling with some kids there at home and my cousin came up and said, 'Well, you beat a boy.' He said, 'You might be in Madison Square Garden some day.' "^ It was an unlikely prophecy that came true.

In 1917, when he was 21, Looky transferred from the Southwestern State Normal School at Weatherford to OAMC. Although he played only one season of football before enlisting the following spring, as a fullback Lookabaugh often carried the ball. During the final game against Oklahoma University, he was a dominant factor as he punched through


the Sooner line. In the waning moments of the first A&M victory in the long series, he made four first downs in the last three minutes of play.

After entering the service, Lookabaugh found himself in France in 1918. Unexpectedly, he and another athlete of Indian heritage from A&M, Carl Mahseet, found themselves starring with the 36th Division team in American Expeditionary Forces football. Named to the All-AEF team, the Watonga man became the first football player from OAMC to gain recognition beyond his own conference.

"Lookabaugh scored the touchdown in the 36th Division's 7-0 victory over the Seventh Division before 25,000 at Bar-Sur-Aube, with King Albert and Queen Elizabeth of Belgium in the huge crowd,'' the Orange and BJack bubbled.^

By the spring term of 1920, he was back on campus. Now 24, he pursued both his education and gridiron opponents. But a new sport was tugging at him. Although his football achievements were glittering, wrestling won a special place in Lookabaugh's life.

A&M fielded no teams in 1918 and 1919, but the wrestling room was back to normal in 1920 and three duals were slated. Two were with Oklahoma, and Gallagher's men downed the University 40-0 and 50-8. Although they inaugurated the long intrastate series, those meets were mere tune-ups for the strong Nebraska team, undefeated for five years. Hosting the powerhouse in the packed armory, the Stillwater crew faltered at 125 pounds as Thomas Clump was pinned. Dale Fetzer lost to the Cornhuskers' finest grappler at 135 pounds, but A&M's Frank Briscoe managed a draw at 145.

In only their eighth meet since the school had ventured to wrestle in 1915, the Aggies found the situation grimmer than Gallagher had anticipated. He sent Lookabaugh into the ring at 158 pounds. The rules called for three seven-minute periods, each decided by fall or decision. The winner of two out of three periods was the victor. If the referee was unable to determine the winner after three periods, he could order additional wrestling.

A beginner in the sport, Looky fought all the way through three draw periods and two overtimes of three minutes each before claiming the match. Heavyweight Ward Chase needed only two periods to trounce a Nebraskan never before defeated, but with only the 175-pound bout remaining, Nebraska still led, 19-17.

With little more than 15 minutes rest after his 27-minute marathon, Lookabaugh had a suggestion for Gallagher: "I said, 'I think I can beat either one of those boys now. And he said, 'I'm going to leave it entirely up to you.' " At the young coach's request, Lookabaugh went downstairs, walked around a bit, sipped some water.*

When the sturdy athlete returned, Gallagher is said to have asked, "How do you feel?" Lookabaugh answered, "Just like I'm getting ready


By winning two matches during a dual with powerful Nebraska, the first SuperAggie, Guy Lookabaugh, spurred A&M to the school's first major wrestling victory in 1920. Never losing a collegiate match, Guy went on to the Olympics and an accomplished career in coaching.

to start practice." Then Gallagher sent Lookabaugh into the ring for a second time, in the final match of the evening. And the surprised Aggies watched their football star overpower his heavier opponent. A&M pulled out the victory, 23-19. Elated, the crowd pulled Lookabaugh to their shoulders and carried him around the gym.

That first major triumph would be repeated with great regularity over the next twenty years. Still, the night had provided a new sensation for the Aggies and a new superstar. Lookabaugh never lost a college match.

In April, Gallagher took Chase, Bill Smith, Briscoe, and Lookabaugh to the Amateur Athletic Union championships for the school's first taste of national competition. The matches lasted three 10-minute periods.^ Middleweight Lookabaugh drew a much-heralded and experienced international adversary, Eino Leino of Finland, who that summer would win the Olympic gold medal. Twelve years later, the durable Leino would


win his fourth Olympic medal. None of the American athletes was accustomed to the international

style of wrestling. For the first seventy years of the century, frequently-changed rules often were hard to fathom and almost never heard of in the U.S. until the Americans learned them the hard way—on the mat in competition.^

Undismayed, an eager Looky began by throwing Leino over the ropes, climbing over after him, and pinning him to the floor. After the referee ruled it an illegal fall, the angry Finn returned to the ring to pin Lookabaugh in a hard fight. The Oklahoman was so drained that he could not dress for an hour. All four Aggies lost to the eventual champions of their respective weight classes.

Guy's career preceded the national collegiate tournaments, but in 1921 he won championships of three conferences—the Missouri Valley (now the Big Eight), the Western (Big Ten) and the Southwest.

Turning to coaching after the 1921 season, Looky left A&M to coach Frederick High School from a winless preceding year to the conference championship. He went on to coach at Cameron College. There, in 1924, he made a bold decision. His mind was set on making the 1924 Olympic team. To do so, Lookabaugh gave up his job and returned to A&M to train under Gallagher while completing work on that elusive degree.

At 28, he was about the only one who thought he could pull it off. But he later admitted, "Hell 's bells! Nobody else had thought about doing it, and nobody else would have wanted to give up a good job like I had to try. "7

That spring he was among six A&M wrestlers hoping to make the United States team. He jumped into the district trials with a 28-second pin, but was eventually turned back by fellow Aggie Cliff Keen. When Keen later was sidelined by injury, Lookabaugh advanced. The final competition found him on a mat in Madison Square Garden, just as his cousin had rashly prophesied in childhood.

From there, he and Orion Stuteville, who would enter A&M that fall, sailed in July with the other Olympians for Paris. Both Aggies suffered from painful boils—a common scourge for those who wrestled on the rough, germ-sheltering canvas mats of those days—during the voyage. A large carbuncle on his back kept Looky from working out on the boat and he had to lose a dozen pounds in the twenty-four hours preceding weigh-in. That he managed; the boils nearly kept him out of the competition, he recalled.

With the defeat of a Swiss wrestler, Lookabaugh had a good beginning at the Olympic competition site. He was delighted to be the first Oklahoman to represent the state and his college at the prestigious event. He advanced, pinning a Canadian. Stuteville was injured and unable to compete. Then Lookabaugh met and lost to the finalist, a Swiss, on


A superlative athlete and coach, Guy Lookabaugh retired to Point of the Pines near Tahlequah where Oklahoma A&M's first Olympian hands out encouragement and ribbons to young athletes.

a controversial points decision. The crowd booed, but the decision stood. Lookabaugh placed fourth.

Back for the fall term, Lookabaugh scored the touchdown that won the annual A&M-OU game. Older fans still laugh about the surprising moment when Lookabaugh ran for 13 yards around midfield. When OU's big "Soupy" Smoot tackled Looky, both hit the field. The football exploded beneath the Aggie's chest. Lookabaugh held up the deflated pigskin for all to see; an aging Pathe News film confirms the tale. By himself the Olympian gained more yardage than the entire OU back-field. Playing, too, was his cousin, Jim Lookabaugh, who would go on to coach A&M to Cotton and Sugar Bowl championships.

At the season's end, teammate Vernon Wahl gained honorable mention All-America by Walter Camp in CoJJier's magazine. After seeing A&M's bitterly fought, 20-20 tie game with Creighton, Knute Rockne of Notre Dame commented, "If Lookabaugh had played on an Eastern team of any standing he would have been placed on every All-America selected. "8

From a flamboyant athlete, Looky developed into an accomplished high school and college coach, a reticent man who was apt to turn aside praise for his achievements with a wry joke. Of A&M, football, and wrestling, he could be coaxed into a comfortable discussion. Of the ultimate goal he struggled to meet, and the medal he did not bring home, he said


very little. But during his final retirement years at Point of the Pines near Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the famous Aggie passed out ribbons annually to grade school youngsters who participated in the Tahlequah Kiwanis "Little Olympics" meet.

For his monumental athletic achievements, his work on the national rules committee formulating plans for the first National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament, his coaching career, and his influence on the lives of young people for more than half a century, Lookabaugh was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater in 1983, shortly after his death.

In the sixty intervening years since Lookabaugh made a sustained drive to be the finest wrestler at his weight in the world, Oklahoma A&M and Oklahoma State University would be blessed with other remarkable athletes. Men and women of superlative talent are no longer the astounding rarity that Lookabaugh was. Today's faculty and fans nod sagely at newspaper headlines and television interviews featuring the current star.

"SuperAggie," they pronounce gruffly, bestowing final approval and often fierce allegiance; never mind the note of reverence that occasionally creeps in. "Another SuperAggie! Heckuvan athlete!" Small wonder no known measuring tool can plumb the depths of fervor and the tensile strength of alumni ties when a new name is rising, made a household word by a swift, strong body clad in orange and black.

"Dazzle us!" the crowds seem to exhort from the bleachers, voices blurring into one overwhelming roar. Human nature requires heroes, is nourished by their success.

And dazzle us the young giants do. But the first of them all was Guy Howard Lookabaugh.

Endnotes

1. Doug Dollar, "Guy Lookabaugh: The First Super Aggie," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 20, no. 1 (January-February 1979), p. 7.

2. Dollar, p. 8.

3. Otis Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs: The Chronological Story of Sports at Oklahoma State University From the Beginning in the 1890s Through the 1960s," p. 99, manuscript, Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

4. Dollar, p. 8.

5. Oklahoma A. and M. College Orange and Black, 8 April 1920, p. 1, 15 April 1920, p. 1.

6. Author's personal communication with Bob Dellinger, 6 April 1985, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

7. Dollar, p. 8.

8. Wile, p. 136.


10] The Cowboys Saddle Up 924-1929

From the 1890s on, Oklahoma A&M sports teams had been referred to as the Agriculturists or Aggies, the Farmers, and officially but unpopu-larly, the Tigers. But by 1924 Charles Saulsberry, sports editor of the Oklahoma City Times, and other writers who regularly covered college events had begun to refer to Stillwater's teams as the A&M Cowboys. Reporters in search of colorful synonyms started sprinkling Cowpokes, Pokes, Waddies, Cowpunchers, and Punchers in conversation.

"Cowboys' ' had a Southwestern flavor and flair that fit like a favorite pair of boots. The Athletic Council authorized Athletic Director Edward C. Gallagher to have 2,000 balloons printed, "Oklahoma Aggies—Ride 'em. Cowboy" for sale at football games in 1926.^

The nickname quickly germinated, yielding a genuine identity that had long been lacking on both campus and off. Around 1923, an early U.S. deputy marshal, gun-totin' Frank B. "Pistol Pete" Eaton of Perkins, headed Stillwater's Armistice Day parade. For some time students and alumni had considered Indians, various animals, and deputy marshals as a replacement for the Tigers. At the parade's end, the search w as over.2

The spirited image of a tough, proud, self-reliant cowboy triggered by Eaton became a cartoon drawing. The new mascot was easily woven into the fabric of campus life. Not until 1984 would official sanction be given the emblem and its "Pistol Pete" moniker, but by then the Cowboys already had been settled comfortably into sixty years of sports vocabularies and print, spilling over into all general references to the student body and alumni, faculty and fans.

Goodbye, Tigers. Howdy, Pokes!


Since his return to his alma mater in 1915, Gallagher had been the one constant thread in the daily fabric of athletic operations. Bradford Knapp, president of Oklahoma A&M from 1923 to 1928, was the current chief administrator to guide the college during Gallagher's tenure. The jest in those politically volatile years was that the A&M president changed about as often as the football coach—every two years.

In 1924-25, at the conclusion of the finest football season A&M ever had enjoyed. Coach John F. Maulbetsch turned to basketball. In a down-to-the-wire race with Arkansas and Texas Christian University, Jim Lookabaugh, Gordon Peery, Clyde Hall, Ralph Higgins, Bill Calmes, Cliff Elder, Neil Hartpence, and George Connor led the Cowboys to the Southwest Conference championship—the Cowboys' first big basketball triumph.^

At the same time, the wrestlers had not lost a dual since 1921. They waltzed to another unbeaten season in 1925, then took both Southwest and Missouri Valley Conference titles. For good measure they added the championship of the Amateur Athletic Union meet, the first national tournament held in Stillwater. When Gallagher was able to lure such a major event from New York City's Madison Square Garden to a small college town, his domination of the collegiate sport was apparent.

The Gallagher men thundered into the AAU tourney and engulfed the competition. Of the twenty-four who placed first, second, or third in the eight weight classes, fifteen were connected with Oklahoma A&M. George Campbell, Buel Patterson, Leycester Bringham, and Orion Stuteville won titles. Second place medals went to Olympian Guy Lookabaugh, Harold Peery, Chris White, Greer Shilling, and Ivan Foster as the Cowboys amassed a staggering 59 points.

Others from Gallagher's overflowing wrestling room entered unattached and garnered another 18 points to finish second! Behind them on the scoreboard were Cornell of Iowa and Multnomah Athletic Club of Portland with 13 points each. Trailing were such national notables as the Los Angeles Athletic Club, Gary (Indiana] YMCA, and the Olympic Club of San Francisco.

With the gifted Gallagher in charge, Stillwater was the new heart of the wrestling world. Moreover, for the first time in the school's history, the Cowboys had excelled in three different sports in the same year.*

In anticipation of the need for better athletic facilities, a stadium corporation was organized in 1924 with Gallagher as president. The nonprofit organization was charged with the sole purpose of planning and financing an adequate stadium and open-air facility since financing was not allowed from state appropriations for such ventures.^

Another $9,000 was collected by March for the stadium drive. Two more permanent units could be added on the north side of Lewis Field. The small press box there, which seated a dozen, appeared adequate.


Dean McElroy was appointed to succeed F. W. Redlich as chairman of the Athletic Council, "unti l further notice," Dr. Knapp announced. "Further notice" stretched from May 12, 1925, until the summer of 1957.

With the windup of baseball and track, A&M's participation in the Southwest Conference ended. At the May 1925 conference session, track captain Higgins presented the school's formal resignation. The Cowboys made a token appearance at the track events, with Higgins easily taking the 440 medal.

Still intent on upgrading the stadium as befitted a new member of the powerful Missouri Valley Conference, Gallagher planned to increase the steel stands on the north side of Lewis Field to 4,650. With summer students, the enrollment was now more than 4,000. The wooden stands on the south could handle 3,000, and bleachers would be added to seat another 1,500. A&M was now prepared for 9,150 football fans.

Graduation of top athletes bit deeply into the athletic fortunes of the school that first year in the Valley. Maulbetsch played only fourteen men in the initial game with Kansas. Injuries plagued the 1925 grid team throughout an 0-3-1 season. The cagers managed a 9-8 record, and the wrestlers rolled on for their fifth consecutive all-victorious year. In a first for collegiate wrestling. Radio WOI of Des Moines broadcast the A&M-Iowa State dual. Gallagher's men tucked it away, 19-8, then earned five individual Valley conference titles with a flourish before the home folks in Stillwater.

Cowboy wrestlers Fendley Collins, Orion Stuteville, and Charles Strack, a 1924 Olympian who had transferred to A&M from Colgate, traveled to the national AAU tournament in Corvallis, Oregon. Disappointed by rules disputes and second place as a team, they headed across the border to Vancouver to enter the Canadian National Championships. Each won a title and their total points brought them the team championship. Better than a trophy was the discovery of a formidable heavyweight from Amulet, Saskatchewan, Earl McCready. By the time the final handshaking was over, McCready had promised to enroll at A&M. "Moose" would be the first wrestler to win three National Collegiate Athletic Association championships when that annual tourney began in 1928.

With A&M's growing reputation, her athletes had no trouble gaining wrestling and football coaching jobs at leading colleges and high schools. Ironically, Gallagher was beginning to face strong opposition from his former proteges.

Two golf matches were scheduled that spring, as that sport dug in for a long stay, but losses in baseball and track were discouraging.

In the fall of 1926, a Missouri Valley Conference eruption saw the wrath of all the member schools concentrated on its youngest member, OAMC. It was a furor that swelled until the conference eventually burst


apart. It came about in a curious way. The Aggies, in only their second year in the Valley, were unable to schedule more than four conference football games. Because there were ten teams involved, and eight-game schedules were customary, not every member met all the others annually. The conference title was figured on a percentage basis.

The Aggies won three and tied another within the Valley, and their conference percentage proclaimed them champions. The problem arose because A&M lost to four non-conference foes for a poor year over-all. The grumbling continued. Abruptly, in late September 1927, Iowa State, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas State, Kansas, and Oklahoma withdrew and created the Big Six Conference.^ A&M was numbed by a September 25 headline: "Valley Broken as Six Schools Quit."^

Having longed to be admitted to the prestigious Missouri Valley, the Cowboys now found themselves once more outside the playground of the plains powerhouses, looking in. A&M was the only remaining Valley member in the state. It seemed the worst possible setback.

Coach Maulbetsch and the campus learned of the move just as the football team was about to embark by train on an 11-day swing, playing Washington of St. Louis and Minnesota of the Big Ten. The six schools would abandon the Valley on June 2, 1928. Although President Knapp urged them to reconsider during the spring meeting, the dissidents remained firm.

With A&M still were Drake, Grinnell, and Washington of St. Louis The "Big Six" schools were so confident the old Valley would collapse that they formally named their new conference the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association and stuck with that nomenclature for some forty years. But although badly shaken, the Valley survived, gaining new members and becoming known for its basketball prowess. Valley football fortunes fluctuated with frequent changes in membership, but not until 1985 would the Valley conduct its final football campaign.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys gritted their teeth and began amassing more national championships than all the Big Six schools combined. Not until 1957 did the last of the offended schools agree to admit A&M to form the steel-muscled conference, later named the Big Eight.

The 1927 matmen notched their second national AAU championship in three years after an eastern tour which saw them easily down Navy and West Virginia. The wrestlers, attired in cowboy hats and boots borrowed from the sheriff's office and from neighboring farmers, also were received at the White House.^

The 4-4 football season in 1927 was notable for a hard-fought 13-7 victory over Oklahoma before an enormous crowd of 18,000 in Norman. Ab Wright's passing and running stood out. While the tradition of a special train carrying fans to Norman had been outgrown, a new pre-game transportation competition arose. Promoted by the school paper, now


In the second year in the prestigious Missouri Valley Conference, the 1926 A&M championship grid team unwittingly became the catalyst for an explosion that shattered the conference and saw the formation of a new six-school alliance that would eventually become the Big Eight.

named the Daily O'Collegian, the first "Flivver Derby" was unveiled, drawing twenty-eight stripped-down cars. Rules limited entries to "flivvers" worth no more than $25. Anyone exceeding speed limits failed to score, as contestants chugged along dirt roads all the way to Norman. The winner arrived in just under three hours.

Maulbetsch's cagers, also led by Wright, ranked a respectable fifth in the ten-team conference, but big things were afoot in wrestling.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association scheduled its first championships in Ames, Iowa. Harold DeMarsh, Melvin Clodfelter, George Rule, and the 225-pound "Moose" McCready—a giant of the t i m e s -swept four of the seven weights, McCready pinning his opponent in 19 seconds in the finals. Only individual titles were awarded, but later A&M was recognized as the team champion. The years ahead would bring 26 more NCAA team titles and 99 more individual championships. The Cowboys also said farewell to the Valley insurgents by winning their fourth straight title in the last wrestling tournament held by the conference.

Captain Lauren Barnes and Curtis Gabbard were the school's tennis stars; their rugged schedule had expanded to embrace Oklahoma City University, Southwestern of Winfield, Tulsa, Central State, Kansas State, Washington, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Texas.


In 1927 a new pre-game transportation competition arose as stripped-down cars, each worth no more than $25, chugged along dirt roads to Norman. "Flivver Derbies" would continue to entertain until the mid-1930s.

Relay carnivals were the hottest track events in 1928 and Coach "Wash" Kenny took A&M's mile relay team to the first Texas Relays, winning with Joe Bull, Otis Wile, Captain Austin Parker, and Leo Best. At the Rice Relays in Houston, the relay quartet set a school record of 3:21.2 that stood for eleven years.

When the American team sailed for the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, aboard were Clarence Berryman, George Rule, and Strack. McCready wrestled for Canada. None advanced far, but the A&M campus had four heroes to cheer for. Although considered the premier coach in the country and hailed for training so many Olympians, the likable Gallagher was passed over when the Olympic Committee selected its coach. Again in 1932, when he was a towering figure in the field, teaching and publishing books on the sport, he was snubbed by his jealous rivals for the honor, but Gallagher did not comment. Not until the 1936 Olympiad, his health already precarious, was a token "honorary" coaching title extended.

The spring of 1928 was the year of Maully's best baseball club, 12-3 over-all. Pitcher Wright won eight in his junior year before heading for the major leagues. Elliott Robinson also signed with the professionals. The talented Wright's decision would put a decided damper the following year on all three of the sports in which he was an all-conference star.

With the completion of the longed-for $14,000 cinder track boasting eight lanes on the straightaway. Coach Kenny molded a strong revival.^ Leo Best owned A&M's records in the 440 and low hurdles. John Faulkner set new times in the 880, mile and two-mile. Hugh Cloud set the javelin mark at 182 1/2. The Southwestern Exposition in Fort Worth saw the Aggies second to Texas amid seven hundred track men. Faulkner also captained Coach Max Meadors' unbeaten cross country team, downing Oklahoma, Kansas, Kansas State, and Arkansas.

Tennis was capturing more manpower with seventeen men now on


the varsity, and golf under Coach Tom Aycock was hanging on as an intramural sport.

Under fire. President Knapp accepted Auburn's presidency, graduating, as he gracefully termed it, "with the class of 1928." Dean McElroy assumed his duties while the Board of Agriculture courted Henry Bennett, president of Southeastern at Durant. Realignment of the administration would bring many changes in physical education programs as well. The era of a single personable, compelling head coach, personally supervising all major sports at his school, was ending. The evolution of collegiate athletics now demanded separate coaching assignments, with skilled assistants.

Without Wright's passes and the services of end Spence Radnich and halfback Gabe Martin, who were working now and would not return for their senior year, warning flags flew in all directions for the football team's chances in 1928. The gridders were pounded in every game but the opener with St. Regis of Denver. The only light moment in a muddy 32-6 defeat at West Virginia came when a towering punt by sophomore Jack Baker plunked into the flooding Monongahela River just behind the goal. The game ball swept downstream amid floating chicken coops and small out-buildings.

Maully's career that year followed much the same downstream path. Plagued by influenza and students not returning, and desperate for Wright's touch, the cagers put a 1-14 year behind them. A fair baseball club also faltered.

In eight years, Maulbetsch had guided A&M to 28 football victories, 37 defeats, and 6 ties. He had conquered OU twice, tied twice, lost four. But Tulsa had thumped the Aggies three times and old nemesis Arkansas had prevailed in four of seven clashes. Brilliant triumphs were overshadowed by his last, disastrous year, and Maully was given a year's leave as President Bennett stepped in to reorganize the athletic department, among others. Maulbetsch used the " leave" to find another job.

Of the winter sports, only wrestling sailed serenely through with a clutch of fairly green youngsters. Gallagher's men repeated as NCAA champs at Ohio State, crowning McCready at heavy a second time and George Bancroft, Jack VanBebber, and Conrad Caldwell for the first time.

The Aggies scooped up the Missouri Valley track title at the meet in Stillwater. John Faulkner won the mile at the Kansas City Indoor, and the team tied with Abilene Christian in the Fort Worth meet held along with the annual Livestock Exposition. David Dodge broke the school pole vault record with a remarkable 12-1 1/2 effort.

To bolster Valley schedules, Creighton was added to bring the number of conference schools up to five.^^


Endnotes

1. Athletic Council Minutes, 1926. Files, Athletic Department, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

2. "Living Subject for A&M Cowboy Cartoon," Oklahoma A&M College Magazine, vol. 27, no. 7 (March 1956), p. 9.

3. Otis Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs: The Chronological Story of Sports at Oklahoma State University From the Beginning in the 1890s Through the 1960s," pp. 137-138, manuscript, Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University.

4. 1925 Redskin, pp. 220-224, Oklahoma A. and M. College Yearbook.

5. Another book in the Centennial Histories Series, Oklahoma State University Campus, describes athletic facilities and their funding.

6. Wile, pp. 142, 147-148.

7. Wile, p. 156.

8. Doris Dellinger, Ride 'em. Cowboys! The Story of Wrestling's Dynasty (Stillwater, OK: Frontier Printers, 1977), p. 22.

9. 1929 Redskin, p. 284.

10. Wile, pp. 167, 171; 1929 Redskin, pp. 278-280.


11 Riding With Waldorf 1929-1934

As A&M's new football coach, Lynn O. Waldorf brought a ready grin and amiable disposition to Stillwater, along with topflight credentials. His three successful years at Oklahoma City University were followed by a year on the Kansas staff. The former All-America tackle for Syracuse would linger at Oklahoma A&M for five widely acclaimed years, bringing the school 34 victories against 10 losses and 7 ties. Then his career would carry him on upward, as ' T a p p y " Waldorf became one of the country's most renowned football mentors.

Albert Exendine, a Carlisle standout in Jim Thorpe's day, was named backfield coach. George Rody of Kansas University, who had just coached Oklahoma City Central High School to second place in the national basketball tournament, would take over basketball and baseball. ' 'Wash" Kenny continued to work in football and track. Ed Gallagher remained athletic director and wrestling coach and Dean Clarence McElroy continued as chairman of the Athletic Council. Along with changes in coaches, the cabinet governing athletics was reorganized and given more power. A new constitution provided for ' 'economic business control."^

A new feeling of purpose and progress underlined the 1929-30 school year. More seating would be added to the stadium as President Henry G. Bennett anticipated even larger crowds. And the word from the football practice field was that last year's freshmen were ripening into quality players when added to veterans Phil Rodgers, Grady Burleson, Frank Butterfield, Gerald Curtin, Raymond Ellis, Raymond Swartz, Earl McCready, and Captain Jack Baker.

Night games were made possible for the first time at A&M by a


$37,000 stadium lighting system. The north side of the campus basked in an unaccustomed glow when the tall poles showered light on Lewis Field. Townspeople were as proud as the campus was of this novelty. When the lights went on for the first night scrimmage, 500 were drawn to the stands to see how "ghost ball" would look. The term grew out of the appearance of the ball, painted white for greater visibility.

Eight thousand flocked to the first actual night game, a 12-0 victory over Northwestern of Alva in the opener. Losses to Drake, the Valley's defending champion, and West Virginia at homecoming sandwiched victories over Oklahoma City's Goldbugs and Creighton's Bluejays. Tulsa was next, A&M seeking its first victory over the Hurricane in ten years. Waldorf felt the wider acclaim his team needed lay in reining in both Tulsa and the Sooners. His Pokes were ready. Tulsa couldn't dent the Waldorf defenses and lost, 20-0. But the team couldn't get going against St. Louis, settling for a 0-0 tie.

Then it was time for the second Flivver Derby, with decrepit old jalopies darting off to Norman. Interest was immense throughout Oklahoma, and stores might as well have closed their doors. The OU stadium was inundated with a crowd estimated at 20,000. The game was spirited but not inspired; it ended, 1-1, considerable compensation for the previous year's 47-0 mauling administered by OU on the Cowboys' own turf.

Tall poles showered light on Lewis Field in 1929 and "ghost ball" became Stillwater's newest attraction. In 1933, half-time at the homecoming game with the Sooners featured the above demonstration.


Arkansas celebrated Thanksgiving Day, 32-6, in the final game, but Waldorf had pulled a 4-3-2 year from a team that now offered considerable promise. It was almost tangible: the Cowboys were going places now.

The 1930 grapplers were loaded with all the talent needed for their ninth all-victorious season in a row. In the NCAA tourney at Penn State, the Cowboys were behind until Jack VanBebber won at 165. His roommate, Conrad Caldwell, took 175. The reliable McCready wrapped up the team title with his third heavyweight crown. The Canadian Moose was the only senior on the team.

Thus, with fans eagerly awaiting the next victorious chapter, there was a letdown when new Coach Rody's first cage season unrolled. The lone win was over Oklahoma, but fifteen other teams were not as cooperative. It was a down year in spring sports, but Alvin Jenkins did pace the cross country team to first in the Valley.

To establish A&M as a solid contender beyond the state. Coach Waldorf gambled in 1930, scheduling Iowa and Indiana on successive Saturdays. Expected to rely on a large, strong backfield, the 36-man team boarded two school buses for Iowa City. But Waldorf had a surprise in store. Four light sophomore backs, alternating with the heavy backs, passed their way to a 6-0 victory and a 7-7 tie on the trip. Waldorf's ' *pony backfield'' had made a debut that captured the attention of other schools and contributed to an exciting 7-2-1 season. The team held opponents to a total of just six touchdowns.^

The twenty-fifth Aggie-Sooner game had drawn 17,000 for homecoming, with standing room only at Lewis Field and a 13-7 Cowboy triumph. When OU students made off with the clapper from Old Central's bell tower, the football team made plans to retrieve it for heralding future victories. Gerald Curtin and Hudie Hasten "relieved" a Norman fraternity of its care, according to the O'CoJJegian.

"OU students claimed the Aggies had swiped the wrong clapper, intimating they had raided a rural Cleveland county church. Disdainfully, Curtin stated that he and Haston were qualified to know the difference between an OU frat house and a church!" The controversy raged. Later the clapper was designated the official trophy of the Cowboy-Sooner football game, going to the victor each autumn, as one of the most unusual trophies in collegiate football.^

Another " t rophy" following Waldorf's big year was the pledge of $104,378 for the stadium fund, as Dr. Bennett continued to shape an adequate sports facility.

The cagers managed an improved 7-9 season for Coach Rody in 1930 and the swimmers took third in the Valley.

All was well in the wrestling world as Coach Gallagher's 1931 team won its fourth NCAA title in a row and remained undefeated for the tenth


consecutive year. The shortest match came when the Cowboys sent the Jayhawks back to Kansas after twenty-eight minutes of wrestling. A&M collected seven falls and a forfeit for a 40-0 win. It was, Gallagher admitted, "my best team." VanBebber, Caldwell, Bobby Pearce, and LeRoy McGuirk were national champions.^

By spring, the athletic budget was written in red ink as the Great Depression gained a foothold in Oklahoma. Despite student protests, baseball was cancelled. Tennis, which operated on practically no budget, continued and the team took six of seven duals. Track, however, was burgeoning with the talent of Peyton Glass, recognized as the finest sprinter of the first thirty-two years of A&M history.

At the Fort Worth Games, amid 909 athletes. Glass won the 100 in 9.6 and the 220 in 21.6. He tied the world record of 9.5 in the 100 during the Texas Relays. Ralph Knight, Billy Bowman, George McGraw and Glass won the 880 relay and Jenkins snared the 3,000 meters to clinch the team title at Austin. Sprinting against Olympian Eddie Tolan on a wet track. Glass won in 9.7 at the Drake Relays.

June saw the departure of Rody, whose basketball duties were turned over to freshman football coach Harold "Puny" James, a former OU star.

Times were harder than they had been since early frontier days and sales of tickets to football games were painfully slow. Always an innovator, Waldorf planned to draw fans with an unusual night doubleheader for the 1931 opener. He split the Cowboys into two units and first met Northeastern State, coached by alumnus Guy Lookabaugh, and then Bethany of Kansas. By now there were three backfields on tap for Waldorf and he had no trouble gaining twin victories.

Minnesota downed the Cowboys in the pouring rain, 20-0. But once dried out, the team bowed again only to Waldorf's former Oklahoma City Goldbugs, marching to a remarkable 8-2-1 year. A place in the postseason East-West Shrine game in San Francisco went to Conrad Fisher, the first of many Cowboys to be honored.

A 4-16 basketball season was bearable because students could always rely on yet another triumphant wrestling season ahead.

By the winter of 1932, the Cowboys had extended their winning streak to seventy consecutive dual meets over a ten-year span. The renowned Gallagher was at the peak of his teaching skills. His men were annual threats to the finest in any other state, had taken the first four NCAA championships, and had earned places on Olympic teams since 1924. But fate turned away in the season finale against OU.

While devastating to A&M fans, OU's first triumph against the Cowboy matmen was a compliment to Gallagher's willingness to share his techniques in coaching clinics. After heading the American Association of Wrestling Coaches for three years, he had just been elected president of the National Wrestling Coaches Association. He was at the height of


Swimming in the pool located in the basement of the Gymnasium and Armory, the 1932 team featured Coach Harold "Puny" James, Captain J. C. Ridge, Louie Comba, Allen Hurley, Hubert Erwin, and Harry Blue Bullen.

his ability to communicate and improve the sport in this country. And the coach whom the Aggies met that warm night of February

27, 1932, was Paul Keen, a former Gallagher pupil at A&M, brother of former team captain and national champion Cliff Keen, and himself a former Aggie basketball team captain. Paul had absorbed the Old Master's philosophy and style well, and his Sooners brought the Aggies down, 13 1/2 to 12 1/2, before more than 3,000 frantic fans in the old gym in Stillwater.

Gone were three-time national champs VanBebber and Caldwell. They were in California preparing for the Olympics. Graduation had left gaps in the powerful lineup, but there were no apologies to be made. The first match, at 115 pounds, saw the Cowboys' Andy Hesser carry the Sooners' Ray Inglis to extension periods, with Hesser prevailing by a pin. Bobby Pearce, who along with VanBebber would take a gold medal at the Olympics that summer, was ill with the flu, but wrestled anyway. He was too weak to hold Jim White of Oklahoma after a takedown. That match, too, went into overtime and wound up a draw. Pearce fainted and had to be carried to the dressing room.


Ralph Rasor's decision gave A&M a 9 1/2 to 11/2 lead, but the Sooner strongmen decisioned the next four Cowboys for a score of OU 13 1/2, A&M 9 1/2. The crowd for that historic bout saw the massive Sooner heavyweight, Ellis Bashara, squat like the Rock of Gibraltar, leaving fiery LeRoy McGuirk, a 155-pounder, unable to turn him for a winning fall. The long string was snapped.

In the eye of the whirling, stunned, screaming mob, Gallagher met Keen, hand outstretched. Reporters recorded the Aggie coach as saying, "It had to come, Paul. We can take it. You were wonderful!" Keen, overcome, couldn't answer.^ That year the Nationals went to Indiana, with the Cowboys second. Along with Pearce, VanBebber, and Caldwell at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles was A&M's Melvin Clodfelter.

Boxing enjoyed a brief sojourn on campus and the ROTC team won three titles at the Oklahoma Amateur in Oklahoma City. Although not sponsored by the athletic department, the team used the school gym. Phillip Rahill and Russell Davidson went on to claim the Western AAU in St. Louis.

The Western AAU meet also included wrestling, so Bobby Pearce and LeRoy McGuirk hitch-hiked to St. Louis to take part. Making the most of the long trip, each entered two weights, Pearce winning 125 and 135 pounds, McGuirk winning 155 and 175. They brought home the team trophy.

The Fort Worth track trophy went to the Cowboys in the spring of 1932, Glass running 10.5 for 100 meters and 9.7 for 100 yards. The Aggies also won four dual meets, but Glass, who had been plagued by a pulled muscle, missed making the Olympic team at Chicago.

Making sure baseball was back in the varsity lineup, " O " Club and townspeople promoted ticket sales; Exendine inherited that coaching spot. Tennis players financed their own travel, with school funds nonexistent during the lengthy Depression. The golf team operated on the same terms under Coach Gallagher, who anticipated making it a varsity sport.^

A&M's new-found prestige in collegiate football was threatened in late March by an alarming headline: "Waldorf to OU?" The head coaching job at Missouri was also rumored to have Waldorf's name on it. Concern grew on the Stillwater campus. After all, despite glittering triumphs and that 19-7-4 record, Waldorf was being paid only $6,000 annually. With all faculty salaries severely limited by the Depression woes, what could be offered to retain a man of Waldorf's caliber?

On April 3, 1932, with reorganization of the athletic department, Waldorf became director of athletics. Ed Gallagher, who had guided the department from its infancy in 1916 into an active, progressive era, stepped aside. He continued to serve as head of physical education and as wrestling coach. Despite failing health, he shouldered his assignment and readied more than a dozen of his proteges for competition to gain


College campuses of the thirties fostered some outstanding boxers, but the sport was shortlived at Oklahoma A&M. The 1932 team \nclu6e6 (front row) Phillip Rayhill, Jack Cannon, (second row) Bryan Thompson, Dick Butts, Otis Sims, Sherman Stephenson, Odie Ludlow, (third row) Russell Davidson, Charles Crisp, Fran Wilkinson, Leo Gille, and Gordon Mott.

berths on the Olympic team. The vigorous struggle to gain national attention for Oklahoma A&M had borne considerable fruit under Gallagher's administration and set the pace for future achievements.

Waldorf launched the 1932 grid season with a two-team system. An 11-man unit augmented his number one lineup. Although no one had yet come up with platoon football utilizing offensive and defensive units, the coach's use of a pony backfield the previous year now led him to expand into two varsity teams. At Notre Dame, Knute Rockne also was working in that direction. It gave the Cowboys momentum that carried them through an ambitious schedule to the finest outcome the school ever had experienced, a 9-1-2 season.

The twelfth game, a loss to newly-formed Jefferson Law School of Dallas, required permission from the Valley. But Jefferson had offered Waldorf a $3,000 guarantee for the game. So tenuous were Aggie finances that he agreed. The Texans had assembled a team from other campuses and had no eligibility standards. A 48-yard touchdown scamper by Hubert Erwin narrowed the final score, but Jefferson took the game, 12-6.

According to news accounts, the man holding the $3,000 check


file:///nclu6e6

decided to leave the game a bit early. The greatly-needed amount was never paid. A&M's first unbeaten football varsity was delayed until 1945.7

Adding classical music to game days was the 110-piece band of Bohumil Makovsky. Many may have wished for more lively airs, but few cared to express that opinion to the anti-jazz maestro.

Under Governor Murray, state employees' wages were cut drastically. President Bennett's salary was cut from $11,250 to $7,500. Those of Gallagher and others were slashed in half.^

There was talk of Waldorf as a replacement for the respected, retiring Amos Alonzo Stagg at Chicago University, but the new Aggie athletic director remained on campus. Waldorf and Dean McElroy met with the Big Six that winter, hoping for a bid that was not forthcoming. President Bennett suggested their efforts be suspended. "Just beat them every time we play one of them," he advised.^

A 6-10 basketball season was offset by the wrestlers as they romped to eight dual wins and a 12-12 tie with OU, then regained the NCAA title at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Rex Peery, Ross Flood, and Alan Kelley were national champs.

With donations from local businesses and a ticket drive. Coach Exendine was able to field a spirited baseball team that garnered a 12-3 record and the state championship. Despite only $20 being available for tennis that spring, the Cowboys coached by volunteer DeWitt Hunt traveled about the state, winning 11 of 15 matches.

Not since 1913 had the track men of OAMC beaten the Sooners in a dual. Twenty years is a long time; Coach Kenny's Cowboys were restive. Adding a dash of drama to that annual meeting in 1933 was the appearance of Lewis Field under the lights. Packed into the south seats was one of the biggest crowds ever to assemble for track in Stillwater.

OU was favored. A&M's John Collins won the mile in 4:28.1 and was second in the 880. Glass and Kenneth Gallagher, son of Ed, placed first and second in the 100. Bob Taton won the vault. Clarence Sooter took the high hurdles. Glass copped the 220. Price, Pierson, and French were 1-2-3 in the two-mile. Foster Harrington, Sooter, and Gallagher swept the low hurdles. The Cowboys were a point shy of victory, with the broad jump looming. Glass streaked down the runway, but fell with a pulled muscle. But when Fred O'Donnell and Merle Collins came in second and third in the broad jump, the long drought was over, 69-62.

Could the school ever top a year which provided a 9-1-2 football record, a national wrestling championship, the state baseball crown, a top tennis year on a $20 budget, and a track defeat of OU after a twenty-year drought?

As autumn of 1933 neared, improvements to Lewis Field continued to be prominent in Athletic Director Waldorf's plans. He promoted a


$40,000, 10-year loan to add 2,200 stadium seats, bringing the north stands up to the capacity of those on the south. An electric scoreboard, public address system, and improved press box would be included. The last stadium addition in 1932 had increased permanent seating to 12,400, as the school proceeded to "build the stadium a seat at a t ime." The Stadium Corporation, increasingly active in the drive for new facilities, had been renamed the Athletic Association of the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, Incorporated.

A&M's chance at the Missouri Valley title meant Creighton had to be defeated. On the opening play, Gordon DuPree raced 56 yards for a sudden score. He also scored the fifth touchdown to clinch the conference championship. The Cowboys had not allowed a Sooner score since 1929, nor an OU victory since 1928. By hammering the line, A&M pocketed a 13-0 victory at Owen Field in Norman and ended the season 6-2-1. Jess Rosett carried twenty-five times, gaining 72 yards, as the Cowboys rushed for 259 yards to the Sooners' 11 .^^

Following a 4-12 cage season. Coach James, who had not anticipated working with basketball, followed his first preference—coaching football—to Tulsa for a long career in the school system there.

A 7-0 wrestling dual season swept the Cowboys off to the Nationals at Ann Arbor, Michigan. Competition was more intense in 1934, and the great little men, Peery, Flood and Kelley, repeated their NCAA titles. The Gallagher men rolled up 29 points to 19 for Indiana and 14 for OU. Collegiate wrestling teams were now aware that in the state of Oklahoma the sport was taken seriously, and that athletes had to cope successfully with both schools to capture national honors.

Waldorf's resignation, inevitable because of the salary crunch, came on March 19 when he accepted the football post at Kansas State. A substantial pay boost was too lucrative to turn down and Waldorf, only 31, held his last spring scrimmage at A&M. In five years, he had propelled the school into games with all the major teams he could muster, sharply limited opponents' scoring, and had been beaten by neither Tulsa nor Oklahoma. His career would soar to include Northwestern, the University of California, and the San Francisco Forty-Niners professional team. Exendine was promoted two days later from assistant to head of the A&M football program.^^

As the Missouri Valley struggled to maintain a viable conference, it admitted Tulsa and Washburn on April 23, 1934. Butler resigned after two years of membership.

Baseball fortunes looked up that spring as an all-campus dance aided finances and Vance Posey, athletic business manager, became the coach. The Cowboys, captained by Jess Rosett, turned in a promising 12-5 season as Norris Siroms hit .402. Still paying their own expenses, the tennis men produced six victories, one loss, and three ties.


It was not a rousing track year, but the Aggies recaptured the Valley title, passing Drake 61 1/2 to 52. Ken Gallagher collected the 100 and low hurdles titles; Tichenor won the shot and discus; and Rigney took first in javelin. Ken's brothers, Clarence and Don, also had lettered, but it was Kenneth who surpassed records his famous father had set in 1908.

The most profound change in the athletic program made by President Bennett in 1934 was his signing of Henry P. Iba to coach basketball and baseball. Iba, a superlative athlete at Westminster of Missouri, had coached for two years at Classen High School, Oklahoma City, before moving to the University of Colorado. Basketball had never been a dynamic sport at A&M, but under his leadership the program would soar to NCAA championships, and he would guide three U.S. Olympic teams during a career that would span nearly four decades at Oklahoma A&M College.

Endnotes

1. Louis A. Blackburn. "The One-hoss Shay Has Seen Its Day," Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 1 no. 1 (September 1929), p. 13.

2. Otis Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs: The Chronological Story of Sports at Oklahoma State University From the Beginning in the 1890s Through the 1960s," p. 181, manuscript, Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma; 1930 Redskin, pp. 216-220, OklahomaA. and M. College Yearbook; 1931 Redskin, pp. 343-349.

3. Wile, p. 186.

4. Wile, p. 188.

5. Wile, p. 197.

6. 1933 Redskin, p. 202.

7. Wile, pp. 202, 206.

8. Author interview with Kenneth Gallagher, 11 February 1985. Athletics Centennial History Collection, Special Collections, Edmon Low Library.

9. Wile, p. 208.

10. Wile, pp. 212, 217. 11. Philip Reed Rulon, Oklahoma State University—Since 1890 (Stillwater: Oklahoma State

University Press, 1975), p. 215.


12 Filling the A.D.'s Chair 934-1936

The double-wingback system and a world of seasoned material had boosted Oklahoma A&M to unaccustomed football heights by 1934. Despite the gifted Lynn Waldorf's exit, it appeared A. A. Exendine would be able to carry on.

As backfield coach, Exendine had been credited with perfecting the intricate reverses and off-tackle smashes which made up the Glenn Warner system. The likeable Delaware had mastered the plays as one of ' T o p " Warner's standouts at Carlisle Indian School from 1904-06. After graduation, he moved with Warner to Dickinson. Later Exendine coached six years at Georgetown University and three at Washington State University, coming to A&M in 1929 from Northwestern Teachers' College, where he was head coach.^

With the country's economy scarcely moving—despite the desperate need for diversion—few had the admission price for a sporting event. A&M's $7.50 season ticket was a bargain, good for all sports at the college, but sales were minimal. Only a scant total of 17,571 turned out for the five home football games.

With so little income generated, unpaid bills mounted while the athletic director's desk in the Gymnasium and Armory remained unoccupied. To raise funds, short course director Clay Potts, whose name with become synonymous with Aggie hospitality in the years ahead, inaugurated the first pre-season football roundup barbecue. Fans and students were treated to all they could eat for 50 cents as they anticipated gridiron victories.

Instead, hopes tottered as the 1934 season sagged to 4-5-1. A good coach, Exendine was not Waldorf. And he faced a monumental job. He


?.:-&* W \ ^ ^ *

Barbecue as only Clay Potts could do it! Potts initiated the

annual pre-season football roundup barbecue in 1934 to

raise much-needed funds for the athletic department. In later

years, a young Henry P. Iba (center), and the line coach Al Paddock (left) confer with the

hospitable Potts before he feeds fans, students, faculty, regents,

and the press.

met his new squad for the first time September 8, with the first scrimmage on September 15 and the first game exactly two weeks later. A 0-0 tie with the Sooners was the third standoff between the teams since 1929. A&M had held the down-state rivals scoreless during twenty-three quarters of play in six years. But the tide was turning, and despite *'Exie's" best efforts, OU would begin another dominant streak in 1935.^

Lengthy basketball practices in the old gym had not gone unnoticed by the student body. Could new coach Henry P. Iba translate his own court successes into a system that would lift the A&M program from mediocrity? Several football players exchanged pads and helmets for basketball uniforms; most of the cage team would complete the schedule, then plunge into spring sports. Even with an enrollment of 3,391, the keenest athletes participated in three sports during the school year. The age of specialization had not yet arrived.

The gym was literally packed to the rafters all winter as fans scaled balcony supports to gain extra seating for basketball and wrestling.

Iba's first team needed height and miracles, but the former Westminster star led the Cowboys through a respectable Missouri Valley race to a 9-9 season of narrow victories and losses. A resounding 30-24 win over the Sooners gave the Aggies something to cheer about and established


Iba as a campus hero. He stressed an airtight defense under the goal and urged his team to hold onto the ball until a score was assured. Iba's center post play method was described as a paradox, being both ' ' the most widely used and the most widely criticized system."^

The Gallagher men breezed to another undefeated, 8-0 wrestling season, adding luster with a national AAU championship and the school's seventh NCAA title in eight years. Living up to their image as country boys, the wrestlers for years made a special point of arriving at elite eastern schools flaunting ten-gallon hats, western wear, and high-heeled boots, mostly borrowed. Jests at their expense, however, quickly died down as workouts began and onlookers were startled by the A&M team's speed, skill, and endurance.^

Student unrest grew throughout 1934 and into 1935 as the athletic director's position remained unfilled. School officials made repeated announcements that an appointment was forthcoming, but outside pressure caused postponements. A petition signed by 500 students urged Harry B. Cordell, president of the State Board of Agriculture, to shore up the floundering department.^

In the meantime, two separate events affected the athletic program. Within a month of E. W. Marland's inauguration as Oklahoma's governor. President Henry G. Bennett announced the completion of plans by A&M architect and former athlete Philip A. Wilber for a new library, a gymnasium and field house, engineering, biology and administration buildings, along with additions to existing structures.

To gain approval, the new sports complex was carefully described as the ''4-H Club and Student Activity Building.' ' The public, convinced the school never would fill such a huge arena, dubbed the proposed structure "Iba's Folly." But others, proud of the A&M athletic program and the man who developed it, started calling the the building Gallagher Hall.

Then came the resignation of Roy "Wash" Kenny, capable track coach and football assistant. Kenny, a three-sport letterman at A&M, had arrived on campus in 1914 and had returned after World War I to graduate, staying on as a valued coach from 1920 to 1935. Deeply hurt at not being considered as successor to Waldorf, Kenny accepted the assistant warden's position at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and, after training, quickly moved to the top post.

With a constricted budget, the athletic department tapped Ed Gallagher to supervise track once more. The decision brought the sizzling editorial comment, "Too Much Work for Gallagher," from the Daily O'Collegian. Gallagher, then 48, had continued as head of the physical education department, turning out national and Olympic wrestling champions, and assisting in football.^

Finally, after a full year of vacancy, the athletic directorship was


filled. On April 4,1935, the Athletic Cabinet, previously named the Athletic Council, sent the regents its recommendation that Iba, who had just ended his first season as basketball coach, be named director. The board's approval was unanimous. Iba's appointment returned stability to the drifting program.

As he took up scheduling events, put an iron grip on the budget, and developed long term goals with President Bennett, the courtly young Iba set about fostering a polite, friendly atmosphere in the old field house. Then he took on the final part of his assignment, baseball.

"Iba has been just one bright surprise after another to campus folks," the Redskin noted. He brought a scrappy brand of baseball to the diamond and local baseball interest revived sharply. The Aggies wound up third in the state college league. The golf team brought home six victories under Captain Orman Casey, losing only to OU. Efforts were under way to link the state's leading colleges in a golf conference. And Coach DeWitt Hunt's tennis varsity downed OU, 5-1, for A&M's first triumph over Sooner netmen.

On July 1, 1925, graduate Ralph Higgins, three-sport star and Southwest Conference dash champion, returned to coach track at A&M. Harry

While golf had been an active sport for many years, it was not until the 1935 season that then Athletic Director Henry P. Iba announced it a varsity sport. Members of the team included (left to right) Coach Harry Dolman Jr., who also served as business manager of the athletic department, Andy Maciula, Orloski, Galen Briggs, Orman Casey, Ted Syncs, Hoke, and Vene D. Fry.


Dolman was named athletic business manager and would coach the 1936 golf squad when it assumed varsity status.

To combat state fiscal woes, President Bennett and other agricultural college heads were expected to submit to Governor Marland a list of employees, their qualifications, length of service, and salaries. Added to this was a recommendation of which personnel were to be retained as the governor sought to cut Oklahoma's payroll by 1,000. A&M's budget was slashed $70,000, largely in the already small faculty stipends.

Modest, too was the size of the football coaching staff in the autumn of 1935. Exendine had one assistant, and Higgins handled the freshmen. A tenth game was included, but it only made a long season longer. An opening sprint past Oklahoma City's Goldbugs, long A&M's nemesis, convinced fans exciting grid days were back. Instead, the Aggies managed to scoot past only Southeastern and Haskell Indians. As Exendine tried everything, five scoreless shutouts and two other losses followed. In two years, the team stood 7-12-1. The search for a new coach was on.

OAMC would offer a big-name coach a princely $10,000 contract, the OkJahoma News avowed. The StiJJwater Daily News retorted that if A&M HAD $10,000, it would give up football and run the school on that amount. After all, faculty salaries had just been slashed drastically. Nonetheless, the O'CoJJegian reported Iba had $8,000 to entice a coach although that probably included the salary of one or two aides.

Almost a dozen highly respected names were bandied about as candidates, with some coaches paying visits to the campus. Aggie alumnus Jim Lookabaugh was a top contender. But on February 5, 1936, the demanding task went to Tulane's Ted Cox. A Minnesota graduate, as a senior in 1924 he had been team captain, helping the Gophers trounce Red Grange and Illinois.

Cox brought in John McDaniel as backfield coach. After wrestling season, Ray Swartz would leave his successful mat program at Central State to become line coach and Gallagher's assistant. Swartz had been an A&M football and track star (he was a heavyweight wrestler during McCready's reign and thus saw little action). Aware the situation called for considerable legerdemain to revitalize the stalled Cowboys, Cox warned well-wishers, "Remember, the name is Cox, not Houdini."^

On Iba's recommendation, basketball scorekeeper Weldon Barnes became the school's first sports publicity director while he continued his schooling. Barnes already was covering A&M events for the TuJsa WorJd, and he began broadening that coverage to include all state newspapers.

Under Iba's hand, the improved cagers of 1935-36 tied with Creighton and Drake at 8-4 for the Missouri Valley championship. The Cowboys downed Nebraska in the district Olympic trials before Kansas squeaked


In his first year as basketball coach, Henry P. Iba (left) led the Aggies to a 9-9 season. The following year, A&M captured the Missouri Valley championship.

past. The 16-8 season was something to savor. Wrestling fortunes faltered although the team served up seven dual

victories and a tie with powerful Central State. Paul Keen's Sooners won the NCAA tourney at Lexington, Kentucky, OU's first national championship in any sport. A&M slipped to third, crowning only Harley "Doc" Strong, but later blitzed the NAAU in Chicago to gain that team title.

The final team standings in the NCAA tourney emphasized the explosion of skills fostered by Gallagher and now vigorously brewing on all of Oklahoma's wrestling mats, from junior high on up. With Swartz's Bronchos taking second place and "Whisperin' Joe" Milam's Southwestern Teachers of Weatherford sixth, four of the top six teams in the nation in 1936 hailed from Oklahoma! The men Gallagher had trained were now flexing their coaching muscles. Together their powerful, winning teams reflected a positive image of the state to a nation more recently aware only of Okie migrants and the Dust Bowl days.

On April 8, Stillwater businesses closed for an official holiday as townspeople and students streamed into Lewis Stadium for a three-sport carnival on "Ed Gallagher Day." Funds would be added to those raised by benefit dances and basketball games to send the dean of American wrestling coaches to the Olympic Games in Berlin. Baseball, a track triangular, and a pre-season glimpse of Cox's new Minnesota single wing-back football system entertained the carnival-goers, who sweetened the travel fund to $1,135, topping the $800 goal.

The Olympic Cormnittee had named Gallagher honorary coach as thirteen of his matmen qualified for the final try-outs. Two weeks after the carnival. Strong, Ross Flood, Frank Lewis, and Roy Dunn made the 14-man U.S. team, with Fred Parkey an alternate. It was the largest num-


ber of Gallagher men to become Olympians at one time. Oklahoma oilmen Lew Wentz and Frank Buttram provided money for Parkey's boat passage.

Gallagher's son, Clarence, a physician, wanted his father to be examined by medical experts in Vienna. He served as the Olympic team doctor.

Sharing close workout quarters in the Gymnasium with the mat team in those days was Coach Ed Phelps' boxing club, which produced three team victories, two ties, and Norman Miller's 147-pound Oklahoma Golden Gloves title. Miller's runner-up was another Aggie, Gaither Bynum.^

Track honors were meager in 1936, with Ray Bradley the only Missouri Valley indoor winner at 440, as Coach Higgins began rebuilding a sport which had led OAMC to its earliest athletic trophies before statehood. A strong broad jumper, dash man, and javelin thrower was freshman Allie Reynolds. Under Iba, the Cowboys managed a 10-game winning streak on the diamond for a 13-7 year. With a 7-1 dual season, the golfers ranked second in Valley play.

The stadium was enlarged by another two seating bays during the summer and a new press box sprouted on the south stands in a $55,000 project. But the stories of the Cowboy wrestlers in Berlin kept Aggieland busy reading.

1936 Olympic team members were honored during a ceremony at the Aggie-OU game. On the platform (left to right) were Roy Dunn, Ross Flood, Frank Lewis, Harley Strong, and Fred Parkey. Joe Cook, mayor of Cushing, (left) congratulates A&M coach Ed Gallagher.


Hitler's showcase games were laden with tension, both racial and political, and with rumblings of war. The Americans, adept at freestyle with few holds barred, once more found themselves up against unfamiliar rules and Greco-Roman-flavored refereeing even during freestyle bouts. Lewis was the only Oklahoman to mount the top stand and receive a gold medal. Flood lost in a controversial final match that had even the Germans protesting a call and was awarded the silver. The entire American contingent left Berlin, it was said, with a "sour taste in their mouths."

Along with the Olympic gold, each reigning athlete was presented a small oak seedling from the Black Forest, a German tradition. The sprout brought back on the boat by Lewis and planted at the Sigma Chi fraternity house in Stillwater would be one of the few mature oaks surviving in American soil, an Olympic souvenir of A&M's third gold medalist. ^

Endnotes


2. Otis Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs: The Chronological Story of Sports at Oklahoma State University From the Beginning in the 1890s Through the 1960s," p. 227, manuscript. Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

3. 1935 Redskin, p. 189.

4. Doris Dellinger, Ride 'em, Cowboys! The Story of Wrestling's Dynasty (Stillwater, OK: Frontier Printers, 1977), p. 34.

5. 1935 Redskin, p. 189; Wile, p. 229.

6. Oklahoma A. and M. Daily O'Collegian, 12 March 1935, p. 2.

7. 1935 Redskin, p. 189.

8. Wile, pp. 233, 238-239.

9. Author interview with Loyd Ricks, 4 June 1985, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

10. Wile, pp. 241, 243.


13 They Called Him Mister

The day before Henry P. Iba joined Oklahoma A&M's athletic department in 1934, the Poke cagers played an opponent in the campus cafeteria. Ordinarily the cagers held forth in the gymnasium just north of Morrill Hall, with earnest but unspectacular results.^

Cowboy basketball was never the same. Within four years of assuming the reins at A&M, the tall, determined

blond from Missouri fielded winning teams that performed before capacity crowds in a-new showplace arena that came to be known as Gallagher Hall. Installing the "Iba style" of consistent, sound defense rather than flashy offense, he took the wayward sport out of the cafeteria and sent his teams all the way to the National Invitation Tournament in New York's Madison Square Garden, the Rose Bowl of basketball. His Aggies became national contenders and made the master court tactician one of the country's three top winning coaches in America.^

Never again was basketball a mild-mannered little sport that could be sandwiched into a dining hall's idle hours. Fans multiplied, jamming themselves into the Gymnasium and Armory.

"In the old gym, we had very little room for an audience," Iba recalled in 1985. "Then when the new gym was built, we wondered if we would get enough people in to fill it. Everyone was worried about th is ."

Everyone, that is, except the coach. "There wasn't any doubt in my mind that we could fill the new

gym," Iba remembered. "Later we found out we could get plenty of spectators." His distinctive style of ball control and his well-drilled teams continued to draw crowds beyond the large arena's capacity. Students


and townspeople alike endured long lines that began hours before game time to see his teams meet the nation's finest on the white maple court of Gallagher Hall.

Coming just as Oklahoma was beginning to stir after the worst of the Depression, the building had seemed terribly ambitious. The soaring structure was scoffed at by opponents as a prime example of overbuilding. Detractors called it "Iba's Folly," although plans for its construction had originated with master builder President Henry G. Bennett.

The two Henrys worked well together. Both anticipated the need for the athletic arena and offices. Funds, of course, had to originate with the state legislature. That was Bennett's task.

"He couldn't get the senators and representatives to have a meeting on campus, so he'd invite them to come to the old field house when A&M played OU," Iba related. That gym was so quickly crammed with basketball converts that there wasn't seating for the entire student body, never mind off-campus visitors.

"When they arrived at the old field house and armory, they couldn't get in to watch the game," Iba recalled.

Legislators quickly got Bennett's message about the school's outgrown facility, and money was forthcoming for the new sports palace.

Bennett saw that it was built. Iba saw that it was packed. As a superb athlete, Iba had collected thirteen letters in four sports

within seven semesters at Westminster College at Fulton, Missouri. In later years, as his career flourished, he continued to be the pride of Westminster.

An Amateur Athletic Union cage star in Oklahoma City before coaching a year at the University of Colorado, Iba's move to A&M was almost a homecoming. His knowledge of Oklahoma athletes enabled him to move easily into recruiting. Soon the school had its choice of state cagers, just as top wrestlers were being attracted by Edward C. Gallagher's national and international successes.^

When Iba became athletic director a year later, he looked for a third dominant personality to develop football, and chose E. M. "J im" Lookabaugh for the task.*

"With Jim's knowledge, we knew who were the right kind of athletes we should bring in ," the moulder of the modern athletic power recalled. The overall program continued its momentum during the nearly 30-year regime of Dean Clarence McElroy as chairman of the Athletic Cabinet.

"He was the Athletic Cabinet, if you want to get down to it!" Iba quipped. "He had a strong impact on this place."

Iba's long tenure from 1934 to 1970 spanned the era of no athletic scholarships and their gradual evolution to today's tightly governed system of aid. When he began to structure a basketball empire, working


for 25 cents an hour as a state government employee, students' financial plight was even more desperate.

"Dick Krueger worked over 110 hours a month at Swim's ," Coach Iba recalled. "He cleaned the place and waited on tables." Krueger kept up the demanding pace while playing both baseball and basketball and carrying fifteen hours.

Finally scholarships began to find their place in the budget. "I can't recall the year, but everybody knew in order to have a com

petitive program in Missouri Valley athletics, we had to have scholarships. We started with tuition, then an hourly wage. Out of the meetings, they began working on scholarships. So it started in the Missouri Valley Conference, Big Six, Big Seven, and then the Big Eight. With our scholarships, athletes could work on the side. Now they're [NCAA rules] stricter.' '

Surpassing even his achievement of winning back-to-back national cage championships in 1945 and 1946 were Iba's unrelenting efforts to gain admission to the Big Eight Conference, then known as the Big Six.

Admission was long denied. There were false alarms and shattered hopes. Not until Iba was invited to attend the conference's spring meeting in 1957 did he finally find acceptance for A&M sports in what is now the Big Eight. That sunmier the maturing school shouldered a more descriptive name, becoming Oklahoma State University.

As OSU's athletic giants continued to emerge, it was quickly apparent that Coach Iba merited a permanent seat among them—preferably at courtside, within good bellowing range of the action.^

Everything about his teams on and off the court was in Iba's purview. He was never hesitant in issuing opinions. There are those who claim that on road trips, he even chewed out men for putting condiments on their hamburgers.^ An early player recalled his view of Iba the disciplinarian and psychologist of fifty years ago:

' 'I went out for basketball under Mr. Iba. Never made his team. I made his traveling team. I learned a lot from him. ' ' He lowered his voice. ' 'He was tough. They didn't have Christmas tournaments in the thirties and we would practice three times a day during holidays. It was tough, tough, tough!

"We went down to play OU, and this is a true story. OU had been beating our brains out. They had Bruce Drake, and McDermott was the coach down there, and they had Dick Holt, some of those good players. They'd been beating Oklahoma A&M pretty bad. So we went down to play 'em his first year and lost by a point or two.

"We took a bus and we were coming back to Oklahoma City. We'd always eat at Bishop's. We'd played them close and the guys were just talkin'. Iba stopped the bus. He was always talking to me, you know. He was talkin' to everybody, but it seemed like he was just talkin' to


From 1934 to 1970, Henry P. Iba created OSU athletic history as basketball coach and athletic director. His influence, however, expanded far beyond the Stillwater campus. As coach of the Olympic basketball teams in 1964, 1968, and 1972, his renown became world-wide.

me. I was scared of him. I'm still scared of him. I admire him, but I'm scared of him and I've been around him an awful lot.

"He said, 'I want to tell you something. I don't like this at all. We got beat. It's not going to happen again. I may not let any of you guys play again; I don't know. But you'd better shape up or you're not going to be on my ballclub. If I hear one word out of you guys between here and Oklahoma City, we're not even stopping.'

" I 'm not sure whether we ate or not. But I never said another word until we got back to Stillwater! He meant every word of it. . . at least, he made everybody believe that he did! Then we got better every game."^

Bill Connor, sports editor of the TuJsa World and an OSU graduate, penetrated the layers of accumulating myth:

"The man who has risen to this summit is a suave Dutchman of many facets. To his players, he is a taskmaster, a disciplinarian; quick to criticize, quick to applaud; who demands a lot from an undergraduate, and will go to any length to help a former player.

"To his coaching adversaries, he is a wily, ferocious but dignified competitor, with an uncompromising defense; a man's man, highly respected because as Colorado's Sox Walseth says, 'He will beat you with his personnel, or with yours. '

"To the public, Iba is an amusing terror on the bench, raging at officials, scolding an erring player, impatiently tearing the warmup off a reserve he has chosen to relieve a player who has taken a bad shot or


made a bad pass. "To the adoring cult he leads, Iba almost always wins the close

games, always has sophistication and class, and is a captivating, deadly serious after-dinner speaker. To his associates and closest friends, he is thoughtful, fanatically honest, warm, loyal, sentimental, charming, modest and hilariously humorous. They swear by him."^

By 1945, Iba was already being referred to by the press as the "Aggie miracle man" and "the legendary Iba." Uncle Sam invited him to spend the summer at Lexington, Virginia, helping set up the U.S. Army's new athletic program. He served as president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and was voted into the Missouri and Oklahoma Halls of Fame. He was named to Basketball's Ail-Time Hall of Fame and the Helms Foundation Ail-Time Hall of Fame.

Twice the National Coach of the Year, 1945-46, in 1969-70, Iba completed his 36-year record at OSU, 655-316. His 41-year collegiate record was 767-338; all-time career coaching record in 43 years, 844-343.^

The Iba stamp of integrity and principles continued to mark athletes throughout the years..With a universal reverence, former students, administrators, and fellow coaches came to refer to him almost exclusively as Mr. Iba, seldom as Henry, and Hank only at the risk of his considerable wrath. One explanation covered the title: "He gave us all something special. "^^

Iba's indelible imprint on America's cage history was further evident as he guided an unprecedented three U.S. basketball teams through the Olympic Games of 1964, 1968, and 1972. Nor was that the finale for his finesse: At 79, Iba was tapped by admirer Bobby Knight to assist in preparing the American cagers for the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

"There is no man ever associated with the game of basketball for whom I have more respect than Mr. Iba," Knight said later. "It was because of this that I had asked him to help us all the way through the selection and training of our 1984 team.

"The coach didn't miss a single session or practice beginning with the first day of selection on April 16. He was there to ask us questions while at the same time answer questions we had for him. He did a fantastic job of evaluating players and worked with many who eventually made up our gold medal team."

The fiery Knight, who fondly referred to Iba as "The Old Man," added, "No man ever associated with the game should be placed in a more revered position than Henry Iba. It was a tremendous thrill for all of us to have him as a very integral and important part of our planning, training, and play. His contributions from beginning to end were exceptional. Each of us who were a part of the 1984 U.S. Olympic Team will first and foremost remember the tremendous enthusiasm that he bought to the team above all else."^^ In 1985 the Iron Duke was the overwhelm-


ing choice for inclusion in the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. ^ In any conversation, at 81, the coach was still a step ahead. Recently

he was invited to reminisce on his impressive achievements. Were his most satisfying years as athletic director and coach 1945 and 1946, when OSU football teams won Cotton and Sugar Bowl games, and basketball and wrestling teams brought home national championships? Iba agreed, but deftly sidestepped the opportunity to elaborate on those days. Instead, he veered to a wider assessment.

"The thing that I really enjoyed was the progress we made," he asserted stoutly. "From 1934 up to this day, this university has moved forward because somebody along the line was smart enough to put the right people in the right position to bring it along. Without that foresight of the people that made the backbone of Oklahoma State, we wouldn't be where we are today. " ^

A final accolade from a former player says it all: "Iba is the most Orange and Black guy I know. He really is."^*

Endnotes

1. Pat Quinn interview with Henry P. Iba, 27 February 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection, Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

2. 1938 Redskin, p. 155, Oklahoma A. and M. College Yearbook; 1952 Redskin, p. 212.

3. Iba interview.

4. Otis Wile, "Coach Jim Lookabaugh," Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 10, no. 4 (January 1939), p. 3.

5. Iba interview.

6. Author's personal communication with J. Lewie Sanderson, 15 April 1985, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

7. Author interview with Kenneth Gallagher, 11 February 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection.

8. Warren E. Shull, "Mr. Iba: The Man and the Legend," Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 11, no. 2 (February 1970), p. 9.

9. Otis Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs: The Chronological Story of Sports at Oklahoma State University From the Beginning in the 1890s Through the 1960s," p. 352, manuscript. Special Collections, Edmon Low Library; Shull, p. 9.

10. Tulsa Thbune, undated clipping. Athletics Centennial History Collection.

11. Bob Knight to Doris Dellinger, 22 February 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection.

12. The Olympian (Colorado Springs, CO: U.S. Olympic Committee, May 1985), pp. 30-31; Tulsa World, 9 August 1985, p. 1C.

13. Iba interview.

14. Gallagher interview.


14 Big Henry and Little Henry 1936-1938

Football coach Ted Cox met both President Henry G. Bennett and Athletic Director Henry P. Iba in 1936 as they were becoming known for their swift ascent in separate realms. Both labored to temper the aftermath of the Depression at the agricultural school and in its athletic program. Quickly Cox characterized the 5-foot, 6V2-inch Dr. Bennett as "Big Henry" and the 6-foot, 2-inch Iba as "Little Henry." Both Henrys relished the titles.

But his earlier, light-hearted disclaimer of not being a magician proved uncomfortably accurate. Although he had coached Tulane to the first Sugar Bowl championship over " P o p " Warner's Temple University team just two years before, scores were sparse in Cox's three-year stay at A&M. No bowl games danced in Cowboy fans' dreams as his thin squads eked out a ragged 7-23 record. His rhythmic Minnesota shift all too seldom moved out of low gear.

Inching its way into sports coverage in Oklahoma was an unknown quantity, radio. Broadcasting Oklahoma University games had been banned in 1933. The school promptly observed an upsurge in attendance. In 1934, radio reporting was again permitted and attendance averages dropped nearly 4,000 per grid game, significantly damaging the take at the gate. But by 1936, A&M was ready to test the value of radio. Iba sold rights to WKY, KOMA, and KVOO.

After Cox's first, unhappy 1-9 season, a Missouri Valley basketball crown and a recaptured national wrestling title were giant bandages on Aggie football wounds.

Iba's men opened the 1936-37 campaign with six wins and the championship of the first All-College Tournament staged in Oklahoma City


for the Daily Oklahoman's Milk and Ice Fund. In later years it would be supported by the All Sports Association. Dick Krueger and Merle Rousey made the all-tourney team. The first of the nation's holiday tournaments has continued into the 1980s and set the pace for similar events all across the country.

As 1937 began, popular President Bennett could have had a gubernatorial nomination but chose not to become a candidate. He was constantly traveling the state to speak on behalf of higher education, then rushing back to the campus to tend to administrative affairs.^ Poised on the edge of a massive building program in anticipation of a surge of student enrollments, Bennett apparently felt the growth of Oklahoma A&M more inviting than the operation of the entire state.

An ardent sports fan. Dr. Bennett assigned his daughter, Mary, the task of reporting on events he could not attend. "Little Henry" saw to it that she had a great deal to relay to her father as the team drove to the conference title with twenty victories and only three losses, holding rivals to 22.7 points a game. Rousey was honored as A&M's first basketball Ail-American, and he and Bill Barringer were named All-Valley.

Now in his third decade of coaching, Gallagher's strong wrestling varsity was tripped by Southwestern to break a winning streak that stretched back to 1933, and was tied at OU. The Pokes bounced back to crown Joe McDaniel, Stanley Henson, Harvey Base, and Loyd Ricks at the national collegiate tourney, with Henson voted the outstanding wrestler.

The Athletic Cabinet voted boxing and swimming the status of minor varsity sports just as Coach Ed Phelps' boxers, D. V. and Marvin Lid-dell and Harold McCollum, became Oklahoma Golden Gloves champs. The O'Collegian sponsored the boxers that year. At the Valley swim meet. Merle Scheffler won the diving and Victor Fiala had the best 200 backstroke. And, despite the fact that indoor track training facilities had failed to materialize in the Gymnasium and Armory, Ralph M. Higgins' men ranked second behind Drake in the conference.

Paced by pitchers Willard "Cy" Eppler and Allie Reynolds, the baseball team split two series with OU and one with Kansas State in a 7-4 season. That same spring the town team, the Stillwater Boomers, got underway with former Aggie star Luke Francis at the helm. Along with student and alumni sluggers. Coach Iba signed on. After college graduation Iba had spent some time in the Three-I league. "When I had to slide into second on a hit that should have been a tr iple," Iba said one evening, "I knew it was time to hang up my spikes." And he did.^

In spring track, the speedsters managed to pull within three points of OU during the annual dual, the finest showing since 1933. The Cowboys edged Arkansas, but couldn't quite overtake Washington during


the conference meet, dropping to second by only 2 1/2 points. For twenty-one years Professor DeWitt Hunt had volunteered his serv

ices to the tennis varsity. On May 1 he handed over coaching to Fred Reed. But a year later Hunt would be back on the court until tennis was suspended in 1943 with all players involved in World War II. The golf team started with only Wilbur Hoke back, but picked up both players and steam and finished fourth in the Valley championships in St. Louis.

In February Oklahoma's House of Representatives had passed the bill supporting the $400,000 fieldhouse for OAMC. It was a time of waiting. Not until May 9, 1937, did the Senate follow suit, requiring $180,000 to be in bonds. Governor Marland's signature made the mammoth sports arena a reality. On campus. Dr. Bennett had everything ready to break ground for the new fieldhouse, with completion targeted within six months.

Although the 1937 football team provided exciting moments, there were also harrowing losses on Cox's 4-6 agenda as injuries mounted. The season was 4-4 when Cox's army of 454 fans arrived in Norman aboard a special train. Earlier an outcry had arisen when someone observed that the A&M-OU trophy. Old Central's bell clapper, was absent from the Sooner trophy case. The flap died quickly when OU trackster Whitley Cox returned from his honeymoon and revealed he 'd hidden the clapper at his home in Tulsa.

Having just trampled the OCU Goldbugs (later the Chiefs), 27-7, the Pokes were ready. Fifteen thousand at Owen Field made it a noisy afternoon. It was the Aggies' finest effort under Cox, but the Sooners outran them, 16-0. Game day snow topped a rain-soaked Lewis Field for the final fight with Centenary College of Shreveport. Only 150 snow-encrusted fans endured plummeting temperatures as the home team froze for a 19-0 loss. It was the sparsest Aggie stadium crowd ever.^

Winter sports promised—and delivered—all the action the campus yearned for in 1938 with winning sprees by both wrestlers and cagers. A tip to Iba's third season came during practice when the O'CoJJegian headlined: "FOUR IBAMEN OVER 6 FEET TALL!" Still, it was Krueger at 5-9 who was the high scorer in the low-scoring system and became an AAU All-American. Krueger accounted for 18 as the Pokes pounded Southwestern of Winfield, 38-25, in the opener. The team romped to the All-College holiday tournament title, then amassed eight wins before Grinnell chucked in a goal at the gun for a 35-33 Cowpoke loss. It proved the only conference miscue in the 25-3 season that wrapped up the conference crown.

Ground was broken February 25 for the new fieldhouse, promising spacious seating for next winter's sports, but within days A&M was celebrating its biggest cage news ever.

As Otis Wile told it, "In New York, young sports writer Ned Irish's


proposal to hold a National Invitation Tournament in basketball was reluctantly approved by Madison Square Garden officials. The reluctance was due to the belief that such an event wouldn't draw much better than a couple of tables of bridge in 18,000-capacity Madison Square's sports arena. With a glossy record of 24-2, the Cowboys were believed likely to get a western bid.

"The phone call came to Iba on Sunday, March 6, and the StiJJwater Daily Press put an afternoon extra on the streets proclaiming: AGGIES GET NY BID! Colorado, with its great star Whizzer White, of All-America football fame, got the other western bid."* White would later become a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Since 1925, the wrestlers had been bringing national championships and widespread publicity to Stillwater. No other A&M sport except football had ventured much beyond conference and regional play. Excitement spread as Iba headed for New York with Krueger, Carroll Smelser, Bob Olson, Merle Scheffler, Howard "Danny" Doyle, Harvey Slade, Barringer, Charles Kalsu, Amos Goodfox, and Vernon Friels.

Colorado gained the finals, downing New York University, but the Cowboys ran smack into Temple of Philadelphia, eventual winners. Temple torpedoed the Pokes 65-44, then stepped over Colorado 60-36. The Cowboys downed NYU 37-24 for third and were impressive enough to be invited back regularly for December games, and for post-season NIT appearances. Although the prestige was valuable, in later years Iba grew uncomfortable with the tournament and his teams stayed at home as gambling scandals erupted.

When Illinois brought its Big Ten champions into the A&M wrestling arena, Gallagher received a five-minute ovation. After A&M had dispatched the Illini 27-3, Coach H. E. Kenny said, "Gallagher is the master of the sport of amateur wrestling." Undefeated in nine duals, the team galloped off to the nationals at Penn State. Only four survived the second round. Joe McDaniel, Henson, Captain Fred Parkey, and Dale Scrivens. Injured, Parkey withdrew, but the others defeated everyone in their paths and McDaniel was named outstanding wrestler.

With the ninth NCAA title under his arm. Coach Gallagher decided to drop in at the NAAU in nearby Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He threw everyone available into the tourney, and they emerged with 23 points to second-place New York Athletic Club's 11. Two national team championships on the same outing!^

Branching out, the boxers ventured beyond traditional foes, but lost to Louisiana Tech, Centenary, and Northeast Center of Louisiana. The Redskin alluded to the Dixie trip, "during which disaster leapt upon the dusty Cowboys like alligators from the bayous." The Oklahomans suspected local judges were not entirely impartial. Dean Weigeant took the state Golden Gloves at 112 and Phelps was named the Oklahoma


A&M's 1937-38 traveling squad to the National Intercollegiate Invitation Tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York City visits Acting Governor James E. Berry in the state capitol before leaving. The team placed third in the tournament. Pictured (from left to right) are Harvey Slade, Bob Olson, Coach Henry Iba, Dick Krueger, Acting Governor Berry, Amos Goodfox, Carroll Smelser, Merle Scheffler, Charles Kalsu, Vernon Friels, Bill Barringer, and Howard Doyle.

AAU team coach for the National AAU in Boston. During Jack Dempsey's years in the limelight, Phelps had been the

third-ranking heavyweight in the country. Cowboy heavy Carroll Gar-retson was the only A&M boxer on the state team and battled to runner-up honors in the NAAU. But boxing was fading from the college arena and that fall the Athletic Cabinet would remove the sport from the varsity program. In three years, Phelps had brought five individual state titles and a national second place to A&M.

With more attention focused on track under Coach Higgins, the team responded by threatening victorious Drake 45 1/6 to 44 5/6 at the Valley Indoor in Des Moines. The Cowboys thumped North Texas, trounced OU for the first time in five years, then trampled Arkansas. The shuttle hurdlers, Herschel "Sandstorm" Burrus, Ellsworth Cundiff, Clarence " P o p " Odell, and R. V. Wright, took first at the Kansas Relays, as did Forest Efaw in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

While early training methods were as varied as the athletes themselves, Efaw had done his running along the four-mile section lines around his family's farm west of Stillwater, timed by his sister on an old alarm clock. On an AAU tour that September, Efaw would win the steeplechase in Berlin, a "fur piece" from running section lines.^

The first Cowboy Relays were developed at A&M that spring by Higgins, and his men dominated the running events as OU stood out in the field events. Oklahoma Baptist and Tulsa also participated. At St. Louis,


the tracksters swept the Valley championship, the start of sixteen consecutive Missouri Valley titles Higgins' teams would capture.

Although there was no conference baseball, Iba's crew had a 10-0 season in the Oklahoma Federation, then split six with OU. A loss to Nebraska came during a snowstorm early in the schedule. The Cowboy netters were elated at besting OU. Captain Valor Thiessen and N. E. Winters were the winning doubles team and Winters and Claud Paul also cinched their singles matches. OCU ruled the state courts that year and shut out the Cowboys, 6-0. The situation was reversed by Harry Dolman's golfers, who lost to OU but surprised OCU when Roy Fry of A&M shot a blistering 36-29—65.

The state's sports writers toured the new fieldhouse as it neared completion in late spring and endorsed it as "The Madison Square Garden of the West." TuJsa World editor B. A. Bridgewater wrote that it was a "dream building" as he reminded readers of the school's over-all sports prowess.

"The Golden Age is coming at A&M," Bridgewater predicted.

Endnotes


2. Wile, p. 251.


4. Wile, p. 257.

5. 1938 Redskin, pp. ^ 60-168.

6. Wile, pp. 261, 265.


15 Christening Gallagher Hall 1938-1940

A seven-man American wrestling team journeyed to Stockholm on an AAU goodwill mission in the summer of 1938, but found Europe caught up in pre-war tensions that heralded the violence just ahead. On the trip were three Oklahoma A&M Cowboys, Joe McDaniel, Stanley Hen-sen, and John Harrell. It was as close as they would get to an Olympic opportunity.

As the autumn air grew crisp, all eyes were on Coach Ted Cox and his staff. A sharp upswing in football fortunes would make the two previous years more palatable. Instead, a meager pair of successes was marred by eight defeats. With a 7-23 three-year record. Cox resigned November 28. The cabinet moved swiftly. Two days later, E. M. "Smiling Jim" Lookabaugh was hired, A&M's first alumnus to gain the head coaching job.

The 1925 graduate had gained statewide attention as he turned out winning high school teams at Jet (50-2) and for nine years at Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City.^ Lookabaugh's task was monumental, but on February 1, 1939, he would begin measures to rescue the Cowboys from a five-year stalemate and return prestige to the program.

When Chicago University did away with football, Joe C. Scott, president of the Board of Agriculture, was interested in the concept of de-emphasis of football at major universities. He said so, and his words made headlines: "Money used in hiring football coaches ought to be spent in improving livestock. You ought to be able to buy a dozen dandy bulls for what one coaching staff costs, and A&M would be better off if football were abolished."

Perkins sophomore Winston Herald voiced the varsity's view: "If they


paid as much attention to us and fed us as well as they do those bulls, we'd have a good football team." As Otis Wile told the story, A&M's contented bulls grazed on with no comment.^

To Henry P. Iba's basketball varsity, "the greenest squad he ever had" according to the Redskin, went the honor of unofficially inaugurating the newly-constructed fieldhouse on December 9.^ The fame of Forrest C. "Phog" Allen and his Kansas University Jawhawks drew 5,000 avid fans, who were wedged into balcony seating. Bleachers had yet to be installed on the main floor.

Defense was the key as the Iba men fought to a 6-5 halftime lead. The intensity stepped up even more as Arthur Johnson poured in six points, followed by four each from Merle Scheffler, Gene Smelser, and Jesse Renick, in a crowd-thrilling 21-15 A&M victory. The following night saw the Cowboys driving even harder, soaring past KU 25-19. Those two triumphs, added to the twenty-seven straight home games won by A&M before leaving the old gym, gave Iba a streak fans couldn't stop talking about.

The Pokes steamed past talented OU, dropped two to tie with Drake as Valley co-champions, then were flattened by the Sooner "Boy Scats" on OU's way to the NCAA finals. The trials of "rebuilding" had led to a 19-8 season and the undefeated home record was extended to thirty-seven games. And the Cowboys had unveiled a new star; junior Jesse "Cab" Renick became the third A&M man to be named All-America.

How could a coach keep his wrestling team on top nationally year after year? Life magazine came to Stillwater to ask and observe as Coach Gallagher and his wrestlers continued their quest for championships. Entering his twenty-second season, Gallagher was in the next-to-last year of a career that produced nineteen undefeated teams, a string of seventy consecutive victories from 1921-32, a total of 138 victories, four ties and only five losses, eleven NCAA titles in thirteen attempts, and five other national championships. He coached sixty-nine national collegiate and AAU titleholders and landed fifteen Cowboys on four Olympic teams.*

As Life's story on A&M spread from coast to coast, the Cowpokes downed Weatherford and prepared for the dedication of their new wrestling arena—still carefully called the 4-H Club and Student Activity Building—on Gallagher Day, February 3, 1939.

Located east of Lewis Field, the building measured 170 by 244 feet. From the floor, the ceiling soared 45 feet above the basketball court. Its basic purpose was to house the major activities of the 4-H club organization, certain phases of the short course program, intramural athletics and other programs requiring large exhibition space, floor space, and space for spectators.

Financing of the $400,000 multi-purpose structure included a


On February 25, 1938, ground was broken for a new athletic arena. Most were awed by its sheer size. Scoffers said its seats would never be filled. Months later, the structure for the roof of what would become known as Gallagher Hall went up. National basketball and wrestling championships followed its completion, with frenzied action more than filling the fieldhouse, and whoops from excited fans "raising the roof" at every event.

$220,000 appropriation by the Oklahoma Legislature and the sale of $180,000 in bonds, to be retired by funds from the athletic department or the college. The bonds were issued serially and were expected to be retired in twenty years, with the first $500 to be retired in 1941.

The stone-trimmed brick building was built around the main floor with balcony seating for intramural and varsity sports. Fifteen rows of balcony seats arose from nine feet above the floor and extended to the outside wall, seating 5,700. Three standard size basketball courts could be accommodated on the main floor, where bleachers seated 2,300 for varsity basketball. Another 1,500 chairs could be added for wrestling and boxing matches, but in many cases an overflow crowd would find hundreds more seated on the floor itself.

Rolling curtains partitioned the floor when three separate courts or spaces were needed. For ease in handling large crowds rapidly, a dozen stairways led from the balcony directly to outside doors.

Beneath the balcony on the first floor were offices and classrooms for the director of physical education and the director of short courses, shower and locker rooms, a first aid room, equipment storage, wrestling


On Friday, February 3, 1939, friends and admirers of Edward Clark

Gallagher gathered in the still officially named 4-H Club and Student Activity

Building to honor the most famous of all wrestling coaches and to witness

another outstanding performance of his team. Almost eighteen months later in

August 1940, many of those same supporters returned to mourn the

passing of the man the New York Times eulogized as the "Knute Rockne of the

mat."

Gallagher Da\

\ \ R h > r i J N ( .

Indiana vs. Aggies Februar\- 3, 1959

rooms, and assembly rooms for the 4-H Club organization. At the second floor level under the balcony were four large class and exhibition rooms, restrooms, and offices for the coaching staff and directors of other activities housed in the building. The mechanical equipment for the ventilation system also was housed there.

The basement was expected to be finished in the future, with the first usable area 30 feet wide by the entire length of 244 feet. The basement was planned for four handball courts, mechanical services, and a laundry for cleaning athletic uniforms and equipment. The fieldhouse was equipped with a speaker system and electric scoreboards, "complete and modern in every detail."^

As many of Gallagher's men as possible returned on February 3 for the match with Indiana, coached by Billy Thom, 1936 U.S. Olympic mentor. More than 7,000 filled the seats as Boh Makovsky's band played.

Then, sports historian Wile recalled: "As the varsity and Coach Gallagher came to their bench alongside the elevated, roped wrestling ring used in those days, it seemed the ovation would continue into the night.' ' Stooped by illness, only a shadow of the great sprinter and halfback he had been in his college days, Gallagher stood at ringside.

"Weldon Barnes, handling the introductions, spoke just five words as the ovation died down. 'God bless you, little Irishman,' Barnes managed to say through the tears and emotion." Although it seemed this was surely Gallagher's last, there would be one more team to come.^


In its finest showing since territorial days, the Oklahoma A&M track team was undefeated in dual meets and captured the 1939 Missouri Valley championship. Competing were, front row, Glennis Stice, Forest Efaw, Harry Gordon, Arthur Westbrook, Robert Blaydes, Dale Akers, Willie Power, Audley Allison; middle row, unknown, W. L. Clapham, Jack Horner, Dwight Milfeld, Julius Pattillo, Elmer Wright, Harold Metcalf, Bentley Yoakum, Arthur Johnson; back row, Coach Ralph Higgins, R. V. Wright, Clarence Odell, George Gibson, Frank Dial, Eleck Singleton, Herschel Burrus, Assistant Coach Kenneth Bertrand, and Trainer Elwyn Dees.

Given the situation, the visiting team hadn' t a chance. There were victories by Joe McDaniel, Calvin Melhorn, Elton Jackson, Vernon Logan, Captain Henson, and Harrell, for an 18-6 conclusion to the evening. Inspired, the Cowboys galloped through the remainder of their duals unbeaten and captured the school's tenth NCAA team crown at Franklin and Marshall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. McDaniel, Henson, and Harrell were national champions.^

Track men sprang into action early, taking the Valley Indoor handily, 23 1/2 points ahead of second-place Drake. At 6.2 seconds, R. V. Wright tied the existing world indoor record for the 50-yard hurdles and W. L. Clapham took the 50 yard dash, long and high jumps.

A big season lay ahead in outdoor track as Coach Higgins' team snared the 220 and mile relay, adding seconds in five other events at the Fort Worth Games. The Pokes were second in six of seven events at the Texas Relays in Austin and ambushed the Sooners in Norman for the first time in twenty-seven years. The Pokes really hit their stride in the Kansas Relays. They set a record while winning the mile relay, then added the two-mile relay. Clarence Odell's first in broad jump and second in the decathlon and the team's third places in both medley relays added up to their best over-all performance ever on the relay circuit.


The Cowboys walked away with the Missouri Valley meet, 70 5/6 to Washington's 31 1/2 and Drake's 29 1/2.

Efaw, considered in 1939 the greatest distance runner ever to represent OAMC, took third in the two-mile at the annual NCAA track meet in Los Angeles Coliseum, with co-captain Wright taking fourth in high hurdles. At the National AAU Fourth of July meet at Lincoln, Efaw was third in the 5,000 meters and Wright again fourth.

Coach Higgins had given the college its greatest season since the first days of this century when runners sprinted in makeshift shoes on dirt tracks and vaulters in streetwear went up and over in a sitting position before landing with a thump on the hard-packed Oklahoma clay.

Although Captain Ray Crowley of the A&M swim team contributed fifteen points in the annual battle against OU, the Sooners swam off with the final relay for a 41-34 finish. The Cowboys outsplashed Tulsa twice and Sam Durham, James Tarr, David Wiley, and Crowley lettered.

One-hit pitching through six innings by Allie Reynolds and a homer in the second by Howard "Danny" Doyle started the 1939 edition of baseball off with the 1-0 mastery of Baylor at Waco. The Cowboys were battered by Baylor in the second game, 13-4. The opening series told the story of the entire 11-7 season: superb one day, uncertain the next. In his last game for A&M, Reynolds smoked a no-hitter past Southwestern, but the score was 7-2 as Aggie errors permitted a pair of runs. It was a feat the Indian pitcher from Bethany later would duplicate twice for the New York Yankees.

Spring football practice took on new luster under Lookabaugh. Fullback Jack Baker, who had played a key role in Lynn Waldorf's winning teams for two years at A&M, returned as assistant coach. He would remain on the staff for twenty-four years, then take over scholastic counseling duties from 1962 into the 1970s.

A former Phillips athlete who had coached there and in Oklahoma City, Toby Greene, also arrived on campus to join the football staff. During World War II, he would take on the baseball squad and boost that program into the national spotlight. With the gradual slackening of the Depression came an unmistakable rise in the abilities and accomplishments of the Cowboy teams.

Once again, football prospects seemed unlimited for the Cowboys in 1939. On September 23, fans parked cars and hunted for seats in Oklahoma City's Taft Stadium as Oklahoma A&M met Texas A&M. Under a contract signed by Athletic Director Iba, the Cowboys would play at Taft annually for ten seasons. Could Lookabaugh, an extremely successful high school coach, set a college team on the winning path?

Lookabaugh could and would. But not this day. The head coach had his new team well-prepared for a tough opener. But the powerful Cadets from College Station were not merely tough. They were on their way


lim^m

Without the nighttime walk-around, it wouldn't be homecoming. Early house and residence hall decorations were simple, but have evolved into mammoth and often automated displays that seem to take on a life of their own as thousands of viewers troop on foot from one lighted tableau to the next. Construction means all-nighters, coaxing colorful paper "pomps" into chicken-wire shapes until fingers rebel and exhaustion takes over, all in the name of school spirit, the Cowboy football team, and the visiting alumni—and Pistol Pete always outwits the rival's mascot.

to a record winning streak that would lead them to the national championship. The Cowboys' Paul Cochrane blocked a field goal attempt, which held the rout to 32-0.

A&M tore into Northwestern State 52-0, but bowed to Baylor on the tenth annual Parents Day 13-0. Tulsa expected its sixth straight victory since Waldorf's departure, but a field goal by Pete Rivers turned things the Cowpokes' way, 9-7. Things were looking up. The Aggies smashed unbeaten Washburn, but had no miracles to stave off the Sooners, the previous year's Orange Bowl champs winning 41-0.

Fifty floats sedately managed all the turns in the Homecoming Parade route and 6,000 cheered as the home team rolled over New Mexico, 20-0. When a 20-9 win over Creighton ended the year 5-4-1, Lookabaugh had brought about the first winning season since 1933.^

Now it was a joy, not a relief, to turn to Iba's sixth basketball varsity and Gallagher's final set of national mat champions-to-be in Gallagher Hall.

A loss at Kansas University and a win over Pittsburg Teachers at home readied Iba's men for a five-game eastern swing that would establish them as a national power. As A&M celebrated the forty-eighth anniversary of the first day of classes and President Henry G. Bennett's fifty-third birthday, the cagers were facing City College of New York, eyed


by 18,000 in Madison Square Garden. Powered by Cab Renick and Lon-nie Eggleston, the Pokes took it 33-16. In a wild scoring rampage at Baltimore, the Orange and Black downed Duke 51-41, then skimmed past George Washington and Loyola. Back home, they picked up their third All-College at Oklahoma City in four tries.

When Chicago resigned from the Big 10, Daily O'Collegian sports editor Don Boydston relayed the possibility that Nebraska would assume Chicago's spot. The resulting Big Six vacancy might have meant a step up for OAMC, but the Cornhusker move did not come about.

As a January snowstorm held forth outside, the Cowboys sizzled inside, thawing the fans who filled Gallagher Hall. The nip-and-tuck duel with OU ended with a Poke spurt, 26-19, and handed the school its 100th triumph under Iba. As the team continued its spree, students lined up hours early just to gain seats during the drive for the Missouri Valley Championship and a 25-1 finish.

A much-desired bid to play in the National Invitation Tournament in New York brought travel problems with it. Two NIT games were required before the NCAA championship playoff in Oklahoma City. KU downed OU for the right to meet the Cowboys in the playoffs. In an effort to transport his team from New York to Oklahoma City on time, Iba explained the tight travel schedule to KU Coach Phog Allen, but Allen

^^^^^^^^V^ -

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Although strange-looking to modern eyes, wrestling matches were conducted in a ring similar to boxing. George Chiga, who lettered in 1937, 1938, and 1939, appears to have little difficulty overcoming his opponent "behind the ropes."


refused to allow the NCAA game to be held two days later. The prestige of the two events was too much to pass up either one.

The only solution to making both tourneys was to take to the air, and the basketball team was the first of A&M's athletic squads ever to do so. They may have regretted the decision as the DC-3 swung over a long southern route, struggling through violent storms that caused most of the players to be sick. In New York, Duquesne clipped the long A&M winning streak, 34-30 in the semi-final. The Pokes placed third, scraping by DePaul 23-22, on a shot by Renick at the buzzer.

Then it was time to board the plane for the confrontation with the rested Kansans. With time running out, Renick's deft touch tied the game 42-42. Each picked up a free throw, then Dick Harp tossed in his only goal of the game for a 45-43 KU victory. Doyle had hit eleven points. Renick again was hailed as All-America after the rousing 26-3 season.^

Gallagher's 1940 edition of wrestling at its finest was his last. The frail little Irishman's team was as game as its coach, rushing through a perfect 10-0 season and claiming his eleventh national collegiate team crown. There was nothing easy or guaranteed about the Cowboys' dominance. They covered 2,800 miles by car to meet A&M grad Sam Barnes' Virginia Military Institute at Lexington and former Gallagher assistant Ray Swartz's Navy team at Annapolis, then tooled home after a stop at the University of Indiana.

Illinois hosted the Nationals at Champaign and individual titlists Al Whitehurst and Vernon Logan brought to thirty-seven the number of NCAA gold medals won since 1928 by Gallagher's men.^^

In spring sports. Coach Jim Kevin's swimmers spurted to second in the Valley, with Merrel Clubb and Dave Wiley scoring firsts. A&M's finest tennis squad, guided by Coach DeWitt Hunt, claimed the Valley team title, but the golfers couldn't get unraveled and were fifth in the conference. Stillwater's sand greens and the old Yost Lake course northeast of the city weren't adequate preparation for more competitive courses the Cowboys met elsewhere.

Track Coach Higgins herded a squad hit by graduation and ineligibilities through a tough schedule. At the Fort Worth Exposition Meet, Don Boydston high-jumped 6-8 1/4, just an inch shy of the world record, to set a school mark that would linger twenty-four years. The Cowboys finished second to Texas as freshman hurdler and vaulter Ralph Tate scored 10 3/4 points in the freshman division. Only a two-point loss to Kansas State at Manhattan marred dual wins over Wichita, OU, Central, and Tulsa as the Pokes sailed to the Valley championship with seven gold medals, despite the rain in Des Moines. A post-season loss to Big Six champ Nebraska failed to daunt their spirits. A vault of 13-1 7/8 by Chet Stewart set an A&M school record during a dual with Central State.


The baseball team followed victories over Texas, Nebraska and a split of four with the Sooners to a 13-5 season. Eight seniors, including Doyle who would head for the Red Sox, played their last games.

Sports writers gathered for the spring intrasquad football game as Lookabaugh scrambled to shape an improving team. Tate Ott's White team outdid freshman Jim Reynolds' eleven, 14-12, although Reynolds returned a punt for ninety-five yards and plowed twenty for a second touchdown. Autumn would be interesting.

By June, though, the world's eyes were on the havoc wrought by bombs on British cities, and on the shattered Maginot line that allowed France to fall to the Germans. The war was igniting all of Europe. Would it spread across the ocean?

Vacationing in Colorado, Ed Gallagher collapsed. Brought back to Oklahoma, he died August 28, 1940, at 53. A long chapter in Oklahoma A&M history closed, a chapter he created for the school and shared with all state athletic programs.

"He symbolizes the spirit of a faculty that with patience, zeal, and high ideals has brought the institution to the front rank as an educational center in the state and Southwest," the Redskin had noted two years earlier. ^

Major metropolitan newspapers eulogized him. Hundreds of his athletes, fans, and friends attended his funeral, fittingly, in the familiar surroundings of Gallagher Hall.

Endnotes


2. Wile, p. 268.


4. "'Gibralter of Grappling' Produces Another Great Oklahoma A. & M. Team," Life, vol. 6, no. 9 (27 February 1939), pp. 26-28.

5. Eldon Gates, "The New Fieldhouse," Oklahoma A&M College Magazine, vol. 9, no. 5 (February 1938), p. 5.

6. Wile, p. 271.

7. Oklahoma A. and M. College Daily O'Collegian, 4 February 1939, pp. 1, 3-4.

8. 1940 Redskin, pp. 242-248.

9. 1940 Redskin, pp. 250-254.

10. 1940 Redskin, w. 256-258.

11. 1938 Redskin, p. 138.


16] The Fabled Forties 940-1944

The glory days of any school tend to grow more brightly burnished with each recounting of athletic feats in succeeding decades. But Oklahoma A&M's achievements in the forties speak for themselves.

Coach Jim Lookabaugh's Cowboy football teams rode hard from 1940 through 1945, rounding up a 37-15-2 record in an era which saw most of the United States' energies and manpower focused on World War II. At the same time. Coach Henry P. Iba was shaping his basketball team into a national power. Wrestling discovered a new giant in Coach Art Griffith and, despite a three-year wartime hiatus, continued to annex national championships.

The decade began on an industrious note. In the fall of 1940, facilities at Lewis Field grew again as another dozen rows of seats were added to the north stands with Work Projects Administration help. Under the bleachers a dormitory was being constructed with sleeping, dining, and study hall accommodations for eighty athletes. It also would include a long overdue modern laundry for the athletic department.

There were rumbles about a possible end to the traditional Cowboy-Sooner football series. The 1939 game had been played in Norman and the 1940 edition also would be, an arrangement satisfactory to Oklahoma University. OU, however, was said to be inclined to end the series unless it was played in Norman thereafter, newspapers reported. Threats to cancel the 1940 game were rumored.

Iba, backed by Chairman C. H. McElroy and the Athletic Cabinet, insisted that it remain a home-and-home series. With each game played on a $3,500 flat guarantee, the home team scooped up all revenue over that amount. Iba remained firm and the schools agreed to return to a


home-and-home basis. Reminiscent of earlier decades, A&M supporters chartered a train and

headed for Norman. The Cowboys were gaining in grid finesse, but OU's 1940 varsity was powerful. Although Jimmy Reynolds, brother of Allie, passed 22 yards to Winston Herald for an A&M score, OU swept ahead 29-6 with 3:28 left. Fans began to trickle down the aisles.

Suddenly the Pokes exploded. The crowd filing out of the stands paused as the Aggies scored. Those already in the parking lot heard a second score on their car radios. And early departers pulled off into borrow ditches along the highway to listen, unbelievingly, as the Stillwater team scored a third time in three minutes. At 29-27, it wasn't an A&M victory, but fans were so elated by the spirited finale that it might as well have been.^

Offensive workhorse Reynolds was in constant motion that year, gaining 1,253 yards rushing and passing. He averaged 37 yards punting. The Valley title was lost to Tulsa University at Skelly Stadium when Reynolds played with a damaged shoulder and useless left arm, smashed on the second play. Glenn Dobbs, TU's first Ail-American and later its head coach, dominated as Tulsa shaped the final score of 19-6.

Lonnie Eggleston and Gene Smelser were the leading scorers as Iba's basketball team roamed the Atlantic seaboard, knocking off tough City College of New York in packed Madison Square Garden, St. Joseph's of Philadelphia, and George Washington University. Only partly in jest, CCNY Coach Nat Holman pleaded with Ned Irish, Garden basketball manager, "Give these Cowboys to somebody else for Christmas next year! "2

Back home, the team was caught short, 28-25, by the University of Southern California after forty-seven straight wins in Stillwater. It was the first loss in spacious new Gallagher Hall. The Cowboys placed third at the All-College. When Creighton arrived, Iba was abed with the flu, but an open telephone line kept him in touch as Toby Greene sent the Cowboys onto the court to win. An 8-4 season limited the Pokes to a now unaccustomed second place in the Valley, with an over-all year of 18-7.

Upon the death of Ed Gallagher, acknowledged dean of American mat coaches, A&M reached only as far as Tulsa Central High School to tap alumnus Art Griffith. In fifteen seasons, Griffith's Tulsa Braves had produced fifty individual state champion wrestlers. When national high school wrestling tournaments were held, Central had won two of them so effortlessly that the event was abandoned.

Griffith once admitted his program there had turned out "pretty good."^ That bland understatement alluded to 95 victories and only 6 losses in seventeen years of coaching at the high school level.

Although many of Gallagher's proteges' now coaching yearned to step


into their mentor's shoes, Griffith's selection brought the school another giant. Like Gallagher and most early coaches, Griffith had not wrestled in college. He had handled the Cowboy freshman team during the year he was on campus in 1924-25 to complete degree work. The men became well acquainted, sharing phi losophy as well as moves and counter-moves.

Wrestling programs were thriving across the country as the sport spread and competition sharpened. Griffith's easy, fluid style on the mat was his own. He inherited a proud A&M winning streak of twenty-seven matches. Griffith would nurture it and extend it to a fabulous seventy-six consecutive dual victories, still the national collegiate record. A serious, competitive man, he promptly led the 1941 team to A&M's fifth consecutive NCAA championship, crowning Al Whitehurst, David "Buddy" Arndt, Earl VanBebber, and Virgil Smith. Whitehurst, at 136, was named outstanding wrestler.

A&M swimmers still competed in the small pool in the Gymnasium and Armory, splashing past Oklahoma, 58-17, before being dunked by Texas A&M, Texas, and the Dallas Athletic Club. Undaunted, student Coach Merrel Clubb led the team to second in the Valley.

A busy 1941 track season saw a long jump mark of 24-11 set by W. L. Clapham at the San Antonio Invitational. That record would stand until 1968. Don Boydston and Dub Wheeler of Baylor high-jumped 6-7 7/8 to share a Texas Relays record. The shuttle hurdles team ran 59.9 at Drake, 1/10 of a second shy of the world record, as Ralph Tate at anchor zoomed in 30 yards ahead of Illinois. But with Boydston, Clapham, and Tate injured, OU slipped past, 68 1/2 to 62 1/2. It was A&M's first loss to the Sooners in four years, but the team made up for it with the Valley Championship in Tulsa, outpacing Drake, 84 1/2 to 51 1/2.

Iba's final baseball squad managed an 8-2 season. Taking on more opponents, the tennis varsity of DeWitt Hunt turned in a 7-4-1 record and Harry Dolman's golfers were third in the conference. Sixteen times the Cowboys and the Sooners had met during the school year. Each won eight to tie for all-sports honors. Spring football drills had been successful but wearing, with players keeping one eye on the pigskin and one on their draft board back home.

WKY Radio was ready to broadcast all football games as the Cowboys opened the 1941 season. Drawn by last year's close one, 27,000 fans congregated at Owen Field for the third straight year to see how A&M fared against new OU Coach Dewey Luster's team. For the first of only two times in school history, the OU game was the season opener. The Sooners won 19-0, and Lookabaugh's youngsters also bowed to Tulsa, but the promising crew was coming on and salvaged a 5-4 year.

When the United States entered the war on December 7, 1941, priorities everywhere began a drastic change. Former A&M men were


among those wounded at Pearl Harbor. As that news reached America, freshman blocking back Byron Bird, termed by Lookabaugh his "finest prospect," was one of the first to enlist. Bird would return as a decorated Marine officer, after losing a leg in Pacific Theater action, and gain renown as one of the country's great college trainers.

In athletics, only the major Cowboy sports (football, basketball, wrestling, baseball, and track) remained on the year's schedule. Enlistments and the draft constantly rewrote the lineups.

Iba's eighth basketball team lacked height, but was long on speed and finesse. Honors seemed out of reach as the season opened, but the Pokes, powered by Eggleston and Howard "Bud" Millikan, picked up a Missouri Valley Conference tie, a 20-6 record and a spot in the district NCAA playoffs. In a state championship playoff between A&M and OU for the Navy Relief Fund, the Cowboys thumped their downstate rivals 44-35, and raised $3,187 for the fund. Millikan was named the school's fourth All-American.

Unperturbed by the inevitable comparisons with Gallagher, Coach Griffith glided through the season undefeated, tucked the sixth consecutive NCAA team trophy under one arm and then sent five Pokes to New Orleans to bring home the NAAU title for good measure. Technically the NAAU saw Cowboys wrestling with the Tulsa Crescent Club, but it was an Aggie-powered victory.^

The top NCAA contenders were coached by A&M grads Fendley Collins of Michigan State, Cliff Keen of Michigan, and Ray Swartz of Navy. None of them was really close, however, as Buddy Arndt, Vernon Logan, and Virgil Smith each won a second national title and Loyd "P ig" Arms joined them in king row. Once-crowded wrestling rooms slimmed to zero almost overnight as young men headed for service training camps, and this was the last NCAA meet until the war's end.

On January 29, 1942, football assistant Toby Greene inherited Iba's assignment as baseball coach, allowing Iba more time for administrative tasks. Greene's team traveled to Mexico City and won the Pan American baseball tournament. After a rainy spring start, the team took six of eleven games.

Coach Higgins led his track team through a vigorous schedule in 1942. Jimmy Metcalf took the 100-yard dash and Boydston tied for first in the high jump at the Border Olympics in Laredo. At the Texas Relays, the shuttle hurdle team placed first and Boydston tied for first at 6-5 1/2. The Pokes hauled in three firsts in the Kansas Relays. Tate won the broad jump, Boydston the high jump, and Harold Burke, Jackie Taylor, Foster Johnson, and Tate the mile relay.

It was an Aggie year, as they sprinted past Kansas State, OU and Colorado for an undefeated dual season, and annexed their fourth Valley championship.


Among the avid onlookers from the Armed Forces who filled the football stands for practices and games in the fall of 1944 was a naval radar student from Iowa. Robert B. Kamm and his wife Maxine found the campus' athletic and academic environment appealing, but little did they foresee that twenty-two years later, he would become president of Oklahoma State University.

For the first time since World War I, Missouri Valley Conference freshmen were voted varsity eligibility for the remaining war years. Lookabaugh found only nine seniors that fall of 1942 with any football experience. Again the first opponent was Oklahoma, returning to Lewis Field for the first time since 1938 for a weekend designated as homecoming. Despite rationed gasoline and tires, 13,000 made it to Stillwater for a 0-0 game of close calls and dropped flags.

Baylor, Arizona, and Sugar Bowl-bound Tulsa stopped the Pokes, but play became easier for the newly-knit team and it finished 6-3-1. A record-setting ten interceptions marked the Detroit rout, which saw Lee Cook score the first points when he zipped into a snowy end zone, skidded, and sat down abruptly. Al Scanland's pass landed in his lap for the score. Lopsided victories over St. Louis, Drake, and Detroit underlined the inequities in Valley strength. The Cowboys' Tate was the leading conference scorer with seventy-two points.

Four lettermen reported as basketball workouts began for the 1943 season. Lou Steinmeir and Sam Aubrey were back as centers, along with Buford Maddox at forward and Jack Herron at guard. Only Steinmeir had been a regular the year before; Aubrey had been the sole sophomore to letter. New opponents like the Navy Clippers of the base in Olathe, Kansas, joined the schedule.

Without depth, the Cowboys beat only CCNY on the four-game Eastern swing. On the long train ride home after a hectic 39-34 loss to George


Washington, Iba was said to have observed, "I never saw such a happy bunch of fans." Pausing, he added, "Look, we can't just go around the country making other folks happy! "^

The All-College went to Texas, for years nipping at A&M's heels. Even Gallagher Hall offered no magic consolation as the Pokes dropped a close one to Creighton at home. There was consolation of sorts when the game ball was auctioned off at the half, and Cowboy fans pledged $36,400 for war bonds.

But a new giant, a real one seven feet tall, was working his way into the lineup. As his career blossomed, Bob Kurland would become the dominant star of the school's athletic history. Billed as the first seven-footer in American basketball, the gangling freshman brought a hint of the old magic to the final game with OU, the Fifth District champ, as he batted ball after ball away from the Sooner bucket in a 40-28 victory that made the 14-10 season bearable.^

Additional groups of WAVES, Women Appointed for Volunteer Emergency Service, were assigned to the campus in February, and A&M's coaches and physical training personnel meshed the service women's physical education with their own schedules.

When no wrestling duals could be lined up, and the NCAA dropped its national tourney, that sport was suspended. However, Paul McDaniel did head for New York and take first in his weight at the NAAU. Service teams provided competition for at least four baseball games.

As the campus continued to be emptied of young men, track provided the finest wartime team, sharing honors with Texas at the Texas Relays, where Tate won high hufdles and broad jump and anchored the winning mile relay team. Seven tracksters were inducted at Fort Sill, but scooted back for a triangular with Nebraska and Oklahoma and swept nine of sixteen events. Jim Metcalf ran the 100 in 9.5 to equal the school mark set by Peyton Glass in the thirties. Awaiting word to report, Tate was the outstanding athlete at the Drake Relays, winning the broad jump and high hurdles.

The final weeks of spring saw the fifth victory over OU in six seasons, with the Cowboys winning 73 1/3 to 56 2/3, in track's final wartime flourish. Tate and Metcalf were named All-Americans.

Dean C. H. McElroy, the Athletic Cabinet's long-time chairman, was ushered in as president of the Missouri Valley Conference that spring. Then the large ROTC class tossed barracks bags aboard Army trucks on a rainy May 19 and moved out, sweeping the campus clean of 350 athletes and fellow students as the convoys rolled away.

To compensate for the drain on manpower. Coach Lookabaugh arranged an early summer football practice for new high school grads enrolled at Stillwater. The young volunteers began working out July 12, three days a week. A follow-up session began August 9. Thirty-three


boys with no college experience reported. Those eighteen and older without physical ailments already were off fighting, so these were lads of seventeen. They averaged 5-feet-ll and 177 pounds, and they were known only in state high school circles. That would change, as Bob Fenimore, Neill Armstrong, Bob Barlow, Jerry Bailes, and Jake Colhouer became household names within the next two years.

Most of the big sports names in America were in the Armed Forces, and wartime rules allowed even professional players to dot college lineups when they were on campus for training. But although Oklahoma A&M's 1943 campus population swelled to 6,951, none of the military personnel were from branches that might aid Cowboy varsities. Most of the 1,707 civilian students were young women, with only a smattering of men who were 4-F.^

Lookabaugh's staff had rounded up the state's finest youngsters for the slim, seven-game season. But it was the smallest, greenest and lightest-manned crew in the history of the college, the Redskin noted. With restrictions hampering travel, three games were set for Taft Stadium, only one in Stillwater.

Texas Tech quickly moved to a 13-0 lead in the opener at Taft. Then Woodward freshman Fenimore retaliated, rushing nineteen times for 98 yards, completing nine of eighteen passes for 87 yards, catching a pass for 11 yards, intercepting a pass, punting twice for a 40-yard average, returning nine punts 181 yards, kicking off twice, scoring on a 80-yard punt return, passing for another TD and kicking three conversions. It ended 21-13.

Although the season record was 3-4, it marked survival of the program when many larger schools had been forced to suspend football, and the molding of a team with surprises in store for the future. For their efforts at keeping football alive, Lookabaugh lettered twenty-nine.^

In one of the heaviest schedules of any basketball team in the nation, Iba's men lodged a 27-6 record against the finest collegiate and service teams available. Howard "Danny" Doyle, who had been a senior in 1940, returned to school to play a fourth year. Another pre-war scholar was Floyd Burdette, stationed at A&M as an Air Force captain. Burdette was allowed to use leaves and passes for travel dates. The Cowboys amassed 1,422 points for the season and averaged 43.1 points per game, both new marks.

Bob Kurland began to hit his stride, and all one-man records started to fall as he scored 444 points on his way to All-America honors. As his agility and coordination continued to develop, Kurland's goal-tending aroused the wrath of opposing coaches. At OU, a little platform was constructed above the goal, from which James W. St. Clair, chairman of the national rules committee, could watch the seven-foot Cowboy in his "highjacking" duties. But the Aggie star jumped only three


times that night and did not threaten the basket as A&M won by the unusually low score of 14-11.^

Kurland was not the first to bat the ball from its target, but Iba was aware of the mounting controversy. He told New York basketball writers he favored elimination of the move. Some coaches opposed a ban on goal-tending, pointing out, "They didn't rebuild the baseball fences to keep Babe Ruth from hitting homers. "^^ Iba approved of a rule that a defender could not interfere with the ball on its downward arc to the basket. Eventually that viewpoint became the new collegiate rule.

At the National Invitation Tournament in New York, where the Cowboys took fourth place, Kurland was matched with DePaul's 6-foot-9 AU-American, George Mikan, in an individual duel that would develop into basketball's premier rivalry.

Busy in other areas, Greene and Griffith were coaches without squads, but Higgins made a presentable showing at the Drake and Texas Relays with a token crew. Spring football practice saw only twenty out, but the state's freshmen were invited to start school during the summer again.

There were letters from servicemen, some of whom had been injured or imprisoned, promising to be back in the lineup one day. And there were those who would never come home.

Endnotes

1. Otis Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs: The Chronological Story of Sports at Oklahoma State University From the Beginning in the 1890s Through the 1960s," pp. 290-292, manuscript. Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

2. 1941 Redskin, p. 356, Oklahoma A. and M. College Yearbook; Wile, p. 295.

3. Don Sayenga interview with Art Griffith, May 1975, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

4. 1942 Redskin, pp. 288-290.

5. Wile, p. 319.

6. Wile, p. 320; 1943 Redskin, p. 324.

7. Wile, p. 324.

8. 1944 Redskin, pp. 142-147.

9. 1944 Redskin, pp. 148-152.

10. Wile, p. 331.


17 The Revolutionary Kurland

Anticipation is one of the basic nutrients of sport. One of the joys. But it is the unanticipated that creates headlines. The unexpected can propel a team to national championships, shatter school records, break barriers within a sport, and force major rules revisions.

It can also alter forever the familiar face of a game. The catalysts for Oklahoma A&M's remarkable success in 1945 and

1946 were Robert A. Kurland—and a harmless 1 3/4 inch exaggeration. Aided, of course, by the talented returning veterans of the redoubtable Henry P. Iba.

Pounding downcourt today, springed legs catapult sinewy bodies aloft, where they seem to hang-glide in mid-air. Windmill-Iike arms deflect destined goals. Rebounding warriors' improbable shots home in on hoops across America. Scores squirt upward like summer temperatures in Oklahoma. But the eighties' basketball has its past firmly rooted in the pioneering forties.

Beneath America's war-riddled collegiate athletic rosters, unwelcome changes were about to surge toward the playing court on the elongated strides of the first superlative "big men." Hungry for players, as students were shipped to farflung battlefields, schools had, for the first time, to consider those too tall for military regulations.

Most coaches saw extra height as a severe handicap—freakish. Teams already trying men over 6-5 had found them severely lacking in stamina and coordination. A few coaches were mindful of possibilities. Others shuddered at the prospect—however remote—of altering a satisfying game for skilled men of average stature.

Iba took a chance. Never again would the sport be the sole province


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1 Height was a magic ingredient in 1942. The extra inches offered by Bob Kurland, center, and a few others across the United States—and the men's increasing skills—changed the sport of basketball radically. Although Kurland was never quite that tall, press releases dubbed him A&M's first seven-footer. Under Coach Henry P. Iba, he would lead A&M to back-to-back national championships in 1945 and 1946. The 1942 team averaged 6 foot 5V2 and included Sam Aubrey, Wayland Glover, Kurland, Vernon Yates, and Jack Herron.

of "good, little men ." By 1946, basketball was a whole new game. A pair of mildly offbeat events of interest only to A&M fans in 1942

helped transfigure college play. One. Sidestepping a career-long aversion to recruiting. Coach Iba did

something when the Aggies played at St. Louis he 'd never done before. He met with a prospective player and his coach while away from home. The Jennings, Missouri, high school lad was a senior, an unbelievable almost-seven-feet. The visit was brief. Nothing was promised. Not a hint of a scholarship. But if young Bob Kurland was interested, he might manage to be in Stillwater for spring tryouts, Iba intimated.

Two. Kurland was, and he managed. Compounding the complexity of the teen years, he had added seven full inches while in high school. Not surprisingly, the fluid motion of a good athlete was still missing. And in handsome Gallagher Hall that April, onlookers shook their heads.


The incredibly tall, gangling redhead was so awkward he tripped over the stripes painted on the maple floor, the word went around. No one that lofty would ever make it in varsity athletics. Why not be realistic?

Accustomed to winning, the agile-minded Iba began to view Kurland as a challenge, an experimental model. Again, he made no promises. It would certainly take extra work and willingness on Kurland's part. Perhaps it took a fellow Missourian like Iba to recognize the competitive flame and the promise within the determined newcomer. Education would come first, they agreed, then basketball.

Too tall for doorways, beds, or the draft, the 17-year-old signed on at A&M.i

It was not true, A&M Sports Publicist Otis Wile said, that the new player was so long that he arrived in sections. Although it didn't solve sleeping problems on trains and in hotels, Kurland could sleep on campus after Iba had a seven-and-a-half-feet-long bed built.

"Foothills," intrigued sportwriters called young Bob Kurland. "Tent Pole Bobby," "The Big Bambino of Basketball." At 215 pounds, he had all the shape of a well rope, they wrote good-naturedly. Wile continued unleashing stories with a mild exaggeration. He was the first to dub Kurland OAMC's—and college basketball's—first seven-footer.^

"As a freshman, I was only 6-10 1/4," Kurland would explain in later years. "I 've always been just a little over 6-10."^

Never mind that the young Missourian actually extended less than advertised—when he wasn't hurtling upward. Fans wouldn' t have believed it, anyway. Deflecting opponents' shots or slamdunking his own, he looked every inch a seven-footer. Tickets sold out early as huge crowds came to see him sweep the backboards and control the game with short inside shots.*

Iba continued to explore the tantalizing possibilities offered by his tallest rookie. For his part, Kurland struggled that first year to master agility, timing, speed, and a temper that matched his fiery hair. Jumping rope toughened those long legs for endless rebounds, endless forays downcourt.

As Kurland's muscles gained strength, it was obvious he could play the game. But there were no special dispensations for the man who would become the Aggies' star. And little rest. When a three or four-hour practice was over for the team, it was not necessarily over for Kurland. Instead of a hot shower, there were often another twenty long minutes of jumping rope to maintain stamina.

Then he could tackle homework or chores assigned in exchange for his scholarship. He'd begun as an apprentice for Morton House, an early athletic star and now the czar of athletic equipment. Ruling over the basement of Gallagher Hall, House set the freshman Kurland to work washing socks.^


Known as the "Master of the Hardwood," Iba was reputed to be a hard but fair taskmaster. Practice until nearly midnight could follow an unsatisfactory game. There were days when the team practiced as many as nine hours. As a freshman, Kurland also learned—as had his predecessors and would his successors—that Thanksgiving and Christmas at home did not apply to cagers. Long, arduous workouts took their place. Not in his four years at A&M did Kurland go home for the holidays.

If there were no * 'perks, ' ' there were fans in record numbers to gladden the team.

Home crowds were enchanted by the " n e w " game, now choreographed with incredible leaps, irrepressible goal-tending, a faster pace, uncontrollable sprees beneath the hoop, and a giant of their own. Opposing fans were underjoyed, outraged, and outspoken in their pain. Their remarks were not reserved for the parking lot after defeats; gibes were crude and stung the tallest Cowpoke like endless hornets.

Opposing coaches were often no more gentlemanly. They were shaken by the sight of the cunning skills extra inches in size could inflict on fast, spirited, but smaller teams. At DePaul, 6-9 George Mikan was being groomed for his All-American role. There were other cagers of unusual height, but it was Kurland the country watched.

"Henry Iba's Glandular Goon," the seldom subtle Kansan, Coach Phog Allen, called the Pokes' tall man—making sure Kurland heard. A man that big would ruin the game, Allen predicted, if he didn't make a mockery of it first.

In the area of mental toughness, too, Iba was already at work. Now playing apparently unnettled, Kurland's reaction to blatant needling was often to polish brilliant moves the more brightly. Onlookers might not have noticed the fierce retaliation; the scoreboard did.^

Cowboy cage fortunes turned sharply upward in Kurland's sophomore year as Iba reconstructed his strategy, molding the offense around his sparkling center. Kurland began finetuning the unpopular new art of goal-tending. While others could leap and snare the ball just before it arched into the net, none could do it like Kurland. The more the rules committee pondered restrictions, the more Iba smiled and agreed. Then he devised new bits of deviltry by which the Aggie could put the lid on rivals' scoring.

Hard to handle on court, Kurland was fouled against often. Even to 6-2 and 6-5 rivals gawking upward, his altitude and arm-

span seemed incredible. Guards "draped themselves on Bobby like ornaments on a Christmas tree" while trying to cover him. They tried standing on his feet. And he became acquainted with the "cloth block" when opponents simply grabbed the seat of his uniform. But when, exasperated, he returned the favors, the tallest man on court was the most visible. He was always the one who drew the penalty.^


Returning lettermen Blake Williams, Weldon Kern, Joe Halbert, J. D. Parks, and Bob Kurland formed the core of the 1945 NCAA championship team. Only Williams, Kern, and Kurland were regulars the previous year.

There was scant opportunity for prima donna tendencies to develop in the house that Iba built.

"I can testify to his literally peeling my hide verbally when I would push my personal pride in front of the team's welfare," Kurland once commented. "I can testify to his 'chewing the ears off one of us if we didn't attempt to act and dress as gentlemen on and off the court, and you can believe that he will kick you off his squad if you lay down on your teammates or your school."^

And yet, of his career under Mr. Iba, he mused, "I 've never had an audience with God, but that's as close as you can get."^

Off-court, in his sophomore year Kurland was relieved of sock-washing and promoted to cleaning the fieldhouse, including a last-minute sweeping of the very court on which he would play such a key role at game time. And, assigned to share a room in the building with two other athletes when the Army needed all dormitory space, the best of the nation's big men gained an additional responsibility. It was up


to him to check all exits in Gallagher Hall nightly, to be certain the building was securely locked.^°

When the NCAA adopted the goal-tending rule that had Kurland's name engraved on it, one irritated sportswriter protested, "It 's like saying Joe Louis shouldn't be allowed to strike with his right because he hits too hard." Phog Allen complained the ruling was too mild and lobbied to have the basket relocated at twelve feet.

However, the talented goal-tender involved agreed with the NCAA. "It accelerated not only my development, but the development of

other big players who had to learn to play a well-rounded game," he observed. "We won a lot of games with goal-tending, but that made us rely upon a single strength, and that's a weakness in any athletic team.''^^

In the four years Kurland roamed the range under Iba's tersely bellowed commands, showers of existing school cage records fell. In 1945 and again in 1946, he galvanized Oklahoma A&M to stunning, consecutive national cage titles. Although that feat has since been duplicated by a select handful of schools, the Cowboys were the first collegians to write that piece of history.

Forty years later, TuJsa World Sports Editor Bill Connors asked Kurland for his most vivid memory of the 1946 championship victory. But it was not the honors that came his way that struck the Bartlesville businessman. It was a mental cameo of the trophy presentation and starting guard Sam Aubrey. A year's hospitalization while a war-shattered hip healed hadn't dinuned Aubrey's desire to play ball for Iba. While doctors marveled that Aubrey was even able to walk, Aubrey was intent on playing. And he did. Upon his return to A&M, he ran with that reconstructed hip. He jumped. He asked no favors.

"Just seeing Sam standing there when they presented the trophy, and realizing what he had gone through and how much respect all of us had for him . . . that was the highlight of the night for me, ' ' Kurland recalled in 1986. "It was a wonderful time."^^

As graduation loomed, Kurland was besieged by professional basketball bids. Nearly a dozen were worthy of serious thought. The top offer of $12,000 a year was on a par with that offered DePaul's stellar Mikan. It was the best bid of the time. Mikan went with Chicago's American Gears and later helped forge the National Basketball Association. But to Kurland in 1946, the fledgling pro career did not seem as secure as a career in business.^^

"You have to remember," the genial alumnus said later, "that in those days professional basketball was a financially unstable institution. Only in the 1950s would television bring in sufficient revenue to keep the league afloat. Sure, $12,000 was a lot of money, but in those days it was a moot question as to whether you were going to get it. Also, I had a pretty good idea of where the petroleum industry was going, so


Seconds after he had ignited the A&M cagers to a blazing 44-29 win over Baylor University in the 1946 Western NCAA playoffs at Kansas City, Bob Kurland was busy shaping answers for radio announcer, Larry Ray, with the same concentration he exhibited on court.

ultimately I think my decision was a wise one."^* Three times All-America honors were awarded Kurland, who was

twice named the NCAA's most valuable player. He would become the first eager named to two Olympic teams, playing in the London and Helsinki Games. After graduation from A&M, he helped the famed Phillips 66ers dominate Amateur Athletic Union play from 1946-52 and was a six-time AAU All-American. The 66ers' evening games came on the heels of regular daytime work for Phillips employees. With the second gold Olympic team medal, at the height of his enormous skills, Kurland announced his retirement, choosing to walk away from the game while he was on top.^^

He served Phillips Petroleum Company for forty years in positions of management, marketing, and sales, but his athletic achievements were not forgotten. He is a member of the Helms Foundation's amateur and collegiate Halls of Fame and All-Time All-American teams. In 1961 he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, and is a member of the board of directors.^^

The task of breaking racial barriers in the sports world would come in later years. To Kurland fell the unspoken assignment of lowering the


height barrier, changing the mindset among basketball lovers that caused them to fear and ridicule physically gifted tall men.

"It 's the same game," he said reassuringly in 1980. "We just moved it a foot closer to the basket."^^

The final surprise of the astonishing era was not the tangent the sport took, nor the glory amassed and the confidence gained by Oklahoma A&M on its triumphant climb, but the hub of the matter was, literally. Bob Kurland.

Along the demanding route basketball carried him, Kurland kept his pact with Mr. Iba: education came first. The all-star scholar graduated with a 3.9 grade point average. And he became what the respected Henry Iba anticipated, an incredible athlete and a poised leader, with a heart to match his height.

Endnotes

1. John Paul Bischoff, Mr. Iba: Basketball's Aggie Iron Duke, (Oklahoma City: Western Heritage Books, 1980), p. 139.

2. Otis Wile, "Bob Kurland 7-Foot Ail-American," Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 17, no. 7 (April 1945), p. 6.

3. "Illegal Tender," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 52, no. 1 (September 1980), p. 10; Tulsa Tribune, undated clipping [Spring 1985], Athletics Centennial History Collection, Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

4. Tulsa World, 29 December 1985, p. 50.

5. Bischoff, pp. 144-147.

6. "Illegal Tender," pp. 10-11; Bischoff, pp. 118, 141.

7. Wile, p. 6; Bischoff, pp. 142-144.

8. Bischoff, p. 115.

9. Tulsa Tribune, undated clipping [Spring 1985], p. 10, Athletics Centennial History Collection.

10. Bischoff, p. 147.

11. "Illegal Tender," p. 10.

12. Tulsa World, 28 March 1986, p. 10.

13. Oklahoma City Sunday Oklahoman, 29 December 1985, p. 50.


15. Tulsa World, 29 December 1985, p. 50. 16. "Kurland Named to Basketball Hall of Fame," Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol.

2, no. 6 (June 1961), p. 21; "The OSU Centennial Advisory Commission," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 56, no. 3 (Spring 1985), p. 138.



18 The Golden Decade Starts 1944_i 945

While Oklahoma A&M athletes faced the demands of World War II in 1944, a former Cowboy wrestler—among others—made headlines. Fighter pilot Walter "Benny" Putnam took to the air one afternoon and sank two Japanese transport ships, eleven barges, a motor launch and two planes. Praising Putnam as a "one-man air force," General Douglas MacArthur promoted the 28-year-old to full colonel and awarded him a Distinguished Service Cross.^

At home on the campus, the most distinguished grid team the school had produced was about to take the field. It would garner more honors and more public acclaim than any previous A&M squad, keeping fans and opponents alike on their feet in every game with long, spectacular scoring runs that would carry the Cowboys all the way to the school's first post-season bowl game.

Ralph Foster, member of the 1939 football team, returned from service to captain the 1944 squad through a schedule so formidable it might have been one of Notre Dame's. Cecil Hankins was back with a medical discharge. Bolstering them were 1943 aces Bob Fenimore and Neill Armstrong and others who had also been stunned by unexpected 4-F status. And there was the incoming flock of talented 17- and 18-year-olds who would leave as soon as they were called to duty. Among them was fleet Jim Spavital, whose high school hadn' t even offered the game.

When trainer Bobby "Peewee" Williams had patched, padded, braced, and taped the wartime warriors. Coach E. M. "Jim" Lookabaugh sent his unusual starters stampeding past West Texas State, 41-6; Arkansas, 19-0; Texas Tech, 14-7; and Denver, 33-21. Lookabaugh molded the young Cowboys into the precision team Aggie fans had so


long awaited.2 Tulsa's Golden Hurricane, which had long savaged Cowboy teams

and trekked to both Orange and Sugar Bowls, also was soaring high in 1944, amid speculations of a coveted Rose Bowl bid. Skelly Stadium fans were making bets on whether Fenimore would even score.

Thirty-point underdogs at game time, the Cowboys sent Fenimore through a path opened by Foster and J. C. Colhouer for a bet-settling first goal. The big Tulsans quickly retaliated and it was 6-6. The old foes tied again at 13-13 and 40-40, with the Hurricanes never leading but never easing the pressure as both teams tired in the warm afternoon.

With seven minutes left, Hankins, sandwiched between two Tulsans, speared a long pass from Fenimore for the Cowboys' seventh touchdown. Again the Hurricane surged back, poised for a tying score with a wide open receiver in the end zone. Suddenly Fenimore was there, springing, snaring the spiraling ball on the Aggie three. Landing, he raced it back to the 20-yard line.^

When the clock ran out, A&M's sports publicist Otis Wile wrote that "not a soul stirred in the stands. The crowd stood through most of the game and they were standing in disbelief minutes after the game." In the Daily Oklahoman, veteran sports writer F. E. "Wally" Wallis mused, "Imagine Tulsa scoring 40 points and losing! Thirteen touchdowns and one touchdown apart!"*

In the dressing room, the battered Pokes were exultant. A freshman, Gib Lipe, saw considerable time at end as an ailing Armstrong went in and out of the game. Exhaustion hospitalized the other end, Glenn Moore. Spavital, Colhouer, and center John Gattis played the full game.

"Sitting on the step of the shady side of the A&M bus . . . was Captain Foster, cotton-encrusted lips, utterly exhausted, but saying over and over, T told 'em, I kept telling 'em, I knew they could beat Tulsa' ," Wile related.

A sharp Navy Zoomer team studded with professional players and ranked third among national service teams upset the Cowboys back home on Lewis Field during homecoming, 15-0, despite Armstrong catching nine passes during fruitless drives in ankle-deep mud. A&M's collegiate record was unaffected by the loss to the Zoomers of Norman.

From there on, the tougher things got, the more evident it became that the Cowboy's "potential" had arrived. And it was going to hang around, despite forays to Texas and Oklahoma just ahead. That long pass down the sideline, Fenimore to Hankins, the most-scouted play, pulled off a 13-8 last-gasp win in a wild fourth quarter with the famed Longhorns.

Texas already had routed a sturdy OU, 20-0. Could the Pokes do the same, after ten discouraging attempts since the last victory in 1933? Feted in the sports world as never before except through wrestling, Oklahoma


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1945 DALLAS, TEXAS

Unbeaten in league play, the Pokes wore the Missouri Valley Championship crown into the annual Cotton Bowl Classic on New Year's Day in 1945, thumping Texas Christian's Horned Frogs, 34-0. It marked both A&M's first bowl appearance and first victory.

A&M was startled to realize that both Cotton and Sugar Bowl sponsors were eyeing the continually improving team. Scouts for both were at Taft Stadium in Oklahoma City for the annual A&M-OU tilt.

That morning, Cotton Bowl Chairman Dan Rogers met with Athletic Director Henry P. Iba, Dean Clarence McElroy of the Athletic Cabinet, and Coach Lookabaugh.

"We'll sign you now, before this afternoon's game," Rogers offered. The three knew the Sugar Bowl bid hinged on defeat of OU. War

time travel had sometimes meant the team took separate trains as seats became available. At least once half the team had slept in the aisles of a packed train before the next day's game. Gasoline was not available for school buses or private cars for "pleasure" trips. Travel to Dallas would be less arduous than to New Orleans, the team fresher.

The Oklahoma A8tM College Magazine observed crisply, "the shorter trip lessens the time away from the campus for the football players, who at A&M also go to school."^ Too, better relations with the Southwest Conference would benefit future Aggie schedules.

The Cotton Bowl got the nod. Players were told just before they were sent into the game against

Oklahoma's Big Six champions. Supercharged, the Cowpokes hit their peak. The game saw Spavital, a good college fullback, emerge a great


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By 1945 the northeast corner of A&M's campus had undergone enormous changes. With Gallagher Hall, Lewis Field, the Gymnasium and Armory, and plenty of tennis courts, an athletic complex emerged to complement A&M athletic success.

one as the Cowboys drove to one touchdown on the ground, ran back a low punt for another and plucked two Sooner passes for another pair. The 28-6 rout was the most severe defeat A&M had yet managed to deal the Sooners.

The game trophy. Old Central's bell clapper, at last returned to its cupola, to be rung through the night as awed Aggies honored their first bowl team. Four of their rugged opponents, including Oklahoma, gained bowl bids; only Tulsa found it possible to accept.^

There was, of course, the matter of the new Missouri Valley Champions upending Texas Christian University's Southwest Champions on January 1, 1945, in Dallas' ninth Cotton Bowl.

By now, confidence pumped through the Cowboys as they realized the impact of the forward pass, their new-found power and relentless offense. Every member of the squad played as Lookabaugh's proteges thumped the Horned Frogs, 34-0. Others had underestimated the front line of lettermen Gattis at center, Colhouer at guard, Armstrong at end, and Captain Foster at tackle. TCU did, and failed to penetrate the Pokes' 35-yard line.^

Honors poured in. Fenimore's name made at least seven All-America first teams and the second string lists. The Daily OViahoman hailed him as "Player of the Year." Foster and Armstrong gained honorable men-


tion on All-America teams as well.^ In Stillwater, the Cotton Bowl trophy joined earlier prizes in the glass-

enclosed cases of the " O " Club room on the second floor, east wing, of Gallagher Hall. Considered the oldest student organization on the campus, the lettermen's group worked toward fellowship among athletes and encouragement of the betterment of sports and sports policies at A&M. It was headed that year by Armstrong.

The Iron Duke's eleventh basketball team fulfilled a lifelong dream of Iba's. A successful annual Eastern trip in December was followed by A&M's fourth All-College title at Oklahoma City. But the seasoned team that would hand Iba and Oklahoma A&M their first National Collegiate Athletic Association Championship began as a raw, inexperienced group.

Only formidable All-American Bob Kurland remained from the previous year's campaign. Now a junior, he was helped by three freshmen with some wartime junior college ball-handling. Joe Halbert, 6-7, played behind Kurland in the rare moments the polished center wasn't in game. Guided by Iba, the green team persisted in knocking off such opponents as Baylor, Rice, Arkansas, and New York University.

At Temple, the touring Pokes barely dropped a 46-44 game to one of the nation's tallest teams. The Owls' starting lineup averaged more than 6-4. And height was quickly becoming either a blessing or a liability, depending upon whether a coach had it or lacked it.

Iba had no qualms over a new NCAA goal-tending rule, designed chiefly to slow Kurland in deflecting rival shots. It decreed there would be no interference with the ball on its downward arc toward the hoop. In fact, the dapper coach maintained the ban would help Kurland.

"He won't have to jump so much and will stay fresh," Iba maintained.

With Hankins settling in after exciting chores on the bowl team, the lineup began to roar. A new team scoring record was set in a runaway over Phillips, 89-28. Then letterman Doyle Parrack joined the lineup and A&M ran past the Mexican Pentathlon cagers, 86-27, and downed OU at Norman by 14. The Sooners had, but did not use that night, 7-foot-3 Merle Dinkins.

Topping off a 27-4 year, the Cowboys tripped 1944 NCAA titlist Utah and Arkansas in the NCAA Western Regional at Kansas City, then belted NYU again in Madison Square Garden for the NCAA crown. They then took on National Invitation Tournament champ DePaul University, sporting the great George Mikan, in an NIT-NCAA "Champion of Champions" duel that raised $50,000 for the Red Cross.

Mikan, who had just set NIT scoring records, and Kurland squared off. When Mikan fouled out early in the first half, Kurland remained. Avoiding Mikan's fate, the Cowboy hub fed Hankins, who poured in


20 points as A&M whistled past DePaul, 52-44. The midlands of America still hadn't resolved which was greater,

Kurland or Mikan. But there was no doubt about which team was the first to bring home an unchallenged national championship in basketball. Chosen Coach of the Year, Iba also was named to the Helms Foundation Hall of Fame.

News of Berlin's fall and Hitler's suicide spread around the world May 2, 1945. Six days later the war in Europe was over. Even greater rejoicing followed August 13 with victory in Japan and the war's end. As quickly as possible, the United States brought her servicemen home. By fall, those on leave or already discharged were heading back to families, jobs, and schools.

Endnotes



3. Wile, pp. 337-338.

4. Wile, p. 339.

5. "Cowboys Play Difficult Schedule—Great Team Emerges Victorious," Oklahoma A&M College Magazine, vol. 17, no. 4 (January 1945), pp. 8-9.

6. "Cowboys Play Difficult Schedule," p. 9.

7. 1945 Redskin, pp. 139-140.

8. "Cowboys Play Difficult Schedule," p. 9.


19 Reaching the Heights 1945-1946

The facts are simple, but they never cease to amaze. When the 1945-46 school year was winding down, three Oklahoma A&M teams stood at the peak of the national sports arena. Within fifteen months, major triumphs had sprouted faster than trees around Theta Pond.

On January 1,1945, the Cowboys capped an unbeaten collegiate football season with the Cotton Bowl Championship.

A little more than two months later, the A&M basketball team took the National Collegiate Athletic Association Championship.

On New Year's Day, 1946, the Sugar Bowl Championship fell to the unbeaten football team.

March was even busier. When wrestling resumed after World War II, the matmen rapidly rebuilt and cinched their 14th NCAA crown.

At the same time, the cagers won the NCAA Western Regional and went on to capture another NCAA basketball title, the first college team to win back-to-back national crowns.

Overshadowed by these tremendous achievements were honors that earlier would have sent the school into orbit: four Missouri Valley titles in football and basketball, and two All-College Tournament basketball championships.

In this wave of success, Henry P. Iba's coaching staff was acknowledged as one of the finest in the nation.^ With World War II over, the Cowboys resumed a full-fledged program for the first time since 1942. Wrestling, baseball, golf, and tennis were revived as new students arrived, along with returning varsity and war veterans.

Coach Jim Lookabaugh kept his Cotton Bowl football champs in dominant form in 1945 as they waded through Arkansas, Denver, Southern


Methodist, Utah, Texas Christian, Tulsa, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma. Although Bob Fenimore was apt to break into an 80-yard downfield run at any time, against any opponent, freshman Bill Grimes also was becoming expert at intercepting passes and ushering them over the goal line.

Key ends were Neill Armstrong and Glenn Moore. Jim Reynolds was again in Orange and Black uniform and regaining his 1940 form. By the fifth game, dependable Cecil Hankins was in action for the first time this season.

With its seventh straight victory, A&M was ranked eighth in the nation. Sweeping the bench regularly, Lookabaugh saw that each of his forty-four men saw action. On November 24, the Pokes sauntered into Norman and upended the Sooners, 47-0, OU's worst defeat. The 1945 team charged through the Punchers' first unbeaten season in forty-three years of football. The school's unbroken string of collegiate victories now stretched to eighteen.

As the Orange and Black cavorted on Owen Field, 33,500 fans screamed. For the Oklahoma Aggies, memory of the resounding shutout would warm them through colder winters ahead. Given the state's firmly entrenched rivalry, it's probable not even the subsequent bowl victory was more satisfying than that afternoon in Norman.

For Lookabaugh, whose first loss to OU as A&M's coach had been 41-0, the score was significant. He would shortly be offered a $10,000 contract by A&M. There were those on campus who recalled early coach A. C. 'Pink' Griffith's princely annual salary of $1800—plus an uncollected $200 if he beat OU.^

All-America honors came to Fenimore for the second year, amid a backfield bristling with Herman Wedemeyer of St. Mary's of California and ' 'Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside," Felix Blanchard and Glenn Davis of Army. Armstrong made the Associated Press third team at end.

A&M's acceptance of the Sugar Bowl bid came the day after the OU game. The Cowboys would meet the colorful Gaels of St. Mary's, steered by Wedemeyer and Coach Jim Phelan.

Although post-war travel conditions had improved, tickets for the 75,000-seat Sugar Bowl were hard to come by. St. Mary's was the sentimental favorite, but odds-makers ignored sentiment and considered the Cowboys by seven. With 1,641 yards on 199 plays, the November 29 statistics listed Fenimore tops in the nation in total offense. Covering 1,428 yards on 199 plays, the speedy Hawaiian Wedemeyer ranked second. The country settled back to await the battle of the All-Americans.

After a rainy Christmas spent at a Biloxi, Mississippi, training camp, Lookabaugh's men were ready for the twelfth Sugar Bowl game. St. Mary's scored early on a Wedemeyer pass so long that an astonished Fenimore let the intended receiver go into the end zone.

He later said, "I knew Wedemeyer couldn't possibly throw a ball


The 1946 Sugar Bowl followed A&M's 1945 Cotton Bowl championship. Fans were almost beside themselves as the school's athletic fortunes soared. At the Sugar Bowl, Oklahoma's Governor Robert S. Kerr (left) and OAMC President Henry G. Bennett (right) flank the Louisiana governor

that far!' ' Amends were made promptly. Bringing the kickoff out to the A&M 36, tailback Fenimore passed to wingback Hankins for 19, then raced around end for 15. Three plays later he passed to Hankins for a touchdown. Each team added another score, and Reynolds' two conversions gave the Cowboys a 14-13 advantage.

Wedemeyer was all over the field, punting and tackling, but Fenimore and Reynolds each garnered another touchdown. Lookabaugh sent seven fresh men in, and Joe Thomas added another score. In the final moments of the 33-13 victory, more A&M subs flooded the field to absorb their own Sugar Bowl memories.

Along with rounding up a second consecutive bowl title, the Cowboys used the Sugar Bowl to stir up the frosting on A&M's Sooner cake.

The Cowboy cagers found thundering to their first national title in 1945 to their liking. It seemed appropriate to aim for the top again in 1946. But despite being ranked first or second in the U.S. throughout their 31-2 season, fans privately wondered if any school could pull off two consecutive championships. After all, no one else had managed it.

More than 9,000, the building's largest-ever crowd, squeezed into Gallagher Hall for the early-season rematch with the Blue Demons of DePaul. Iba was in New Orleans, completing Sugar Bowl arrangements. The home team wilted, 46-42, as George Mikan hit 25 for DePaul on


his way to an unprecedented $12,000 pro basketball contract. But the Pokes recovered to capture the All-College in Oklahoma City for the fifth time in ten years, handing Dr. Phog Allen's Kansas Jayhawkers their worst defeat in the long rivalry, 46-28.

After that, only Bowling Green could halt the Cowboys. Bob Kurland tossed in 58 points, an all-time national individual scoring record.* With an undefeated Missouri Valley campaign rounding out the school's best season, the Pokes proved they could put together two national crowns when they withstood a late rally and dispatched the Tar Heels of North Carolina, 43-40, before 18,479 fans in Madison Square Garden.^

At 42, Iba found himself at the height of his career. His team's second NCAA trophy was a definite goal attained, but other satisfying achievements lay ahead. All five starters made the All-Valley lineup, Kurland, Weldon Kern, Sam Aubrey, Blake Williams, and J. L. Parks. The view from the top was exhilarating, but the team would have to reshape for the next year. Twice the NCAA tourney's most valuable

Another NCAA crown! For the second time in two years. Coach Henry P. Iba accepts the James St. Clair trophy from Mrs. St. Clair following Oklahoma A&M's 43-40 trouncing of North Carolina for the 1946 championship in Madison Square Garden, New York. From the left are Joe Halbert, Joe Bradley, Sam Aubrey (barely visible), Blake Williams, Eugene Bell, Bob Kurland, Paul Geymann (hidden by the cup), Bob Crowe, A. L. Bennett, J. L. Parks, and Weldon Kern.


For more than two years there had been no activity in the workout room, as collegians went off to fight; but at the close of World War II, wrestling was resumed. Undaunted, Coach Art Griffith set to work. In 1946 Coach Art Griffith convinced the NCAA to hold the national tournament in Gallagher Hall. With a few veterans and some talented youngsters, A&M squeezed out the Iowa Teachers, 25-24, to make it fourteen NCAA wrestling team championships. Here he shares the news with heavyweight Loyd Arms, whose championship had come in the last tourney held in 1942.

player and three-time AU-American, the legendary Kurland was graduating.

A few teams in the east and west had continued wrestling competition during the war, but no duals had been held at A&M since 1942. But Coach Art Griffith combined high school standouts with nineteen returning veterans for a skimpy two-meet season and an Oklahoma AAU tournament. Griffith encouraged a reluctant NCAA to revive its national tournament by offering to host the event, which never had been held at A&M.

With a terrific battle, the Cowboys edged the Iowa State Teachers, 25-24. George Dorsch took the national title at 175 and David "Buddy" Arndt, repeated his 1941-42 victories. Rivals recalling Arndt's pre-war championships at 145 had gone up a weight or had dropped from the new 142-pound class to avoid meeting him. Buddy surprised them by weighing in at 136, but it was no surprise when he completed his career without ever having lost to anyone. Second place points from Edgar Welsh, Jack St. Clair, and George Walker and a fourth from Loyd Arms helped land the fourteenth NCAA team title in sixteen tries.

There they were, three national trophies for A&M lassoed in less than three months, in football, basketball, and wrestling.

Syndicated columnist Grantland Rice wrote, "I can't recall another college with a better all-around record against the competition of pres-


ent years. "^ Despite having only skeleton track squads the past three years. Coach

Ralph Higgins escalated the Aggie program toward Southwest honors. Ralph Tate, just three months out of an Army hospital, along with Armstrong and Fenimore, strengthened the largely freshman team. At the Border Olympics, Tate took the high and low hurdles and the broad jump, J. R. Teakell won the mile, and Roger Hobart tied the high jump, to manage third place for A&M.

A first in broad jump and a school high hurdles record by Tate helped the Aggies take second in the Texas Relays. In the annual dual with OU, the Sooners' only first was in the 440. Fenimore, who had not competed in the major relays, captured both short dashes, while Teakell finished first in the mile and two-mile as the Cowboys starred, 80-51.^ At West Point, the A&M team prevailed, 8 1/2-7 1/2,and Eastern writers exclaimed, "Don't these Waddies from Oklahoma ever lose anything?"

Final honors came at the Penn Relays where Tate earned All-America status by besting high hurdler Harrison Dillard, world record-holder, and at the Missouri Valley meet in Wichita, where the Aggie trackmen swept every event. With 22 1/2 points, Wichita was the closest to A&M's 125.

Baseball returned to the agenda under Toby Greene. Until the Boomer field was back in playing shape, the team competed on the practice field north of the old gym. Coach Griffith started tennis duties with no letter-men available; and Labron Harris, one of the Southwest's leading pros, took over the college golf team with the same handicap.

As 1945 had been, 1946 also was a golden year to remember as major sports of football, basketball, and wrestling peaked together.

Endnotes



3. Wile, pp. 360-361.

4. 1946 Redskin, p. 289.

5. New York Times, 27 March 1946, p. 30.

6. Wile, p. 369.

7. 1946 Redskin, p. 290; Wile, pp. 370-371.

156 • Centennial Histories Series

20 Fenimore to Armstrong

A pair of blond 17-year-old football standouts landed on the Oklahoma A&M campus in the summer of 1943, part of a flock of fresh high school graduates hoping to make a team whose regulars were off fighting World War II.

They made it, and school history as well. Bob Fenimore, Neill Armstrong, and their skilled young freshman

cohorts unexpectedly molded a fair Missouri Valley Conference squad into a crisp, accurate unit that galloped into national headlines for two successive years as Cotton Bowl and Sugar Bowl champions. They were already being touted for the Rose Bowl when a rash of injuries descended in their senior year, slashing their string of twenty-one consecutive undefeated games.

Here, finally, was tangible proof that A&M could develop a quality, ongoing football program that would bring the school the same high level of attention already attained through agricultural and educational achievements.

From overcrowded stands supporters rooted for the superlative teams of 1944 and 1945. And, for their patient enthusiasm in the intervening years, alumni have been treated to a steady diet of big-time play in the Delta Bowl, Blue Grass Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Tangerine Bowl, Independence Bowl, Bluebonnet Bowl, and Gator Bowl—with only two losses.

Between friends, a glance or a chuckle can compress forty years into yesterday. Nudging Armstrong and Fenimore into reminiscing is no problem; their honest appraisals and low-key comments, tempered by deep-rooted modesty and humor, rumbles up easily. But where is the bigger-than-life glow about them that says ' 'All-Time College Heroes"?


The swagger? Except for a twinkle here and an inside joke there, you'd swear they'd never read the glowing praise once heaped on them by the country's top sports writers.

Instead of basking in the spotlight, the men speak of afternoons spent sweltering in black wool jerseys and wool pants while the thermometer spurted over 100 in Texas and Georgia. The uniforms were more welcome later when winter-gloved Denver fans scraped six inches of snow from stadium seats before the kickoff.

Between games they made class on time, ate at college hangouts, and felt right at home on the A&M campus whose enrollment had plummeted to just over 1500 students, with a ratio of three girls for every remaining male. No sleek cars or other inducements awaited them for a sensational afternoon's work on the gridiron. In short, "We were just kind of looked upon as students," Fenimore mentioned mildly.

How have facilities, the coaching, recruiting, and the game itself changed since the glory years of 1943-46?

First of all, Armstrong and Fenimore played for fun. Just liked the game. Were never burdened with saving the coach's job or even their own; benching a healthy Fenimore or Armstrong was unlikely. There was never much pressure from the alumni for a brace of reasons. They were winning. And second, football, normally the lifeblood of American collegians, was not the most important thing going on.

Desperate battles on the far side of the globe were claiming the attention—and sometimes the lives—of the A&M graduates. By 1944, 102 Aggie lettermen with eligibility remaining were in the armed forces. Fifty-two were football men.^

With the mandate to conserve gasoline and tires, the games were often scheduled for Taft Stadium in Oklahoma City to reach the greatest crowds. For those short on gas rationing coupons, radio coverage was almost as good as being there. For a few hours it diverted families' worries about their servicemen.

"OU was the king," Armstrong, a Tishomingo High School star, began. "And there was Tulsa. In the collegiate conference around here, Northwestern, Southwestern, Central State, East Central State, they were pretty good football teams in those days, too, just before the war. Colleges were really hurt by wartime enlistments. And Oklahoma A&M had to beat them playing with kids, really kids. We were just seventeen years old.

"I wasn't recruited," Armstrong continued. "Bob was. He was an All-State football player. A number of All-State players attended A&M. But even during the war, it was nothing like the way they're recruited today."

"When I was recruited at Woodward High School," Fenimore explained, "the only two schools that even talked to me were Tulsa and


A&M. I got a form letter, I think, from OU, but that was al l ." Known as the "Blond Bomber" for his passing prowess, Fenimore

ended up in Stillwater largely on the advice of Joe Timken, a Woodward coach and an A&M graduate. A second factor lay in his letter to Lookabaugh, requesting a catalog.

"In a matter of a few days, here comes a catalog. He was that thorough. For a 17-year-old kid, that meant a lot to me and to my parents ." As things worked out, Fenimore and Armstrong arrived on campus about the same time for the 16-week summer semester then offered.

For a while, their world was bounded by classes in Williams, Old Central, Gardiner, Gundersen, Whitehurst, Morrill, and the old Chemistry Building. There was no such thing as air conditioning and that first summer of 1943 was a real eye-opener.

During an especially warm science class, "It was get your paper out and fan yourself," Armstrong recalled. "It was HOT."

Fraternity houses were dubbed "victory hal ls" and filled with students. At various times, since an athletic dorm still lay in the future, Fenimore and Armstrong lived in apartments and in the Sigma Chi, Sigma Nu, and Beta Theta Pi houses.

Stationed here were Army, Navy, and Air Corps trainees, along with WAVES and other service branches. None, however, were in a branch that could provide extra hands for A&M's varsity sports. OU inherited seasoned Naval personnel for its varsity and did not have to depend on recruiting. The Cowboys suddenly found themselves with all the state's finest youngsters.

With the war on, collegiate rules were relaxed to allow freshmen to make the starting lineups. It was, Fenimore summed it up, "like all colleges started from scratch.' ' With last year's stars already in the service, the only men on any campus were under the draft age of eighteen, had just turned eighteen, or were 4-F. Where those grid stars landed was a matter of chance, but both college and professional footballers were soon on service teams all across the country.

"We played some teams like the Naval Base at Norman, and they had a lot of professional players," Fenimore said. "They gave us a lesson, although we felt like we stood our ground pretty well. But that's what put everybody back on a par. Lookabaugh, fortunately, brought in at one time a bunch of young kids that had quite a bit of ability, more than the other schools. Otherwise, I don't know how long it would have taken us to make the team.

"A lot of our fellows went ahead and played professional football after the war. They were playing with the top talent in the pro leagues and they were able to make it, most of them. So that's a good indication that they did a pretty good job of recruiting way back—and a good job of coaching, too."


Upon graduation, Armstrong signed with the Philadelphia Eagles and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Then he turned to coaching, as head coach of the Edmonton Eskimos and as defensive coordinator and assistant coach of the Minnesota Vikings. From 1978-81, he was the Chicago Bears' head coach. He now serves as assistant coach in research and development for the Dallas Cowboys.

Fenimore played for the Chicago Bears before an injury turned him toward his own insurance business.

The All-Americans didn't go unnoticed upon graduation. But neither did pro scouts of those days toss around zillion-dollar bonuses.

"I remember when we signed a contract," the former tailback said. "I don't know what you got for a bonus. I got two ."

Laughing, Armstrong said his bonus was $1,500. Fenimore admitted, "I got $1,000, finally talked [George] Halas out

of another $1,000. My contract was $8,000. My gosh, today those guys make that much in five minutes."

"They spend that much, too!" Armstrong confirmed. Fenimore resumed, "Nei l l ' s contract was comparable to

mine . . . and everybody else's. But my, how times have changed. And it's not just inflation. They don't jump from $8,000 to $40-some million because of inflation. Part of it is the interest in football on television."

As freshmen, they found a three-man coaching staff at A&M—slim by comparison with the eighties' collegiate arsenal of coaches, assistants, aides, weight specialists, trainers, and recruiters.

"Coach Jim Lookabaugh picked Neill as quarterback," Fenimore explained. "Neill worked more closely with the head coach than anybody else on the team, but he also had a fine coach, Toby Greene. Jack Baker coached the backfield and was my coach. That was the staff."

The former quarterback reminisced, "Lookabaugh was interested in your education. I remember when I was going to change from the School of Business to Education, he said, 'What are you going to do that for? Your business degree will get you by, no matter what you do if you graduate.' I wanted to be a football coach and told him so. He said, 'If that's what you want to do, go ahead and do i t . ' "

"They were GOOD coaches and they also 'fathered' u s , " Armstrong added. "Jim did. Those football players were HIS boys. He could do what he wanted to with those boys, just like his own kids, but anybody else better not mistreat us. Only way he mistreated us was he'd just scrimmage us until our tongues were hangin' out . . . "

" . . . until we'd drop," Fenimore finished, matching Armstrong's I'll-second-that laugh.

Armstrong picked it up again: "We ran a single wing and the easy thing was to call the plays. The tailback was going to carry the ball. All


Radiating youth and success in a memorable era are Oklahoma A&M football standouts (bottom row) Bob Fenimore and Nate Watson; (middle row) Ross Duckett and John Gattis; (top row) J. C. Colhouer, Ralph Foster, and Neill Armstrong.

the time. And that was Bob. It was just whether Bob was going to run to the right around end, or to the left around end or off tackle, one side or the other. There wasn't much strategy."

But Fenimore was always on the move. And sometimes he began to wish he weren't.

"Bob always let me know when he'd had enough," Armstrong said, a wicked grin squirting across his golf-tanned face. "So I'd just keep calling plays. We'd just keep marching down the field and making yards. We'd come back to the huddle, he 'd look at me before I'd step in the huddle, sort of with his head down, and just shake his head."

"He'd shake his head and I'd just go ahead and call the play again," the merciless former roommate stressed, positively glowing. "About the only way he could get out of it was if he wouldn' t shake his head."

And that wasn't even when Fenimore was struggling through game


after game playing with the worst Charlie horse anyone ever saw. The "glass thigh" became of major concern to fans.

Unruffled, Fenimore observed, "One game I remember in particular was Arkansas. Must have been in 1944 in Taft Stadium, and we were trapping a tackle, but they didn't pick it up. We're makin' yards and I was gettin' a little more tired each time I carried the ball. I was shakin' my head a little more vigorously each time, but it was WORKIN', and of all the plays, of all the games that we played about this shakin' the head—because I did a lot of headshakin'—that was the one time I remember Neill not lookin' up.

"He'd just come in the huddle and call '42-trap.' And he was going to call it until they stopped it. We ran it eight or ten times, just bang! bang! bang! right down the field and he just WORE ME OUT. Wore their tackle out, too. Those are the little things that go on in a football game that most people aren't aware of."

Even with the cream of the 1943 high school graduating crop on hand, about fifteen or sixteen did most of the playing.

"Many, many games we played sixty minutes," Fenimore said. "We'd just be on one side playing defense, we'd get the ball and here we'd go again. Had to be in tip-top shape. But, when we were seniors we got a lot of guys hurt of the fifteen-sixteen. When you get a large part of your nucleus hurt, then somebody's gonna get you good. We were beaten pretty badly while we were seniors."

"When we had a game going, especially a close one, we knew there was a chance that we might lose," Fenimore added. "We weren't concerned about injuries; we were too concerned about whatever our responsibility was. We were just out there with many things to do.

"When I played, I was conscious of fumbling the football. If you carry the ball a lot, you can have a good drive going and you fumble the ball away and the drive stops. So you have to be conscious of that. I wasn't a very good forward passer," he said earnestly, from the depths of his easy chair.

A deep laugh rippled from Armstrong, putting a disclaimer to Fenimore's concept of his abilities. But the state's finest football player in those years wasn't through.

"I 'd just throw it out there. Because of guys like this. . . . " His gesture sweeps Armstrong into the conversation.

That's about all the sweetness and light Armstrong could sit still for. "You talk about modesty, now!" he ribbed his ex-roommate. But Fenimore was still serious. "No, no. I've got films that show Neill catching one-handed, turn

ing around sideways. We had Neill, who had great speed. Cecil Hankins had good speed; good basketball player, good track man. He's the kind of a guy who wouldn't back off from a buzzsaw.


"The one thing that set our team apart from the others was the team speed we had. We had to play both ways, so we had to kind of pace ourselves because we knew in a little bit we were going to be back on offense again. Those two were the people I looked for and I threw the ball because they could run. I just threw it out there as far as I could." He caught the expression on Armstrong's face and switched gears without missing a syllable: "I couldn't do it very far . . . and the ball was rounder in those days." By now they were both laughing.

"Don't believe all that stuff," Armstrong protested. Intent once again, Fenimore resumed, "I can see film now of me run

ning with the football and think how much better I could've done. Not with better coaching, because we had quality coaching. I didn't run properly. I was concerned with gettin' out in the open and tryin' to get away from people, you know. Sometimes you can't do that. They congregate underneath the bal l ."

"They liked that football, I'll tell you!" Armstrong's laugh is infectious.

Beneath the speed and formidable grasp of the game's mechanics, Fenimore had a legitimate problem. He was red-green color blind. And while footballs remain the same color all the time, the jerseys behind and beyond the ball do not.

"Sometimes I looked downfield and I could tell the difference between jerseys if one team wore black and the other white. But if one was real close and had some red in it and the other had some green in it, I really had to be careful. Sometimes I'd just throw as far as I could and if I completed it, I was an awful good passer!

"The first time I ever realized it was at a basketball game my brother and I went to at high school. We sat up high and I said, 'Harry, how come one team has numbers and the other doesn't? ' He said, 'They've got numbers on them.' I said, 'Well, they don't . '

"They had red shirts, I think, with green numbers. It just looked one solid color. I thought, 'Gosh, that official has a terrible time calling fouls and getting a sign to a particular player because he doesn't have a number.' When I got down real close to them, I could see the numbers ."

Then, in his best no-nonsense coaching voice, Armstrong decided to have his say.

"Bob—now, don't interrupt me—Bob was the number one football player in the state of Oklahoma. In those days the term 'triple threat' was popular. It was always, 'He was a triple threat.' He could run, he could pass, he could kick—which he did. Bob punted for us, threw the ball, ran with it. When we were playin', there was no such thing as (a separate) offense and defense. We didn't have that many players, so we worked together as a team even more than now because we played both ways.


"But the ultimate goal was we could win. There was a period there when we didn't think we could be beaten. We had lots of confidence. When we were on the field it wasn't IF we could win, but by how much. That was a good spirit the team had, the fans had ."

The most obvious physical change in football at OSU nowadays is the considerably enlarged stadium, the men say. Artificial turf makes a faster game. More players are coming in and there's a larger coaching staff. Different equipment.

Another big change is the separation of offense and defense assignments.

"You go one way or the other, but I guess in college the two never get together. You're coached separately on the field of play," Fenimore observed.

"It 's a game of specialties," Armstrong said. "Another thing is strength. In those days, there was no such thing as trying to be stronger, lift weights, training programs. Our training was what work you did in the summer or growing up. That was your weight program. Nowadays, that's a big thing. I don't know if these guys are better athletes, but they're better trained.

"Then, three coaches. Now you have a strength coach, a conditioning coach. For the most part, they try to see these guys are eating proper food. In those days, we went to every place in town, eating hamburgers, hotdogs, and whatever was cheap. We didn't have a training table."^

Through the busy years, trophies tarnish. Scrapbook clippings and memories are re-evaluated, put in benevolent perspective. Glory seldom buys the family groceries in later years. And only if you were an Armstrong would Dallas Cowboys Coach Tom Landry ask of a certain 103-degree day forty years ago, "Did you play in that game with Texas?" when you wouldn't mind forgetting it.

Perhaps the kindest thing the years offer an athlete is to act as a preservative. Friendships forged on playing fields of any kind often seem to come with a lifetime, tarnish-proof guarantee.

Endnotes


2. Author interview with Bob Fenimore and Neill Armstrong, 28 April 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection, Special Collections, Edmon Low Library.


21 What Goes Up. 1946-1950

Oklahoma A&M's Cowboy grid team was already being touted for the Rose Bowl as the 1946 football season opened. Anything seemed possible for the Cotton and Sugar Bowl champions who had galloped into the big time with Coach E. M. "Jim" Lookabaugh at the reins, brandishing a nineteen-game intercollegiate winning streak.

But there was nothing predictable about the rugged, eleven-game season at all. Nearly 450, most of whom were war veterans, had tried out at spring drills. Scholarships now augmented G.I. Bill of Rights assistance for those who lived in the new Veterans Village.

By fall, the varsity was sixty strong, with forty more suited up. Forty-four lettermen were on tap for the first home game, as A&M's second varsity drilled Sun Bowl-loser Denver, 40-7. The streak stood at twenty victories. Still, with athletes returning from the war, it would have been hard to find a major varsity squad in the land that didn't boast forty lettermen of the same caliber, the A. and M. Magazine pointed out.^

It seemed like old times, with All-Americans Bob Fenimore breaking open the game and Neill Armstrong calling the plays. With the stadium seating only 13,000 and the bleachers 6,000, another campaign began to enlarge Lewis Stadium.

Then, in the midst of a 21-21 tie with Arkansas, the winning streak snapped. Like a plague, battered players left the field. Fenimore, the nation's leading ground-gainer and rushing king for two straight years, went down with the leg injury that had haunted him for four years. J. D. Cheek, Jim Parmer, and Merlin London were hurt.

Colliers magazine devoted its first cover in October to A&M's All-Americans; a lengthy article explored "Those Eager Aggies." It cheered


Poised for the opening moments of a game, these cheerleaders represent the vitality and enthusiasm appreciated by athletes and fans alike.

fans as the Cowboys faced Bobby Layne and the Texas Cotton Bowl champs in Austin in "the game of the week." Instead, it became a disastrous 54-6 Texas runaway after the Poke offensive power had been sidelined with injuries. While returning a Texas kickoff, Fenimore was upended by a driving tackle; his leg was reinjured. Nate Watson and Joe Matthews were also casualties.^

Behind were bouts with two of five bowl teams of the previous New Year's Day. Ahead lay battles with Oil Bowl Champion Georgia and that bowl's loser, Tulsa, as well as Fresno Raisin Bowl Champion Drake. As Athletic Director Henry P. Iba watched Lookabaugh's teams toughening over the years, he had seen to it that their schedules were, too.

Fenimore hobbled in and out of five more games, soaring and charging, but he couldn't stay the route, nor could the 1946 team. Minus backs Fenimore, Joe Thomas, Parmer, London, Billy Joe Aldridge, and Watson, the Pokes bowed to Southern Methodist and Bill Long lost his bid for the nation's punting title. At one time fourteen of A&M's top players were benched by injuries. They were never again up to normal playing strength.

The elusive promise of rose petals faded, replaced by the tape, braces, and pungent salves of the 3-7-1 year. It was Lookabaugh's first losing season in twenty years of coaching. The pain was not eased when the Sooners crushed the Pokes 73-12, the worst trouncing in forty-two years of football at A&M.

Despite the disastrous year, Armstrong was in his prime. In a repeat of his freshman year he again led the country in pass receptions, with thirty-two catches for 479 yards, and was selected All-America by PIC


Magazine and in Williamson's Ratings. Called "Felix the Cat" by his teammates, Armstrong was the No. 1 draft choice of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Top draft choice of the Chicago Bears, Fenimore had gained nearly four miles in rushing, passing, kick and interception returns, and scored 208 points in his years as a Cowboy. He also led the nation in rushing yardage and in all yardage records, including returns, in 1944 and 1945.

If the football team couldn't repeat its back-to-back bowl miracles the third time, fans soon realized A&M's basketball team couldn't be expected to duplicate its own NCAA championships with the graduation of Bob Kurland, Weldon Kern, J. L. Parks, and Sam Aubrey. In settling for an average team with no super players, the fans relaxed, only to tense as Coach Iba's rebuilt team knocked off the star-studded quintets of Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Temple, Arkansas, DePaul, and others, en route to a highly satisfying 24-8 season.

In a power-packed Christmas All-College field, the Cowboys poured past Rice and unbeaten Texas to greet Kansas with a three-point loss for the title. In a Sugar Bowl match-up with Kentucky, who won the National Invitation the previous year, the Aggies snipped Adolph Rupp's Wildcats' 26-game winning streak, 37- 31, with the NCAA winners, accurate shooting, and the Aggie delay game.

Daily Oklahoman writer Hal Middlesworth passed along Birmingham News sportswriter Zip Newman's remark: "I went to the North-South football game at Montgomery and the best lineman on the field was Neill Armstrong. I went to the Sugar Bowl track meet and the best men were Ross Nichols, Forest Efaw and John Teakell. Then I came to this basketball game and doggone if Oklahoma A&M hasn't beaten Kentucky! "3

The "rebuilt" Ibamen downed Texas, which went on to win the Southwest Conference; Kentucky, winners of the Southeast Conference; and Oklahoma, Big Six champs. A. L. Bennett dropped in 328 points for individual scoring honors.* Capping the season was the Iron Duke's being voted the "coach who did the most for basketball in 1947" by the Basketball Coaches Association of America.^

Wrestling fans were disappointed when the Cowboy matmen of Coach Art Griffith topped an 11-0 dual season with only third place in the nation. Griffith's team was primarily made up of freshmen, yet he preserved and extended the chain of unbeaten dual victories to fifty-one, considered the longest surviving streak in major collegiate sports at the time. Freshman heavyweight Richard Hutton took the NCAA crown and Bill Jernigan and Nate Bauer were second, with Paul McDaniel fourth. Through Griffith's careful work, the wrestling dynasty continued with 162 victories and only 5 losses since 1915.

An 11-5 record was posted by Coach Toby Greene's second post-war


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It was a great improvement, with better working conditions, and it packed 'em in. Quite a change from 1905 when a College Paper reporter apologized for a lack of details because he had been drafted to play in the game. Now news and radio men found themselves right at home after scaling the "heights" of A&M's new football press facilities in 1948. An/ <S/W/Wag'az/'ne cartoon emphasized the lofty perch.

baseball squad and Coach Griffith's tennis team, with Buddy McCune the principal singles man, wrapped up a 5-4-1 season.

In his second year at the golf helm, Labron Harris trained his team at Lakeside Course, which opened May 5, 1945, and offered the city's first grass greens. Bo Wininger stroked teammates Loddie Kempa, Billy Maxwell, and Lawrence Glosser to the Missouri Valley title before heading for the NCAA. There Wininger tied for medalist honors. It was the first major accomplishment for a Cowboy golfer. Kempa was two strokes back at 149 in the medalist qualifying rounds and the golfers from Stillwater finished tenth in the nation.

Another sport was on its way to the top at A&M! Thirteen successive track meets faced Coach Ralph Higgins during

the spring of 1947. Inadequate indoor facilities at both OU's Owen Stadium and A&M's Gallagher Hall basement were abandoned. The freshman team swept eleven firsts at the Fort Worth Exposition and the senior division placed third. Two big dual victories were over Oklahoma and Texas A&M. At the latter, 2,000 fans contributed to a relief fund for tornado-devastated Woodward. Higgins' Cowboys continued to be


unbeaten in home duals over a ten-year period and landed their seventh Valley title in a row at Des Moines.

A " d o w n " year for the Cowpokes, with no national trophies? Not exactly. There were winning teams in basketball, wrestling, track, baseball, golf, and tennis. All sports considered, the school piled up 70 victories, lost 27, and tied 3.

When Oklahoma A&M's forty-sixth year of intercollegiate football opened in 1947, work was nearing completion on a greatly enlarged stadium seating 28,000. The south stands were upped to hold 20,000, including press box seating, with sixty-three rows and widened by one-half bay on each end. The seating total included end zone bleachers. Prepared by A&M architect Phil Wilber, the plans indicated the 8,000-capacity north stands would later grow to handle 20,000.

The projected press box seating ninety, with eight radio booths on the second deck and an enclosed spot for photographers on the top deck was in the works. Other improvements scheduled included a refreshment room, first aid room, private entrances to radio booths, permanent wire installations to make game-day hookups available quickly, and good views from all working positions.

As Lookabaugh entered his ninth year at A&M, his coaching staff was broadened to include Jack Baker, backfield coach; Toby Greene, line coach; Adam Esslinger, backfield; Clifton Speegle, line; and Ralph Foster, freshman coach.^ It was a group dedicated to bringing the team back to an acceptable level of playing with no more humbling thrashings. The result was a 3-7 season that saw no further defeats by more than two touchdowns.

Iba's 1948 team was called "The Team Without a Star," but he instilled his iron-fisted defense and the cagers scrapped to a 27-4 year. In fourteen seasons at A&M, Iba's previous teams won 276 and lost 11. With student enrollment exceeding the 9,000 seats in Gallagher Hall, a split season ticket entitling fans to see every other game partially solved the limited capacity of the fieldhouse whose builders wondered if it could ever be filled.^

Having staked a claim in the national limelight, the Cowboys were invited to the Big Six holiday tourney in Kansas City and downed Iowa State and Nebraska before losing to Kansas State, 50-43, in the finals. At Oklahoma City, Bob Harris's jump shot hit with eight seconds left to give A&M its seventh All-College title over unbeaten Texas, 32-31. All-Valley honorees were Bennett, Parks, and Harris; and Bennett was chosen for the East-West game in New York.

With his young team improving rapidly, Griffith took his wrestlers to the top again, as the Cowboys scored fourteen "rol l ing" falls under Olympic rules and scrapped their way to A&M's fifteenth NCAA team trophy at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Pressing them were A&M alumnus


Fendley Collins' Michigan State, Illinois, Iowa Teachers, and Iowa. National champions were Jack St. Clair at 160.5 and, a second-time, Dick Hutton at heavyweight.

At the Sugar Bowl's winter competition, the track team sped to firsts in hurdles with Ross Nichols, Forest Efaw in the steeple, and the mile relay with John Voight, A. J. Fritz, Maurice Fuquay, and Dick Stolpe. Running third at the Fort Worth Exposition and the Laredo Olympics, Coach Higgins' men raced past Wichita, Colorado, and Oklahoma in duals and the sprint medley team—this time with Voight, Harold Tarrant, Hubert Bay, and Fuquay—won gold watches at the Kansas Relays, and took the Valley championship.

Light on pitching. Coach Toby Greene's varsity baseball crew relied on Bill Hutchison, B. L. "Turk" Tomlinson, and Tom Jaquet on the mound for 20 victories in an expanding 26-game season. They beat Nebraska to represent the midwest district in the NCAA playoffs, losing to the Southern California Trojans, who then went on to take the championships.^ At the same time. Buddy McCune led the Coach Griffith's Cowboy tennis team to the Valley title, aided by Richard Barn-hill, John Wylie, and Jack A. Smith.

With schools eager for more competition, the Poke golf varsity stroked its way to an 11-2 year, the top Missouri Valley spot, and fifth place in the National Collegiate under Coach Harris. Wininger collected his second Valley individual trophy, then took the Oklahoma Amateur Championship in a battle against teammate Loddie Kempa. Kempa had gone to the quarter-finals in the NCAA's.

Despite beefed up schedules as coaches sought tougher competition, the school ended the 1948 year with an all-sports record of 79-26-2. In the first post-war Olympic Games, A&M was represented in basketball and wrestling. Cage grads Kurland and Jesse Renick, both with Phillips Petroleum's 66ers, starred as the U.S. won gold medals. Griffith became the first Oklahoma college coach to head an Olympic wrestling effort. He chose another Oklahoman, A&M alumnus and Michigan Coach Cliff Keen, as his assistant.

Eighteen A&M wrestlers had now represented their country in Olympiads. Of the three Cowboys who made the team in 1948, Hutton was injured in his first match, Jernigan lost to the eventual champion from Finland, and Hal Moore to the champion from Turkey.

An unexpected banner year arrived in 1948-49 as the Cowboys climbed out of the football slump and headed for the Delta Bowl, the wrestlers took the national title again, the cagers snared the All-College and were NCAA runners-up, track sported Texas and Kansas Relays team titles and all seven sports shone as Missouri Valley Champions in the 88-18 year.9

Sixty-five gridders were wearing the Black and Orange and half were


returning lettermen. It was a varsity that might have been ranked the finest in the first fifty years at A&M, given the luck that rode with the Pokes of 1944 and 1945.

Instead, the 6-4 season included a wild, four-point loss to OU, a six-point loss to Kansas and a seven-pointer to Texas Christian. Coming off the heart-breakingly close Sooner game, the Cowboys were as cold as the weather as they bowed, 20-0, to William and Mary in the only Delta Bowl game ever played at Memphis, Tennessee.

Iba's patented give-and-go game and lay-ups by Parks, Jack Shelton, Joe Bradley, Vernon Yates, and Bob Harris saw the Cowboy cagers roar to a 23-5 record for 1949. A&M chalked up its fourteenth win in twenty appearances in Madison Square Garden, upending Long Island, 46-38. It seemed a good time to repeat the successful double cage and mat NCAA titles of 1945. Then Eddie Hickey's No. 1 ranked Billikens of St. Louis brought their sixteen-game streak to Gallagher Hall to taunt the master of ball-control with his own style of play. Writers called it " the errorless ball game."^°

It was tense, perfectly played. When Harris, covering St. Louis' Ed Macauley, fouled out early in the second half, Iba sent in Shelton. With the score tied four times in the last half, Norman Pilgrim's free throw tied it again, 25-25, and 9,600 raving fans erupted as a Billiken shot hit after the period ended—and did not count. In overtime Iba's men increased control of the ball as St. Louis picked up four fouls fighting for possession. At the final gun it was A&M, 29-27.

It was never necessary to " teach" the Iron Duke his own game. In the re-match, St. Louis radio broadcaster urged Billiken fans to

bring cowbells to imitate those Cowboy fans often used. But Shelton hit fifteen and it was the Pokes who had something to ring a bell about, 40-37.

Victories in the fifth district playoffs sent A&M to Seattle, hoping for a third NCAA win in five years. However, powerful Kentucky had Alex Groza's twenty-five points for their own 46-36 triumph and the crown.

Parks was named to the East-West game, and Harris was selected as an All-American by the Helms Foundation. ^

The night the cagers were in Seattle, the wrestlers were also scrambling for a national title in Fort Collins, Colorado. Outstanding wrestler Charles Hetrick and Jim Gregson, both of Blackwell High School, were NCAA champs at 128 and 175. Grady Peninger and Melbourne Flesner were runners-up, Don Meeker and Elias George were third. Fans, hoping two-time heavyweight champ Hutton would make it three, were disappointed as he placed second in a referee's decision in the finals.

The annual wrestlers' homecoming was inaugurated February 1, 1949, with an A&M-OU match that did not live up to subsequent closely-


fought Bedlam Series meetings as the Cowboys walked off with it, 28-0. Outstanding athletes across the board in baseball, track, golf, and

tennis made it an unusual year. Track strength began to be evident when A&M snared all the running events during a Colorado Springs dual and seven ended with two Pokes coming in side-by-side; seven dead heats! While hosting the second Relays Preview, A&M scored 92 and Oklahoma 64, followed by Arkansas, Southeastern and Oklahoma Baptist.

But the biggest team victory came at Austin. Higgins' team scooped up the 880 relay, the two-mile relay, the sprint medley, and was second in the mile and four-mile relays, and third in the distance medley in a carnival that also drew Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Rice, Nebraska, Kansas State, and Kansas. Unbeaten in all six duals, the Cowboys garnered more honors at the Kansas and Drake Relays, for their best record yet in the "triple crown" midlands relay circuit.

It was rainy the spring weekend that the school welcomed the Missouri Valley meet for track, tennis, golf, and baseball. One by one, to the 1948-49 Valley football and basketball trophies already on display, the Cowboys added four more. Coach Higgins collected his ninth straight track title, then accepted bids to the big Los Angeles Coliseum Relays and California Relays at Modesto.

In May Dean C. H. McElroy, Athletic Cabinet chief, and Athletic Director Iba had been invited to the Big Seven Conference's spring meeting. There were indications that the group might ask A&M to join them, forming a Big Eight. But hopes were splintered when the vote was reportedly 5-2 opposing the plan. It was time to swallow school pride and to continue efforts to bring about the desired merger.

Yet it rankled. It had been a year in which A&M's powerful varsities had genuinely

overshadowed the Missouri Valley and even the Big Seven in sports across the board, Oklahoman writer Hal Middlesworth wrote. He added, "The Big Seven should consider joining A&M, not A&M joining the Big Seven. "12

Meanwhile, a 20-3 season sent Coach Greene's baseball squad to the NCAA district title and on to meet Texas. With school over, three key Pokes departed for previous commitments. Hurting, the team was eliminated in two games as the Texans went on to beat Wake Forest in the national finals.^^

Paul Hurley and Buddy McCune carried the 1949 net team to an 11-2 year, and Hurley upset defending conference champ McCune for the singles title, then joined him to sweep the doubles.^^ In golf, Wininger earned his third Valley crown by shooting 65 to scoot past fellow Cowboy Kempa, 201 to 203. Fourth was Dick Turner and sixth was Dick Miller. At the NCAA in Ames, Iowa, the Pokes were sixth in team scoring. Medalist was Arnold Palmer of Wake Forest.


«

Surrounded by assistants. Coach E. M. "Jim" Lookabaugh (center) shepherded his alma mater A&M to nineteen straight intercollegiate victories.

In the 48 years since Oklahoma A&M had begun a football program, the sport had blossomed in ways no early educator could have forecast. In addition to revenues providing the largest share of the college's athletic budget, there were now courtesies such as "Cowboy Headquarters," set up in leading hotels and open to A&M fans for games played away from home. Starting Friday night, the Former Students Association staff registered alumni and students, handed over lapel cards, Orange and Black eye-shades, copies of the A.EtM. College Magazine and the Daily O'Collegian, and answered questions until game time Saturday.

Travel, too, was changing dramatically. In the fall of 1949, two DC-4 airliners and an OAMC college airplane carried the football team and athletic personnel to and from several points on the schedule. On the Denver flight, there was even a former Aggie, airline hostess Betty Jeaime Bleakmore, to greet the team.

Another change came in communications. By now, photographer Paul McCrary was shooting movies of all Cowboy games. Fans who tuned in Oklahoma City's WKY-TV the following Monday evening could actually see Saturday's game through the rapidly developing technology of television, if, of course, they knew someone with a TV set. If they didn't, appliance dealers up and down Main Street obligingly placed sets tuned to sports in their store windows. The closer the score, the larger the crowd outside. 1

The eleventh year of coaching for "Genial Jim" Lookabaugh, A&M's eleventh football mentor, began in promising fashion. A two touchdown underdog, the Cowboys battled Texas Christian to a 33-33 draw in the Cotton Bowl, then the second largest double-decked stadium in the


world. Former star Bob Fenimore had a new role, at Cy Casper's side in announcing the 1949 games. Then came a 48-2 romp past Denver.

But Missouri, smarting from two wild, one-point losses to Ohio State and Southern Methodist, shot out of the chute and roped three touchdowns in less than three minutes of action to settle things, 27-7. In turn, the Cowboys went home to trounce Drake University, 28-0, despite the almost single-handed efforts of Johnny Bright, Drake sophomore standout who led the nation with 536 rush-passing yards. He ran twenty-two times for twenty-seven yards but could not get his team moving. Bright was the first Negro to play on Lewis Field in the days when the Oklahoma Legislature held it to be against the law for blacks and whites to attend college together. Despite some apprehension, the game was uneventful. 1

Then at homecoming Kansas struck, 55-14, sweeping up Aggie errors "like a huge vacuum cleaner with eleven intake snouts, converting the bobbles into eight touchdowns," one writer observed.^^ Nevertheless, Cowboy end Alex Loyd broke the national record of thirteen receptions by catching sixteen passes for 178 yards. When the team's general. Jack Hartman, was injured in a loss to Detroit, six scoring opportunities went begging.

The chorus of criticism swelled. Discouraged, Lookabaugh resigned on Monday.

"For the good of A&M college, which I have served as student, alumnus and coach for more than a quarter of a century, I have tendered my resignation and it has been accepted,' ' his statement read. The cabinet and the team were told. Lookabaugh would finish the season, but the door was now open for applicants.

At the 25th reunion of the 1924 varsity on which Lookabaugh had played, there were somber faces. Returning were Coach John F. Maulbetsch and most of the thirty team members. The 13-13 stand-off that day was with old foe Tulsa, where Coach Buddy Brothers' job was also on the line. The Pokes rallied to trample Wichita, 47-20, and Kansas State, 26-14; but Sugar Bowl-bound Oklahoma steamrolled the Cowboys, 41-0.

Despite the 4-4-2 year, A&M led the nation in passing with 1,755 yards. All-Valley honors went to Loyd with forty-seven passes caught, tackle Charles Shaw, center Clayton Davis, and Hartman. In eleven seasons, the gentlmanly Lookabaugh had become a giant in his own right, creating teams that marked the schools's first national impact in the Cotton, Sugar, and Delta Bowls, with a 58-41-6 record.

On November 29, 1949, A&M selected as its twelfth coach Jennings Bryan Whitworth—whose imposing name was offset by his nicknames, "Whi t" ' and "Ears." He was 41, and, after successful stints at Alabama and Louisiana State, had worked for eleven years as an assistant build-


ing defensive units that helped sweep powerful Georgia to the Rose, Sugar, Oil, Gator, and Orange Bowls.^^

Perfect ball control remained the hallmark of Coach Iba's sixteenth edition of Cowboy cage play in 1949-50, but slow, cautious play was no longer mandatory. With the blending of Norman Pilgrim, Don Haskins, Keith Smith, Don Johnson, Gale McArthur, Pete Darcey, Bob Seymour, and 6-6 center Jack Shelton, there was a flair and fire that hastened the game's tempo. Hustle substituted for lack of height as the Pokes downed Arkansas, Loyola of Chicago, and Texas A&M before the annual December trip east.

It was not the 31-38 loss to towering Long Island in Madison Square Garden that bothered Iba about the eastern basketball climate. The coach's midwestern principles were as pristine as his wardrobe. He decided A&M should focus on other arenas and declined further Garden games. Headlines soon screamed of gambling and point-shaving practices that disgraced many of the top college cagers. By comparison, A&M's chagrin as DePaul became the nation's first team to beat the Aggies three times on their home court seemed a mild problem.

The Punchers slipped to an 18-9 over-all year, but were rebuilding fast under Iba and aide Gene Smelser as Shelton scored a total of 280 points and Pilgrim added 234.^^

Despite a thin wrestling bench. Art Griffith continued to nourish fan's expectations. Consecutive win No. 69 at the Cowboys' wrestlers' homecoming defeat of the Sooners surpassed Coach Ed Gallagher's record of sixty-eight straight wins in duals. With the streak at seventy-five, the team hit the Nationals at Cedar Falls, Iowa. Olympian heavyweight Hutton took his third gold, the only one collected. It was the third time in the 19-year history of the NCAA meet that the Pokes did not come out on top, settling uncomfortably in a tie for fourth.

Graduation had cut deeply into Coach Greene's baseball squad, but the club ran up a 15-7 record and finished second in the Valley. McCune and Hurley repeated as conference doubles champs as the tennis team completed an unbeaten dual season. Hurley reached the fourth round of NCAA play at Houston.

It was a spectacular track year. Coach Higgins' relay team of Johnny Voight, Billy Gilchrist, Ralph Taylor, and Dick Stolpe raced to a 3:16.4 record in the New Year's Sugar Bowl classic. After competition in the Chicago Daily News Relays and Laredo Border Olympics, the Pokes darted to top in their own third annual Cowboy Relays. A&M and Yale shared top honors at Birmingham's Southern Relays, then the Pokes snared second at the Kansas Relays. Then came second place on a sleet-coated day at the Drake relays, the Southern Relays at Birmingham, the last of four dual wins, and the tenth Valley title.

At the Modesto, California, Invitational, the Cowboy milers set a new


A&M record in 3:12.7. The 880 team placed second to Stanford and Stolpe took third in the open 100. Considered the greatest track year in school history thus far, the team may have set another record by traveling over 17,000 miles. The AAU tapped Higgins as coach of a U.S. team touring South Africa. Voight earned a berth on that trip.

Golfer Bo Wininger collected his fourth Valley crown and the team shot 37 strokes under Detroit to gain the conference title. Wininger made it to the third round of the 53rd NCAA before turning professional. In 1949-50, OAMC had a 67-23-4 year, standing 15-7 over Big Seven schools and 16-2-3 over Southwest Conference opponents.^^

Endnotes

1. "Finest Aggie Squad Plays Most Difficult Schedule," Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 18, no 1 (October 1946), pp. 8-9.

2. Otis Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs: The Chronological Story of Sports At Oklahoma State University From the Beginning in the 1890s Through the 1960s," p. 376, manuscript. Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma; Kyle Crichton, "Eager Aggies," Collier's, vol. 118, no. 5 (12 October 1946), pp. 18-19, 50, 52.



5. "Nationally Honored," Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 18, no. 7 (April 1947), p. 3.

6. Otis Wile, "The 1947 Football Preview. . . Shows the Aggies Fighting," Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 19, no. 1 (October 1947), pp 16-17.

7. Otis Wile, "That '48 Cage Season Is Here," Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 19, no. 3 (December 1947), p. 16.

8. 1949 Redskin, p. 331.






14. 1950 Redskin, p. 273. 15. "Aggie Headquarters," Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 21, no. 3 (November

1949), p. 7.

16. Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs," p. 424; Philip Reed Rulon, Oklahoma State University—Since 7890 (Stillwater: Oklahoma State University Press, 1975), p. 292.

17. Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs," p. 424. 18. Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs," pp. 427-431.


20. 1950 Redskin, pp. 266-267; 1951 Redskin, pp. 244-245; Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs," pp. 437-439.


22 The Golden Decade Closes 1950-1954

When Coach J. B. Whitworth stepped onto the practice field in the spring of 1950, Oklahoma A. and M. football fortunes had plummeted to the lowest point since pre-war days. Having shaken hands with success, the school was relying on Whitworth's teams to restore its national image.

"I was impressed with the big school and with all that building that was going on," Whitworth said of his first campus visit in 1947. "Struck me as a school with quite a future. You can tell what people are thinking by their building plans. "^ He retained assistant coaches Jack Baker and Toby Greene, adding Howard Johnson as line coach, Joe Brown as backfield coach, and George Bradberry as freshman coach. Alumnus Byron Bird was assistant trainer to J. H. *'Doc" Johnston and assisted with the freshman football squad.

Keeping pace with A&M's growth under Dr. Henry G. Bennett, Lewis Stadium had undergone final work on the north side. It now matched the south in size and offered seating for 36,000.^ Accustomed to the tough, relentless drills of then major Southern schools, Whitworth expected his new players to hustle hard, tackle fiercely and tackle **everything that wears the other color shirts. "^ Most of the previous year's varsity had graduated. The squad dwindled down to what became the famous Thin Thirty. With injuries, it shrank to twenty-six.

At its lowest since 1943 in terms of experience and numbers, the Cowpokes had to face number two in the nation Southern Methodist, the Southwest Conference favorite; Missouri, who many thought might upset No. 1 ranked Oklahoma; Kansas, a Big Seven dark horse; rugged Arkansas; OU, and others.^ Despite pre-season predictions of an 0-11


mark, the spunky team ran up victories against Arkansas, Texas Christian, Wichita, and Kansas State, and salvaged a tie with Drake for a 4-6-1 record.

That knack for winning the close ones sent Coach Henry Iba's cagers roaring to a 29-6 year and a fourth place finish in the NCAA. Narrow escapes kept Gallagher Hall packed in anticipation when Norman Pilgrim, Don Johnson, Gale McArthur, Keith Smith, Gerald Stockton, Ken Hicks, 6-8 Pete Darcey, Glenn Nixon, Kendall Sheets, Bob Pager, and Bob Seymour were on the floor. With sixteen straight wins, the Aggies were picked the No. 1 basketball team in the country by major press associations.^ For the first time in thirteen Decembers, the Cowboys turned west instead of east, taking four from dazzled California teams aware of A&M and its coach for the first time.

The Stillwater team sailed through the All-College during the holidays for the ninth time in fifteen years, despite Seymour's broken ankle. McArthur was named most valuable player and Johnson made all-tournament. Later that week, Darrell Meisenheimer played in the Miami Shrine football game and Bob Cook was in the Blue-Gray Classic at Montgomery. After a riproaring triple-overtime defeat of Drake, the Pokes began sharing the No. 1 in the nation ranking with Bradley and Kentucky.

The gambling scandals Iba had anticipated were breaking open and sending up fireworks in the east now. With their eleventh Valley title sewn up, the Cowboys were preparing for the NCAA western regionals when Pilgrim was ruled ineligible. He had played as a freshman in 1947-48 under Valley rules. Montana State and Washington went down, but three minutes into the finals against Kansas State, Smith's collar bone was broken as he was slammed into courtside seats. Missing three starters now, the Pokes cooled and K-State won.

At the Nationals finals in Minnesota's fieldhouse, A&M met Illinois for third place and lost, 61-46. The chance for a third championship vanished. The Helms Foundation and Look magazine named McArthur All-America. Johnson, Pilgrim, and McArthur were All-Valley.^

Only once in thirty-eight tries had the matmen of Oklahoma beaten Cowboy wrestlers when they made up for the years of frustration twice in the 1950-51 season and also were thwarted the bid for another A&M NCAA crown at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Both dual losses were identical, 19-8. The first splintered the fabulous string of seventy-six consecutive victories. The second marked the first time a Cowpoke wrestling team had ever been defeated in Gallagher Hall. The powerful Sooners prevailed by one point at the Nationals, nudging aside A&M when Mike Fucci was injured in the semifinals. NCAA champs were George Layman at 137 and Grover Rains, 177, with four others in the semis.^


Despite graduation inroads, Higgins had enough tracksters to enter teams in two meets, 1,200 miles apart. The first mile relay team headed for the Chicago Daily News event, while a second mile relay team and thirteen other contestants loped to first place honors in the university division of the Fort Worth Exposition. Back home, the team bowed to fast-rising OU at the Cowboy Relays in Stillwater. Recovering, the Pokes won the annual triangular with Arkansas and Purdue and the eleventh Valley title.

Coach Greene's 1951 baseball team had hitting power, adequate pitching, good fielding, and speed—against non-conference teams. Coordinating skills for an even performance in a tough conference was another matter. In the 9-8 season, they split a four-game series with the Oklahoma Sooners, who went on to capture the NCAA title.

First baseman Joe Buck and third baseman Bob Bartlett were the top batters, with .382 and .380 hitting performances. Buck was picked as catcher on the first official baseball All-America that spring. Boston Red Sox scout and former Aggie Danny Doyle promptly signed the pair.

After wrestling season. Art Griffith put on his tennis cap, studied the tough nine-game net schedule and looked around for players. Those who showed up became the varsity: Dick DeWatteville, Chris Bryan, Don Manneberg, and Jack McMahon. The rebuilt team managed three wins, four losses and two ties, but lacked the skills to retain A&M's Missouri Valley Conference title.

On the other hand, the golfers swept to their fifth Valley championships by an overwhelming 52 strokes over second place Detroit, finishing with an 11-2-1 dual season. But Coach Labron Harris' men dropped to eleventh in the National Collegiate, only the second time they'd finished out of the top six.

A&M teams in all games and duals won 66, lost 29 and tied 4 during 1950-51. Valley titles came in basketball, track, and golf.^

Opening its 50th season of football in 1951, the school held a one-game lead over all opponents. From the beginning when alfalfa fields were turned into playing fields and fans arrived in buggies and wagons, Oklahoma A&M College had survived the early losing seasons and had risen to two major bowl victories.

With more depth than the previous ' T h i n Thirty,' ' Coach Whitworth was able to draw upon freshmen power when the Valley ruled them eligible in a move to ease manpower problems at conference schools. The varsity was shaped around quarterback Bob Steele, who was promptly lost in a dismal opener against Arkansas. Don Babers, the **Tucumcari Babe," took over for Steele and morale climbed again, but another wave of injuries engulfed the Cowboys.

After the third straight loss, the Oklahoman reported Whitworth had declined a Washington State head coaching job. Cheered, the team


downed Wichita, Drake, and Detroit, but were in for a final four drubbings, including one from new Valley member Houston. Ron Bennett, Bill Bredde, and Dean Seaman played well consistently, but the rapid development of freshmen and sophomores was largely blanketed by headlines arising when unbeaten Drake's All-American, the exciting John Bright, was hit hard and suffered a fractured jaw.^

Although the Cowboy staff and players had been commended two years earlier following the Drake game at Lewis Field for fine behavior in a bi-racial situation, news of the black star's injury became a national incident. With President Bennett away from the campus on national assignment. Dr. Oliver S. Willham fell heir to the avalanche of hate mail. The Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference investigated. Willham sought to make amends and regain the school's good name, but Drake withdrew from the conference.

Despite the publicity, Oklahoma A&M continued to move quietly toward desegregating even before the Oklahoma Legislature formally opened the state's all-white schools to all races.^^

In a bitter snowstorm late on December 22, 1951, the lives of President and Mrs. Bennett were lost when an airplane carrying a U.S. State Department delegation and crew of fourteen plunged into a mountain near Teheran. There were no survivors. Memorial services were held in Iran, in Gallagher Hall, and in the Bennetts' former home town of Durant. ^

Dr. Bennett, 65, had for twenty-three years provided stability and strength that enabled the campus to mature into one of the nation's great agricultural centers of learning. In working with Athletic Director Henry Iba, "Big Henry" and "Little Henry" developed a balanced athletic program with team members competing against the best available competition on their way to college diplomas.^^

Only Phog Allen and Adolph Rupp had achieved it. Then, on February 25, 1952, Coach Henry P. Iba joined them as the Cowboys of A&M defeated Bradley University, 54-34, in Gallagher Hall and handed the Iron Duke his 500th intercollegiate triumph. Already a giant in the eyes of Oklahomans, the 47-year-old master court tactician had earned the respect of coaches, sportswriters and fans from one side of the country to the other in his eighteen seasons at Oklahoma A&M.

Not a stellar team, the squad nonetheless was carefully trained and talented. Through the 19-8 season, new faces became old reliables as 6-10 Bob Mattick proved by hitting 29 points against Houston. Not even number one-rated Kansas' AU-American Clyde Lovellette could shake the Iba defense on the Cowboys' home court. Kansas later gained revenge at home, then surged to its first NCAA title. Although tourney and conference titles eluded the team, Johnson was named to the Helms Foundation All-America and All-Valley.


After their second National Collegiate wrestling championship, the Sooners again defeated Coach Griffith's matmen twice during the dual season of 1952. They were fiu-ious scraps, 14-12 and 14-13. In Norman, the only fall scored was by Gene Nicks. Twenty-five hundred came that evening, the largest wrestling crowd at OU since 1934.

At Fort Collins, Colorado, Oklahoma eked out its anticipated title by a single point over Iowa Teachers, later Northern Iowa, 22-21. A point back stood the Cowboys, whose Layman was a two-time champ at 137, while mild heavyweight Nicks took his first gold. Tom Tits worth placed second at 157.^^

Cowboy track men placed in four of the seven events at the New Year's Sugar Bowl Invitational in New Orleans. Grad student John Voight, still eligible for this meet, took the 400 meters. Second was an OU freshman, J. W. Mashburn, who transferred to A&M. Higgins' squad won six firsts but tied for second at Laredo's Border Olympics as Fredrik Eckhoff grabbed the mile; Henri Geller, two-mile; Wayne Kroutil, javelin; Jerald Peery, vault; Billy Heard, 880; and Roscoe Vrooman, high-jump.

At the Aggie Relays Preview, the hosts scored nine firsts, then followed that victory by taking the Arkansas Relays and the school's twelfth conference track title in a row. To bolster confidence, Higgins spent the autumn sending his 440 men running down the No. 1 fairway of nearby Hillcrest golf course. It was slightly downhill and they were able to "shave" a couple of seconds off their best time. Soon they were able to run the faster time on the flat Lewis Field track.^^

With only one starting senior, catcher John Dewhirst, on hand, "rebuilding period" was on Coach Greene's mind as the baseball season opened. The spirited squad took to the field without pausing for much reshaping for a 15-5 year. Bob Bonebrake scored thirty-four runs off twenty-six hits to lead in scoring. First baseman Phil Finnegan led the batting with .443 and Ron Bennett had six doubles, two triples, and five homers, and forty-nine bases. In his ten years with A&M, Greene's teams compiled a 117-47 record, with bigger things ahead.

The defending national champions of North Texas State bumped off the A&M golfers in their opening match of 1952. But that was the last of that sort of thing as they stroked their way to nine dual wins. George Bigham, Bobby Goetz, Joe Walser, and Don Nichols had no problem collecting another Valley championship, with Walser outshooting Goetz, 217-218, for individual medalist honors. Coach Harris' Cowboys were fifth in the nation at the NCAA tourney in June.

C.J. Hixson and Bill Danner were emerging as top men on the A&M net team that turned in an 11-1-2 year for Coach Griffith. Overall, the sports year held 71 victories, 27 defeats, and 2 ties for Poke sports teams. Of the ninety-four lettering, only Dale Roark and Bennett starred in two


sports. Roark played basketball and baseball, and Bennett, football and baseball. The days of three-sport lettermen seemed to be ending.

Although several A&M athletes were U.S. Olympic contenders for the games in Helsinki during the summer of 1952, none made the team. However, alumnus Kurland earned his second gold medal as the U.S. basketball squad defeated the Russians, 36-25.

The year of the narrow margin descended in full force during Whit-worth's third year as head football coach. The freshman eligibility rule was revoked by the Valley and Poke ranks were thinner than most opposing teams. Fans saw less of the previous year's "Cimarron spread" and more of the standard T-formation. Hard luck haunted the Cowboys. There were again only three victories and a severe thumping by Billy Vessels and national power Oklahoma. The rest were losses to Arkansas, Tulsa, and Washington State by two points, to Houston by three, and fifth-ranked Kansas by five. Texas A&M slid past by seven.

When Whitworth was honored as "Sportsman of the Year" by the Oklahoma City Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association, there were intimations that it was because he had withstood more adversity than any other nominee. F. A. Dry was named a second time as one of the nation's eight outstanding college centers, and further talent was evinced when ten were named to the All-Missouri Valley team.^^

The Cowboy cagers were ranked fourth in the nation in the pre-season polls. They had depth. They had talent. They had the man they called Mister Iba. And they became noted for the close, roaring finishes that spelled out a 23-7 season. In the last three seasons, 22 games went into overtime or were decided by the final basket—and the Ibamen won 16 of them.

Basketball crowds were huge as the Pokes gobbled up the All-College Christmas tourney once more and added the Valley title before losing to Kansas in the NCAA regional final. The Jayhawks went on to win the national championship. High-scoring Mattick was named All-America by the Helms Foundation; he and Rogers made All-Valley.^^

Graduation had stripped Griffith's wrestling team of seven seniors and OU, still riding strong, again took a pair of duals. But heavyweight Nicks, defending national champion, was back, supported by Tom Tit-sworth, Joe Lobaugh, Donnie Thompson, Ned Blass, and Don Strevey. There just weren't enough horses to reach higher than fourth at the 1953 NCAA's at Penn State. The host team took the title, Oklahoma was second, Cornell third, and A&M fourth. Blass became a champion at 177, but Nicks was beaten on a referee's decision in the finals. Asked what happened, the gentle giant's answer became a classic: "I j-just got my b-b-butt b-b-beat."^7

One of Coach Greene's best baseball squads that rainy spring was sidelined so often by weather that the southern division of the Missouri


Victory is always worth savoring. During the early 1950s, students often formed blocks-long conga lines that snaked along every path and sidewalk leading from Lewis Field to Old Central's lawn. Along with shouts reliving key plays and celebrating the game's heroes, school songs and hoarse cheers around a bonfire provided a satisfying finale.

Valley race was tied between Houston, Tulsa, and A&M. A coin toss won by Houston determined who would meet Detroit, the northern Valley winner, and thus meet OU's Big Seven Champion Sooners for the NCAA district title. Houston won the toss, then downed both Detroit and OU. The Cowboys, who had disposed of OU in three of four meetings, rued the coin toss that might have meant a chance at the Collegiate World Series. Batting .441, Finnegan again led the Aggie hitters in the 13-4 season, with Bennett right behind at .430.^^

Sture Landqvist's 4:17 mile victory in the New Orleans Sugar Bowl opened the track year. Overall, strength and depth were lacking, but Coach Higgins' Cowboys took the Southwest Recreation meet at Fort Worth, were third at the Laredo Border Olympics and bowed to OU at A&M's Cowboy Relays. They were second in the Birmingham Southern Relays but at the Texas Relays, they ran into famed Kansas distance star Wes Santee, who anchored four winning Jayhawk teams.

At the Kansas Relays, both the mile and two-mile relays won with Billy Heard anchoring both. Scooping the Valley title for the 13th straight


year, Higgins herded his mile relay team to the Los Angeles Coliseum Relays for third. Conversation there stopped as Mashburn, running unattached but planning to attend A&M, streaked the 440 in 46.8.^^

It was a vibrant year for A&M golfers as Earl Moeller stroked his way to the top at the Broadmoor in Colorado, becoming the 56th National Collegiate champion—and the school's first titlist. Teammates Walser, Ray Southerland, and Tom Parnell aided in the fourth place team standing. In addition. Coach Harris was named president of the NCAA Coaches Association. The 9-3 year held an earlier surprise as the Cowboys toppled defending NCAA champion North Texas by a stroke. A&M trailed Wichita by five as Valley play began, but the team rallied to give the Pokes their seventh consecutive conference title.^^

Houston's two-year hold on Valley tennis was broken by Coach Griffith's varsity, Danner, Hixson, Dick DeWatteville, and Jerry Patterson. Following a 10-1-1 dual record, Hixson earned the Missouri Valley singles title, then paired with Danner to win in doubles. Danner made it to the third round of the NCAA's at Syracuse, New York. It was a 62-26-1 year in the all-sports audit, with championships in Missouri Valley play by basketball, track, tennis, and golf teams.^^

In the tenth year of Oklahoma A. and M. 's Golden Decade of sports. Coach J. B. Whitworth was surrounded by the best football manpower of his five-year tenure. That fall of 1953, he had the line and the backs needed for an outstanding year. Scoreless Hardin-Simmons was sent home from the opener after Pawnee Bill Bredde punched in a first quarter score, then took Bobby Green's pass for one in the second, and Earl Lunsford exploded for another in the final quarter.

At Arkansas, 22,000 came to see the annual Cowboy-Razorback fracas. The series was locked at ten each, with one tie. Taking the ball on a cross buck, with blocks from Dale Meinert, John Payne, and "Earthquake Earl" Lunsford, Bredde sprinted 11 yards to score. Quarterback Bob Andrew's conversion proved to be the key to the 7-6 game.

Six fumbles aided Texas Tech's 27-13 mission in Stillwater, but the Cowboys regained their dexterity and dispatched Jack Mitchell's Wichita team, in preparation for traveling to Houston.22 Oklahoman writer Vol-ney Meece reported: "Dorsey Gibson, a long-legged loper from Tulsa, strained 93 yards in the dying minutes to lift Oklahoma A&M's fiercely fighting Cowpokes to a 14-7 triumph over Houston in the Missouri Valley conference showdown scrap here Saturday night.

"The 175 pound senior right halfback stormed through right tackle on a first down and 27 to go situation, pulled loose from a defender at the 15 and raced all the way with end Ken McCullough providing a protective escort the last 30 yards. Gibson's climactic jaunt, completed with only 2:19 left to play, was the longest in the four-year history of mam^-moth Rice stadium and probably was the longest run from scrimmage


of all time by an Aggie back."^^ A determined Detroit skimmed by, 18-14, but the Cowboys were in

top form for Tulsa, Wyoming, and Kansas. With the fired-up Pokes red hot, anything seemed possible and 50,000 showed up in Norman to see for themselves. Bobby Green's points were the only tangible evidence of the Cowboys' efforts, as massive Oklahoma rolled over them, 42-7. Gibson, Bredde, Lunsford, and end Bruce Gilmore were taken from the game with injuries. Still, at 7-3, it was the finest Orange and Black season since the Sugar Bowl year of 1945.

A&M tied with Detroit for the Valley championship and Bob LaRue, Meinert, Bredde, Gibson, and Lunsford made All-Valley. Brede was a star in the East-West Shrine game.^^

The longest winning streak of Coach Henry P. Iba's basketball career unfolded as All-America center Bob Mattick and the Cowboy cagers linked seventeen straight victories after three wins and an early loss. Those familiar championship hopes began to surge. Mack "Snake" Carter and Tom Fuller saw action as forwards; Dale Roark, Tom Maloney, C. J. Hixson, and Frank Bigham as guards; and 6-IOV2 Mattick and Bob Henrick, as centers. V. R. Barnhouse and Fred Babb began to see regular service as the streak settled in. The Pokes rounded up Mississippi, the Chiefs of Oklahoma City, and Santa Clara for the eleventh All-College tournament title in Oklahoma City.

As the pressure mounted, fans anticipated victory No. 18 against Oklahoma in Gallagher Hall. But the on-target Sooners led by Lester Lane slid by the rallying Pokes, 63-60. It was only the 14th game dropped in 184 home games. Shaken, A&M drilled Detroit the next night, but lost to Wichita and to Kansas before hosting the NCAA regional in Gallagher Hall for a 24-5 season. The Pokes had sacked up the Valley conference, eliminated Rice in the regional but lost to a suddenly impressive Bradley after Mattick fouled out. After a so-so year, Bradley spurted on to the NCAA finals before losing to Tom Gola and LaSalle.

For the second time, Mattick was named to the All-America list by Helms and Look magazine, the last of the Ibamen so honored. He and Fuller were All-Valley and also played in the East-West Shrine postseason tilt.25

Hungry for a national title after a four-year drought, the 1954 Cowboys of Art Griffith, the "Silver Fox" of intercollegiate wrestling, began a roaring come-back that would see them NCAA champions in 1954, 1955, and 1956—and an amazing seven times within the next ten years. There would be no more episodes of six straight losses to OU in three years. Instead, in the next twenty meetings of the rivals, there would be only three losses and four hard-fought ties with the Norman team.

National champs Ned Blass and Gene Nicks led the charge to seven dual victories. When the fireworks were over at the NCAA tournament


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Aggie star Bob Mattick towers over OU's Lester Lane during a renewal of the long basketball rivalry.

at Oklahoma that year, Blass at 177 and Nicks at heavyweight had repeated their titles, and Myron Roderick at 137 had gained his first. Taking second were Joe Lobaugh at 123 and Donnie Thompson at 147.

A&M had lassoed the team title by fifteen points. A&M grads coached most of the runnersup, making it almost a family gathering. Rex Peery's Pittsburgh was second; Ray Swartz's Navy tied for third with Iowa; Fendley Collin's Michigan State tied for fourth with OU; and Cliff Keen's Michigan placed fifth in the nation.

The Cowboys were back!^^ Tom Borland, Don Anderson, and Ken Kinnamon pitched the Poke

baseball varsity past the District Six conference play-offs and all the way to a tie with Michigan State for third place in the Collegiate World Series at Omaha. Working 104 innings, Borland struck out 100, walked 59, and had an earned run average of 2.50. With the school's best batting averages of .441 and .443 the previous seasons, long ball hitter Phil Finnegan turned in a .321 for 1954. Coach Toby Greene's teams now carried a 148-62 record over his thirteen years at the helm.^^

With track strength greater in the distance races, A&M snared first place at the Fort Worth Exposition with 39 points to Houston's 38 1/2. At Austin's Texas Relays, the distance medley team of Gene Firth, Bill Heard, Sture Landqvist, and Fredrik Eckhoff won first and Henri Geller took the 3,000 meters; the two-mile relay team was second. Gold medals in the Penn Relays went to the Cowpoke distance medley team and five of six events were swept to take the Cowboy Relays Preview in Stillwater.


In the closest Missouri Valley track meet in forty-four years, A&M nosed Houston, 74 1/2 to 73. In post-season races, the Poke distance medley downed California, but a baton pass out of the lane disqualified the Pokes. In the Coliseum Relays in Los Angeles, all four teams ran the two-mile relay under the existing world record, with the Cowboys fourth in 7:29.2. With them was J. W. Mashburn, now at A&M but waiting a year for eligibility as a transfer student. "He ripped off first in the 440 in 47.3 as the huge crowd in the Coliseum gasped and Coach (Ralph) Higgins dreamed of 1955," A&M sports historian Otis Wile wrote.^^

Houston turned back the Poke tennis squad's efforts to defend their Valley championship. On that scrappy net team were basketballer Hixson, Bill Danner, wrestler Roderick, and Jerry Patterson.

Fighting off Houston by ten strokes, Aggie golfers capped a 9-1 season with another Valley title in 1954. Ben Dickson won the individual medal with 209, Joe Walser was third, and Earl Moeller sixth in standings. The team tied North Texas State for first in the Border Olympics and the Southwest Recreational meet.

Six of Coach Labron Harris' men, Dickson, Walser, Don Nichols, Ab Justice, Buddy Sprague, and 1953 NCAA individual champion Earl Moeller, qualified for medal play at the NCAA tournament at Houston's Brae Burn in June. Although Southern Methodist surprised everyone with a 572 team score, A&M was third with 578, the school's finest finish. In early summer, Dickson defeated Walser to win the 42nd annual Oklahoma Amateur.

The ten-year period of sports excellence known as the Golden Decade came to a close. From 1944-45 through 1953-54, the records for that period have been challenged but not exceeded.

A&M teams won 687 games and duals, lost 224 and tied 20. Cowboy varsities won National Collegiate Athletic Association cham

pionships in basketball in 1945-46, and in wrestling in 1946-48-49-54, six titles in all; NCAA runner-up in wrestling in 1951 and in basketball in 1949.

In 1954, the baseball team was fourth in the NCAA, the basketball team fifth and the golf varsity third in NCAA tournament play.

Football teams soared to Cotton and Sugar Bowl championships in the 1944 and 1945 seasons and played in the 1948 Delta Bowl.

A&M had the Midwest baseball champions in 1948 and 1949 while the track team was scoring heavily in major relay carnivals.

In this unusual era. Cowboy teams in all sports won 35 Missouri Valley Conference team championships of a possible 58.

Against Southwest Conference rivals, A&M won 107, lost 97. Against traditional rival Oklahoma, A&M won 70, lost 60.

Thirty-three All-America honors were awarded Poke athletes. Bob Kurland, basketball, and Dick Hutton, wrestling, were each named three


times. Each sport was a winner in that decade. Football stood 50-46-4, with the others more heavily weighted with victories. Although the All-America listings would continue to climb sharply in the years ahead, the decade ending in 1953-54 remained the most successful overall . . . on Oklahoma A&M's All-America campus.^^

Endnotes

1. Otis Wile, "Meet Coach Whitworth," Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 21, no. 5 (January 1950), p. 14.


3. Wile, "Meet Coach Whitworth," p. 14.

4. "New Regime," OklahomaA. and M. College Magazine, vol. 22, no. 1 (September 1950), p. 9.


6. Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs," pp. 449, 451-452.

7. 1951 Redskin, pp. 242-243.

8. Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs," p. 455; 1952 Redskin, pp. 204-220.

9. Philip Reed Rulon, Oklahoma State University—Since 1890 (Stillwater: Oklahoma State University Press, 1975), p. 292; Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs," p. 458.

10. Rulon, pp. 292-293.

11. Rulon, p. 279.


13. 1952 Redskin, pp. 212-219.



16. "Those High-Riding Cowboys," Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 24, no. 7 (March 1953), pp. 24-25; Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs," p. 478.







23. Oklahoma City Daily Oklahoman, 18 October 1953, p. ID.

24. 1954 Redskin, pp. 200-207.

25. 1954 Redskin, pp. 212-213.

26. 1954 Redskin, pp. 214-215.

27. 1955 Redskin, p. 196.




23 Track's Heritage Preserved

For nearly a half century, two Oklahoma alums-turned coach worked to preserve a track history that stretched back to the stunning territorial triumphs of 1900, 1901, and 1902. Ralph M. Higgins and his successor and former star, Ralph Tate, fielded teams that carried OSU through heavy competition from 1935 to 1984. Each had excelled at track. Each knew the sport—and most others—from the inside out. From economic necessity, each ran a one-man operation. For decades, until the 1970s, there was almost never a full-time assistant. The goal remained the same: gold for the Black and Orange.

Thirty-five track seasons had broken the tape when Higgins became Oklahoma A. & M's first full-time track and field and cross country coach. From 1935 until 1967, Higgins guided the school to its first national acclaim, produced the first NCAA track championship team, and developed twenty-four All-Americans, as well as Olympians and world record-holders.

"We worked hard and went after i t ," Hig often said. Even in 1985, it was easy to picture him in earlier times, eyes narrowed against the sun, studying the far turn, stop watch in hand, and a familiar roar, "Move it u p ! "

For more than forty years, track was his life. He competed in all sports at El Reno High School before entering A&M in 1921. In his collegiate career, Higgins collected six letters in football, basketball, and track. One year he was on championship teams in soccer, football, and basketball.

A track man on the gridiron? "I wasn't very big, you know. I only weighed 145, 150 pounds, so


I went out and played the end," Higgins explained. "I didn't make a letter until I was a junior. I played end until the last year. Johnny Maulbetsch was my coach. He was an All-American from the University of Michigan, and he was quite a guy. Anyhow, he got out there and we was trying to have a hard practice and he said. Take the ball and take it in. '

"Well, they knocked around there and they didn't get any place. I was standing over at the sideline because they had some bigger guys. And he said, 'Who in the blank blank blank around here thinks he can play halfback?'

Higgins, who never passed up any opportunity, volunteered. "They called an off-tackle cut back flare, and I took it up to the end

of the field. Pretty soon he says, 'Well, hell. Give it to Higgins. He thinks he's a halfback.' So I took it down to the other end of the field. And that's how I wound up playing halfback. We tied with Southern Methodist University for the Southwest Conference Championship."

What he didn't say was that in the SMU battle at Dallas, the Mustangs led 13-7 in the final period when Guy Lookabaugh took a Gordon Peery pass and streaked 65 yards to the SMU nine-yard line.

Otis Wile preserved a flamboyant newspaper account: "The ball was snapped to Higgins, the Mustang defense surged in and a hole opened. A black flash with an orange number faded into the aperture and completely disappeared across the goal line. The somber shadow the black-jersied warriors had cast across the SMU horizon by defeating Arkansas the week before had fully materialized." The game ended in a 13-13 tie.

The previous year at Lawrence, the Pokes had faced Kansas without their injured punter.

"Higgins, you'll do the punting," Maulbetsch said. Not that Hig had ever kicked in a game. But, for a desperate A&M,

losing 9-0 that Saturday in 1923, Higgins punted 22 times, a record that still stands at OSU.

Under the coaching of Edward C. Gallagher, A&M's greatest track star of the first forty years, Higgins' track events were the 100, 220, and long jump. He w^on the Southwest Conference 100-yard dash championship as an unheralded sophomore and also held a school record in the long jump. During his senior year, he won the conference title in the quarter-mile.

"We didn't have too big a budget, so I took charge of the team. I had the job of presenting our resignation from the Southwest Conference in 1924. We became a member of the Missouri Valley Conference. My senior year, Mr. Gallagher was so busy with wrestling that Wash Kenny became my coach."

After graduation, he coached at Frederick and at Oklahoma City's Classen High School. At Classen in 1927, his football assistant was a


Stop watch in hand. Coach Ralph Higgins (center) discusses speed with two A&M athletes. Coach Higgins was the first full-time track and field and cross country coach and guided his alma mater to its first NCAA cross country championship.

young fellow named Henry P. Iba. In turn, he assisted Iba during basketball season. In the spring, Iba worked with the baseball squad and Higgins had the track team. Iba's successes led him to a job at Marysville State Teachers College in northwestern Missouri and to the University of Colorado.

"Along about 1935,1 had a call from the office at Classen. They said, 'There is a guy by the name of Hank Iba down here that would like to have lunch with you.' He asked me if I wanted to come to Stillwater to coach track and field. And I said, 'Henry, you know that that's what I've always wanted to do. ' So that's how I got back to my old school."

Higgins found the track program barely moving in 1935-36. With thirteen men, he headed to the Missouri Valley meet and finished last. That didn't happen again. The Cowboys won seventeen straight Valley track titles.

Asked the best overall track man he'd coached, the national track leader always replied that it didn't make any difference.

"Whoever I had doing the best out there at the time was the best I had , " he commented. "I had great ones in every event. I had great pole


vaulters all the time I was coaching. I coached everything. You may not remember, but I coached track and field at Oklahoma A&M with no assistants. The last year I was there, I had a graduate assistant."

Hig was another one who could squeeze the school's pennies during the Depression.

"I remember asking Henry, 'What's my budget?' And he said, 'You don't have one.' Whatever came up, a trip or something, he never turned me down. I traveled on a minimum budget and I took care of the kids and we got where we were going and back.

Not until ten years after Higgins began guiding track here were scholarships known. His early athletes received some aid through the government work program.

While many consider Higgins the first American college track coach to go abroad and recruit, he said that wasn't the case.

"I was in the Missouri Valley Conference. Fred Wills, who was a great runner in Indiana, used to be our track advisor. And he wrote me a letter one day that says, 'Ralph, I've been watching your work and I see you do more with less material than anybody around.' And he said, 'I've got some contacts in Europe and if I can have you come through there, I can help you. ' "

The school's first NCAA title in cross country came in 1954. Running on that superlative team were Fredrik Eckhoff, Sture Landqvist, Henri Geller, Bjorn Bogerud, and Melvin Moseley. Wills' European contacts did indeed help Higgins' program.

Although Higgins had an arsenal of memorable moments as coach, he singled out a 1957 trip to the spring relays.

"We wound up winning eleven relay championships and three major relays, Texas, Kansas, and Drake. At the end of that season, we had five of the best relay times of all the teams in the nation. That's one of the things that always stood out to me . "

Twice he served on the U.S. Olympic staff, at the Melbourne Games in 1956 and again at the Rome Games in 1960. He also coached American squads for the National AAU tours to Europe and South Africa. In 1965, he was instrumental in launching the first NCAA Indoor track championships in Detroit. Oklahoma State blazed to second place in that first NCAA Indoor. Missouri was first, and the Big Eight's track prestige grew.

Although best known for his middle-distance runners, 440 and 880 men, Higgins turned out All-American vaulters, dash men, cross country runners, hurdlers, and steeple chasers. In the record books are names like J. W. Mashburn, James Graham, George Davies, Jim Metcalf, John Perry, Tom Von Ruden, Arnold Droke, Dave Perry, Ken Covert, Orlando Hazley, Eddie Roberts, Bob Fischel, Aubrey Dooley, Ralph Tate, and a host of others.


How would he compare the athletes of his thirty-two years' coaching and those today?

"Basically, there is no difference," he began. "The only thing is they get a lot better coaching in high school. And our coaching program is much more sophisticated than it used to be. I used to think I worked my kids too hard, but I always found out that I didn't work them hard enough. We used to work harder than anybody. That's why we had as much success as we did. 'Cause we worked hard and went after it."^

Higgins' successor for the next sixteen years until he himself retired in 1984 was his former star, Ralph Tate. Tate's debut on the cinder track circling Lewis Field came during the second semester of 1940. He remembers it well.

"We ran everything in Lewis Stadium. We used to run track meets and have five and ten thousand people sitting in the stands, watching. Especially when we ran Oklahoma. It was a big deal back then ."

As a future coach, Tate, although lightweight, was advised to play a year of football in 1942.

"I made the team as a tailback and weighed 155. And they put these big linebacker pads on me to make it look like I was a lot larger," he remembered.

"Al Scanland was the tailback and Earl Rainbolt the blocking back. While they shifted out, Scanland took fullback and made me the tailback and put Earl Rainbolt as the blocking back and Lee Cook as the right halfback. And this was called the 'pony backfield.' All of us were very, very small."

Tate led the Missouri Valley in scoring that season and the Pokes ended a highly successful 6-3-1 season. He was later drafted by the Green Bay Packers.

Like many others, Tate's achievements spanned both sides of World War II. Tate won the Outstanding Runner award at the 1943 Drake Relays before he entered military service. Wounded three times, he returned to A&M and, in April 1945, running with a cast still on a wounded arm, he won the high hurdles in 14 flat in Austin. For more than twenty years the school record stood, lowered at last by All-American Jim Bolding. Tate was also Outstanding Runner at the 1946 Texas Relays.

The 120-yard high hurdles at the Penn Relays of 1946 brought one of Tate's most gratifying wins. It pitted Tate against one of the world's greatest hurdlers, Harrison Dillard. At the time, Dillard owned an unbroken string of more than seventy victories.

"I didn't know who he was, how good he was, or anything else," Tate recalled. "You can be a little cocky sometimes. But I noted that they had a lot of interest in this race. I lined up and when the guy said, 'Get set,' I started running and they shot the gun and I was out in front of Dillard, running like you-know-what. I was ahead of him at five and


I heard somebody hit a hurdle. And I saw a hand and a head. Of course, it happened to be Dillard. He was right next to me. They only had a five-lane track. And I wound up winning the Penn Relays.

"There must have been a hundred photographers down at the end, trying to figure out what happened. They had a lot of ballyhoo. You know Coach Higgins. He goes where angels fear to tread. He figured he was going to put me in there against the number one ."

The match-up was repeated in the finals of the outdoor NCAA in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

"We ran into a real strong head wind and it was my first time running for the national championship. I'd already made the All-America team back as a junior, being in the top three finishers in the high hurdles and the low hurdles and the long jump."

When he hit the tape, Tate felt he 'd won. "At that time, they took photo copies. They had a photo machine

that took a long time, and they held up the decision for the hurdles, I guess two hours and a half. Well, the way it turned out, instead of my winning the hurdles, they gave me third. And until this day, I still think I won it. Coach Higgins thought I'd won i t ."

Standouts in his era were sprinters Jimmy Metcalf and Maurice Fuquay and Bob Fenimore. There were also high jumper Don Boyston, long jumpers W. L. Clapham and Jackie Taylor, hurdlers Ross Nichols, Billy Munn, and A. C. Edwards. Like all student-athletes of the day, they also had campus jobs for up to three hours a day. Room and board, tuition and fees were paid, but the men furnished their own books and other necessities.

"Right after the war, they paid us 25 cents an hour when we worked off-season," Tate mentioned. He worked in a cafeteria and the equipment room, picked up paper and cut grass. Summer work for Mr. Iba paid $1.25 a day. One of his odder jobs was stenciling numbers on the stadium.

' 'I had a blow torch and ten numbers that I'd put in a pot to get them hot. Then I'd stencil them on. We didn't paint then; it was a lot simpler for us to mark them," he said. One way or another, he survived until it was time to run again.

"I had to go to a boarding house (in the summer) and I believe lunch and dinner was a dollar and a quarter. It was all you could eat. During the year we all ate in the cafeteria where the new business school is. They gave us tickets and we'd go to breakfast, lunch and dinner. During the season, they gave us a dessert ticket. If we didn't eat dessert, well, they gave our ticket back. So we'd save our tickets for three or four weeks and then all the guys would get fifteen or twenty desserts and we'd get out there and have a big ball ."

Track felt changes, as did every sport. Synthetic track improved


times. Equipment changed. Popular for decades, dual track meets faded abruptly during the oil embargo and the sharply escalated gasoline prices of the seventies. NCAA All-America scoring expanded, going from three to the present top eight being named. Scholarships covered more college expenses, but the number was cut back. Even the beloved dessert ticket disappeared.

At the peak of Tate's own coaching career, he had twenty-eight scholarships. When competing schools continued to offer a greater number of scholarships in 1975-76, OSU's recruiting problems mounted. By 1984, the NCAA limited schools to fourteen scholarships.

"There are twenty-five events, so it's pretty difficult," Tate added. "We tried to run duals, but found that we were using football, basketball, anyone else who was hot, to try and throw the shot, javelin, and discus. And then we would spread everybody out and it made it very, very difficult for us to run any dual competition. It's still difficult today."

When women began to run in the early seventies, they were coached by the physical education department, Tate said. He could see that the program would increase in scope. And, when the Kaye Barrett Droke Track and Field Center was completed, the men and women shared the complex. The facilities he had needed for fifteen years were available to Tate during his last four years of coaching.

James Butler's victory in the Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon, and his going undefeated in 1980 provided one of the greatest highlights of Tate's career.

As he tells it, "I had never run him in the 200 meters that much, but when I went up there, he had qualified. I said to Butler, 'James, if we don't piecemeal it, I think we can win the 200.' But when we got there, they had him ranked about 16th or 17th in the race. And then when we started out, he won his first time in 20.4 and he really smoked 'em. Then he ran 20.3 and he smoked 'em. Then it came to the finals.

"It was raining and cold and Butler drew lane seven. He was concerned that seven was the wrong place.

"I said, 'Butler, that's the only place to be, ' and I said, 'We'll win from there.' I was always one if I felt like he was gonna win, I kinda felt like he was gonna win. His winning time was into a headwind, 20.41. . . something like that ." Butler had won the NCAA earlier, running 20.07 at Brigham Young University. If not for the United States' boycott of the Moscow Games, Tate said he felt Butler could have won the Olympic Gold.

While Higgins seldom fielded a full team, winning with six or seven wherever he went, Tate said his teams often travelled in two or three cars, with as many as eighteen.

"A lot of times, we've gotten in the car and driven ten hours, gotten out and run a track meet, turned around and gotten in the car and driven


back home. We used to think that wasn't a big deal. I never thought about it until I became a coach, how difficult it really was. That was very trying to go up to, say, the Drake Relays, and drive in there and stay two days, and drive back after it was over, then turn around and go to Texas or Kansas or wherever.

"Every one of the records fell at Oklahoma State in the time I was coaching, with the exception of the two-mile relay. I only tried to break it one time and we ran 7:19:00 and the record was 7:18:30.

"I 've had some outstanding distance teams at Oklahoma State University. At some times, probably the most outstanding in America. We finished in the top five once or twice in the cross country. I just got the books out and started looking at the great ones. I'll tell you, we've got a bunch of 'em. Larry Rose, as a performer for distance. Bolding was the best hurdler, quarter miler, and intermediate hurdler that I coached.

"Dennis Schultz and Earl Harris were a toss-up in the sprints. Dennis was probably the fastest white sprinter in America during his time. Then I had Steve Pettes. Gosh, there were just some great athletes during that time. Mike Manke, Johnny Halberstadt, Peter Kaal, George Stevens. I was blessed back there. I just had exceptional athletes in the seventies when we had no limitations on scholarships."^

Endnotes

1. Pat Quinn interview with Ralph M. Higgins, January 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection, Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma; 1967 Oklahoma State Track and Baseball Press Guide, pp. 2-13.

2. Pat Quinn interview with Ralph Tate, January 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection; 1967 OSU Track and Field Media Guide; 1983 OSU Track and Field Media Guide; 1984 OSU Track and Field Media Guide.


24 Uphill Battles and The Big Eight 1954-1957

With the outstanding defensive power and sharp passing of running quarterback Fred Meyers, inherited from West Point, the 1954 version of A&M football got underway with wins over Wyoming and Bear Bryant's Texas A&M. But two quarters into the first game, Meyers was down on the field with a dislocated elbow. He played only one game before a second injury took him out for the year. A powerful ground attack mounted by full back Earl Lunsford and halfback Joe Favara set the pace for the season as Fred Duval took over much of the quarter-backing. A tie with Texas Tech was followed by defeats by Wichita and homecoming-rival Houston.

Remedying the mid-season slump against victorious Wichita, Houston, and Sammy Baugh's Hardin-Simmons were quarterbacks Tom Pontius, Duval, and Paul Cuba, along with Lunsford, who was on his way to being the Missouri Valley's top ground gainer and scorer. Tulsa, Detroit, and Kansas went down decisively. Oklahoma, arriving at Lewis Field for the 49th Bedlam Series game, was ranked third nationally and refused to do the same. It was the closest A&M-OU game since 1948, as the Pokes held the Sooners to two touchdowns, losing 14-0.^

To commemorate the infamous and icy-watered football game of 1904, surviving members of those early OU and A&M teams exchanged reminiscences of the schools' very first grid encounter during a festive dinner at the Student Union.

Leiand Kendall and Dale Meinert played in the Blue-Gray Game at Montgomery, Alabama, with the latter named outstanding linesman. Bob LaRue, Kendall, Lunsford, and Meinert were All-Missouri Valley, with Meinert on the All-America Academic Team.


On December 11, the Big Seven seemed to be on the verge of inviting A&M to join the Big Seven. Six favorable votes were required; there were only five. Colorado and Iowa State were understood to favor further delay. Hard as that was to accept on the Oklahoma A&M campus, another jolt lay just ahead. After wrapping up his fifth season with 5-4-1, J. B. Whitworth resigned to accept the head coaching job at Alabama, his alma mater. Whitworth closed his career at Oklahoma A&M with 22 victories, 27 losses, and 2 ties.

From the Canadian champion Edmonton Eskimos came Clifton Speegle as Whitworth's successor. An assistant coach there, the 37-year-old Speegle was a native Oklahoman and center for Oklahoma University in 1938-40. He had served for three years on E. M. "J im" Lookabaugh's staff at A&M. His new salary was a reported $10,500. Speegle retained Jack Baker and Toby Greene and added staff members Neill Armstrong, A&M All-American in 1946; Otis Delaporte, Clinton High School coach; Harry Buffington, former A&M player coaching at Austin College at Sherman, Texas; and E. F. Arterburn.^

It was an exciting fall for Coach Higgins' track men as A&M's cross country team won the NCAA championship at East Lansing, Michigan, November 22. Opponents termed the varsity the Scandinavian Athletic Club, with Fredrik Eckhoff and Bjorn Bogerud of Norway, and Sture Lundqvist of Sweden, along with Henri Geller, Ron Appleman, Mel Moseley, and Bill Kerr. It was the first national team title for Cowboy harriers, but another NCAA crown would join it during the school year as four Poke varsities completed undefeated seasons.

The bonus free throw became a new fixture in collegiate basketball play for 1954-55. The team was Coach Henry Iba's fastest, rising at times to impressive heights of play, but sorely in need of consistency and an imposing center to take the graduated Bob Mattick's place. With 6-5 center Carl Shafer were Frank Bigham, V. R. Barnhouse, Fred Babb, C. J. Hixson, Mack Carter, Tom Maloney, Mel Wright and others, but the 12-13 finish proved to be Iba's first losing season in twenty-one years at A&M. Even the customary All-College Championship eluded the team as A&M dropped to last in that holiday tournament.

The wrestling Cowboys were fighting the same uphill battle. With no heavyweight on Griffith's team, 177-pound Jim Mills took

on that responsibility in the opening match at Norman. Hampered by a sprained ankle, defending NCAA champion Myron Roderick lost to Don Hart in the OU dual. It was the 137-pounder's first defeat in five years. Ned Blass, also a national champion, ran into the incredibly strong Dan Hodge and was beaten by him. A&M picked up wins from David Simmons, Bill Smoot, and Fred Davis. Mills' decision over 230-pound Everett Johnson of OU tied the match at 12-12.

The ankle kept Roderick out of the Iowa match, but the Pokes came


Rivals dubbed Ralph Higgins' track varsity the Scandinavian Athletic Club, but jesting stopped when the fleet Cowboys ran away with the NCAA cross country championships in 1954. Teammates were Bjorn Bogerud, Bill Kerr, Ronnie Appleman, Melvin Moseley, Fredrik Eckhoff, Sture Landqvist, Henri Geller, and Bill Cook.

from behind for a 13-13 tie. With six dual victories in hand, Blass was handed the heavyweight role for the Sooner re-match and his win gained an unexpected 14-11 Cowboy triumph. But, with the nationals just ahead, Blass sustained a shoulder injury and was out of the line-up. Still limping, Roderick pulled to 130. And, although duals did not include 115-pound and 191-pound classes, the NCAA did. The manpower shuffling continued, with no one for 191 or heavy slots.

Undaunted, Davey Bowlin went all the way to the finals before losing to Iowa's Terry McCann, a future Olympic gold medal winner. Roderick picked up his second national title and Davis collected one at 167. Doug Blubaugh ranked third. The Cowboys had 40 points, second-place Penn State, 31, in the stunning triumph. They made as game a stand as any athletic team ever made according to Coach Griffith.^

With little strength in field events. Coach Higgins' 19th track team dropped three of five duals. But the relay crowns garnered by his talented runners were breathtaking. On the heels of the distance men's NCAA championship in November, J. W. Mashburn, now an authentic Cowpoke, opened the year at the Sugar Bowl competition in New Orleans by zipping through the 440 in the rain in 48 seconds to win the outstanding performance award over Kansas' great Wes Santee. Spring headlines continued to chronicle the outings of Mashburn, "the Great


-l

, '

4 •X^y A

After a ride on his jubilant wrestlers' shoulders Coach Art Griffith (center) accepts the 1955 NCAA team championship trophy from Henry Stone, chairman of the rules committee for NCAA wrestling. A&M's varsity were (from the left) Harmon Leslie, Bill Smoot, Claude Wright (behind Griffith), Fred Davis, Myron Roderick, Jerome Budzik, Davey Bowlin, and Doug Blubaugh. Roderick and Davis earned individual titles.

White Stallion," and smooth middle distance runner Billy Heard. Supported by the A&M relay combos, the crew made a sweep of Tri

ple Crown relays at Texas, Kansas, and Drake. At the Border Olympics, the Pokes snared seven firsts and the championship as Charles Manwar-ring took the vault, Kim Ellis the long jump, Landqvist the mile. Heard the 880, Mashburn the 440, and Eckhoff the two-mile. The mile relay team of Ward Ashmore, Fred Schermerhorn, Heard, and Mashburn set a Border record of 3:16.5.

The baton was knocked from Schermerhorn's hand in the mile relay at Austin's Texas Relays, but six other firsts claimed the day for A&M. The same team regained headlines at Kansas, winning in the best time in the country that spring, 3:11.6, and the spring medley crew set a Kansas Relays record. As spring rain turned to marble-sized hailstones, Eckhoff hauled in the four-mile relay first and Ellis took the long jump to tie A&M with Texas. Ellis repeated at Drake's Relays and the Cowboys broke Drake's spring medley record, on the four-mile, two-mile, and mile relays. Mashburn was again outstanding trophy winner, with Heard second. Mashburn had run five 440s of 46.7 or under and Heard five 880s under 1:51. Both were on seven of the eleven baton events A&M had won in Triple Crown meets.*

By 90 to 48, the Pokes raced to the Valley championship ahead of Houston for A&M's 15th straight conference crown. On the post-season swing to the Coliseum Relays at Los Angeles, a quadrangular in San


Diego, the Compton Relays, and the NCAAs in Los Angeles, fans became accustomed to Orange and Black victors. At Compton, Mashburn ran the 440 in 46.5, the fastest world time that spring, then anchored the mile relay squad to victory. A&M won the San Diego quadrangular and Mashburn won the NCAA 440 in 46.6. Qualified for the national finals. Heard did not place in the 880 but held all-A grades and was A&M's top athlete scholastically.

There were no hints that an all-victorious baseball season would erupt in the spring of 1955, but Coach Greene's record-breaking varsity ended up 22-0, the Valley's southern division champions. Rains idled A&M and St. Louis, northern division leaders, for three days in Stillwater. A co-championship was announced and the Cowboys' sparkling record earned them a berth in NCAA district play with Big Seven titlist Oklahoma in Texas League Park, Oklahoma City.

The Pokes swept two of three play-off games, headed for Omaha and snared third place in the collegiate nationals. Pitcher Tom Borland, who had had an 11-0 season and hit .326, was named most valuable player in the NCAA tourney. He and outfielder Ronnie Bennett made All-America. Don Booher's .352 topped the Cowboy hitters. In his senior year, Borland worked 177 2/3 innings in ten games, fanning 143, walking 55, giving up 77 hits, and 27 earned runs. Professional scouts descended upon the classy team and signed seven or more players, including Ken Kinnamon, with a 10-1 pitching record.^

An 8-0-2 dual season sent the Aggie golfers to their ninth consecutive Valley title on the Indian Hills course at Tulsa. At 216, Bobby Goetz was individual champion. Another strong run at the national collegiate brought A&M third place. An abbreviated tennis schedule saw the net-men bow to Houston in the conference finals, with C.J. Hixson second in Valley singles. And overall, the all-sports record for the 1954-55 school year surged to 74-26-7.^

There was a strong magic in Oklahoma University's string of nineteen victories that intoxicated the football public as the count continued a climb that would not end until it reached forty-seven straight in 1957. With national championships within grasp, OU had no trouble recruiting. But at A&M, Coach Speegle's eight-year stay began with only starting linemen Choppy Spencer and Buddy Ryan returning. The backfield fared better with Lunsford, Favara, Keith Kashwer, and Tom Pontius of the 1954 varsity.

Fifteen lettermen dotted the sixty-man squad, but the rebuilding year was painful. The Pokes struggled to a 2-8 season as crowds dwindled, but Lunsford and Chester Spencer were All-Valley for their efforts. Lunsford was named All-America by Williamson Rating and had the best rushing total for the West in the East-West Shrine game at San Francisco. A member of A&M's Cotton Bowl team, Jim Spavital, joined the


coaching staff, replacing Arterburn.^ Playing as though they were on pogo sticks from game to game in

the 1956 season, the Ibamen were either sizzling or frazzled, pouring in free throws or missing them. It was an 18-9 season—and those nine games were lost by one, two, three, or four points, plus one by eight and one by ten. Leading the scoring were Mel Wright, V. R. Barnhouse, Jerry Hale, Dale Peier, and Mack Carter. The OCU Chief's 6-10 Hubert Reed sidetracked them to third at the All-College and Houston won the Valley. For the first time in a dozen years. Coach Iba took the team back to the National Invitation Tournament in New York, but missed free throws doused hopes against Duquesne in Madison Square Garden.^

In gaining his third national wrestling championship in 1956, Roderick led the Cowboys to their 19th NCAA team title in twenty-six tournaments and their third straight. Hosted in Stillwater, the two-day tourney drew 17,000 and set an attendance record. Piling up team points were second-place winners Bowlin, Budzik, Harmon Leslie, and Simmons.

At the close of his sixteenth year at A&M, Coach Griffith decided to retire. Eight of his thirteen varsities had brought home NCAA championships trophies while compiling a 78-7-4 record. Because he carried on Ed Gallagher's habit of winning, Griffith was not too popular with the Eastern schools. Unconcerned, he worked to improve the sport and to develop the point scoring system. He served as president of the American Wrestling Coaches Association in 1946, served two terms on the U.S. Olympic Committee, and four terms on the national rules committee.^

Griffith spoke of the sport's evolution in an interview with John Cron-ley, sports editor of the Daily Oklahoman. As Cronley relayed it, "Ed Gallagher switched from power to leverage and a new day dawned in college wrestling. Griffith, coming on in 1940, went to 'floating maneuverability' tactics. Both Gallagher and Griffith wanted the lean plainsman, not the 5x5 lads with the bulging shoulders. Griffith told his men of the buffalo . . . he's all shoulders and he's mighty.

"Two buffalo come together and you can hear the crash on the next reservation. They horn each other until both stand exhausted and wheezing. Finally one backs away, nibbles a wisp of grass and heads for the water hole. The timber wolf, with a fraction of the buffalo's strength, can slay the bull of the herd. I don't want you wrestling like a buffalo.

"Wrestling once was a bullnecked test of strength. That was the horse-power era, comparable to the flying wedge era in football. Modern collegiate wrestling is hard to learn and hard to coach because it requires thinking. Huckety-buck wrestling is just two stout boys testing their muscles after they've worked to get maximum endurance and wind. You can coach that kind of wrestling sitting on a stool, holding the liniment bottle. "^^

Coaching from a stool never figured into Griffith's style. Once when


Dr. Robert Kamm asked the successful coach of twenty-seven individual NCAA wrestling champions to share his thoughts on coaching, the OSU president received a concise note entitled "A Half Dozen ABC's by Art Griffith:"

"I never considered myself to be a coach because I could never yell at a man who was doing his best. I guess I am a guidance counselor and wrestling tactics technician.

"First, I try to get high type young men, help them every way I can, rejoice in their success, or help repair flaws in their performance—young men who have a sincere desire to become a wrestling champion.

"Second—men who will really work to reach their best physical condition, increase strength, quicken their reflexes, and remove any doubt about their endurance.

"Third—men who have decided without reservation to learn the style of wrestling developed by Griffith who never produced a team that did not have a champion (35 years). One team had seven champions.

"Fourth—men who do not cry about missing the swinger's life. "Fifth—men who become poised and become confident of their

prowess without swaggering. "Sixth—men who show appreciation to teammates, university and

fans who made their success possible." The former Olympic coach carried himself with confidence, but his

final notation revealed another hallmark of giants, humility. His closing words were, "Dr. Kamm—if you can use any of this—please use the others first."^^

In January, A&M track men had returned to their popular haunt, the Sugar Bowl. Mashburn's record 47.1 in the 400-meter and his anchor work in the 1,600-meter relay team with Ed Ray Roberts, Jack Hays, and Fred Schermerhorn earned him the outstanding individual award for the second year. In the 110-meter hurdles, Roberts tied the meet record of 14.2.12

During the outdoor season, individual highs were prevalent, but graduation had made inroads. A&M scooted past Texas to take the Border Olympics. The team was second at the Fort Worth Exposition, but gathered steam to smash eleven records at their own A&M Relays Preview. The Cowboys ran away with the Missouri Valley title for the 16th year in a row, although high winds kept Roberts' 13.8 in high hurdles from going down as a record. He did receive the outstanding individual award.

Vaulter Jim Graham cleared 14 at home, 14-7 at the Kansas Relays, 14-8 for a tie with Bob Gutowski of Occidental College at the NCAA at Berkeley, and 14-8 1/2 for third place and a berth on the 1956 Olympic team. Mashburn won the 400-meters to gain his second NCAA championship and qualified for the 1,600-meter relay team which would win


Cowpoke varsity trainer and "master of the tape" is J. H. "Doc" Johnson (above). Along with Byron Bird, they patched up players, out of a medical kit with an often almost mythical budget.

the Olympic gold at Melbourne, Australia. Accompanying them was Coach Higgins, who had been named to the staff of seven coaches and managers.

Shortly before the team sailed, Graham sprained an ankle in training. He withdrew rather than jeopardize U.S. chances in the games. Touched, California students and fans raised a fund to allow Graham to accompany the Olympians as Occidental's Gutowski took his place. For his generous act, the Gustavus T. Kirby award was voted to the A&M man, for "the greatest act of sportsmanship by any American on the USA Olympic team." An appendectomy sidelined wrestler Dick Beattie, but Oklahomans provided his travel funds to Australia where he watched teammate Roderick continue to the fourth round.

Coach Harris' nine golf teams had amassed an 85-14-6 dual record, winning the Valley every year since 1947, but in 1956, Houston took charge of Valley play and went on to win the National Collegiate with 601. North Texas and Purdue tied at 602 and the Cowboys were next with 605. On the varsity were Bobby Goetz, Jack Parnell, Don Sechrest, Ab Justice, and Art Hall.^^

A&M baseballers opened their new ball park north of Bennett Hall by splitting a pair with Missouri in the 11-10 year. In the 1920s the Oklahoma A&M diamond was north of the old gym in an area later paved


for parking. By the 1930s, the Pokes were at home in the city's Couch Park in southeastern Stillwater. Inaugurating the new facility, one of the finest in collegiate baseball, were All-America outfielder Wright, who came out four games late because of post-season NTT basketball play to lead in homeruns and batting, hitting .446; catcher Bill Holderman, who hit .316; and pitcher Jerry Patrick with .314.^*

A reorganization of the Athletic Cabinet was announced by President Oliver S. Willham in May. Retiring were R. B. Thompson and R. O. Whitenton, both with more than twenty years' service; Ed R. Stapley, fourteen years; and Ed Morrison, six years. Retained as chairman after thirty-two years was Dean C. H. McElroy. Continuing were Fred E. Jewett, J. Andrew HoUey, and Lewie Sanderson, as new members Glen Bratcher, Guy Donnell, Lewis H. Moe, and Burl Austin were seated. All were faculty, with the exception of treasurer Sanderson, who was comptroller.

The fall of 1956 began much like any school year, but as it closed Oklahoma A&M would have one foot in the Missouri Valley Conference and the other in the prestigious Big Seven Conference. Reshaped, the latter would be renamed the Big Eight. Thirty-two years of vigorous activity on the playing fields while quiet work and steely patience continued in meeting rooms would be rewarded at last.

The second of Coach Cliff Speegle's football teams was top-heavy with sophomores; only eight lettermen would graduate. With the bulk of the team composed of the previous year's unbeaten freshman squad, experience was essential. Hopes were high for "next year" among fans and players alike as they mutually struggled through the 3-5-2 season.

That year writers and sportscasters had a field day with "three Woods and an Underwood." Despite the hot and cold year, Duane Wood and Jim Wood were named to the Williamson Rating All-America team. Plays involving Everett Wood and Dwaine Underwood further taxed media efforts to identify the unrelated players.^^

Sportswriters had spent the month before the school year started noting and quoting Otis Wile's unusual pre-season brochure, the Aggie Foot-hall Almanac. The cover gained attention by promising to touch on "corn planting hints, lunar cycles, football facts, anecdotes, names of vice-presidents and teams that finished second, principal exports of Gallagher Hall, care of harness, saddles and farm animals, how to make soft soap, how to keep wagon boxes from warping and surrey repair hints, how to figure compound interest on stadium debts and the like. ' ' The format was popular and continued over the next ten years.

Henry Iba's 23rd basketball club was 17-9, pulling off the unexpected and cooling on the expected. Rated eighth in the nation at Christmas, the Punchers had suddenly sizzled on their western road trip, snapping Utah's 33-game home court winning streak, 73-59.


But the night most remembered among fans of an era dominated by Dick Harp's Kansas and the Jayhawk's fabulous seven-foot center Wilt Chamberlain came on February 21, 1957. The National Collegiate Athletic Association championship seemed to be in the Hawks' pocket as A&M fans overcrowded Gallagher Hall. As the excited crowd roared, the score was locked at 44-all, 46-all, 48-all, 50-all, and 52-all. Chamberlain dropped in an astounding 32 points.

The frenzied 9,000 in Gallagher were linked to another 500 glued to closed circuit television three blocks away in the college auditorium.

With 3:49 remaining, it was 54-54. And for the next 3:44, Wilt the Stilt and KU maintained the zone defense. The Cowboys waited and worked, but the opportunity for a shot wasn't there. Then, five seconds before the buzzer, Mel Wright took the ball, dribbled to his right just beyond Chamberlain's long reach. Jumped. Shot. Scored. Onto the court the crowd surged, lifting Wright to willing shoulders.^^

With Griffith's retirement from coaching in 1956 came his endorsement of 22-year-old Myron Roderick. Fresh from the 1956 Olympics and with three individual National Collegiate Athletic Association crowns to his name but no teaching credentials yet, Roderick became the third wrestling coach in A&M's wrestling dynasty. It was not an easy position for a new graduate to assume, nor one ever to be taken lightly.

Nineteen times since 1928, the agricultural and mechanical school had waltzed home with the top wrestling team trophy in the land. All Roderick had to do annually was to win the nationals. It was part of the coach's duties. And take the conference, even though that competition grew to be almost as stiff as the nationals. He might be permitted to drop a dual every few years. "Down" years have to be endured now and then. But never, of course, a loss to the Sooners.

It seems probable none of A&M's coaches in other sports had to hurdle such a brief but hazardous list of "Thou shalt nots" as those etched on every Cowboy wrestling fan's heart.

Ferocious as a competitor, Roderick became a ferocious coach. In the years ahead, he would set the pace for international recruiting in all collegiate sports. That first 1956-57 season brought its problems. Fewer than twenty Oklahoma high schools now fielded wrestling teams. The teachers' colleges had dropped the sport after World War II. A&M and OU together from 1946 through 1957 trained seventeen NCAA champs who had harvested twenty-nine gold medals; only two were not natives. Six team crowns had come home with the Cowboys in that period; three with the Sooners. But until the high schools could be turned around to foster strong programs again, a meager crop of wrestlers meant fewer home-grown champions.^^

In 1957, Rod rebuilt with the skills of NCAA runners-up Harmon Leslie and Doug Blubaugh. There were three dual victories, two draws, and


two losses to Oklahoma. Dan Hodge led OU to that school's fourth NCAA championship at Pittsburgh. A&M was fourth as Blubaugh earned first place, then collected an Amateur Athletic Union crown and outstanding wrestler title the following week.

College baseball was nearly called on account of rain that year, but in between the showers. Coach Toby Greene's club managed a 12-3 record. Merlin Nippert and Mayo Hemperly were named All-Valley as pro scouts hovered around Nippert and Mel Wright. But with nine games rained out, Greene had no chance to determine whether it was a better than usual team.^^

Reed Ferguson and Eddie Roberts were double winners as the track men of A&M wrapped up their 17th straight Missouri Valley Conference title May 11 in Tulsa. No Valley school had ever dominated one sport as had the Pokes track and field under Coach Ralph Higgins. The Cowboys took eight firsts, half the individual events.

Ferguson's victories in the mile and two-mile runs nabbed the most valuable athlete designation. Roberts won the 120-yard high hurdles and the 220-lows. Backing them were J. W. Mashburn, Orlando Hazley, Jerry Looper, Kim Ellis, and Jim Kingsolver. Although Hazley had turned in 9.5 four times and might have broken the Valley record, he ran the 100 in 9.7 despite a rain-soaked track.^^

There were major relay records to burn that year, but A&M was cut off at the pass when the NCAA ruled two-time All-America J. W. Mashburn ineligible. As a freshman at OU, he had run in the Sugar Bowl before transferring to Stillwater. However, the Valley decreed that the Sugar Bowl's December 29 Mid-Winter Festival was during the fall semester and Mashburn thus was eligible for spring competition.^^ Ken Covert stepped into the lineup for Mashburn and, developing rapidly, Hazley ran the 100 in 9.5 at the Kansas Relays.

Battling strong Houston and North Texas, A&M finished third in the contest for the Valley golf title. Bobby Goetz placed third. Jack Parnell fourth. Art Hall tied for tenth. At the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, only Parnell survived first round play as the Aggies ranked twelfth in the NCAA tourney.

Although the season's schedules had been played out, the biggest single event affecting the school came on May 15. Governor Raymond Gary's signature made official the changing of the name of Oklahoma A&M College to Oklahoma State University of Agriculture and Applied Science. For some time alumni and administrators had felt the increasing size and scope of the 67-year-old school merited a name descriptive of its operations, activities, and services. The days of classwork done in partitioned nooks of local churches had long faded. The progressive land-grant giant deserved a title to match its maturing image as a strong, educational power anchored on a beautiful, sprawling campus.^^


Otis Wile, a legend among sportswriters, published in 1956

the first of an unusual pre-season brochure, Aggie Football Alma

nac. Respected and admired, he lovingly recorded in "Oklahoma

State Sports Memoirs" the history of athletics at OSU.

The nicknames of Aggies and Farmers, often turned to epithets by sports rivals, began to soften and fade. Those in the OSU sports program were Cowboys still. But they were now university men, as well.

Then, even before the Board of Regents met June 6 to set the date for the formal changing of the name, a major athletic landmark followed on the heels of the name change.

On June 1, 1957, thirty-two long years after charter member A&M resigned from the Southwest Conference to join the Missouri Valley Conference for closer athletic and academic association with schools of the midlands, it officially became a member of the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Known as the Big Seven, the association was the outgrowth of a union of schools which broke away from the old Missouri Valley Conference in 1927-28.

On December 6, 1924, A&M had joined the Missouri Valley, but the excitement of competing with Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Drake, Grinnell, and Washington of St. Louis was short lived.22 When A&M landed the Missouri Valley football championship over Nebraska in 1926, resentment began to smolder. Six schools broke away to form the Big Six, and, with the addition of Colorado, it became the Big Seven.

The honeymoon was over. The similarity in names led to confusion in the midlands. And A&M was left practically at the altar, with a single Valley football trophy and unfulfilled dreams.

Despite the unfulfilled desire to join the Big Seven, Oklahoma A&M's


After thirty-two years of increasingly impressive athletic credentials, Oklahoma A&M was voted into the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association June 1, 1957. Joining the Big Seven at last was probably a more momentous occasion for the A&M Athletic Cabinet than the official name-change to Oklahoma State University of Agriculture and Applied Science two weeks earlier. Active in bringing about OSU's participation in the new Big Eight were Dean J. Andrew Holley Fred E. Jewett, Glen Batcher, A. C. Lonborg, Reeves Peters, OSU President Oliver S. Willham,' Dean Earl Sneed, Dr. C. H. McElroy, J. Lewie Sanderson, Athletic Director Henry P Iba Dr' Lewis H. Moe, and Guy Donnell.

enrollment and facilities grew vigorously and acquired stature in athletics, as well, earning more Valley championships in the post-war period than all the rest of the league combined.23 A&M groomed teams that won 22 NCAA championships. Only Yale, with 25, and Southern California, with 23, surpassed that figure nationally.

As other schools had come and gone, only A&M remained to provide stability as a Valley member for thirty-two consecutive years. But the opportunity to join a strong, well-rounded league such as the Big Seven was irresistible.

Integration into the new league's schedule would begin November 9, 1957, with Oklahoma State's first conference championships competition in cross country at Ames, Iowa. The cagers would play in the 1958 pre-season basketball tournament and compete for the championship in the 1958-59 season. By 1961 at the latest, the football team would be involved in full conference competition.2*

While there was no incoming revenue in the old Valley, the financial picture would change greatly in the Big Eight. Revenue would come


from shares of post-season bowl game proceeds, the Kansas City basketball tourney, television revenue, and other sources.2^

Forgotten were the reasons and the votes that for years blocked A&M's entry into the new conference. Athletic Director Henry P. Iba immersed himself in scheduling newer, tougher foes for each of his teams in the Big Eight. With a new name and a new conference, Oklahoma State University found its new athletic horizon widespread and welcome.

Endnotes



3. 1955 Redskin, pp. 186-195.

4. Wile, pp. 513-517; 1956 Redskin, pp. 180-181.

5. 1956 Redskin, pp. 182-183.

6. Wile, p. 516; 1956 Redskin, p. 184.

7. Wile, p. 520; 1956 Redskin, pp. 165-171.

8. Wile, p. 523.


10. Wile, pp. 524-525.

11. Robert B. Kamm, They're No. One!: A People-Oriented Approach to Higher Education Administration (Oklahoma City: Western Heritage Books, 1980), pp. 200-201.

12. Wile, p. 526.

13. Wile, p. 530; 1957 Redskin, p. 174.

14. 1957 Redskin, pp. 172-173.

15. 7957 Rec/s/c/n, pp. 155-161; Wile, p. 532.

16. 7957 Rec/s/c/y?, pp. 162-167; Wile, p. 537.

17. Wile, p. 539.

18. Wile, p. 541. 19. "A&M Wins 17th MV Championship," Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 28,

no. 10 (June 1957), pp. 10-11.

20. Wile, p. 541.

21. "Name of Oklahoma A&M Changed to Oklahoma State University," Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 28, no. 10 (June 1957), p. 5.

22. Wile, p. 544. 23. "An 'Athletic Marker' Dated June 1, 1957," Oklahoma State University Magazine, vol. 1,

no. 1 (July 1957), p. 14.

24. Earl Sneed Jr., OU faculty representative, to President Oliver S. Willham, 5 June 1957, Files of the OSU Athletic Department, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

25. "An 'Athletic Marker' Dated June 1, 1957," p. 15.


25 Recruiting Goes Global 1957-1960

When Oklahoma State University met ancient foe Arkansas at Little Rock's Memorial Stadium in the fall of 1957, Coach Cliff Speegle's football players represented two important ' 'firsts." They were the initial athletes to compete under the new school name and as the newest members of the Big Eight. Although OSU would be playing out prior commitments as an independent grid team for the next three seasons, by 1960 all seven conference schools would be on the Cowboys' schedule. Already there were predictions that the Big Eight would become the nation's strongest conference.^

Fans throughout the state were now able to listen to live or delayed Cowboy football and basketball action through a network of thirty-five radio stations. Football play-by-play was provided by Mack Creager from Tulsa for the Sports Broadcasting Company. Game color was added by Bill Piatt, Ponca City.^

Speegle's third Orange and Black team gained more campus support throughout its 6-3-1 season than had been displayed since the bowl-going teams of 1944 and 1945. The week before the 1957 opener with Arkansas, everyone on campus sported a lapel sign urging "Flog the Hogs," but a sodden romp in the rain meant five lost fumbles and Jack Mitchell's Razorbacks did the flogging, 12-0. Sophomores Dick Soergel and Dave Cross took over much of the season's quarterbacking.^ A 13-0 homecoming victory over Texas Tech, the first win over the pesky Texans since 1945, sent 25,000 fans celebrating all the way home.

Kansas still held the upper hand, as did Oklahoma with its new "running spread," which made the most of swift Sooner backs Clendon Thomas and Jakie Sandefer. Football wits called the Big Eight "Okla-


homa and the Seven Dwarfs." Despite the Cowboys' holding the score 0-6 until late in the second quarter, OU broke the game open for the annual 53-6 romp over OSU. Notre Dame had broken the Sooners' 47-game winning streak two weeks before, and the Crimson and Cream was not sitting around moping before a date with Duke in the Orange Bowl.

When the buzzer sounded in Seattle, the Punchers had tripped Washington, 46-39, marking Coach Henry P. Iba's 600th intercollegiate basketball victory. Long one of the nation's outstanding mentors, his overall record, including high school coaching, stood at 670 victories and 187 losses. Eleven times his Cowboys won the Missouri Valley Conference; three times they tied; four times they competed in the National Invitation Tournament at New York.*

In 1944-45 and 1945-46, the Iron Duke had put together back-to-back National Collegiate Athletic Association championships teams. In 1958, he was shaping his sixth NCAA tournament team around playmaker Jerry Adair, 6-8 Arlen Clark, Eddie Sutton, and Jerry Hale. Off to a 16-2 mark, the Cowboys bowed to Wilt Chamberlain-powered Kansas, but won a wild return bout there in overtime. Cincinnati's Oscar Robertson shone in Gallagher Hall, and still the Pokes prevailed, 61-57.

When flu gripped the team, the season dipped to 21-8, still enough for a seventh NCAA bid in fourteen years. In the regional, Kansas State ended title hopes, 69-57. Bob Mattick's scoring record stood as Clark hit 502 points in twenty-nine games, fourth best in school history. The Cowboys topped the nation in free throwing with .791, breaking Southern Methodist's 1954 record of .754. Playing ball-control at its best, OSU's defense was second nationally, as the Pokes allowed an average of 51.9 points per game.^

When crew-cut blond Myron Roderick took a good look at wrestling competitors before his first year of Big Eight coaching, he thought it would be harder to win the Big Eight than the Nationals. And he said so. He got some tolerant grins. After all, he was young, only 23. But Roderick was a realist. For eight years OU had dominated the Big Seven. O-State was tough, but so was Iowa State. They were the best teams in the country. And they were all in the same conference.

It was the first year Oklahoma State had faced a dozen duals, but ahead of the Big Eight, the team was undefeated for the 30th year, although with two ties. Predictably, they were 13-13 with Iowa State and 12-12 with Oklahoma. Roderick was right about the difficult tourney. Iowa State scrambled to the title with 67 points; OSU and OU tied for second with 65 apiece.

Depth in ten weights instead of the eight wrestled in duals would swing the balance in favor of the Cowboys at the Nationals in Laramie. Dick Beattie took the gold at 157 and Duane Murty at 167. Runnersup


When wrestling mentor Art Griffith retired in 1957 after producing eight national championship teams in thirteen years, he was succeeded by his three-time champion, Myron Roderick, age 22. The rich wrestling tradition continued. The aggressive Roderick and his teams would bring home to OSU seven more NCAA team titles and two NAAU crowns in the next thirteen years. His first NCAA champs brought the trophy home from the University of Wyoming in 1958.

were Bob Taylor, Bobby Herald, and Shelby Wilson. Heavyweight Earl Lynn brought in third place points, and Ted Pierce and the first of Roderick's imports, Adnan Kaisy, an Iraqi Olympian, were fourth. The Pokes compiled 67 points, a new NCAA high, to surpass Iowa State by fifteen and bring home Oklahoma State's 20th NCAA wrestling team championship since 1928. It was a pattern other schools would strive to perfect; those in Iowa were particularly adept as the coming years would show.^

Otis Wile wrote that Roderick was the toast of the collegiate wrestling world. His pride in his team was boundless.^ Yale still led in NCAA titles with twenty-five that spring, but OSU and Southern California were tied with twenty-three each. And the youngest wrestling coach to win the NCAA Championship was just getting started.

Trackster Aubrey Dooley found the new fiberglass vaulting pole promising. When Olympian Jim Graham suffered a fractured wrist during an indoor dual at Kansas State, Coach Ralph Higgins, in his first season in the tough new conference, winced. His thinclads were well stocked in sprinters, slim in other events. But Dooley and his pole were ready. He took both the Big Eight indoor and outdoor vaulting champi-


onships, setting a record 14-9 in May. Aided by assistant Al Hamra, the Poke sprint stars sizzled. The 440

and 880 yard relay specialists led by Orlando Hazley were Bob McFarling, Ken Covert, and Vernon Haddox. At the Texas Relays, they paced the 880 in 1:22.9, second fastest time ever recorded and just .2 of a second off the Texas Longhorns' world mark.^ To that were added Kansas and Drake Relays for the triple crown. Hazley's 9.5 won the 100 at the big Austin meet. Aided by the wind, he sped the 100 in 9.3. With the Pokes' third straight dual over OU, the school ended up third in the Big Eight.

The weatherman in charge of collegiate baseball proved as powerful in the Big Eight as he had been in Missouri Valley play. For the second straight year, the Pokes were on the verge of wrapping up a conference championship, only to have a deluge wash out the finale. That sent Missouri on to the Collegiate World Series in Omaha, leaving O-State in second place with a 13-5 year.

The unseasoned club had climbed faster than expected with a good defensive infield of Adair, Jerry Webster, Dale DeHart, and Bob Warner, backing up pitching aces Soergel, Joel Horlen, and Roy Peterson. Soergel, a sophomore, lettered in football, basketball, and baseball, the school's first three-sport man since Cecil Hankins thirteen years earlier. Shortstop whiz Adair opted to sign with the Baltimore Orioles instead of returning for his senior year. He was named second team All-America.^

Ab Justice and Kent Hurlburt led the golf varsity to the Broadmoor Invitational title at Colorado Springs in 1958 with a 26-stroke win over New Mexico. Aiding them were Louis Rada and Jack Ellis. A strong dual year led them to the top of the Big Eight contest, as Justice shot three 71s to take the individual title. At the nationals, Houston had settled in for a third year, but Coach Labron Harris' team gained a notch over previous years' efforts and claimed OSU's first second place.

Under Coach Roderick, the tennis men stroked their way through a lengthened dual season in the Big Eight, emerging 13-1. Mike Poiz-ner grabbed the singles crown in the conference, then teamed with Ron Ramming to snare first in doubles. However, the scoring system then in use credited Colorado with enough secondary wins to tie OSU for the team title.

Oklahoma State's partial introduction to Big Eight competition, with prior football and basketball commitments yet to be met, made it clear the newcomer was well able to keep up in the swift league. There was a first in golf, a tie for first in tennis, seconds in baseball and wrestling, a third in track, and a national wrestling championship to reflect well on the strong Big Eight. A highly successful year, it brought 87 wins in games and duals, 24 defeats, and 5 ties. Only the 88 victories in 1948-49 had topped it.


In celebration, the " O " Club instituted trophy presentations for outstanding athletes at the all-sports honors banquet in May. All-around athlete was Dick Soergel. Faculty member Dr. James Webster began his long service on the Athletic Cabinet, and joining sports publicity director Wile as associate director was Pat Quinn.^^

With Coach Speegle's first freshman class now seasoned seniors, the Cowboy grid team of 1958 rushed through an 8-3 season, only to find a bonus victory awaiting them at the first—and only—Blue Grass Bowl game. Other benefits from membership in the Big Eight were becoming apparent as OSU's opener at Denver was regionally televised. Speegle's staff had grown to include Jack Baker, Harry Buffington, Jim Spavital, Toby Greene, Otis Delaporte, and Neill Armstrong.

The two-point conversion option was in its first year, and quarterback Soergel put it to use against North Texas State in the home opener, passing twenty-nine yards to Bill Dodson for a touchdown, followed by a two-point pass from Soergel to Tony Banfield. The Pokes' first eight-win year since 1945 allowed Speegle to even up the win-loss column at 19-19-4.11

But it was in the four-point loss to unbeaten Air Force and a seven-point bow to Oklahoma that the tough Orange and Black revealed the genuine strength of the team.

At 5-1, OSU was in top form at homecoming, embarking on a scoring rampage against the Falcons that kept 31,000 fans on their feet in Lewis Field. Lagging 29-18 in the fourth. Air Force star Rich Mayo passed for a 29-25 score as the minutes faded away. Then he turned into a passing dynamo, hurling thirteen in seventeen quick plays. Nine seconds to go. Mayo shot the ball to Bob Brickey in the end zone. Two Pokes leaped with Brickley, who came down on his back but kept the ball. It was Air Force 33, OSU 29. Cotton Bowl-bound, Falcon Coach Ben Martin called it "the team's toughest match-up," the day Mayo had to turn Superman in the last desperate minutes.^^

A defensive classic of statewide proportions followed in the fifty-third OU-OSU chapter. Prentice Gautt, Bobby Boyd, and Wahoo McDaniel led the heavily-favored Sooners to Stillwater on their way to the Orange Bowl. Nearly 40,000 squeezed into the stadium and bleachers, the largest crowd ever. But the talented Cowpoke defense held the Sooners scoreless for fifty-five long minutes. During one drive the Big Red was held four times on State's one-yard line. After OU's only score, the Pokes battled on. Soergel's final pass to co-captain Larry Rundle at the Sooners' fifteen came with ten seconds left.^^

Despite temperatures under twelve degrees, the Pokes laced up tennis shoes to cope with the ice-coated turf of the baseball diamond on which the Blue Grass Bowl was played December 13. Only 7,000 ticket-holders braved the frigid day, but ABC-TV's Harry Wismer, aided by OSU's Pat


Quinn, and a color man named Howard Cosell, huddled in an improvised booth atop the Kentucky Exposition Grounds. Duane Wood scored twice against Florida State for a 15-6 victory in the Cowboys' first nationwide telecast. With 130 yards on twenty-six carries, fullback Forrest Campbell was named outstanding player.

In the Blue-Gray game. Wood's 53-yard punt return for a touchdown aided the Blue win, 16-0, at Montgomery, Alabama. The Helms Foundation Football Hall of Fame selected AU-American of 1944-45 Bob Fenimore for induction, the first OSU football star to be named.

A poised Iba cage crew was anticipating its first venture into Big Eight basketball. But when practice began in 1958, a reported $60,000 professional baseball bonus for Adair, the school's second highest basketball scorer, and Moe Iba's injured knee shaved two of the top players from the Cowboy roster. Clark was the only returning starter, and his shooting skills that year would see him hitting 201 of 236 free throws for the top record in the nation. Coach Iba and assistant Sam Aubrey went to work to form a team around Clark. When football ended, Soergel bolstered the green group through its 11-14 debut.

In the Kentucky Invitational, O-State ran into West Virginia, powered by Ail-American Jerry West, and fell, 67-49, but ended up in third. Conference road losses to Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado led the Cowboys home for a spirited televised win over Oklahoma, 57-38. Clark was the constant target of heavy fouling and by the second Texas game he had hit more than 1,000 points. In the second Colorado tilt, he set an NCAA record, hitting 24 free throws out of 24 shots. Clark netted All-Conference honors. 1*

More than 600 fans and former great players traveled from all over the globe to honor Coach and Mrs. Iba at a Student Union banquet denoting his twenty-five years at Oklahoma State.^^

Roderick ramrodded his third Cowboy wrestling squad to a season marred only by a 14-12 upset by Oklahoma during the annual wrestlers' homecoming in Gallagher Hall. Stung, the team swept to its first Big Eight championship, hosted in Stillwater, and its 21st National Collegiate team crown in twenty-nine years. Individual champions were Dick Beattie and Ted Ellis, with Shelby Wilson a runner-up at the Iowa City Tourney. OSU's depth provided 71 points, outpacing Iowa State's 51 for second.

For more than a decade, the university had focused on collegiate competition, but now agreed to hold the 1959 National Amateur Athletic Union tournament. Although OSU had no first place men in free-style, which differed markedly from college-style, Phil Kinyon, just out of the Navy, took second, Kaisy and Ellis third, and Bob Wilson, Beattie, and Ned Blass ranked fourth. With 21 points, OSU won the free-style, surging past the Lansing (Michigan) Athletic Club and the Tulsa A.C., tied


at 17 each. In the Greco tourney, Masaaki Hatta, first of a contingent of Japa

nese wrestlers who added luster to the Cowboy roster, won in his weight. Kaisy, from Iraq, and also familiar with international wrestling, did the same, leading the Pokes to that championship as well. As a special diversion, Shozo Sasahara of Japan and Coach Roderick, who had met at the Melbourne Games on Sasahara's march to Olympic gold and recognition as the world's finest wrestler, met again on the mat in Gallagher Hall. Sasahara later became the leader of amateur wrestling in Japan, a position held in 1959 and for decades by young Hatta's father, Ichiro Hatta.

It was a Big Eight year at the National Collegiate track competition as Kansas took top honors, Oklahoma placed fourth and Oklahoma State fifth, and the rest of the country realized the midlands schools' prowess. Earlier the Cowboys were runners-up to perennial power Kansas in the Big Eight championship as ten conference records were smashed. There were a steady series of successes in the big track carnivals by the relay team of Tom Harlan, Orlando Hazley, Tom Burch, and Ken Covert. Miles Eisenman was gaining recognition as one of the country's better men in races over a mile.

Still, it was a pair of pole vaulters in Orange and Black who captured campus hearts. Graham, working with the steel pole, launched his pursuit of the magic 15-foot height with 14-8 1/2, to win at the 32nd Texas Relays. In the Nebraska dual the following week, he went over at 14-11 1/4. Pulling his track suit on over long underwear at the chilly Kansas Relays, he managed 14-8 1/ 2. But the longed-for barrier dissolved at the Drake Relays as he went up and over. Fifteen feet, one-quarter inch! Exactly a dozen others throughout the world had soared beyond that dividing line. Right behind him was the Pokes' Dooley, tying at 14-6 with OU's J.D. Martin for second.

Vaulting again stood out when O-State hosted a triangular with North Texas State and Arkansas. Using a fiberglass pole borrowed from Arkansas when his broke, Dooley travelled 15-3 3/4, edging Graham's 15-1 3/4. For the first time in the sport's history, teammates had topped fifteen in the same afternoon. Only four had soared higher than Dooley. In a wild and woolly OSU-OU dual, Martin reached 15-3/4 for the first time, but Graham was over at 15-5 and then Dooley followed him. Martin did not. It was the first time three men had surpassed fifteen feet in a dual meet. Sports Illustrated announced.

In the NCAA finals, vaulting began late in the afternoon. There was added drama as shadows gave way to darkness. At 8:40 P.M., with a fire truck's searchlights helping illuminate the area, Graham made his final winning jump of 15-2.^^

A 12-2 dual golf season led O-State to the top of the Big Eight tour-


ney, with Jim Wright, Jack Ellis, George Cram, Kent Hurlburt, and Terry Wilcox shooting 43 strokes under second-place Missouri. They finished second to Houston at both the Southwest and Broadmoor Invitationals. And, once again, Houston dug in its heels and hauled in that school's fourth straight NCAA. The Pokes ended up fifth.^^

Another Big Eight title came to the all-victorious tennis team. The varsity gathered a surprising thirteen in a row under Coach Roderick. Novices at the NCAA in Evanston that year, the Cowboys couldn't make much headway. They had, however, in Roderick's three years, polished a 34-4-1 record. 1

And if that weren't a glossy enough spring, pitchers Horlen, Soergel, and Roy Peterson swept Toby Greene's baseball crew to 17-3 in the Big Eight, then downed Bradley twice to pack for Omaha and the Collegiate World Series. The Pokes got by Western Michigan and Penn State before Arizona handed Soergel his first high school and collegiate pitching loss. In the loser's bracket, the gritty Cowboys battled back as Horlen collected his ninth win of the year. A four-hit shutout by Peterson was his ninth, as well.

That brought back Arizona for the final game. Toby Bensinger started, striking out five in the first three innings, but needing help from Soergel in the fourth. Arizona led 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth, but things changed in the sparkling seventh. Ben Bancroft lined one over the left-field wall. Glove man Grayson Mersch walked, moving up on Soergel's sacrifice. Bruce Andrew tripled to right center and Mersch scored. Second best batter Connie Mcllvoy sent a bunt down the first base line to send Andrew across home plate. It was 5-3. Soergel permitted a single baserunner the last three innings.

The Cowboys of Oklahoma State were national baseball champs at last!

Elated trainer Byron Bird hoisted Greene up in the dugout, accidentally knocking the head of the excited coach into a beam. Using a towel to stem the blood, Greene strode off to accept the NCAA Champions pennant and trophy at the pitcher's mound.

Savoring the longtime goal just reached, and with suspicious moisture in his eyes, the bluff little veteran told the crowd, ' T h e boys have made an old man mighty happy."

Top slugger Jim Dobson hit .455 in the tourney, with .864 percent for the six games, and earned the outstanding player honor. All-tournament honors also went to Andrew, Mcllvoy, and Horlen. Peterson and Horlen, their college careers completed, signed with the pros for larger bonuses than they would have garnered after their junior years. Andrew, Dobson, Horlen, and Bancroft were named All-Big Eight; Bancroft and Horlen made the second All-America.

And for a team that turned out 26 wins and 5 defeats, Toby Greene,


The ultimate honor has often eluded Oklahoma State's talented diamond squads, but in 1959, the Cowboys finally became the NCAA champions at the College World Series in Omaha. Posing for the proud moment are, (front row) Connie Mclvoy, Win Chandler, Dick Soergel, Lew Wade, Ray Bond, Roy Peterson, Jim Mihura, and Don Soergel. Standing are Coach Toby Greene, Bob Andrew, George Scott, Grayson Mersch, Toby Bensinger, Bruce Andrew, Tim Green, Jim Dobson, Ben Bancroft, Joel Horlen, and Tim Smalley. OSU swept the Big Eight with a 17-3 record and a 27-5 year.

that "mighty happy old man," was named National Coach of the Year.^^ From March 28 through May 15, 1959, the track, baseball, tennis,

and golf teams at OSU piled up 35 consecutive dual victories. During this time, none of these four teams was tied or defeated.^^ With an overall record of 88-30, it was a remarkable sports year: Blue Grass Bowl Football Championship; NCAA champions in wrestling and baseball; Big Eight title-owners in wrestling, baseball, tennis, and golf; Big Eight runner-up in track. Coach Greene was not the only one who was happy.

Seventeen Blue Grass Bowl veterans had to be replaced as Coach Speegle plotted football lineups in the fall of 1959. Only Soergel returned from the backfield, but thirteen other lettermen were on tap as rebuilding began. Lending the coach a hand was 1953 star Dorsey Gibson, who replaced assistant Delaporte. Cincinnati leaped on seven Cowboy fumbles in the home opener and never looked back, despite Soergel's hitting nine of thirteen passes for 95 yards.^^

Three-touchdown underdogs at Arkansas, the Cowboys took the field amid tornado alerts and torrents of rain to set a new record for fumbles—a full dozen—with the sodden ball. Despite that, the score was only 13-7 in the Razorbacks' favor. Serious fans nearly filled Memorial Stadium, ignoring the constant deluge, focusing only on the mud-coated teams. Rains were also at work the next week, marooning Stillwater. Buses had a hard time reaching Kansas State. Once in Manhattan, the Cowboys began a six-game winning streak broken only by Kansas and Oklahoma at season's end.


At Norman, OSU gripped a 7-3 lead until the last eleven minutes, when the Sooners raced to two touchdowns to end the final year of independent play before OSU settled into the Big Eight. Don Hitt and Banfield were invited to the Blue-Gray game at Montgomery and the Senior Bowl at Mobile. On the first All-America academic team was Gerald Benn, with Banfield on the second team.

Fall track found Eisenman first in cross country in the Big Eight contest at Lawrence, with OSU sixth. Cowboys took the first seven places in the annual OU dual as OSU raced to a 15-50 win.

When Howard "Moose" Johnson returned to assist Iba, one of his first projects was the creation of the OSU Cattlemen's Club. Ranchers began providing beef for the athletes' dining hall, an innovation other schools did not hesitate to copy. Johnson had been an assistant to former football coach J. B. Whitworth.

The basketball varsity was also in search of experience, but got off to a surprisingly successful start, upended UCLA by making John Woo-den's men play Iba's game, scorched Kansas, drilled OU in their 105th, televised meeting, but collapsed and lost the final seven games. The 10-15 record was aided by blown half-time leads, a rarity for Coach Iba's reign, lack of height and raw talent.^^

In a presentation in Gallagher Hall that winter, OSU basketball All-American in 1939 and 1940 Jesse "Cab" Renick became a member of the Helms Foundation National Hall of Fame. "I thought you had to be dead to make the Hall of Fame," the Indian standout quipped. "I wonder if I feel well ."

Strength wasn't lacking as the wrestling Cowboys pounded their dual opponents 14-0 in 1960. But two national championships do not guarantee a third. A team needs three or four superlative talents to capture the NCAA title. And, despite two OSU defeats of OU that kept the massive crowds hysterical, it became a Sooner year. New Coach Tommy Evans led his team to both the Big Eight and NCAA titles, while the Cowboys ranked second and fifth, respectively. Hatta, Ronnie Clinton, and Bruce Campbell of the Cowboys won Big Eight honors, but the Cowpokes came home without a single national champion. Only in 1932 had that happened.

Lack of depth was not an unfamiliar problem to Coach Higgins. In his 25th year as the Pokes' track coach, he still managed to maneuver the varsity to third in the Big Eight Indoor at Kansas City and a surprising second in the conference outdoor championships. The 880 relay team won first at the Texas Relays, and OSU defeated Nebraska, then lost to Oklahoma in duals. Billy Stone streaked to a 1:49.6 880 win at the Modesto California Relays. At Berkeley in the National Collegiate, Dooley tied for second in the vault and was named to the All-America team.

The NCAA championship excitement of 1959 lingered into 1960, as


Coach Greene greeted Soergel and added Jim Wixson and George Scott to the diamond pitching staff. Behind the hitting of Andrew, Bancroft, Ray Bond and Mersch, the Cowboys collected the Big Eight title. As travel arrangements were made for the trip to the Collegiate World Series, Soergel was struggling with boils on his right knee. Infection set in and the pitching ace was sidelined at home. In Omaha, a hitting slump and loss to Arizona slipped the Cowboys into the losers' bracket; things did not look good.

Greene sent sophomore Wixson to confront North Carolina and, instead of a quick trip home, the Cowboy pitched a no-hitter. It was the second in the championships' history. Winning 7-0, the Pokes next downed Boston College. Unbeaten Minnesota was next. His leg stiff and sore, and not having pitched in a month, Soergel flew into Omaha. State used Bill Burgess, a limping Soergel, and Wixson, backed by a homer by brother Don Soergel, but Minnesota took the game, 3-1, and eventually, the title. The Cowboys tied with Arizona for third in the gallant effort.

Mersch, Dale DeHart, Dobson, and Soergel were All-Big Eight. As he lettered for the ninth time, Dick Soergel, another of Oklahoma State's giants, was named All-American.

Comfortable with their roles in Big Eight play now. Poke golf and tennis varsities charged to their third straight conference titles. Golfer Jim Wright gained his second Big Eight crown at Ames, with Labron Harris Jr., second, Dickie Canon fourth, and James Harris sixth. As Houston took its fifth NCAA at the Broadmoor in Colorado, OSU was only four strokes back, tying with Purdue for second. Wright was named second-team Ail-American.

Not only did O-State sweep all duals, the Cowboys won every match at the Big Eight, as John Agnos took number one singles and the conference individual championship. Ron Anglemeyer won number two, Frank Scarth number three. Bob Shaver number four and Cam Oehsch-lager number five singles. As an added filip, both doubles titles went to OSU.

In that Olympic year, there were strong hopes for the state's top vaulters, OU's Martin, Dooley, and 1956 Olympian Graham. All were topped in the final trials when Marine Don Bragg set a new world record at 15-9 1/4.23 ^i ij^Q school was represented by a pair of Ponca City wrestlers who performed in the shadowy ruins of Rome's famous Coliseum at a higher level than they had in college.

A dozen times NCAA champion Doug Blubaugh battled tough teammate Phil Kinyon, before making the Olympic team. The hard part over, Blubaugh toppled six world class wrestlers by falls, earning the gold medal. Always a sturdy team supporter, Shelby Wilson didn't own a national title, but he scrapped his way to a gold. Former Iowa Univer-


sity star Terry McCann, living in Tulsa, added a third for the proud state. OSU's twin golds recalled a previous era when Oklahoma had also

welcomed home 1932 Olympic gold medalists and A&M standouts Bobby Pearce from Cushing, and Jack VanBebber from Perry.

Endnotes


2. "Radio Network to Cover Football Games," Oklahoma State University Magazine, vol. 1, no. 3 (September 1957), p. 18.

3. 1958 Redskin, p. 147, Oklahoma State University Yearbook.

4. 1958 Redskin, p. 154.

5. Wile, p. 557; 1958 Redskin, pp. 156, 158.

6. Doris Dellinger, Ride 'em. Cowboys! The Story of Wrestling's Dy/iasfy (Stillwater, OK: Frontier Printers, 1977), pp. 81-82.

7. Wile, p. 559. 8. Wile, p. 560; picture and caption, Oklahoma State University Magazine, vol. 1, no. 11 (May

1958), p. 13.

9. Wile, p. 562; 1959 Redskin, p. 183.

10. Wile, p. 565.

11. 1959 Redskin, p. 168.

12. Wile, pp. 568-569.

13. Wile, p. 571.

14. 1959 Redskin, pp. 176, 178; Wile, pp. 574-575.

15. Wile, p. 576.

16. Wile, pp. 578-581.

17. 1960 Redskin, p. 274.

18. 1960 Redskin, p. 276.

19. Wile, pp. 581-585.

20. 1960 Redskin, p. 274.

21. Wile, pp. 587-588.


23. Wile, pp. 599-600, 602.


26 The Newcomers Fare Well 1960-1963

Credentials and schedules all in order, Oklahoma State finally stepped with both feet—and all sports—into the Big Eight Conference for the 1960 football season. It wasn't the best timing. The aerial attack of Dick Soergel was gone, along with the skills of his backfield mates Tony Banfield, David Cross, and Vernon Sewell, but there was less graduation damage in the line. No one doubted it would be a tough grid year for the newest member. An inauspicious 2-5 conference debut and 3-7 season bore it out.^

Still, it was an entry into a heady era when the Big Eight was always a force to reckon with. Powerful Kansas toppled long-dominant Oklahoma. Missouri took the conference crown and trounced Navy in the Orange Bowl. Most major teams would have faced OSU's trials with some trepidation. The Cowboys' strong defense held most opponents to scores considerably below their regular Saturday afternoon output. Tackle Harold Beaty was All-Big Eight, the school's first honoree, and was the outstanding lineman of the Blue-Gray game. Gerald Benn, Beaty, and Jimmy Elliot made the All-Academic team.^

In late fall Kansas' 13-year grip on cross country track faltered when Billy Mills of KU nosed by .04 of a second Pokes John Haraughty, Jack McPhail, and Harold Smith, who took second, third, and fourth, while Ray Graham and Bill Stone at 15th and 16th cinched that first Big Eight title for OSU.3

Uppermost in the minds of cage coaches Henry P. Iba and his assistant, Sam Aubrey, was the need to defy pre-season cellar predictions as the Cowboys moved into the robust Big Eight basketball schedule. Hurting for height, OSU used a balanced scoring attack, conditioning,


and strong defensive play to soar to third place in the conference, with an overall 15-10 year. Even with 6-7 Eddie Bunch, the Pokes were the league's smallest team. But Moe Iba surged back from corrective knee surgery to excite fans with one-handed scoring shots.

Fritz Greer, Eddie Bunch, Cecil Epperly, L. C. Gordon, and Iba carried the team, but there were frequent scorching remarks from the head coach regarding covering on defense. As Kansas State took the Big Eight title, grudging respect for OSU was beginning. Iba hit 63 of 68 free throws for a .926 percentage. Although tops in the nation, with a minimum of 75 attempts required, the record was unofficial.*

The scalding intensity of competition between OSU and OU, even more dramatic on the wrestling mat than in other sports, continued in 1960 as both state schools raced toward Big Eight and NCAA championships. An unblemished dual and quadrangular season carried the Pokes to the conference title.

At the Nationals in Corvallis, Mark McCracken became ill upon arrival, leaving Coach Myron Roderick's Cowboys without a 115-pounder. But the sound support of the team put the championship out of reach after the semi-finals.

*Tt will be like an apple on the ground for OSU in the finals," the Daily Oklahoman's wrestling writer. Bob Dellinger, wired. Phil Kinyon and Bob Johnson won firsts and Oklahoma State had its 22nd NCAA team championship. OU took two weights and Iowa State one, giving the Big Eight half the titles. Students crowded the Stillwater Airport in the rain to cheer the returning champs.^

Vaulting almost stole the varsity track show in 1961 as George Davies' career accelerated. In December alumnus Aubrey Dooley had cleared a Sugar Bowl record-breaking 15-4 3/4 in New Orleans and O-State's 440 team. Ken Govaerts, Terry Covert, Billy Stone, and Charles Strong, won the 1600-meter relay. Davies vaulted 15-4 at Kansas City, inched up to 15-6 to send a new Drake record into the book and barely missed 15-10 there. On his final try at the Big Eight championship in Boulder, he flew over at 15-10 1/4, surpassing all world vaulting marks. The world mark was then 15-9 1/4.

Both Davies and the Pokes surprised the conference as the team finished third in the Big Eight. Other winners were Sam Pegues and Don Blakley, tied for first in high jumps; and Strong in the 220. Davies later tied for first in the NCAA as he, Jim Brewer of the University of Southern California and Dick Gear of San Jose all soared to 15-4. The Cowboy vaulter was also named Ail-American.^

The big day at Boulder continued as OSU tennis and golf squads romped to their fourth straight Big Eight championships. Coach Labron Harris' golfers swept Tulsa's Intercollegiate and had a 9-1-4 dual season, led by Labron Jr., Jim Wright, Dick Canon, Cotton Dunn, and Terry


Wilcox. Defending champion Houston was unseated by Purdue at the NCAAs, and O-State came in fourth. Harris and Wright lost in the first round of match play and Jack Nicklaus won the individual title.^

A quartet of singles victories enabled Coach Roderick's tennis men to come from behind at Boulder and unseat Kansas to repeat the conference title. Sweeping the first four places were John Agnos, Bob Shaver, Ron Anglemeyer, and Will Stansbery to climax the 10-1-1 season. The sole loss in three years to Wichita and ended OSU's forty-three consecutive victories in dual competition.^

Strike-throwing pitcher Jim Wixson won eleven, Larry Ferguson, eight, and Littleton Fowler took seven games as the Cowboy Nine of Coach Toby Greene rode to a 27-3 season. Don Karns, Walt McKenzie, Grayson Mersch, Jim Dobson, and Wixson were behind the Pokes' hitting power as the team downed Missouri to gain the Big Eight title. Once past Iowa Teachers of Cedar Falls in the NCAA playoff, O-State was once more headed for Omaha and the Collegiate World Series.

Scrapping their way through Duke and Syracuse, OSU was upset by the University of Southern California and headed into the losers' bracket. Another defeat of Syracuse and a rain delay rest gave the Cowboys hope as they faced USC in the finals. But the Californians prevailed, 1-0. Fowler was outstanding individual and Wixson was named to the first All-America team.

In winning 86 games or duals, OSU varsities had lost 28, tied 5 for an impressive year. Even more excitement was generated when Oklahoma State became the holder of the 1960-61 Big Eight All-Sports trophy. The award typified the year which had seen State win the NCAA in wrestling, take second in NCAA baseball and fourth in golf, as well as snaring Big Eight titles in cross country, wrestling, golf, baseball, and tennis, with conference third places in basketball, indoor and outdoor track, and sixth in football. Eighteen earned All-Conference titles.^

Five Big Eight titles. . . . The conference bristled a bit at the newcomer's achievements and began beefing up its already-tough programs.

In 1961 the football Cowboys had a king-size dose of capturing statistics totals, but losing games. Frank Parker, ''Fairfax Freighter" Jim Dillard, and Gary Cutsinger were invited to post-season games, but there was no escaping the 4-6 record. There was an injury list. Team confidence faltered as alumni criticisms surfaced. There were **bad break" games and flat defeats.

The head coach's job was hanging by a thread, but as athletic director, Iba was more than aware of the limitations under which Speegle worked. Although it was an alumni dream to launch a football program similar to that at Oklahoma, Iba's reaction matched that of the administration and Athletic Cabinet: such a thrust would unbalance the OSU athletic budget, which was already turning out highly successful teams


To the crowd's delight, the University of Oklahomas Indian mascot and Oklahoma State's Pistol Pete take game day seriously in 1961.

in most sports.'" .„ . ^ ^ A Speegle was given another year. Assistant Neill Armstrong returned

to coaching professional football. Olen Treadway joined the OSU statt and former player Leiand Kendall moved from coaching freshmen to working with the varsity.

A 14-11 basketball season did not make Iba's own coachmg fortunes more palatable. When his son Moe returned from resting a badly bruised thigh, knee surgery was again necessary. Don Linsenmeyer came on as a scorer, dropping in 20 points in an early 81-point rout oyer Tulsa. I was the first time in eight years that OSU was able to break the 80-point mark, but Linsenmeyer's knee was injured and he was lost. Alter ten weeks, the resolute Moe Iba was back in the lineup, helping a late-season rally." , . , , ^ . ,

Keeping his perspective as line-ups shifted, Iba joked at midseason, "We ought to have a get-acquainted banquet and introduce the players to each other." Bunch led OSU to a 68-62 trouncing of third-ranked Kansas State at home, the first win from K-State in fourteen tries. Former Poke Coach Don Haskins hired Moe Iba as his assistant at Texas Western, but a new Iba would be enrolling next fall.'^


NCAA stalwarts Kinyon, Johnson, and Ron Clinton, along with McCracken, the earnest Masaaki Hatta and his smiling countryman Jyo ''Little Joe" Umezawa and wedge-shaped Joe James, spurred the 1962 wrestling team back to the top in the Big Eight and the NCAA. A crucial early dip of the toe into deep water saw the Cowpokes swim past Iowa State, 30-5, and the dual season splashed to 12-0.

Once again, Roderick had everyone in place and the wrestling winning streak was now straight. ^

Big Eight champions crowned were McCracken, 115; Hatta, 123; Doug Wilson, 137; Kinyon, 157; Clinton, 167; and Johnson, 177.

O-State hosted the collegiate tourney, setting records in entries and in attendance. Hatta brought in the first victory at 123. But the sort of tournament-time emergency coaches dread had occurred. Restless the night before the competition, Clinton had gashed his hand deeply while trying to fix a dripping faucet at home.

After each bout, eighteen to twenty stitches had to be replaced by OSU's Dr. Don Cooper. In all, more than a hundred stitches were taken without a painkiller, to insure mobility of the hand during matches. Several thousand hands in the crowded fieldhouse ached in sympathy. A takedown in the final desperate minutes rewarded the game Clinton with the national title at 167. And the crowd in Gallagher Hall exploded.

When things quieted somewhat, Johnson picked up his second NCAA gold. McCracken, Kinyon, and James were runners-up. Doug Wilson was third at 137.

Other colleges and universities were weary of Orange and Black domination for three decades. To combat OSU's attack style, the national rules committee had adopted in 1961 the most radical change in years, awarding two points only for a wrestler's first takedown and a single point thereafter. The aim was to spur mat wrestling and attempts for falls by weakening the takedown as an offensive weapon.^*

Interviewed by Sports Illustrated, Coach Roderick explained, ' T h e takedown is an art, and we are famous for our takedowns. One of the reasons they put in the new rule was to cut us down. It's like the fiberglass pole the kid used to vault 16 feet. Nobody objected until he suddenly got so good with it."^^ And good the Cowboys were. Roderick had fired them to four collegiate championships in his six years at the helm.

"Make the rules," Ed Gallagher had once said. "Then just come and tell us what they are. Rules won't stop champions."^^

Despite solid pitching. Coach Greene did not expect a fourth straight Big Eight baseball title in 1962. Gone were superlative first baseman Mersch, outfielder Dobson, catcher Ray Bond, and second baseman Bruce Andrew, who had led the team in batting the year before. Ail-American Wixson, Fowler and Larry Ferguson were pitching well but


the offensive attack faltered at times and that was all Missouri needed to slip past and take the Big Eight. Shortstop Don Wallace hit over .300 for the third year, his .343 helping OSU to second place.^^

Years later, Coach Higgins would summarize 1961-2, "We came out second so many times it would break your heart. ' ' But there were firsts, as well. At the Sugar Bowl on New Year's, the mile relay team of Gary Krause, Jack Miller, Stone, and Strong, zipped to a 440 dash victory. But the promise of Davies, who had broken the world vaulting record, was lost in January. He left OSU because of illness in the family.

The mile relayers won the Milwaukee Journal's indoor meet, and the sprint medley of Strong, Krause, Darrell Davis, and Stone and the mile team both broke American indoor records in the Kansas State Relays. Preston Holsinger added the vault and Eddie Winn the 600 to help the Pokes to the team trophy at KSU. In Kansas City, Strong captured the 440, broadjump, and anchored the winning mile relay team to a new 3:18 mark.

But it was with the opening of outdoor season that the second places began to descend on the Cowboy tracksters. When the athletes were deciding the Big Eight victors, faculty members were meeting to discuss Colorado's NCAA probation for improper financial aid to athletes. Such wrongdoing was what Athletic Director Iba and O-State officials hoped to avoid by refusing to shift total emphasis to football at OSU. They continued to conduct athletic programs within both the spirit and the letter of NCAA and Big Eight regulations.

Again in 1962, the golfers and tennis team were not shy about carrying home Big Eight trophies. Both had made a habit of it since 1958. Winning the third annual Oklahoma Invitational at Shawnee, and placing second in the All-America at Houston, the golf varsity romped to the Broadmoor Pikes Peak tournament, with Harris starring. At Columbia, small Dickie Canon smashed the conference record with 65-68-67. But at the nationals, the tough Houston Cougars left the Cowboys in second place.

There was considerable excitement in late summer as Harris made a terrific comeback and stroked his way to the national amateur title at Pinehurst, North Carolina. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was among the galleryites the final morning. Coach Harris was not on hand, but father and son talked on the phone before Labron Jr. charged to the title. The first O-State name was now engraved on the "old gold cup," beneath Bobby Jones's and those of other golf immortals.

Then the younger Harris was off to Japan as a member of the winning USA World Amateur Championship team. In Scotland, Charles Coe, Billy Joe Patton, and Harris won the Walker Cup match for the U.S. Then it was on to the Masters' at Atlanta.^^

An 11-1 dual tennis season led Bob Folz, Stansbery, George Folz,


Larry Cooley, and Neil Seidle to the expected repeat Big Eight, but with greater force than had been predicted.^^

The winter and spring sports transported OSU to the school's second Big Eight All-Sports title, nudging Kansas by a single point. Football was the only sport under .500 and O-State now owned seventeen Big Eight team crowns during its brief introduction to the conference. Besides Hatta, Clinton, and Johnson in wrestling, All-Americans were Danny Metcalf in cross country, and Harris in golf.

At year's end, Robert Maddox succeeded James Webster on the Athletic Cabinet. Trainer J. H. "Doc" Johnston retired, but would continue some work. For his lengthy tenure and his help, Johnston was honored at the " O " Club banquet. Harris received the Big Eight medallion for academic leadership and sports achievement with seven semesters of 3.56 grades. Frank Parker was honored in football; Cecil Epperly in basketball; Johnson, wrestling; Wallace, baseball. Strong, track; Canon, golf; and Bob Folz, tennis.

O-State students poured out enthusiasm at pep rallies and football games throughout the autumn of Speegle's anguish in 1962. The head coach of eight seasons was supported by staffers Harry Buffington, Gibson, Jim Spavital, Treadway, Kendall, Jack Baker, and Coach Greene. TCU's All American Sammy Baugh worked with both varsity and the promising freshmen. Through the long, losing weeks, Speegle and his varsity remained spunky and eager.

There was an astonishing win at West Point to torpedo the Cadets' bowl chances. And another opportunity for revenge over OU plummeted against Oklahoma's Orange Bowl team. But homecoming had soothed 30,000 fans with a timely 36-16 rout of recruiting violation-stricken Colorado. Riding in the parade that day was Henry Bellmon, gubernatorial candidate. His campaign was successful and he became OSU's first alumnus to serve as governor of Oklahoma.

Four games won. Six lost. A 36-42-3 record. Speegle was relieved of his duties. The Athletic Cabinet affirmed its belief in Iba and the overall program. On January 11, 1963, Phil Cutchin, 42, assistant head coach under Paul "Bear" Bryant at the University of Alabama, became head football coach at Oklahoma State University.^^

Sophomore cagers Jim King, Larry Hawk, Gene Johnson, and Paul LaBrue buoyed up OSU's basketball team through a 16-9 year, along with senior Ivan Wiley. An appendectomy stopped Johnson briefly, but Don Linsenmeyer's knee was a problem; and Gary Hassman's leg surgery put him out for the season. Nevertheless, Hawk's sparkling 32 points broke the Poke-Sooner series record of 30, set by Bob Kurland.

With a fourth of the schedule left, the Cowboys were tied for the Big Eight lead with Colorado. Colorado faltered and the more experienced Kansas State came on to win the race. Still, hopes revived as fans noticed


a tall freshman center. Bob Swaffar, who might lead the team to big things the next year.

Over the thirty-two years since Coach Iba had begun shaping cage teams, his collegiate varsities had won 669. Of his contemporaries, only Kentucky's Adolph Rupp could compare with that record, with 668 wins in thirty-two years. ^

Mat experts considered Oklahoma the 1963 wrestling title favorite, but Roderick's Raiders were not convinced. Two wins over OU were tucked into the 11-0-1 year and the Cowboy matmen took their third consecutive Big Eight. At the NCAA, the scoring system now awarded points for the first six places instead of four, providing more wrestlers from more schools an opportunity to pile up points. Strong but lacking depth, OSU found itself tied for fourth as OU picked up the national crown.22

That spring Cowboy hurler Ferguson ran his pitching career record to 20-6, the most victories a pitcher had ever turned in for OSU. At Houston, the Pokes' wins sent Coach Greene's record to 300 victories, 109 losses since 1940. Despite John Wilkins hitting .352, the 15-10 season wasn't strong enough to keep Missouri from repeating as conference leader.

It wasn't the O-State track team's year, but it was a Charlie Strong season. For the third straight year, he won the 440 at the Big Eight Indoor in Kansas City, adding the long jump for the second time. The only other Poke champ was Mickey Bailer, who vaulted 14-8 1/4. Once outdoors. Strong took the Pokes to the Arkansas Relays title, anchoring the winning 880 and mile relay teams, and winning the long jump at 24-4 3/4. Hurling the discus to 181-7 earned a new school record for John Anderson; Preston Holsinger was high vaulter at 15-0; and Russ Laverty won the high jump.

To Coach Higgins' credit now as the fiberglass pole was gaining respect were five vaulters who had reached or surpassed the 15-foot level. Both Bailer and Holsinger vaulted 15-3 at the Texas Relays in 1963, but the winning vault was 16-1 that day. The pace was picking up. The Pokes did bring top honors home from Texas in the sprint medley.

In a Tulsa and Oklahoma City triangular in Stillwater, Holsinger vaulted 15-5 for a stadium record. Then the team took fifteen events and piled up its finest score over OU, 88-57. OSU trailed in fifth place in a bitter Big Eight Outdoor competition, but Strong won the 220, the 440, was second by a half-inch in long jump, and anchored the winning mile relay team of Winingham, Winn, and Miller. Anderson won the discus, but it was Strong's 32 points that earned him the Schulte trophy for outstanding performance. 23

Since 1947 Coach Harris had groomed his golfers for the National Collegiate tournament. In the top five almost annually, the Cowboys had been runners-up three times, and held third place twice. Until 1963,


Always contenders, in 1963 Coach Labron Harris' linksmen waltzed off with Oklahoma State's first national collegiate golf title at Wichita Country Club, unhorsing dominant Houston by a single stroke. On the championship team were, front row, Tom Sisolak, Duke Evans, Don Lackey, Joe Campana, Jim Jamieson, and Tom Blomstrom. Back row. Coach Labron Harris, Dave Eichelberger, George Hixon, Jim Hardy, David Browning, and Bob Ellis. Representing OSU at Wichita were Evans, Lackey, Jamieson, Eichelberger, and Hixon.

the magic title had been elusive. In a good, but not surprising year, the Pokes won the Pikes Peak meet at the Broadmoor again and the Big Eight championships for the sixth straight year. But on opening day at Wichita's Country Club for the nationals, George Hixon shot 67, Earle "Duke" Evans followed with 71, Dave Eichelberger 72, Jim Jamieson 73, and OSU led.

Don Lackey, whose 75 hadn't figured in the first day, finished birdie-birdie on the final two holes to unseat seasoned Houston by a single stroke and cinch Oklahoma State's first NCAA championship.

Athletic Cabinet Chairman Dr. Randall J. Jones immediately wired congratulations to Coach Harris and the team for the all-out effort. It was a proud moment for the university and a host of fans.

The triumph capped the long efforts of Harris, whose linksmen became only the second team in eight years to dethrone Houston. It was also the first time a Big Eight team had swept all the way to the crown. And, finally, it was O-State's 28th NCAA championship.

An all-out net effort by the Sooners was blunted as the Cowboy tennis team again took the Big Eight Conference title. Bob Folz repeated his


championship in number one singles. Larry Cooley and Bob McKenna took number three and four singles. George Folz and McKenna took a marathon three-setter that ran to forty-four games before winning number two doubles for the OSU team title.

Four thousand fans had awaited the grid team at the airport following the miracle at West Point, but Speegle had run out of miracles. Basketball was wallowing in an unaccustomed slump that would improve, then deepen incredibly until 1980. Nationwide improvement in wrestling would see O-State's hold lessen after four more NCAA titles. Track would continue to turn out stellar individuals and OSU was just becoming entrenched as the home of champion golfers.

Endnotes



3. Wile, p. 616.

4. 1961 Redskin, pp. 117-119; Wile, pp. 611-614.

5. Wile, pp. 614-616.


7. Wile, p. 619; 1962 Redskin, pp. 190-191.

8. Wile, p. 619; 1962 Redskin, p. 193.

9. Wile, pp. 619-622.

10. John Paul Bischoff, Mr. Iba: Basketball's Aggie Iron Duke (Oklahoma City: Western Heritage Books, 1980), pp. 206-207.

11. Wile, pp. 629-630; 1962 Redskin, p. 177.

12. Wile, p. 632.



15. Dellinger, p. 88.


17. Wile, pp. 635-636.

18. Wile, p. 638.

19. Wile, add p. 639; 1963 Redskin, pp. 286-287.

20. Wile, p. 641; "Speegle Relieved of Coaching Job," Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 4, no. 1 (January 1963), p. 10; "Phil Cutchin Named Head Football Coach," Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 4, no. 2 (February 1963), p. 6; 1963 Redskin, pp. 264-270.

21. Wile, p. 651; 1963 Redskin, pp. 271-275.

22. Dellinger, pp. 88-89.

23. Wile, pp. 653-654, 656-657.


^ / The Golf Dynasty Soars

Cowboy coach Labron Harris Sr. once agonized over a paper-thin budget that would enable his golfers to attend four tournaments, maybe even the NCAA finals. Whittle as he would, travel, lodging, and hamburgers for five would add up to at least $382. Could Oklahoma A&M, in the throes of rapid expansion after World War II, afford it?

He talked it over briefly with Athletic Director Henry P. Iba, soon to become the first basketball coach to win back-to-back NCAA titles. There were young giants on campus in other sports. Jim Lookabaugh's grid team had pulled off successive Cotton and Sugar Bowl wins. Art Griffith's team had stormed its way to the first wrestling championship after that NCAA tourney was resumed.

Back from the service were golfers Bo Wininger and Loddie Kempa. With another pair he 'd found among the students on campus, Harris felt he 'd have a pretty darned good team. His sights, too, were on a NCAA championship, despite having no scholarships, no travel funds, no budget, and a sand greens public course for practice.

"I know this seems like a lot, but I think it'll be worth i t ," Harris is said to have assured Iba as he handed over his notes. The total didn't even approach that of a single athletic grant for books, tuition, room and board at $800 a year.

After a few moments, Iba turned him down. Instead of travel money, the director offered the coach four full golf scholarships, the first ever to be covered by the athletic budget.

As the story goes, Iba added, "You go out and get the best players available and let's give 'em heck next year."

Harris did.


Annually spreading three or four scholarships piecemeal between six athletes, he transformed good state players into a strong, competitive varsity.

Bo Wininger, Lawrence Glosser, Loddie Kemper, and Billy Maxwell won the Missouri Valley Conference by 103 strokes in 1947. It was the first of nine consecutive Valley titles. Six times the school would be represented in the top five at the NCAA tournament. The amazing string continued even after the college became a university and joined the powerful state schools that make up the Big Eight Conference.

Harris, with Iba's blessing, had launched a program whose annual successes complimented those of OSU's tradition-rich wrestling history.^

While the Arkansas native was attending Southwestern State at Weatherford, a tennis tournament led to his introduction to the sport in which he would win 152 tournaments of his own, then guide Oklahoma A&M and then Oklahoma State for twenty-seven exciting years.

As the new net champ, Harris was invited to try a round of golf at the Weatherford Country Club, a sand greens course. Borrowing a set of clubs, he teed up on cowchips and shot 63 for nine holes—not counting whiffs—because he didn't yet know how the scoring went. Golf became his sport; tennis didn't make the cut.

While teaching and taking classes at Southwestern, Harris continued to play under the eligibility rules of the time. He taught at a one-room country school north of Hydro, and in Custer and Blaine Counties. As principal at Cheyenne, he helped build a small golf course. Playing on Oklahoma City's Lincoln Park's grass greens, he won the Oklahoma Collegiate Conference title in 1933 and 1934 for Southwestern. The greens fee at Lincoln was 50 cents. Not a bad charge, Harris always said, but hard to come by in the Depression years.

While teaching in Guthrie, he completed his master's degree at Oklahoma A&M, then joined the faculty in the School of Business. He continued to win up to a dozen invitational golf tournaments annually in Oklahoma and beyond.^

"Of course, I had always dreamed of being a college coach," he recalled later. "Dean Raymond D. Thomas and Mr. Iba called me and asked if I would like the job, and I said, 'Nothing better!' "^

Stillwater golfers had been playing since the mid-twenties at the seven-hole fair grounds course in present Couch Park, then at the nine-hole Hillcrest, one of two sand greens courses north of the campus designed by F. L. Schatz.*

Avid linksmen persuaded Harris to plan an 18-hole grass greens course. Lakeside was located on city-owned land just north of Boomer Lake. Although a public course, it became the home of the Cowboy golfers.

"I never had a team with full scholarships until the last part of the


last year [1973] I was there," Harris said, "I gave the boys a lot for what we had to spend. Sometimes I fed them on about $2.50 a day. They sure loved to nail me with stories about money. But they knew we didn' t have an adequate amount of money to operate like we wanted. We didn't have that kind of program."

A familiar penny-pinching Harris story actually happened in Knoxville.

"I got the team in the car and drove to a movie as a way of spending the evening before a match," Harris related. "We saw the parking lot attendant leaving so I drove around the block, then came back and parked. When we returned to the car there was a note reading, *If you want your hub caps you can pick them up at the following address by paying the 50-cent parking fee. '"

Top players of the many Harris was noted for included Wininger, Lawrence Glosser, George Hixon, Grier Jones, Labron Harris Jr., and Bob Dickson. But, as a hard worker, England's James Hopper headed the list. Hopper stories are legendary among campus golfers. He's the one who wore out his five-iron one summer. Wore the grip down to the steel, wore the grooves off the face, wore the number right off the bottom.

"Hopper worked on his game about thirteen, fourteen hours a day. We were out there working on a Saturday morning. It was snowing a little bit. We didn't have much business. You could clear off a place and hit balls. Finally, he called me out. It was about fifteen minutes 'til dark. He wanted me to watch him a little, so I did. He said, 'Coach, if I just had about thirty more minutes, I think I'd get it.'

"We'd go down there in the winter and build a fire. Of course, it was too cold for anybody to be out there but some of the real dedicated players. We'd hit balls and warm up, hit balls and warm up. It was a great situation. Great cooperation. "^

His finest moments in golf? "Any time a boy does something that I know is going to be a life

time memory for him, it makes me very happy," he used to say. His turn to savor one came when Labron Jr. won the 1961 U.S. Amateur at Pinehurst.

"I was very happy when Bobby Dickson won both the British and American Amateur Championships in a single year. I had an open phone line and was hanging on every hole. At OSU, I tried to make my own sons [Labron and James] earn it a little tougher, if anything, than the other boys on the squad. And I was very proud when Earl Moeller and Jones won the national collegiate."^

Living in Sun City, Arizona, Harris, 71, returns to Stillwater for golf schools and lessons. In Arizona, he continues to work with Oklahomans who seek his advice. Collegians such as OSU's Yoshiko Ito and pros have stopped by for pointers. Slowed by arthritis and hay fever, Harris


Past and present golf coaches Labron Harris Sr. and Mike Holder view many of the trophies that the golf teams have won over the past forty years.

holds his golf to five days a week, playing 18 holes from a cart. At 65 he was shooting his age and continued to do so until he was 72 or 73.^

When Harris retired in 1973, his former player, Mike Holder, proved to be the school's second golf giant. Also a gifted coach, he continued the Cowboys' dominance, winning four NCAA golf titles in eight years, adding thirty-five All-Americans to Harris' twenty-seven, and three Fred Haskins Award winners. Under Holder, OSU had played 136 tournaments spanning the continent and won 75 of them. A scholarship fund has attracted dozens of top junior players who earn acclaim for OSU.

Finances, scholarships, travel, tournaments, and recruiting all represent major differences between the Harris and Holder eras.

The type of play differs as well. In Holder's day as a player, the team participated in four or five tournaments before the NCAA, but mostly played matches in Oklahoma.

* 'Now we go to as many as 13-14 tournaments a year,'' Holder pointed


out. In the spring of 1985, the only tourney played within the state was the Big Eight in Oklahoma City."

Is there a difference in the overall collegiate golfer in the 1980s compared with those in the 1960s?

Holder thinks there is. "You have about the same numbers of great players. They are just

few and far between. But you have an abundance of players. The overall quality of college golf is just phenomenal. There are so many more good teams around the nation. To finish in the top ten, you have to have a very good team with five good players. Before, if you had one or two good players, you could finish in the top ten in the nation. There are just a lot more junior golfers and a lot more good high school players and that makes for more good college programs."

What is it that keeps the tradition of successful golf at OSU polished? "Golf has been important at Oklahoma State for a long time and that's

because of Coach Harris. As long as it's important within the framework of the university, I think we'll continue to have good programs. Even though Oklahoma doesn't have the population base or the climate that other states do, I think overall we're playing the best collegiate golf in the United States.

"The major determining factor of whether you're going to continue to be successful or not is what kind of desire you have, how willing you are to work.

"A lot of those kids who have been successful at an early age did it mainly on talent. They didn't have to work very hard to beat most of the other kids. They maybe had a little bit of advantage because they could play in the tournaments and could afford to go. They had access to better instruction and better equipment that other kids didn't .

"When they get to college, a lot of this is equalized because they have good instruction in college, and all the schools go to the tournaments and everybody gets the same kind of equipment. So the kids who maybe have a little bit of talent and have been willing to work hard but just didn't have the opportunity can catch that guy who's a little bit lazy and pass him.

"Now as then, we always try to stress the importance of getting a college degree. There are two things that I've learned. That's one of them. The other is that the coach works harder than any players on his team. Not saying that I do that, but you've got to be willing to get out there and work with them. It's still important. I don't know what our graduation rate is right now, but I found that the best players we've had have been the best students."

Under Harris, Lakeside Golf Course aided as OSU's home training course. Holder added more scholarships, a healthier budget, wider travel, and access to Edmond's tough Oak Tree Golf Club, one of


America's top fifty. But Holder, head of one of the most aggressive collegiate programs,

is still young. He isn't resting on past national championships. He has a dream, too.

He's as convinced as Harris was nearly forty years ago, that this one will boost golf's—and the university's—stature, serving regional junior and amateur golf at a level found nowhere else.

In July 1985, he detailed plans to the OSU Board of Regents for a golf course development project on 1,200 acres five miles west of Stillwater that would enable O-State to host the NCAA tournament, national junior tourneys, and other amateur events on a regular basis. He emphasized that it would complement Stillwater's two courses without imposing on their regular players by borrowing the courses during the constant schedule of play he envisions.^

In the winter of 1985, Holder's mentor appraised the university's golf program.

"Mike has built the program into the best in the United States," Harris says flatly.^

What made golf grow at OSU? Golfers. Coaches. Fans. And dreams.

Endnotes

1. 1983 Bluebonnet Bowl Football Program, p. 95.

2. Pat Quinn, "Labron Harris Concluding 27 Years as Golf Coach," Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 14, no. 4 (April 1973), p. 3.

3. Pat Quinn interview with Labron Harris Sr., Winter 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection, Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

4. Pat Quinn interview with Jimmy Schatz and Mike Holder, January 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection.

5. Harris interview.

6. Quinn, p. 4.


8. Stillwater NewsPress, 21 July 1985, p. 10A; Tulsa World, 20 July 1985, p. 6D, 21 July 1985, p. 12E.



28 Cutchin's Lean Brigades 1963-1966

Disciplinarian Phil Cutchin drove those involved in Oklahoma State football hard—almost as hard as he drove himself. During the years from 1963 to 1968, he installed intense conditioning, hard-nosed football and the I-formation. Some dropped out; the survivors were prepared to play.

The facilities themselves changed under Cutchin, who sought to improve and organize the program. A new building housed dressing rooms. Practice fields were resurfaced and lighted. A flock of new faces arrived.

But the Big Eight's top teams continued to be national powerhouses, as did other opponents. There were no allowances to be made for down years, no easy way out. The next six years would find the Pokes 19-38-2. But for the team, the students, and the fans, there was always the promise of victory in the next game.

When the Cowboy defense was consistent, it was excellent. A pair of names became instantly recognizable as OSU met third-ranked Texas. Fullback Walt Garrison tore through the Longhorn line for a 48-yard touchdown. Charley Durkee's conversion made it O-State 7, Texas 3. With 45,000 watching from the stands, the riled Texans went on to swamp the upstarts, 34-7. Errors were being ironed out, but not until the seventh game, against Tulsa, did the Pokes win, 33-24, for the school's 250th grid victory since 1901.

With the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the nation paused and mourned. The OSU-Kansas State game was cancelled. Once again Saturday afternoon football was not all-important.

The best performance in the 1-8 season came during the 20-16 loss to eventual Orange Bowl and Big Eight champion Nebraska. The Pokes


limited the nation's leading rushing team to 208 yards, and quarterback Mike Miller completed nineteen of thirty-two passes for 165 yards. With injuries, only twenty-four suited up for the 34-10 loss at OU's hand.^

With the expertise of Lt. Col. James F. Cutter, Athletic Director Henry Iba was able to resume a varsity swimming program at Oklahoma State that fall. Twenty men began pactice in the small, outmoded pool in the basement of the Gymnasium and Armory, but there were plans for the new Colvin Recreation Center with its indoor and outdoor pools. Three meets were held, and a slim squad participated in the Big Eight Championships in the spring of 1964.2

Coach Iba's 30th basketball season rocketed to a high-scoring start. The Cowboys dropped one to Regis of Denver after their chartered plane lost its heating system high over the Rockies en route from Prove, Utah. For three sub-zero hours, the cagers bundled up in anything they could find aboard. Starters James King, Larry Hawk, Gene Johnson, James Cooper, and Paul LaBrue were still affected the second night at Colorado State. Iba was also using nephew Howard "Skip" Iba, Bob Swaffar, Gary Hassmann, Hugh Coonfield, Tommy Doyle, Lester Berryhill, and Pete Van Zant.

At home, they barrelled back, breaking OSU's all-time scoring record with a 91-66 victory over Long Beach State and 92-68 over Bill Shar-man's Los Angeles State. By the Big Eight Holiday Tourney, King was ranked in the top fifteen at scoring, rebounding, fieldgoals, and free throw shooting.

The team peaked when Kansas State arrived, as Johnson and Swaffar held 7-0 Roger Suttner to nine points. Knocked down, Hassman required ten stitches for a forehead cut, but he returned shortly after half time and made two long baskets to the admiration of the Gallagher Hall crowd. One observer described Hassmann, "with a blackened eye and a bandage around his head, and looking like the fife player in the 'Spirit of '76. ' " The Pokes won easily, 77-58. In conference play, the intensity sputtered as the team won seven and lost as many, for a 15-10 year overall.

The Olympic basketball committee on March 7 named Iba the U.S. coach for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Two nights later the Iron Duke's men handed him the Sooners on an 80-47 platter. It was the 700th victory of Iba's coaching career.^

Iowa State managed a tie early in the wrestling schedule, but Coach Roderick was waist-deep in lettermen and sophomores of note. The rest of the season was not only unblemished, but was capped by the Big Eight crown before screaming Gallagher Hall fans. All ten Cowboy entries made the finals. Five of them won titles.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association Championship—OSU's 24th—at Ithaca, New York, was the finishing touch. Yojiro Uetake at


130 and Joe James at heavyweight won individual titles. In a stunning display of Big Eight power, second, third, and fourth place teams in the nation were Oklahoma, Iowa State, and Colorado. When major Oklahoma newspapers published reports of Roderick's impending move to Brigham Young University, an astounding outcry from O-State alumni besieged the athletic office. The successful young coach stayed.

Coach Higgins' distance team won its autumn duals and the yearly OSU track jamboree before running second behind Kansas in the Big Eight Cross Country Championships. At the Sugar Bowl on New Year's, the 1600-meter relay team of Dave and John Perry, Jack Miller, and grad Charles Strong had streaked to first in that open event. Wins in the mile relay with Miller, the Perry s, and Ray Both well, landed thin O-State a surprise third place in the Big Eight Indoor. Another first went to Miller in the open 440.

The Cowboys took the Arkansas Relays and a quadrangular in the outdoor season and hosted the Big Eight Outdoor, with Preston Holsinger vaulting 15-8 and Russ Laverty tying the 6-8 1/2 record high jump. Those were State's only wins and the school placed fifth behind perennial leader Kansas.

During that spring meeting in 1964, the conference finally voted to change the league name from the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association to the Big Eight Conference. The original name was adopted in 1928.

The conference did not renew the contract to send the Big Eight's football champion to the Orange Bowl annually. Now as many as three of the Big Eight's strong teams could accept New Year's Day bids.*

At the Stillwater meet, OSU golfers claimed their seventh straight Big Eight title by a 24-stroke margin over OU behind medalist George Hixon. The tennis varsity, after a six-year reign, tumbled to third in the conference tourney. The golf season had seen the Pokes defeat Houston in the All-America team medal division at Houston, tie Houston for the Pikes Peak Invitational, and win the Oklahoma Intercollegiate at Shawnee. At the Broadmoor, Hixon was named to the All-America team. In the NCAA, Houston rolled to its seventh team title, and OSU was second in the nation for the fourth time under Coach Harris.^

Toby Greene's final baseball team lacked the finesse that had produced powerful Cowboy clubs for twenty-one seasons. At 65, he retired with a record of 318 victories against 132 defeats.

The gruff little Greene coached OSU to seven NCAA District 5 titles, launching the Cowboys as the Big Eight's top club, and shaping the 1959 varsity that won the school's first NCAA baseball championship. Special to Greene also was his unbeaten 1955 varsity. With twenty-two victories to its credit, nine players were snapped up by pro scouts who annually eyed his teams.


A farewell banquet in the Student Union honored Coach and Mrs. Greene. His career was studded with the names of Tom Borland, Joel Horlen, Joe Buck, Frank Kellert, Jerry Adair, Roy Peterson, and Bruce Andrew, who made it into the major leagues. There were also Ken Kinnamon, Freddie Babb, Ron Bennett, Mel Wright, Phil Finnegan, Jim Woolard, Fred Duval, Don Bacon, George Scott, Ray Bond, Grayson Mersch, Jim Dobson, Richard Soergel, Marion Moss, Bob Andrew, Bo Watson, Nim Free, and others.

The all-sports banquet honored Greene for his contribution to the university. Norman High School basketball and baseball coach Chet Bryan succeeded Greene. While earning his master's at OSU, Bryan had assisted Iba in basketball and Greene in baseball. And the final baseball highlight was a Sports Illustrated feature on prominent alumnus Allie Reynolds, one of twenty-five winning the magazine's All-America award for achievements since college graduation.^

Summer headlines focused on the Olympic Games at Tokyo as the esteemed Iba guided the undefeated USA basketball squad through nine games, besting Russia 73-49 in the finals for gold medals. Although wrestling for Japan, returning Cowboy Yojiro Uetake won the gold in the bantamweight class. An OSU mat man who hadn't been in the lineup yet was featherweight Bobby Douglas, who placed fourth for the U.S. Douglas was sitting out a year after transferring from West Liberty State.

It was a season of close misses for Cutchin's second football varsity. There were triumphs over Iowa State, Colorado, and Wichita in 1964, along with a big upset over Missouri, but tense thrillers with Arkansas, Kansas, Kansas State, and Oklahoma were lost by a total of 13 points. Fans could see the improvement in the embattled Pokes and responded. Traffic was backed up to the Boomer Lake intersection when 4,000 tried to reach the airport to greet the returning heroes of the Missouri game.

But it was the controversial Kansas game that for years remained a burr under Oklahoma State's saddle. Glued to their homecoming seats at Lewis Field were 36,500 as KU's Gayle Sayers was held to 67 yards. This time Sayers was not the problem. Two decisions by officials went against the Cowboys in the 14-13 setback. On one occasion the officials blundered in describing options in a punting situation, costing the Pokes 38 yards on the exchange. A scorching argument between Cutchin, KU Coach Jack Mitchell and officials steamed for six long minutes.

Even so, O-State seemed to have wrapped up the game when Jerry Gill blocked a KU fieldgoal attempt and Jack Jacobson sped 60 yards for an OSU score. Going for a two-point conversion and an outright win as time ran out, Glenn Baxter passed to a leaping Tony Sellari in the end zone. Hit by two charging Kansans on the way down, Sellari appeared to be straddling the goal line and the nearest official signaled no score. Glimpsing Sunday morning sports photos. State fans were


outraged all over again. There was no recourse and the record books show a KU win, 14-13.^

Reinforcing Coach Iba's Olympic accomplishments, his Cowboys turned out a sparkling 20-7 season and nabbed the school's first Big Eight basketball title. Iba was named Big Eight Coach of the Year. The team excelled, despite a November 2 tragedy in which center Bob Swaffar's arm was torn off in the big dryer in the athletic laundry beneath the north stadium. Several things—and the concerted efforts of many—saved Swaffar's life.

Studying nearby was Hassmann, who had an eye on medical school and was aware of implant capabilities for severed limbs. While teammate Jim Watson applied first aid in an effort to stem bleeding, Hassmann immersed the arm in a bucket of ice water. The arm was Dr. Don Cooper's first sight as he reached the scene on the run. A 65-mile ambulance ride at top speed found a special team of implant surgeons awaiting in Oklahoma City. They had practiced for months; their first attempt on a human lasted six hours, but the reimplantation was made.

Limited use of the arm slowly returned with therapy and Swaffar returned to college classes. An intra-squad benefit tilt raised $4,135 to go with other donations for Big Bob's college expenses, but practices were a little ragged while the force of the tragedy lingered in the varsity's minds. King, tops in Big Eight over-all play, scored 888 points at OSU and nabbed 762 rebounds, just 10 short of AU-American Bob Mattick's school record. He was named All-Conference and played in the College All-Star game. Hassmann won the NCAA $1,000 scholarship for graduate study and entered medical school.^

If a classic example prescription could have been written for winning the NCAA wrestling team title, Roderick's 1965 varsity filled all the qualifications. His men captured all ten weights at the Great Plains Tournament in Lincoln. Romping through fourteen duals, undefeated and untied, they preserved a streak of 68 undefeated meets and 2 ties. Ten went to the tough Big Eight finals; six emerged as champions. The NCAA Championships at Laramie seemed predestined. Almost ho-hum.

The tourney began with OSU taking its first dozen opening matches. After that, the script was ad-libbed. Accidentally kicked in the head, Olympian Bobby Douglas was in dangerous condition and quickly hospitalized in Cheyenne. Void at his weight, the Pokes advanced eight into the semifinals and five into the finals. Only Tadaaki Hatta and Olympic winner Uetake, the results of Roderick's farflung recruiting, emerged winners.

A spirited charge by Iowa State unseated O-State by a single point. There was some consolation in Uetake's being named the outstanding wrestler, the first Cowboy to gain that trophy since 1949. Seven earlier Pokes had earned it, since it was inaugurated in 1932.^


Scholastic problems beset the second-year swimming team, and OSU remained in seventh place at the Big Eight, but an outstanding freshman squad had already broken several varsity records and things looked good for next year. The freshmen finished fifth in the Big Eight Freshman Postal Meet. Lettering under Coach Cutter were Bill Ewens, Howard Bennett, Jim Cowden, Bob Gates, Elgin McClain, and John Rivers.^^

Homers exploded from the bats of Fred Moulder and Don Kuyken-dall in their first time at bat in Cowboy colors, and Moulder went on to lead the Big Eight in home runs in 1965 with six. Coach Bryan took his first baseball varsity all the way to third-place in the conference. At .379, All-Conference catcher Tony Sellari was the leading batter. Top pitcher Richard Frank had a 2.15 earned run average during the team's 14-11 year. Moulder's strong diamond and cage roles led to his signing a pro baseball contract after his first year.^^

OSU's fifth All-America golfer. Bob Dickson, started the 1965 season by taking the Southern Collegiate at Athens, Georgia, but Georgia nosed out the Cowboys for the team title. Old foe Houston came in second as the Staters took the Oklahoma Intercollegiate at Shawnee, sailed through a 14-3 dual season, and roared to the school's eighth Big Eight team title. However, the Pokes faltered and were ninth in the NCAA at Knoxville as Houston's power prevailed. Dave Eichelberger led his teammates at 145.12

Rebounding from a drop to third in the Big Eight in 1964, Roderick's Cowboy netmen moved up to a tie with OU for second in 1965. Bob McKenna was the Big Eight champion in number one singles, with Bob Howard winning number two singles and Nick Saxton number four singles. Howard and Larry Grose were second in number two doubles; a win would have edged Kansas for first place.

The 1965 track campaign began with the 1600-meter relay team of Larry Linn, the Perry brothers, and John Winingham setting a 3:12 Sugar Bowl record, but it stood out as the year the two-mile relay record was under assault at OSU. Outstanding individual at the Texas Tech Indoor was Tom Von Ruden, as the O-State mile and two-mile relay teams set meet records of 3:24.4 and 7:26.1.

The Cowboy varsity was runner-up to Kansas in the Big Eight fall cross country and hit a high point at the West Coast Relays in Fresno, California, when the two-mile relay team set an accepted world record of 7:18.4. On the relay squad were Jim Metcalf, the fifth Metcalf on an OSU track team. Von Ruden, and the Perrys. The quartet had previously exceeded the world indoor dirt track record at the Michigan State Invitational in 7:26.1.

A member of the NCAA committee arranging the first indoor championship in Detroit, Higgins took only eight men and saw OSU place second in the NCAA behind Missouri. Nebraska was seventh, Kansas


tied for tenth, and OU tied for thirteenth. It was an impressive national outing for the Big Eight. Despite not having an indoor track on which to train at OSU, Von Ruden won the 880 in 1:51.8. The Cowboy two-milers came across first in 7:27.9, the country's second fastest indoor two-mile record. The second place team standing in the nationals in indoor track was the highest finish since the cross country team took the NCAA title in 1954.

Only three points apart at season's end. Big Eight All-Sports honors went to Kansas, with OSU second. In 1964-65, the Cowboys had been conference champions in basketball, wrestling, and golf, second in cross country, tied or second in tennis, third in baseball, fourth in both indoor and outdoor track, tied for fifth in football, and seventh in swimming. A satisfying year, games and duals added up to 80 victories and only 43 defeats.13

A summer sports postscript did not end as happily. All-American Dickson lost the U.S. Amateur at Tulsa's Southern Hills when he found an extra putter that wasn't his in his golf bag. With two holes of the round already played, the State standout was penalized four strokes. It was assumed the club had accidentally been placed in the bag in the storage rack of the caddie house. Despite the stiff penalty, Dickson lost the championship to Georgia's Bob Murphy by only one stroke.

Never mind the year's three and seven grid record. Don't be sidetracked by the harrowing four-point loss to potent Nebraska, the Big Eight champion on its way to the Orange Bowl—although tears were shed on the field and in the stands over that one. Remember instead the 17-14 win over the mountainous Tulsa line, built around Billy Anderson, then the nation's leading passer, and Howard Twilley, the nation's leading receiver, to end the series for a while at 21 victories for each school against 5 ties.^*

What made Phil Cutchin and his 1965 football stalwarts invincible heroes to Cowboy fandom was the 17-16 victory over Comer Jones' University of Oklahoma Sooners. Not since the Cotton and Sugar Bowl years of 1944 and 1945 had OSU tromped OU. For nineteen years frustration had mounted. But on December 4, 1965, the teams met for the 60th time at Owen Field in Norman for near-perfect ball. OU fumbled once. O-State had a pass intercepted.

The husky Sooners missed a conversion try in the third quarter and OSU clung to a 14-13 edge. The Sooners drove again and on the fourth down, OU's Ron Shotts kicked the fieldgoal that sent 57,250 into hysterics. OU, 16; OSU, 14. Four minutes left in the game. Undaunted, Cowboy Larry Elliott ripped 22 yards to O-State's 37 with the kick-off. Glenn Baxter passed to Tommy Boone, to Sellari, and finally to Lynn Chad-wick, who wrenched the ball from a pair of Sooners at the OU 26. A quick pass from Baxter to Sellari gained 8 yards.


A last-minute field goal by kicker Charlie Durkee led to a 17-16 victory over the University of Oklahoma in 1965. As OSU fans went wild, the traditional game trophy, the clapper from Old Central, was presented to Band Director Hiram Henry, right, by OU's director Dr Gene Braught while the Cowboy band formed a huge bell around the men. Saturday's jubilant crowd didn't begin to settle down until classes were resumed Tuesday.

It was fourth and two when Charlie Durkee and his holder, Happy Settle, sped onto the field for a final shot at victory. Oklahoma State 17, OU 16!

Director Hiram Henry and the Orange and Black band pelted onto the field to outline the shape of Old Central's "victory bell," ready once more to accept the traditional OSU-OU game trophy, the bell clapper. Goal posts came down. Coaches were tossed into showers. Well-wishers were jubilant. Cutchin left to attend the Big Eight Athletic Conference and then begin recruiting. President Willham bowed to the inevitable and agreed there would be no classes Monday.

The celebration in Stillwater raged through the weekend. Old Central's belfry was considered unsafe now, and the returned clapper and bell were hung high in the Student Union tower. The prairie school's bell wasn't majestic, but it clanked for all it was worth. Car horns blared as impromptu parades clogged city streets. A bonfire at the corner of Third and Washington Avenue lighted the sky. Monday evening's rally and campus dance concluded the celebration. Tuesday students straggled back to class. 1


Echoes of the Bell Clapper Classic lingered. The Board of Regents gave Coach Cutchin a new five-year contract. The regents also announced plans for a new athletic dormitory to house 240 men. Durkee's kicking shoe was gilded, to be placed on permanent display. Garrison and Harper were All-Big Eight and honorable mention AU-American. ^

And the clapper was home. Actually, it seemed two clappers were handed over by OU. Think

ing the original one was lost over the long years, OU had a second one made. Then the rightful Old Central clapper popped up. But which was which? One was longer. Each was hung within the bell in turn, and the original was determined when it matched the inner dents made over the course of nearly seven decades. When later remodeling was done, the bell and its victory clapper—by tradition rung only when OU was defeated—were rehung atop Old Central.^^

A final note of change lay in the retirement of President Willham. Dr. Robert B. Kamm became Oklahoma State's president, administering a $35 million budget and overseeing an on-going building spurt that would last into the 1970s. Like many presidents before him. President Kamm took a keen interest in every facet of education, and he and Mrs. Kamm were on hand supporting OSU's teams at every possible athletic event.

With Swaffar at center and Moulder shooting superlatively. Coach Iba's cagers could have held their own in 1965-66. But the athletic career of Swaffar, now gaining some mobility in the fingers of his reimplanted arm, was over. After only a year of exciting varsity play. Moulder was now a Brooklyn Dodger.

Skip Iba was the single returning starter from the previous year's Big Eight champions. His uncle, coach of Olympians, whose collegiate teams had amassed 720 wins and 2 NCAA titles, faced the worst season of his long, illustrious career: 4 games won; 21 lost.

Once again, there was comfort in nodding wisely and saying, "But wait for wrestling. We'll get 'em then!" And OSU did.^^

At a Coast Guard Academy Invitational, the Orange mat men scored 120 points; the closest of the Eastern teams was Army with 55 points. At home, the Pokes hosted an eight-team dual, pulled past OU in a 15-14 Bedlam thriller for the wrestlers' homecoming crowd, then ran the string of unbeaten duals to an astounding eighty-four. But the return meet with OU saw that snapped, 14-12, the first Cowboy loss to the Sooners in fourteen duals. Recovering, Roderick's men swept the Big Eight, crowning five.

Undefeated in fifty-seven bouts, flawless Japanese Olympian Uetake became a three-time national champion and Oklahoma State gained its 25th NCAA team title. Also crowned were Gene Davis and Bill Harlow, with Fred Fozzard second, Tadaaki Hatta third, Jim Rogers, and Mike


Reding fourth, and Bob Drebenstedt sixth. It was a Big Eight scrap all over again at Ames, as Iowa State placed second and OU third.^^

Voted outstanding wrestler, the still undefeated Uetake told the press, "No more competitive wrestling . . . all through, now best time to quit. If I go on, sooner or later get beat; then too late to quit. ' ' Two years later he would wrestle again, emerging from the Olympic Games of Mexico City in 1968 still unbeaten, bearer of a second Olympic gold. Of all the legendary wrestlers who polished their skills in Gallagher Hall, only the credentials of Perry's Jack VanBebber, with three NCAA titles and a gold in the 1932 Olympics, compare.20

Upon his retirement from the Army ROTC staff during the 1965-66 school year. Col. Cutter moved from advisor to varsity swimming coach. The Cowboy swimmers were successful in several duals, but were not the caliber of the top Big Eight teams, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Kansas. Despite that, Dave Johnson became O-State's first conference champion, winning his event in record time.

Bob Dickson's 281 claimed individual honors at the Houston All-America golf tourney, but the hosts again scooped up the trophy as OSU placed second in the overall division. The Cowboys outstroked the Sooners at the Shawnee Invitational, but dipped to fourth in the Pikes Peak tourney. Despite Hale Irwin shooting 208 for Colorado, the Pokes held off that team to take OSU's ninth straight Big Eight championship. At Palo Alto for the 1966 NCAA, Dickson tied for third; the team came in fourth as Houston again won.

Dickson was twice AU-American, runner-up in the 1965 National Amateur, 1965 Southern Intercollegiate champion, twice Oklahoma Intercollegiate champion, 1965 Big Eight champion, and twice Oklahoma Amateur champion. Jim Hardy was runner-up in the Trans-Mississippi and in the 1966 Big Eight tourney.2^

Three track men gained All-America honors during the school year. Chris McCubbins carried the Cowboys to fifth in the NCAA Cross Country Championships before indoor and outdoor action got underway. The two-mile relay crew of Arnold Droke, Jim Metcalf, John Perry, and Von Ruden took the National Federation meet in New York, then clocked 7:30.1 to win the NCAA Championships in Detroit for the second year. Big Eight strength was again visible nationally when Kansas earned the NCAA indoor team title held by Missouri the previous year. McCubbins, Von Ruden, and Perry were named All-Americans.

Outdoors, the Pokes dominated the Arkansas Relays. In a sizzling race at the Texas Relays, the Poke two-mile relay team lost to Texas by .01 of a second, but redeemed itself in the Kansas Relays, winning by twenty yards in 7:22.8. A spring medley of Mickey Miller, Ron Hester, Metcalf, and Perry sped to another first in 3:20.1. Ray Smith was second in the 5,000 meters at Kansas, but KU's Jim Ryun was the talk of


the tourney as he ran a 3:55.8 mile, edging Metcalf. The sprint medley and two-mile teams repeated wins in the Drake

Relays and Von Ruden also won the mile in 4:06.6. In the OSU-OU dual, Perry set a school 880 record, then improved it at the Big Eight when he ran the world's fastest 880 in the half-mile in 1:47.7. Teammate Metcalf came in .2 of a second later. McCubbins took the three-mile there and Von Ruden reeled off a 4:01.1 mile, but K-State came in at 4:00.9 to win. O-State ended up third in Big Eight standings.

At Modesto's California Relays, Ken Morris, Metcalf, Perry, and Miller won both the mile and two-mile relays. Their final outing gave the Cowboy mile team a 3:08.3, best ever by a Big Eight team, in the National Federation meet at Terre Haute.

In 1966 Oklahoma began its domination of Big Eight tennis. The only Pokes to reach the finals were Howard and Larry Grose, as the team dropped to fifth.22

Baseball was another story. A bid to become the third team in College World Series history to earn more than one championship carried Coach Bryan's second Cowboy varsity all the way to the finals in Omaha.

Mid-way in the season, six Big Eight teams were still breathing down leader OSU's back. Nailing down that title wasn't easy. Marv Fiocchi suffered a coronary while pitching against Oklahoma. He made a good recovery, but couldn't rejoin the Pokes. Bob Toney, sophomore third baseman, managed a .325 average and 18 runs batted in despite sitting out ten games with a knee injury.

As OSU regrouped, OU came on, needing a single win in three games at Colorado to clinch the crown. O-State, with Kansas in Stillwater, had to win three. The odds were unlikely. But the Pokes swept the Kansas series, exploding for seven runs for a final 8-5 victory. The Sooners battled—and lost—three in extra innings. The third OU-CU game was a shocker. OU led 10-0 in three innings but Colorado rallied, 13-12.

With two District NCAA games with St. Louis wrapped up, the O-Staters lost to Ohio State, scrambled to losers' bracket wins over North Carolina, Texas, and St. John's. Despite eight Cowboy hits, three errors hurt OSU and Ohio State took the national title. Toney and left-fielder Wayne Weatherly were named to the All-NCAA tournament team. Sellari was included in the Big Eight Conference team. Retired Cowboy Coach Toby Greene was among eighteen inducted in the first Hall of Fame ceremony held in Washington, D.C, by the Collegiate Baseball Coaches in 1966.

With 1965-66 Big Eight titles in wrestling, golf and baseball, Oklahoma State had now won nineteen championships in the six years in which the university had participated in the conference, outshining other member schools. In that period, Kansas had taken a dozen, Oklahoma ten, Missouri seven, and Nebraska six. Kansas State and Colorado had


three each and both a tie for another, while Iowa State held the other two titles.23

Endnotes

1. Otis Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs: The Chronological Story of Sports at Oklahoma State University From the Beginning in the 1890s Through the 1960s," p. 659, manuscript, Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater; 1964 Redskin, pp. 464- 469, Oklahoma State University Yearbook.


3. Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs," pp. 664-667; 1964 Redskin, pp. 470, 473.


5. Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs," pp. 673-674; 1965 Redskin, pp. 168-169.



8. Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs," pp. 686-687, 691; 1965 Redskin, pp. 158-161; Oklahoma State University Daily O'Collegian, 3 November 1964, p. 1, 4 November 1964, p. 1.

9. Doris Dellinger, Ride 'em, Cowboys! The Story of Wrestling's Dynasty (Stillwater, OK: Frontier Printers, 1977), p. 91.

10. 1965 Redskin, p. 173.


12. Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs," pp. 695-696; 1966 Redskin, p. 146.


14. Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs," pp. 714-715, 702.

15. Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs," pp. 706-709; Otis Wile, "The Clapper Comes Home," Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 7, no. 1 (January 1966), p. 4.


17. Author interview with Jimm Showalter, 12 August 1985, Stillwater, Oklahoma.





22. Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs," pp. 717-719; 1967 Redskin, pp. 191, 200.

23. Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs," pp. 715-717, 719; 1967 Redskin, p. 189.


29 The Pokes Do It Again 1966-1969

The bitter cold front that wrapped Oklahoma State fans as Oklahoma ran onto Lewis Field might have intensified by game's end in other years, but in the 1966 renewal of the downstate rivalry, the warmth of the Cowboys' repeat victory, 15-14, radiated from Stillwater. The rare, back-to-back victories would provide infinite comfort for alumni.

Tulsa World Sports Editor Bill Connors wrote: *The cliff-hanging victory was OSU's second straight in this one-sided but fierce rivalry and gave the Cowboys their best season under Phil Cutchin and their highest conference finish since they entered the Big Eight seven seasons ago. It was only the Cowboys' 10th victory in the 61-year rivalry, which includes six ties. The defeat was a bitter disappointment for OU and an unbecoming finish to a resurgent year. . . it left the Sooners 6-4 and dropped them to fifth in the Big Eight with a 4-3 record.

"The Sooners could not overcome those big plays by O-State's defense. Someone in an orange shirt was always making one. The biggest ones were made by Charles Trimble, who blocked Mike Vachon's fieldgoal attempt in the first quarter after the Sooners had reached the Cowboys' 4; by line-backers Leon Ward and Rick McCoin; tackle Terry Bacigalupo, end Doug Cathey and halfback Willard Nahrgang. Ward's tackle caused Bob Warmack to fumble ahead of the first Cowboy touchdown, McCoin recovering at the Cowboy 49. The Cowboys scored in six plays, their most awesome burst of the season."^

There were other gridiron satisfactions. Defending national cham

pion Arkansas eased past OSU by only four points on its march to the

Razorbacks' 22nd win in a row. Undefeated Houston was not the best

team the Pokes could meet as they tried to keep their footing while play-


ing in '*the world's most fabulous stadium" on the Astrodome's artificial turf for the first time.

They shook off the loss and downed Colorado, Kansas, and Kansas State for a 4-5-1 season. Tackles J. B. Christian and Dennis Randall were All-Conference. Randall made the second All-America and played in the East-West game, while Christian made the honorable mention All-America.

A sad postscript to the OU game came as sportswriters' typewriters were pounding out the highlights of the game. The press box's genial host and ''Barbecue King of Oklahoma," Clay Potts was relishing the skirmish's gripping moments in the lunch room above Lewis Field, when he suffered a heart attack and died. Director of short courses at Oklahoma State, Potts, 72, was known for his skills in preparing hearty meals for mammoth crowds of students and faculty, as well as newsmen and announcers.

Basketball Coach Henry Iba and his men could only put together 7 wins, against 18 defeats in 1966-67. Lack of height and a take-charge floor man doomed the team, despite endless hours of team effort in practice. The Pokes branched out, entering the Memphis State Tourney, but met Maryland, coached by Buddy Millikan, who had become an AU-American under Iba's tutelage at OSU, and lost, 50-49. Iba's son, Moe, then fielding his first team as Memphis State coach, took the four-team title with the Cowboys third.^

In their fourth year of competition, the Cowboy swimming team placed fifth in the Big Eight meet and OSU lowered school records in the 400 medley relay, 400 freestyle relay, and the 800 freestyle relay. In postal meets they beat the University of Alabama and Simon Eraser of British Columbia, for an 8-6 overall season.^

With five of eight key wrestlers departing through graduation. Coach Myron Roderick scrambled to rebuild a team from largely inexperienced material in 1967. Both Ed Gallagher and Art Griffith had experienced similar down years. Like them, Roderick managed to mold a surprisingly tough team that would have made any school outside Oklahoma wildly happy.

The Pokes swept seven of eleven weights at the Great Plains Invitational at Lincoln, managed a 9-2-1 season, losing only to Oklahoma, and tying with OSU grad Grady Peninger's Michigan State. Arizona State's Invitational provided another victory for the Cowboys, but the Big Eight title went to the Sooners.

Fred Fozzard picked up an NCAA gold at the championships, as the team placed sixth, respectable enough, but the lowest Cowboy finish in history. Michigan, coached by OSU alumnus Cliff Keen, was runner-up to Michigan State, Iowa State was third, and OU fourth. As the season closed, OSU hosted the first East-West Wrestling Classic, with


Gene Davis and Jim Rogers winning titles.* Continuing their domination in Big Eight tennis, the Sooners retained

their conference title, with Kansas second and OSU third. Cliff Price and Bob Howard, the Cowboys' number one and two singles players, were runnersup to OU's Steve Stockton and Hal McCoy.

With Bob Dickson graduated, the Poke golf team struggled in 1967. The varsity took the Shawnee Invitational with Roger Brown individual medalist, but finished in fifth at Houston's 13th annual All-America and fourth at the Pikes Peak tournament. Grier Jones was tied with Hale Irwin of Colorado when rain interrupted Big Eight title play and Oklahoma State was named champion for the tenth consecutive year. Jones and Irwin were co-champions. It was an unusual year at the NCAA as OSU dipped to 22nd at Shawnee, Pennsylvania.

Dickson didn't allow his clubs to grow cold. He had not yet turned pro. As a member of the Walker Cup team, he earned the deciding point that enabled the team to defeat the British Isles team at Sandwich, England. The British Amateur at Formby was next, and the OSU AU-American defeated Walker Cup teammate Ron Cerrudo in the finals. Then the new British Amateur champ headed home for army duty.

Using his leave in September, Dickson took the U.S. Amateur Championship at the familiar Broadmoor course in Colorado Springs. He was the third Oklahoman to do so. OU's Charles Coe won in 1949 and 1958 and OSU's Labron Harris Jr. was the champion in 1962. Collecting both British and American amateur titles in the same year had been achieved only by Harold Hilton in 1911, Bobby Jones in 1930, and Lawson Little in 1934. State's golf program had produced two of the nation's top amateurs in five years.

After more than forty years of coaching track and field from high school to Olympic levels, Ralph Higgins reached retirement age in 1967. Bringing the OSU track program to national prominence with the NCAA cross country title in 1954, Higgins had developed twenty-seven All-America individual and relay team members in thirty-two years.

The first of his track stars had been Forest C. Efaw, cross country ace. The final one was Chris McCubbins, who won the NCAA steeple chase title to close Higgins' final year as a coach. Earlier, McCubbins had set the Big Eight course record, the first Poke to take a conference cross country trophy since Miles Eisenman in 1959. It was a skimpy year for Cowboy track honors, but McCubbins slimmed the Big Eight Indoor two-mile record to 9:00.2 while Larry Curts set a vaulting record at 16-1.^

Spasmodic wins for the Orange kept spirits up on the outdoor relay circuit. At the Arkansas Relays, Miles Lister won the discus; McCubbins ran the finest three-mile in the Texas Relays, setting a Big Eight record in 13:38.7. At the Big Eight Outdoor, Bruce Wilhelm took the shot at 56-10 3/4 and Lister the discus at 167-4 as OSU edged aside


Colorado for fourth during conference competition. Three-time All-America McCubbins collected the 15th NCAA gold

medal awarded an Oklahoma State track man for his steeple chase time of 8:51.4 and broke the collegiate record in the Pan-American trials in Minneapolis in 8:39.6. He nibbled it down to 8:38.2 in the 3,000-meter obstacle course during the Pan Am Games in Winnipeg to win a gold medal. Alumnus Tom Von Ruden took the 1,500-meter race and had an eye on the 1968 Olympics.

From Dr. L. L. Lewis' interest in Oklahoma A&M's earliest outdoor sports events—particularly track—to the school's greatest track man of the first forty years, Ed Gallagher, to the tireless Roy ' 'Wash" Kenny and nationally known Higgins, track had maintained a vital niche at Oklahoma State. In his initial outing as head coach, Higgins had taken a handful of runners to the old Missouri Valley meeting in 1936, scored thirteen points, and finished last. After that, the Cowboys took sixteen straight Valley track championships. A Ralph Higgins Day banquet in late spring brought hundreds to honor the retiring coach. Among them was Ralph Tate, All-America hurdler before and after World War II, who would succeed his mentor as varsity coach.^

During the year retired athletic trainer J. H. "Doc" Johnston was voted into the Helms Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame for his sports contributions. KSPI sports director Bill Piatt, " the Voice of the Cowboys" for the Cowboy Sports Network, won Oklahoma's top broadcaster honors for the sixth time.^

Two dropped to Houston. One to Rice. An 18-0 shellacking by Houston Baptist University, during which a bad-hop grounder wiped out second baseman Larry Bickford's front teeth. Not an auspicious opening for the 1967 baseball varsity that bounced back to master the Big Eight Conference with Bill Dobbs' final 2-0, no-hit masterpiece.

Backed by pitchers Larry Burchart, Richard Frank, Bill Maxwell, Richard Schmidt, and Dobbs, the Pokes nicked Cincinnati in the fifth NCAA district play-off. Coach Chet Bryan and his varsity charged off to the Collegiate World Series at Omaha but met eventual victor Arizona State in the opener and lost, 7-2. Despite Burchart fanning thirteen, a second loss to Rider College of Trenton, New Jersey, closed the Cowboys' season at seventh in the nation. In three years, Bryan's teams had won two Big Eight championships and twice gone all the way to the NCAA final series. Catcher Tony Sellari led in hitting with a .325 average and earned All-America honors. Sellari, Danny Thompson, and Burchart were on the All-Big Eight team.

Under Coach Cutchin, the rugged Cowboy defense gained a reputation for vicious gang-tackling in the 4-5-1 season, the Redskin noted.^ It was an image at odds with the school's longstanding credo of gentlemanly fair play, but heavy-handed methods had aided other universi-


§f

After five seasons in the pool in the old gym, later known as the Architecture Building, the new $3.3 million Colvin Center and its Olympic-sized pool provided a big boost to Coach James F. Cutter's varsity swimmers.

ties and would be continued at OSU for another year. A rainy autumn hamstrung early practices and led to a scoreless tie

as O-State opened against Air Force. But new talent emerged and returnees improved to stun the Razorbacks for the first time in ten years. The Oklahoman game story by Wally Wallis noted, "Oklahoma State's magnificent defense and one scoring surge powered by fullback Jack Reynolds gave the Cowboys a 7-6 victory over arch rival Arkansas before an all-time record crowd of 53,000 in War Memorial Stadium."^ But the Pokes couldn't handle the likes of Texas, Kansas, Missouri, or Nebraska, the nation's leading team in defensive statistics.

Orange Bowl veteran Oklahoma, now guided by Chuck Fairbanks after Jim Mackenzie's death, avenged the losses of the two previous years. The two previous victories had come in 1965 in the last year of the presidency for Dr. Oliver Willham and in 1966 in the first year of President Robert Kamm. Some weeks after the 1966 defeat, OU President George Cross reminded Dr. Kamm of how "considerate" OU had been in letting OSU win for Dr. Willham and Dr. Kamm. He then reminded hinx that the 1967 game would be his last as OU president, and that he'd like the Cowboys to let him have a victory in his final year—and, this


OSU did.io The Cowboys surprised fans by knocking off third-ranked Colorado,

then Iowa State and Kansas State. Defensive back Harry Cheatwood played in the Shrine's East-West game and in the Senior Bowl. He and Poke center Jon Kolb were named to the All-Big Eight team.

"Would you believe an Oklahoma State team under Henry Iba could play 15 games in a season that were decided by three points or less— and lose 11 of them!" one writer exclaimed in print. ^ The exasperating 10-14 year pointed up the Cowboys' continuing job vacancy at center and the lack of a big scorer, but Iba and Sam Aubrey polished the material at hand. The U.S. Olympic Committee overlooked precedent and asked OSU's head coach to guide the U.S. team a second time, at the Rome Games of 1968. Iba declined. The USOC insisted. Iba agreed to work with the Olympians again.

Co-captained by Dave Johnson and George Phillips, Coach Cutter's swimming varsity turned in its finest dual record, 10-4, in the five years the sport had been resumed. It was the final season for the cramped pool in the old gym building. The Olympic-sized pool in the $3.3 million Colvin Center for physical education would be completed for use in 1968-69. One of the dual wins was at the Sooners' expense. Their team had long reigned over the Big Eight. Thus, when seven firsts iced the dual for the Pokes, it was time to celebrate and into the pool went Coach Cutter. OSU wound up fourth in the conference.^^

The relentless rhythm of success had seeped into Roderick's lineup again that winter as the wrestlers rebounded from the third place conference finish in 1967 to beat off a strong Sooner attack for the OSU Invitational Championship and rampaged to an 11-1 dual season, losing only to OU. The tempo increased as Colorado hosted the Big Eight. In an odd finish, both Oklahoma teams crowned four individual winners apiece and even additional place points couldn't solve the battle; the Bedlam foes tied at 91-91 for the team title. Cowboy champions were Dwayne Keller, Bob Drebenstedt, Fozzard, and John Ward.

But at the NCAA Championships the pace slowed to a limp. Heavyweight Ward came to Penn State with an injured ankle. After 43 straight victories, defending NCAA king Fozzard now suffered the same fate, his ankle damaged and his title hopes gone as he lost a decision.

By the end of the first day of competition. Cowboy after Cowboy had fallen. Only the unbeaten Keller was sailing along. As far as the press and the tournament crowd was concerned, the trophy awaited either OU with 66 points, or Iowa State with 60. O-State with 47 and Michigan with 38, the closest contenders, were written off.

Unknown to Roderick, Fozzard called a team meeting. He challenged each once-beaten Poke to bulldoze his way up the consolation ladder, collecting every available team point. Keller's twin, Darrell, a jun-


ior college transfer sitting out a year for eligibility, was assigned to take Dwayne out for a drive and bolster his confidence. All the sophomore had to do in the finals at 123 pounds was to best Rick Sanders, Portland State star, the previous year's NCAA champion and outstanding wrestler, and winner of ninety-four collegiate matches.

In a wild scramble, Keller reversed Sanders with 18 seconds to go, winning 4-2 and adding 17 team points to those steadfastly accumulated by the rest of the team. Iowa State had crowned three by defeating three Sooners, but the final team scoring read OSU, 81; Iowa State,78; OU, 74; Michigan State, 55; Navy, 35.

As the spectacular come-back surge gave Oklahoma State its 26th NCAA team championship and Keller was named the tourney's outstanding wrestler, 33-year-old Roderick reacted with a back flip at matside.^^

"This is by far my greatest thrill ," the exuberant coach said of his seventh NCAA team crown in a dozen years. "I still can't believe it."^*

During spring break the Poke baseball varsity met the University of Houston at Houston. Sophomore Bob Richardson took the mound for the first time at OSU and pitched a 2-1 no-hitter.

"Not bad for a start," a pleased Coach Bryan is said to have muttered. "But work on your control. "^^

Consistent hitting and a fellow the team called the "Little Leaguer," Steve Houck, nailed down OSU's third consecutive Big Eight title in 1968. The Pokes were fifth in the country following the NCAA playoffs. Houck went into the final conference series with Missouri batting 13th in the Big Eight with a .319 average. As the Pokes zoomed past the Tigers, Houck tallied ten hits in twelve times at bat, to win the conference batting title with a .424.

Shortstop Danny Thompson and outfielder Wayne Weatherly were All-Big Eight and helped OSU to the top spot in batting in the conference. After three errors in his sophomore year, Weatherly then went sixty-three straight errorless collegiate games.^^

Larry Curts vaulted 16 feet at the Texas Relays, then went over at 16-6 at the John Jacobs Invitational at Norman for the state's highest record during the 1968 track year. Hal Oswalt took the gold medal with a long jump of 24-7 1/4 at the Drake Relays, but other honors eluded the Pokes. It was a year of restocking positions for enthusiastic new Coach Tate.

After ten years at the helm of Big Eight golf, the Cowboys were finally nudged aside by Colorado at Boulder's Lake Valley course by a three-stroke margin. Individual honors went to OSU's Grier Jones, who had earlier led the team to its ninth consecutive Oklahoma Invitational. While the campus was still basking in the previous summer's feats of British and American Amateur Bob Dickson, Jones began gobbling up course records at the NCAA Championships at Las Cruces, opening with a rec-


ord 65 and ending with a record 276 to become O-State's second NCAA golf champion and the university's sixth golf AU-American. OSU placed fourth in the team race.^^

A strong overhand shot by Cliff Price nabbed the men's individual tennis singles at the Big Eight tournament, but University of Oklahoma held onto the team title. Oklahoma State was second, followed by Kansas and Colorado. Coach Roderick's improved Orange and Black team turned in a 9-4-1 season.^^

With the exception of gymnastics, O-State had competed in all conference programs since 1960-61 and now led in Big Eight team championships with 23. In that period, Kansas had won 18, Oklahoma 15, Missouri 8, Nebraska 7, Colorado and Kansas State 6 apiece, and Iowa State 4. ^ Athletic Director Iba and Athletic Cabinet Chairman Randall Jones continued to steer university athletics toward a balanced program of growth for each varsity. OSU now ranked second only to the University of Southern California in total national championships won.

Coach Labron Harris had another champion in the headlines that summer as Mike Holder earned the 1968 Oklahoma Amateur golf title.^^

With the Olympic Games held in Mexico City, more Oklahoma State students, staff, and alumni were involved in the international event than ever before. The unbeaten United States basketball team was coached to the gold by Iba in his second Olympic triumph. Playing on that team was alumnus James King, who led the Cowboys to the Big Eight championship in 1965, then entered business with Akron Goodyear and continued AAU play with the Goodyears. In a fall ceremony, Iba would be inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame at Springfield, Massachusetts, for his international leadership in the sport.

Three-time NCAA wrestling champion Yojiro Uetake, participating under Olympic rules for his native Japan, shrugged off a shoulder injury during his final match and won a second gold medal. His first came as a sophomore at O-State. Uetake had remained undefeated since 1963. Only basketball standout Bob Kurland of OSU had previously won two golds in the games.

A member of the 1964 team, Bobby Douglas was captain of the USA freestyle wrestling team but was forced to withdraw in 1968 when he sustained broken ribs in the first round. Refereeing at the wrestling venue were Masaaki Hatta of Japan, NCAA champion at OSU in 1962, and Tadaaki Hatta, NCAA champion for the Cowboys in 1965.

Tom Von Ruden, NCAA indoor champion in the 880 and two-mile relay at O-State, placed ninth in the 1500-meter run for the U.S. While at OSU, Von Ruden was a member of the world record-breaking two-mile relay team and a two-time All-America track star. Dr. Donald Cooper, head of the university hospital, was busy as a member of the medical staff during the games.


Since the Paris Games of 1924, thirty-two athletes had represented OSU and merited twelve gold medals. Another ten had served as coaches or managers of Olympic teams.^^

The football schedule for 1968 was formidable. Five opponents were bowl-bound. Two more were in the nation's top twenty. It was Phil Cutchin's sixth year and fans wanted an exciting season. There were early losses to Arkansas and Texas when the Cowboys suddenly stunned the Astrodome crowd with a 21-14 victory over high-scoring Houston. United Press voted the game as college football's "Upset of the Year." But the Pokes were unseated by Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri before knocking off favored Colorado and downing Iowa State. A loss to Kansas State and a return to lopsided defeats by Oklahoma contributed to the end of the Cutchin regime.^^

There were notable successes in those six years, but their infrequency was apparent in the overall record of 19-2-38. And there were those who believed that it was against Nebraska that the Cutchin men had been at their best. The only conference team the Pokes hadn't beaten, the Cornhuskers had battled hard for close ones: 20-16, 27-14, 21-17, 21-6, 9-0, and 21-20.

As the coach departed for private business in Texas, the team's skills showed in the selection of Ronnie Johnson to quarterback in the East-West Shrine Game and the Hula Bowl in Hawaii; Jon Kolb in the American Bowl in Tampa, the North-South Shrine Bowl in Miami, the Senior Bowl in Mobile and later the Coaches All-America Bowl. Larry Gosney played in the Blue-Gray Bowl in Montgomery and Terry Brown in the Miami Shrine game.

Following three weeks of intensive interviewing, on January 4, 1969, the Athletic Cabinet named 41-year-old Floyd Gass, class of 1950, coach of his alma mater. Gass had coached and served as athletic director of Austin College in Texas and now followed his OSU coach, Jim Lookabaugh, in returning to head his school's football program.^^

Amos Thomas' freshman records lighted Gallagher Hall, and as the talented Oklahoma City Douglas youth joined Coach Iba's varsity, there was finally an opportunity to climb out of the basketball doldrums. At 6-7, Thomas had the height and scoring ability that had been missing. With eight victories and six losses—three by a total of nine points—the Pokes were pointed toward a respectable season. But on January 24, Thomas was declared ineligible; nine months earlier he had joined a pick-up team in a tourney to raise Dunjee High School's athletic fund. NCAA and conference rules banned participation in outside tournaments and Iba learned no reinstatement was forthcoming. The team couldn't blunt the blow and the season record ended up 12-13.^^

Under new Big Eight rules, freshmen were eligible to wrestle in 1968-69 and Roderick was able to blend a freshman, six sophomores,


three juniors, and a senior into a workable team. They took three weights at the Great Plains Invitational with Katsumi Suzuki, J. Robinson, and Jerry Sherk. OU had crowned five there and battered OSU 18-9 in the first dual. Brigham Young and Iowa State also tripped the Pokes in duals, but the team retaliated with a 17-14 dousing of OU hopes at the wrestlers homecoming.

With both Oklahoma schools even at the Big Eight, Cowboy heavyweight John Ward scored a fall to take the team title in a tension-filled night. But inexperience showed at the NCAA Championships when OSU fell to sixth place. It was only the fourth time no O-Stater won a title. Iowa State, third in the Big Eight, had rebounded to take the nationals.^^

At a press conference at season's end, reporters commented on the trim, rugged Roderick's appearance at age 35. And they heard him announce his resignation from university coaching to become the first executive director of the United States Wrestling Federation, to be headquartered in Stillwater.

' 'I based my decision principally on two things, ' ' he told the media. "First, I knew I wasn't going to coach for 10 to 15 more years. Coaching has to be a challenge to you every day you wake up . . . to be effective. But I wanted to stay in wrestling. Second, the U.S. Wrestling Federation is something we've needed for a long time. It's going to be a leader in guiding and developing the sport of wrestling and I want to be a part of i t ."

So the third of Oklahoma State's giants in the sport of wrestling was moving on, leaving a carefully maintained legacy of 140 victories, 10 losses, 7 ties, and 7 NCAA titles in his thirteen years as head coach.

When O-State graduate and Stillwater High School Coach Tommy Chesbro was hired, alumni suggested it was the fourth time OSU had hired a wrestling coach with no previous collegiate coaching experience. But, Otis Wile, director of sports publicity, who was himself retiring after twenty-seven years, recalled that the first three ran up 356 dual victories, lost only 22 and tied 15 in their forty-nine years.

"Look what they could have done if they'd had a little experience!'' he teased.26

Now open to students and faculty was the spacious Colvin Health and Physical Education Center, named for a leader in physical education for women, Valerie Colvin. Indoor and outdoor pools and many other facilities were put to immediate non-varsity use in the school year of 1968-69. The only exception came in use of the Olympic indoor pool by Coach Cutter's swimming team. It was an off-year for the young team and although Cutter hosted the Big Eight Conference tourney in the new setting, O-State could only manage sixth place.

Three straight Big Eight titles had been collected by Coach Bryan's baseball squad. Could the 1969 team make it four in a row? There was


plenty of experience to carry the varsity through the 21-9 season. A head-to-head struggle at the last minute with OU ended as the Cowboys clinched the conference title. The Tulsa Hurricane was the District 5 NCAA opponent, but right fielder Terry Edwards came down with the measles that week. Missing his hot bat, the Cowboys lost the series and the bid to the Collegiate World Series, but Dobbs, Mike Tate, and Houck made All-Big Eight and All-District.2^

Modest gains were all track Coach Tate expected in his second year, and he wasn't disappointed. At the twelfth O-State Jamboree in the autumn, the Pokes had come in fourth. Earl Harris spiced the season by sprinting the 100 in 9.5 at Houston's big indoor meet at the Astrodome. Outdoors at Arlington, Texas, he spurted to a stunning 9.2, then took the 200 in 21.5. Both were wind-aided. The Pokes lassoed the Arlington team title.

Before inching up to fifth in the Big Eight, the track men dumped the Sooners—winners the previous spring—winning eleven of seventeen dual events. During conference events Oswalt long-jumped 25-3 1/2, a new school record, but it was second to the 26-1 leap of KU's Stan Whitley. At the Meet of Champions in Houston, Oswalt produced a long jump of 25-4.

Five former State men had gained PGA tour cards at Palm Beach Gardens earlier. Grier Jones was the top qualifier of 30, with Jim Jamieson, Jim BuUard, Jim Hardy, and George Hixon earning cards.

OSU soared back to the top in Big Eight golf in 1969, fighting off Oklahoma on a rainy course in Ames, Iowa. The individual title went to OU's Skip Graham at 214, a point under OSU's Jim Andrews. Mike Holder and Mark Hayes shot 216, Doug Tewell had 223 and Jim Shade 224.

The 13-8 tennis season saw three hard-fought battles in the Big Eight finals go to OU.

At the spring all-sports banquet. Jack Baker was honored for service as scholastic counselor and James Fleming as head of the work-study program. The Big Eight medallion and $1,000 NCAA scholarship for advanced study went to Joe Smith, along with the award for outstanding basketball player.

Others noted for contributions to their teams were Price, his third tennis award; Ray Murphy, wrestling; Gosney, football; Harris, track; Dobbs, baseball. Bob Workman, swimming; Jim Deaton, golf; and Jay Arneson, special wrestling award for having been named the outstanding freshman in the Big Eight. Pat Quinn was moved from associate to head of the sports publicity department upon Wile's retirement.

The newcomers of the program were Gass and Chesbro. Both coaches would be occupied with rebuilding and Gass emphasized the need for a winning attitude among the football varsity that would call for a 110


percent effort. O-State alumni would be expecting highly-productive seasons from each.28 The program had come light years from the days when boys in copper-toed boots kicked around a ball at lunch hour and others did a little "barnyard scufflin,'" as wrestling was known.

Endnotes


2. Wile, pp. 720, 762, 728, 731.


4. Wile, pp. 729-730; Doris Dellinger, Ride 'em Cowboys! The Story of Wrestling's Dynasty (Stillwater, OK: Frontier Printers, 1977), pp. 94-95.

5. Wile. pp. 732-735.

6. 1967 Oklahoma State University Track and Baseball, pp. 2-10; "A Lifetime of Coaching Achievements," Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 8, no. 5 (May 1967), p. 2.

7. Wile, p. 732.

8. 1968 Redskin, p. 150.

9. Wile, p. 741.

10. 1968 Redskin, p. 149; Wile, p. 747; Author's personal communication with Robert B. Kamm, Fall 1986.

11. Wile, p. 751.

12. Wile, pp. 753-754.

13. Wile, pp. 748-751; "OSU Wins NCAA Wrestling Title," Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 9, no. 5 (May 1968), pp. 10-11; Dellinger, pp. 94-96.

14. "OSU Wins NCAA Wrestling Title," p. 10.

15. Wile, p. 754.

16. Wile, pp. 754-756.

17. Wile, pp. 757-758.

18. Wile, p. 758; 1969 Redskin, p. 186.

19. Wile, p. 759.

20. 1969 Redskin, p. 185. 21. "University in Action," Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 9, no. 9 (December 1968),

p. 4.

22. 1969 Redskin, p. 165.

23. Wile, pp. 760, 766-767.

24. Wile, p. 770.

25. Wile, pp. 772-773.


27. Wile, pp. 774-777.

28. "His Objective: A Winning Football Team," Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 10, no. 2 (February 1969), p. 5.


30 Mr. Iba's Farewell 1969-1972

In his first season at the helm in 1969, Head Football Coach Floyd Gass guided Oklahoma State to the school's first winning season in a decade. Recording five victories against five losses in an undiluted and formidable schedule, the Cowboys produced stunning upsets over Houston, Texas Tech, and Kansas State despite a depth problem.

From a season-opening shut-out by powerful Arkansas, 39-0, swift team development continued. After the second game with 17-point favorite Houston, when the Pokes rode over the Cougars, 24-18, Gass told the press, "We've come a thousand miles since Arkansas."^

After the 35-0 victory over Iowa State, right tackle John Ward was named AU-American and he, linesmen Jerry Sherk, and John Little made All-Conference. The annual OSU-OU wrangle yet to come at Lewis Field, Gass was named Big Eight Coach of the Year. Sooner Steve Owens piled up 261 yards on fifty-five carries on his way to the Heisman Trophy, but the accomplished Cowboys never let up . As yells ricocheted from the stands, the state's oldest rivalry ended OU 28, OSU 27. It was the third one-point decision in five years.^

Tapped for play in the Blue-Gray Classic were Sherk, Benny Goodwin, and Bub Deerinwater, with Gass as coach.

There were other benefits ahead for the successful new coach. As Athletic Director Henry P. Iba reached mandatory retirement age, the Board of Regents announced Gass' selection as his successor. Gass' appointment was effective July 1, 1970. He would continue at the helm of a team that had been expected in pre-season polls to win no games, "or at the most, one win . " His first urgent task would be to launch a drive for stadium enlargement and ensure other facilities were brought


up to the average of the Big Eight schools.^ Cowboy fans and opponents alike were aware that the 1969-70 sea

son would be their last opportunity to watch the internationally respected Iba at work with his cagers. It was already understood that the reins would be passed to Iba's valued assistant, Sam Aubrey. A member of the 1942 and 1943 varsities before he saw war service in Italy, Aubrey was hospitalized a year with severe wounds. Determined to regain his athletic career, he made the 1946 Cowboy squad and helped lead OSU to the NCAA title. He had coached at Pryor High School and at Oklahoma State Tech at Okmulgee before returning to aid Iba in 1954.

In every fieldhouse on the schedule, there were standing ovations and award presentations for the renowned coach. Led by playmaker George "Sparky" Grober and forward Bob Buck, O-State began with a nine-game winning streak, determined to give the Iron Duke a good send-off.

While the sport now relied on basketball giants, the fastbreak, and the quick shot, the Pokes continued their ball control, "perfect shot" style, minus height and depth.* The year stood at 13-12. To make it a winning season, the cagers needed another victory to cap Iba's final night on the bench. The opponents came from Norman. Of their seventy-two meetings with OU in the Iba era, the Cowboys had won fifty times.

It was a night of sentiment. Otis Wile recalled, "The building once referred to as 'The Halls of

Iba' during the days when Gallagher Hall was the impregnable bastille of basketball—or almost unassailable—by rival cagers or wrestlers, it bulged the March evening in 1970 as Iba bowed out ."

A bronze bust of Iba was presented Oklahoma State by Bob Kurland, on behalf of former Iba men. The sculpture was similar to that of world-famous wrestling coach Edward C. Gallagher, a former athletic director. Another presentation was made by Jesse Renick, who, like Kurland, was an All-America hero who earlier had brought the school acclaim.

The festivities nearly consumed half-time as the team milled around the dressing room. Then Iba was free to give last-minute advice. What could be said to urge on a team already pouring everything into the night's effort?

"Forget the hullabaloo out there and play your game," he advised his Cowboys.^

Moving methodically amid the crowd's deafening cries, the Pokes produced a final 77-61 victory. Coach Iba's thirty-six years of leadership were ending, his record at OSU 655 triumphs and 316 losses.^

Already a major power in wrestling when Iba became athletic director, Oklahoma State athletes lifted the school to national recognition in football, basketball, baseball, golf, and track under his guidance. Only Southern California held more National Collegiate Athletic Association


As the level of collegiate wrestling improved dramatically from coast to coast. Tommy Chesbro was named in 1970 to the most difficult position of continuing OSU's dynasty of national champions begun by Ed Gallagher, and sustained by Art Griffith and Myron Roderick. Chesbro promptly shaped a youthful varsity into a strong NCAA showing and gained Rookie Coach of the Year honors.

team championships. The fourth alumnus in fifty years to govern OSU's destiny on the

wrestling mat inherited a rich tradition of winning. The team and individual titles, trophies and plaques, the prestige were all 29-year-old Tommy Chesbro's now. His job description was brief: continue the dynasty founded by Gallagher, fostered by Art Griffith, and broadened by Myron Roderick. Each giant had chosen his successor. The top coaching position in the sport, with its inherent mandate to win, was also the toughest to fulfill.

But Chesbro had grown up across the street from the campus, the son of football letterman Ray Chesbro. He had been on a pair of Roderick's national championship teams and had worked with the Pokes at the Nationals in 1968 and 1969. Familiar with the facilities and recruiting territory, he quickly set about rebuilding, aided by former standout Fred Fozzard.

Fans hadn' t long to wonder about the 1970 varsity. The season opened with a runaway win over Oklahoma, 27-7, as the rivals met for the 78th time. Michigan State and Iowa State pressed within a point of tying O-State during duals, but the Pokes held them off. Rated No. 1 in the nation, with twins Dwayne and Darrell Keller on hand, the team won all nine duals and the Cowboy Invitational in Gallagher Hall.

For the first time since 1958, Iowa State battled to the Big Eight championship, scoring 99 to O-State's 87. The momentum continued and Iowa State duplicated that score at the NCAA tourney in Evanston, Illinois. Although the Cowboys crowned the Kellers and Geoff Baum, only 79


points were accumulated for fourth place. Ray Stapp lost in the finals on a controversial referee's decision.

The strong mat showing brought Chesbro the Rookie Coach of the Year title. And most of the improving young varsity would be returning.

In late March, a serious accident during the U.S. Wrestling Federation tournament in Gallagher Hall resulted in a broken neck and permanent paralysis for OSU alumnus Ray Murphy from Tulsa. Wrestling unattached. Murphy was pursuing a graduate degree. Through the years, the monumental costs required for around-the-clock care for the former Cowboy wrestler would continue to be met largely through campus fund-raising activities and gifts from Oklahoma State alumni.

Eventually Murphy would be able to navigate the Tulsa University campus for post-graduate studies in a computerized wheelchair operated by the "sip and puff" method, when that technology became available. But the financial severity of the situation was instrumental in the young wrestling federation's acquisition of medical insurance that would cover each competitor in USWF tournaments all over the nation.^

Shy on depth as usual, the Pokes placed fifth in both the Big Eight Indoor and Outdoor track tournaments. But 1970 was notable for Earl Harris' blistering 30.4 300-yard event at the second Jaycee Indoor track meet in Oklahoma City. He led nine schools' competitors, coming in first just under the American record of 30.5. Jim Bolding won the 60-yard low hurdles at the conference indoor tourney. At the Arkansas Relays, Hal Oswalt won the long jump; OSU won the sprint medley with Mike Hull, Dennis Schultz, Jeff Litvak, and Peter Kaal; and led the 440 relay with Harris, Litvak, Schultz, and Bolding.

The Cowboys' skills were most apparent in a quadrangular with Louisiana State, Houston, and Tulane at Baton Rouge. Harris turned out the fastest 100 ever run in Louisiana, a 9.2 spurt, then anchored the Poke 440 relay to a 40-second clocking with Litvak, Bolding, Schultz, and Harris. A winning mile relay was claimed by Chris Martin, Schultz, Stan Stolpe, and Hull in 3:10.3. Jim Benien added a victory in shot and Kaal a mile win in 4:03.7; Bolding broke Coach Ralph Tate's high hurdle record as an OSU student in 13.9. Twenty-seven years earlier, Tate had run 14 flat. Topping it off were a 6-8 high jump by Holland, Oswalt won the long jump and Kaal the 880. It was LSU's first home loss in seven years, but OSU scored 105, LSU 94 1/2, Houston 44, and Tulane 4 1/2.

The Pokes nabbed thirteen of seventeen events to win the dual with OU, then captured the 440 baton event with Litvak, Oswalt, Schultz, and Harris in 40.9 at the Kansas Relays. But a photo finish at the Drake Relays saw OSU and Texas A&M break the tape together. A writer observed, "It took 40 seconds to run the race and 22 minutes . . . to decide the Texas Aggies won by an eyelash."^

It was a difficult year for Coach Chet Bryan's baseball varsity, and


a monsoon season didn't help. The defense of four consecutive Big Eight Conference titles could not be maintained for a fifth crown in the 11-17 year. Freshman Jim Jacobson pitched a no-hitter in Houston, but was lost for arm surgery. Outfielder and first baseman Terry Edwards headed the batters with a .358 and earned All-Big Eight honors.^

The 1970 tennis varsity was fourth in the Big Eight behind OU, Kansas State, and Kansas. No. 5 player Bruce Barger went to the singles finals; Mike Howard and Rick Jones reached the semi-finals in the No. 1 doubles. The Poke swimmers had a 4-7 dual season.

Suceeding Dean Randall Jones as chairman of the Athletic Cabinet was James C. Hillier. R. E. Chapel became faculty representative to the Big Eight and the NCAA. The organization of athletic support activities was undergoing gradual and progressive change. The Athletic Association, first called the Stadium Corporation, organized to raise funds and direct athletics, was no longer necessary. A development foundation was now in existence, soliciting funds for the entire university. With increasing Big Eight and NCAA requirements, greater accountability was deemed advisable. On June 30, 1970, an Athletic Council was formed with thirteen voting members appointed by the president of Oklahoma State University. Vested with the responsibility to "recommend policies and exercise general supervision for the OSU Athletic program," the council serves in an advisory capacity to the president and athletic director. 1°

Led by No. 5 varsity golfer Mike Holder, the Cowboys strolled through the Big Eight tourney field to win the school's twelfth conference title in thirteen years by 31 strokes. It was a year of considerable depth. Jim Deaton won the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Tourney as three Cowboys finished in the top four. Houston continued its hold on the NCAA championship, but Coach Labron Harris' varsity finished fourth in the nation. Individually, Mark Hayes tied for seventh with a 290 and Holder carded a 297.1^

Graduation bit deeply into Coach Gass' second football varsity in 1970, but Tony Pounds settled into the quarterback post. Ends Hermann Eben and Tom Dearinger and flanker Dick Graham, proven receivers, were back. The NCAA now allowed schools to enlarge their schedules by one additional game and Gass arranged for the Cowboys to meet Mississippi State. Studying the Pokes' vigorous eleven-game schedule, preseason pollsters shook their heads.^^

A 14-13 loss to Mississippi State was followed by a 23-7 defeat by Arkansas. Still, there was talk of enlarging Lewis Field as the team prepared for Houston at the home opener. The eleventh-ranked Cougars had piled up ten victories since their 1969 loss to O-State, when the Cowboys startled them with another upset, 26-17. With the 1944 and 1945 bowl varsities in the stands for a reunion, Eban set a school record by


When Mr. Iba (right center) retired in 1970, grateful fans crowded Gallagher Hall to shake his hand and to welcome Sam Aubrey (left center) as he moved up to the head coaching position. Coach Aubrey was no newcomer to OSU. When he returned from World War II and extensive injuries, he provided inspiration to other players.

running his pass receiving total to 1,518 yards as OSU trounced Texas Christian.

Kansas and Iowa State were the only other victories in the 4-7 injury-laden season, as opponents outscored OSU by 168 points, including a 66-6 disaster at Oklahoma.^^

When Sam Aubrey assumed the leadership of the university's basketball program, it had been severely hampered by minimal recruiting in the 1960s and 1970s while other schools mounted major drives to attract top high school stars. Successful recruiting generally led to success on the cage floor.

Like his contemporary, retired wrestling coach Art Griffith, Mr. Iba believed in drawing team members from the state and community as much as possible. They were also of the shared opinion that an opportunity to gain an education and to be part of an Oklahoma State team was a privilege not to be turned down. Griffith and Iba were elite leaders in their sports, but personal skills and rigorous practices could no longer


entirely compensate for undernourished recruiting budgets or for scholarships available elsewhere.^*

As Iba's assistants, first Gene Smelser and then Aubrey, had assumed the task of scouting promising players. Although Iba had come to see the need for gradually increasing the recruiting budget for football, other sports met the same fate as basketball in that budgetary item. By 1970, football was allotted $56,000 for recruitment. Basketball remained at $4,000, scarcely enough for in-state travel and effectively banning out-of-state visits to prospects.^^

With assistants Cecil Epperly and Les Berryhill, the new mentor had begun practice only to run into problems with two starters and a pair of squadmen who were interested in attending a campus meeting of black students. Excused to attend, the youths were nearly an hour late to practice the following two days, disrupting practice plans. Aubrey dismissed them, saying rules were necessary and must apply to all.

He continued his stand through a mild black protest. O-State had dropped its first pair of games, then come back to win two, including a 93-87 victory over Memphis State in double overtime. A group of nearly 200 black students sat behind the Cowboy bench during the Memphis game and cheered for the opponent, but there was no outburst or further incident.

The close games of 1971 usually eluded the troubled Pokes, who were unable to overcome manpower and rebounding problems. Even the weather seemed to conspire against them. As the school bus headed for a game with Missouri, a ten-inch snow and blizzard stranded the team in Arkansas City, Kansas. On ahead, 500 cars were stalled. After two days' confinement on the bus the weary team made it through the storm, but Missouri slipped past, 69-67. The trying season ended 7-19.

Freshman Lennie Norris of London broke the Big Eight record in the 200-yard butterfly as O-State's sharply improved swimmers placed fifth in the conference. Norris' time was 1:57.36.^^

The collegiate wrestling world was openly curious. Could Chesbro continue Oklahoma State's winning mat tradition at the natibftal level? Granted, with returning national champions Baum and the Kellers, OSU appeared to warrant pre-season No. 1 ranking. And Japanese Olympian Yojiro Uetake had sent sensational Yoshiro Fujita, who captured attention at the Southern Open in Chattanooga and the Cowboy Invitational.

There were television cameras at matside now for the Bedlam Series as the Sooners visited and were rebuffed. When Chesbro stepped up the number of duals to fourteen, Iowa State became the only school other than Oklahoma ever to defeat OSU twice in a season. But injured Darrell Keller and Ray Stapp were back in time to crown a record seven champions at the Big Eight.

OSU's 27th NCAA title followed at Auburn, Alabama. Fujita won,


and Baum and Darrell Keller repeated as champions, with Darrell earning the outstanding individual trophy awarded his brother in 1968. Dwayne Keller lost in the finals, his only collegiate defeat. Jay Arneson also took second.

The Cowboys were back again and Chesbro was named Coach of the Year by the National Wrestling Coaches Association. ^

Although Frank Thompson led varsity hitters with .352, the sophomore-dominated baseball program was off its usual fine pace in the 14-19 overall season. Wrestling assistant Fred Fozzard steered the tennis team in 1971, but OU continued to own all Big Eight titles. The Pokes team landed in fifth place, and Rick Jones lettered for the third year.^^

Strong performances in the school's track schedule saw twenty-five of OSU's thirty-six records lowered during Coach Tate's four years. With the new all-weather track, the rest would soon fall.

Running the mile in 3:59.5, Larry Rose became the first native Oklahoman to slip under the four minute barrier, and there were other outstanding efforts. State placed second in the autumn Big Eight cross country. Kansas took the OSU Jamboree, but George Stewart earned the individual title.

Moving indoors, the Cowboy mile relay team won the U.S. Track and Field Federation meet at Omaha and the team of Jim Bolding, Dick and Stan Stolpe, and Dennis Schultz repeated again at Albuquerque and at the Oklahoma City Jaycees' third meet. The two-milers also won at the Jaycee indoor, as the team placed second, and ranked fourth at the conference indoor after a successful dual season. Although he broke the 1,000-yard record at the NCAA indoor at Detroit, Rose was second in the event but gained All-America honors.

The Henry F. Schulte Award for the Big Eight's outstanding outdoor track performer went to O-State hurdler Bolding as Tate's team snared third place. Bolding set a stadium record time of 51.2; was second in high hurdles and ran 46.2 on his leg of the mile relay team that placed second. In June, Bolding charged to third in the NCAA Championships intermediate hurdles, but won the event at the Kennedy Games at Berkeley.1^

Shooting a 216, Danny Edwards led the Cowboys to Oklahoma State's 13th Big Eight golf championship in fourteen years as OSU hosted the conference tournament in 1971. It was a 1-2-3-4 finish, as Mark Hayes, Ted Coin and Doug Tewell finished just behind Edwards. Earlier the Pokes picked up their eighth straight Oklahoma Intercollegiate at Shawnee, with Edwards low man, dipped to third in the Houston All-America, and edged Texas for the Austin Invitational title.

Ben Crenshaw stroked Texas University to the NCAA golf title, stunning longtime leader Houston, and the Cowboys placed fifth. Senior


Hayes was named AU-American a second time and went on to win the Oklahoma Amateur later in the summer.^^

As head coach, Gass was opening his third season in a four-year contract that charged him "to build a winning football program." The 1971 campaign showed glimpses of greatness as the Cowpokes charged through the first seven games with four triumphs and a tie. Offsetting that achievement were six losses, five to the bowl-bound teams of Arkansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Iowa State, and Oklahoma—enough to stagger any varsity.^^

Quarterback duties were split by Pounds and Brent Blackman and the pro-type offense continued working out of an " I " formation, as well as a double wing. A 37-16 rout of Missouri at Columbia was the season's highlight. That win marked only the second OSU romp over the Tigers since OSU began Big Eight competition in 1960.^2

Gass had worked throughout the summer with former coach Jim Lookabaugh, now chairman of the athletic improvement program. Together they reached out over the entire state to keep alumni posted on the $2.5 million proposal. By fall, the Board of Regents approved Lewis Field's fifth expansion, to be financed through private donations.

With the Cowboy-Sooner game over, the old gridiron began to disappear. Excavation work lowered the playing field twelve feet. Artificial turf now covered the entire field. The running track was relocated on the northwest campus near the Colvin Physical Education Center. Bench-type wooden stadium seats were ripped out and twenty rows of permanent seats were bolted down on both sides. Official sellout capacity rose from 39,000 to 50,440. When funds dwindled, plans for a lighting system to allow night games had to be placed on hold.^^

A catastrophic cage campaign faced second-year Coach Aubrey, whose young varsity dropped twenty-two and won only four. Eight games were lost by a total of 29 points; three by 2 points or less.^*

But there was cheering news from OSU's swimmers that winter. Largely made up of freshmen and sophomores. Coach Cutter's 1971-72 varsity swam to a surprising third place in the Big Eight competition. Previously, O-State had not finished higher than fourth. Now it had begun to appear that a title contender was arising in the Colvin pool.

Freshman John Meyer and sophomore Biddick came home with conference trophies in the 200-yard backstroke and 100-yard freestyle. The 400-yard freestyle team of Lennie Norris, Richard Baldwin, Bill Allen, and Biddick placed second at the Big Eight, and became the first Cowboy swimmers to qualify for the NCAA. Adding a coed touch at pool-side as timers and aides were "Cutter's Cuties."^^

Five Big Eight champions were gone from the wrestling room when Coach Chesbro opened the doors for the 1972 season and studied the remaining veterans and the newcomers in the lower weights. Unper-


turbed, he said, "It 'll be a little tough at the start, but I think you'll be surprised at the improvement we'll make."^^

Dropping a pair of duals in mid-season, the Pokes were stabilized by Arneson and Fujita, but lacked a permanent 118-pounder. Chesbro's faith in his team was rewarded as OSU stunned the Big Eight by locking up the school's eleventh league title in fifteen attempts.

But the national tournament, which had seemed within reach, was over for OSU in the first minute and twenty-four seconds of the first period of the first match at Maryland when little Fujita suffered a separated shoulder. Twenty "certain" points were lost, and so was team morale. Although no individual champions were crowned, third and fourth places gave OSU third in team standings behind runaway Iowa State and Michigan State.^^

Coach Bryan's young Cowboy baseball club improved in 1972, racing conference opponents right down to the Big Eight wire for a third place finish. Overall, the team posted a 15-17-1 season. Charlie Meyers led the hitting with .349 and Bill Baird was the most consistent pitcher at 5-2. First baseman Dan Massari led Poke fielders with a .990 average in 33 games and 270 chances.^^

Oklahoma State's cross country runners, Johan Halberstadt, Kaal, Mike Manke, Reid Harter, and Charles Boatright, swept to the school's first Big Eight crown since 1960, qualified in District Five and streaked all the way to seventh at the NCAA Championships. The team also claimed firsts at the OSU Jamboree and U.S. Track and Field Federation meet, and Coach of the Year honors went to Ralph Tate.

At the Big Eight Indoor, the Cowboys placed fourth, with Bolding taking first in both low and high hurdles, and Halberstadt winning the two-mile. At the conference outdoor meet, Bolding and Schultz set conference records. Bolding won the 440 intermediate hurdles, Schultz the 220, and Halberstadt the three-mile for a third place team finish.

With construction of a new quarter-mile, eight-lane track underway on the north side of McGeorge Avenue, no home meets were scheduled.29

In 1972, Rick Jones led an improved tennis squad to third in the league after a 7-5-1 season under second-year Coach Fozzard. Stillwater businessman George Berry was associate coach.

Long a comfort to OSU athletic fans, the Oklahoma State golfers were seeing increased competition across the country during the school year. But Coach Harris' crew captured seven of ten tournaments, then ran away with the Big Eight title, 26 strokes ahead of Missouri, for the 14th time. The NCAA eluded the Pokes again, but they placed well at fourth. AU-American Edwards was the leading linkster, taking first in the North and South Amateur Golf Championship and becoming the individual Big Eight champion for the second year.^^


On May 4, the Board of Regents announced approval of the elevation of assistant football coach Dave Smith to head football coach, effective May 1. Gass, who would remain athletic director, commented at a press conference the following day, "I alone made this decision. There was no pressure of any kind."

Smith had joined the staff January 22 after serving as coach of offense for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League. He had conducted spring practice to allow Gass to concentrate on the fund-raising campaign for the stadium expansion and athletic program.

Smith was frank. "Our potential is good," he stressed, but cautioned that even with

a positive attitude "you have to be realistic in reaching the goal of a good season. I know it will be extremely difficult." The number one need. Coach Smith added, was talent, the exceptional athlete, to meet the challenge of Big Eight competition.^^

In summer competition, O-State alumni Gene Davis and J. Robinson wrestled their way onto the 1972 Olympic team for the U.S. At the Munich Games, Davis competed in freestyle and Robinson in Greco-Roman. Heavyweight Harry Geris wrestled for his native country, Canada. And for the third time, Henry P. Iba was basketball coach.

Endnotes

1. Otis Wile, "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs: The Chronological Story of Sports at Oklahoma State University From the Beginning in the 1890s Through the 1960s," pp. 781-782, manuscript, Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

2. Wile, pp. 787-788. 3. "Coach Floyd Gass Named Athletic Director," Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol.

11, no. 1 (January 1970), p. 5.

4. 1970 Redskin, p. 165, Oklahoma State University Yearbook; 1969 Redskin, p. 174.

5. Wile, pp. 789-791.

6. Cowboy Basketball 1983/1984 Media Guide, p. 56.

7. Doris Dellinger, Ride 'em. Cowboys! The Story of Wrestling's Dynasty (Stillwater, OK: Frontier Printers, 1977), pp. 100-104.

8. Wile, pp. 793-795.

9. Wile, pp. 795-796; Oklahoma State Baseball—1971.

10. 1970 Redskin, pp. 152, 175; Wile, pp. 796-797,748; "Constitution and Bylaws of the Athletic Council of Oklahoma State University (Adopted June 30, 1970)," Files of the Athletic Council, President's Office, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

11. 1984 Oklahoma State Golf Media Guide, p. 50.

12. Wile, p. 798.

13. Wile, pp. 798-810.

14. John Paul Bischoff, Mr. Iba: Basketball's Aggie Iron Duke (Oklahoma City: Western Heritage Books, 1980), pp. 204-205; Dellinger, p. 83.


15. Bischoff, pp. 205-208.

16. Wile, pp. 811, 813.


18. Wile, pp. 816-817, 821.

19. Wile, p. 818; 1972 Redskin, p. 110.

20. Wile, pp. 820-821; 1972 Redskin, p. 114.

21. 1972 Redskin, p. 90; "Coach Floyd Gass Named Athletic Director," pp. 4-5.

22. 1972 Redskin, pp. 90-95.

23. Wile, p. 823; Oklahoma State 1985 Football Press Guide, p. 104.

24. 1972 Redskin, pp. 96-97.

25. 1972 Redskin, pp. 106-107.



28. 1973 Redskin, p. 253.

29. 1973 Redskin, pp. 246-249; Oklahoma State University Track 1974 Media Guide; Special Stadium Issue, Oklahoma State University Daily O'Collegian, Fall 1971, p. 4.

30. 1973 Redskin, pp. 250-251, 254-255.

31. "Smith Named Head Football Coach," Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 13, no. 6 (June-July 1972), p. 3.


31 Enter Title IX

With the explosive advent of federal legislation in 1972, a new type of athletic bedlam arose in the arenas of Oklahoma State University and its fellow schools across the land. The interloper's name was Title IX of the Education Amendments. It was designed by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare to bolster women's opportunities in collegiate sports at the varsity level, but clouds of confusion swirled about Title IX's actual intent and provisions.

By 1979, when the air was clearer, an OSU Outreach article reflected, "Title IX . . . descended like a bomb on the seemingly quiet order of athletic administration. In the time between its passage in 1972 and its implementation in 1975, cries of anger and sighs of relief were among the more common emotions expressed by those in education in general and athletics in particular."^

In Stillwater, through the planning of the administration and the general makeup of the student body, the pleasant southwestern campus had quietly integrated, withstood the rebellious sixties and seventies, and avoided destructive confrontations prevalent elsewhere.

Home, family, and education for a productive future continued to be tightly woven threads in the basic fabric of life for most OSU students and faculty members. To underline the greater importance of learning than sports participation at O-State, varsity members were often referred to as student-athletes.^

Now, by federal mandate, varsity athletes came in two genders: Cowboys and Cowgirls. And the land-grant school's athletic budget, at last precariously balanced after long decades of troublesome bills, quivered.

If the men who governed the expenditures of OSU's sole revenue-


producing sport, football, were incensed by what were perceived to be Title IX dictates, they had company in other fieldhouses and presidential suites. How could eight or nine additional sports be funded, and equally at that? Separate but equal facilities? Scholarships? Would women demand their own football team? Would fans even show up, let alone pay, to see women shoot baskets or pitch a softball? Recruiting and travel funds would have to be coughed up as well. But how?

While it waited for better definition of Title IX's goals, O-State began interviewing and hiring coaches who could develop varsity sports from extra-curricular status, allowing women of talent, determination, and dedication to share the goal of excellence in competition.^

There was irony in the school's efforts toward "progress." The girls of Oklahoma A&M had begun outdoor basketball long before the men were tempted to try the game. Tennis was deemed "fit only for girls" before a male varsity took to the courts in 1914.^ In the 1920s women athletes opted not to pursue their own varsities, but to advance physical education classwork and volunteer sports clubs, gaining the best all-around education possible.

Where individuals had been footing their own sports expenses, women's varsity sports had begun to receive some university funds for uniforms, equipment, and out-of-town competition by 1974. Four new station wagons were available for road trips. As late as 1978—when the women's program included as many sports as the men's—the women's budget was still only about seven percent of the total athletic picture. Future budgets would begin edging upward.

The two programs remained separate operations until they were merged July 1, 1978. In the early seventies, however, women's sports continued to be handled by the College of Arts and Sciences under the Division of Health, Physical Education and Leisure Sciences. Women continued to compete under the auspices of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) until the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) assumed the responsibility of governing women's athletics.^

As schools slowly grumbled toward conformity with the government fiat in the seventies and early eighties, women's coaches found themselves with real possibilities for developing their sports—and endless intricacies to master during the period of transition to full compliance with the National Collegiate Athletic Association rules. Expanded budgets, schedules, and travel, as well as rulings on eligibility and financial aid had to be juggled in the glare of the unaccustomed limelight.

But the fine art of attracting outstanding athletes might well have been the biggest challenge for women's programs from coast to coast. Recruiting, until 1972, was an exotic game women's coaches had seen but never sampled.


With careful planning, Cowgirl varsity sports graduated from intramural schedules into nationally-competitive ranks. Cross country standout Karen Bridges, fourth from left, became a seven-time All-American.

"Recruiting was probably the biggest mystique of Title IX," Ann Baer, assistant athletic director at Oklahoma State University, recalled in 1986. "There was a lot of training; women's coaches were very interested in rules changes and how they would affect their sports. There were many, many questions about recruiting. To start with, they were a little more conscious or leery of the rules and wanted to be very sure they didn't do anything they shouldn't do.

"At OSU, Bruce Mays taught seminars on what a good recruiter does, which the women's coaches attended eagerly. Recruiting was a whole new thing for them. That was probably the biggest difference or change they had to undergo. There was a lot of effort from everybody involved to help them understand where they were and where they were going. ' '

While Title IX would never win popularity contests in many quarters, neither was it as devastating to athletic programs as anticipated.

"One of the biggest problems may have been what people thought was going to happen. Just fear itself," Ms. Baer said. "A lot of things they were arguing about did not transpire. People worried about what would be equal in football. If you funded ninety-five scholarships in football, what were you going to do for women? They finally decided there was no counterpart to football. I'm sure there are some very severe problems in some other institutions, but I think most of the fears about losses to men's programs have been allayed."

With women's programs "definitely all on the upswing" at OSU, Ms. Baer agreed Title IX helped "over the long run ." But she noted that although the government edict could be drifting, fading in its strength to give women athletes a boost from years of lower status and funding,


the NCAA in 1986 had reaffirmed its intention that women's intercollegiate sports programs continue.

"A lot of collegiate areas have already backed off. I haven't noticed it at OSU. Athletic Director Myron Roderick is as committed to good women's programs as he is to men's. He views it as a total program. A lot of the problems other schools have, we really don't have here. We've integrated all of our auxiliary services, our trainers, our sports information department. The total athletic program—it's for athletes. It's not/or men, for women, or this side does that. It's all together, which is very effective in making sure the program stays on an even keel."

Oklahoma's economy has dictated budget-slashing for the state-supported school in recent years. However, all scholarship programs for women are fully funded. Track is the only exception, she notes, but pointed out that men's track is not fully funded, either.

"It 's about as fair as it can be, regarding men's and women's sports," she added.

From a practical standpoint, larger revenue-producing sports such as football will continue to be funded better than smaller, non-moneymaking sports. However, the assistant A.D. is a staunch defender of efforts to fund all sports at OSU.

"There are many institutions that support intercollegiate sports and they have no scholarships. Their coaches may have to raise their own money, which governs how many scholarships they have. Some schools live almost in poverty, compared to how our teams are treated here ," she stressed. "Usually when our budgets are cut, it's up to the coach to decide where to cut. It hurts, but Myron never says, 'Okay, you only get half the number of scholarships you had. ' We do what we can to make sure people have the tools to work with to get where we would like them to be.

"Travel budget use is up to the individual coach," Ms. Baer explained. The coach can elect to skimp on some elements, going 'bottom-line.' That's a familiar practice for sports such as track.

"For many years, they would get vans, order bread and lunchmeat, and sort of have a picnic. They probably had a very good t ime," she said, smiling. Football, by contrast, bears the brunt of supporting almost the entire athletic program through ticket sales. Grid stars do not munch homemade sandwiches on their travels.

One of the most discussed problems in women's sports today has to do with coaches. But it is not the large number of men coaching women's varsities that alarms staunch supporters of opportunities for women, Ms. Baer reported. Instead, older women coaches are baffled that, with more top coaching opportunities available under Title IX, there are not a great many more women in the profession, working their way up through the junior high and high school teaching ranks to the coUe-


giate level. Current study projects are now researching the valid query, "Where are the women coaches?"^

But whether they were coached by men or women, by 1986 nearly all Cowgirl varsities had taken giant strides in gaining perennial national prestige.

A sixth straight conference crown went to OSU that year, rallying under new head tennis coach and O-State grad Brad Louderback following the death of coach Ike Groce, 44, December 27, 1985. During his seven years on campus, Groce shaped five consecutive Big Eight league championships, forty-five singles and doubles conference title winners. The team finished in the top eight nationally in 1984-85 and tied for fifth in 1986.7

Ann Pitts' defending champion Cowgirl golfers clinched the school's third Big Eight Conference title in a row in 1986, outpacing second place Oklahoma by 27 strokes as Robin Hood added her second league crown. Robin went on to tie for 15th nationally as the team placed tenth at the NCAA tourney.8

An outstanding softball recruiter and motivator, in eight years Sandy Fischer molded a nationally recognized program, amassing nine All-Americans and five trips to the national tournament. Always one of the three strongest leagues in the country, the Big Eight saw four of its seven teams ranked in the top twenty in 1985. Facing a perpetual challenge, Ms. Fischer's career record was 307-142-1 following a season of 27-18-1 in 1986.9

After a dismal 1982-83 cage season. Coach Dick Halterman arrived to turn the team around for a dramatic 18-11, third place finish in the Big Eight, the finest league standing yet posted by the women. A fourth place standing followed in 1984-85. Only three times in thirteen years have the Cowgirls failed to uncork a winning season.^^

World record holder Christine McMiken continued to shine brightly under the coaching of Dick Weis in 1985-86. She snared her second straight Big Eight cross country crown and led the Cowgirls to fourth-place in the 5,000-meter, the women's best-ever finish. The track year saw her collect her seventh All-Big Eight and seventh All-America honors. Recuperation from a serious car wreck kept McMiken from indoor participation, but Justine Craig won the 880 at the Big Eight and Leisa Knowles was fourth in the 500-meter dash at the NCAA.

Outdoor track also produced the Cowgirls' best-ever third place conference standing when McMiken, a senior from New Zealand, took both the 3,000 and 5,000 meter runs, Veronica Martin won the 1,500 meters; and Knowles the 100-meter dash and 400-meter hurdles. At the NCAA Outdoor Track Championships, McMiken was second in the 10,000-meter and Knowles was runner-up in the 400 hurdles.^^

However, in June 1986 a shrinking athletic budget capsized OSU's


12-year-old gymnastics program. Remaining sports other than football and men's basketball absorbed 10 percent funding cuts totalling $600,000. Larry Bilhartz led Cowgirl gymnasts to a Big Eight title in 1980-81 and a second place finish in 1986, produced three All-Americans and earned top ten national ranking three seasons.^^

"It's very difficult now, with economics the way they are, to fund enough programs and to fund them the way you want to," Ann Baer cautioned. "OSU's budget isn't the highest in the Big Eight, but when it comes to wins, places, and shows in the Big Eight and NCAA, we rank right up there every year."

More than money, more than fully funding women's athletics, is involved in O-State's overall athletic tradition. Adequate programs for men and women where there is genuine interest was Title IX's thrust. It signalled not the end of the athletic budget but the beginning of an era of equal rights and a broadened arena for sports achievement at OSU.

Endnotes

1. "OSU Athletics: Goals, Benefits and a Long Tradition," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 20, no. 1 (January 1979), p. 5.

2. "OSU Athletics," p. 4.

3. 1975 Redskin, pp. 222-223, Oklahoma State University Yearbook.

4. 1915 Redskin, p. 207.

5. 1975 Redskin, pp. 222-223; "OSU Athletics," p. 5.

6. Author interview with Ann Baer, 16 June 1986, Athletics Centennial History Collection, Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

7. 1986 OSU Women's Tennis Media Guide, pp. 3-5.

8. Tulsa World, 30 April 1986, p. 30.

9. 1986 OSU Softball Media Guide, p. 14.

10. 1986 OSU Basketball Media Guide, pp. 1-5.

11. 1985-86 Big Eight Women's Year in Review, p. 6.

12. Stillwater NewsPress, 22 June 1986, p. 1B; 1985-86 Oklahoma State University Gymnastics Media Guide, p. 3.


32 Orange Power 1972-1976

And then it was almost autumn, although Oklahoma's sizzling weather stoutly denied it. Short-sleeved fans flocked to town to glimpse 11,000-square yards of artificial turf that would eliminate mud-coated football teams on long, rainy afternoons. Five Big Eight opponents were already proud possessors of manmade turf; a sixth was installing it. OSU was right on target.

Handsomely refurbished Lewis Field was not the only element that drew Oklahoma State students and alumni on football Saturdays in the fall of 1972. The initial team to charge onto the newly laid turf was a sharply improved squad shaped by first-year Head Coach Dave Smith. The Pokes were headed for a 4-3 year in the Big Eight Conference and a 6-5 overall finish, the first winning season since 1959.

Texas-Arlington went down first and OSU was suddenly leading the conference. Arkansas slipped past by a point—in sharp contrast to past lopsided defeats. Colorado, Missouri, Baylor, Kansas State, and Iowa State bowed. For the first time since 1958, the school made it into the top twenty national teams named by the Associated Press. Going into its season-ending battle with the Sooners, OSU was tied for third place in the country's number one conference. Virginia Tech and Kansas had prevailed by only two and three points respectively, easing somewhat the annual shellackings by Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

On the All-Big Eight team were defensive standouts Darryll Stewart and Cleveland Vann. But fans' championship dreams for 1973 were abruptly punctured when Southern Methodist University beckoned. A former SMU assistant for eight seasons. Coach Smith departed to head the Mustang program.


In preparation for installation of the university's first artificial turf, men and machines scraped away every trace of past victories in 1972. But Lewis Field's improved playing surface was commemorated by new triumphs and the first winning season in thirteen years.

Thus 1972 became the year in which the school had three head coaches. Involved in fund-raising. Athletic Director Floyd Gass had handed his football coaching duties to Smith before spring practice had opened. Following spring drills. Smith officially had the job. As defensive coordinator, Jim Stanley had directed the Cowboy defense's sharp turn-around and key role in the winning season. He had played on Paul "Bear" Bryant's unbeaten Southwest Conference Championship team at Texas A&M in 1956 and in the 1957 Gator Bowl. The regents' nod went to Stanley as the next head coach.^

Armed with a 9-3 record, the O-State women's field hockey team brought home a trophy for first place in the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Sports Day in 1972. The 16-girl team was coached by Pauline Winter. In their second year, the OSU women's swim team won all three outings, tying for first at the Arkansas Invitational and taking second at Texas Woman's University Invitational. A swimathon helped raise funds for travel and lodging.^

As a training base for the regular swimming season, the men's var-


sity had begun honing skills in water polo when school opened. It was popular from the first splash. Other universities were also using it to sharpen their teams. The Pokes downed Phillips 66 and the University of Tulsa twice in the fast, competitive sport.

Later the swimmers drowned four schools in regular dual meets, snared second in the Big Eight Relays, and fifth in their own Cowboy Invitational. Developing into a serious contender for the Big Eight title under Coach Jim Cutter, the 400-yard freestyle and 400-yard medley relay teams were nationally ranked, as were Dave Biddick in the 100-yard freestyle and Ross Seymour in the 200-yard butterfly.^

But the growing skills of the football and swimming squads were not matched by the tall newcomers and three returning starters on the basketball court. The men's traditional OSU ball-control style was altered drastically when the Big Eight introduced the use of the 30-second clock.

Although Andy Hopson led the Cowboys to an average of nearly five rebounds per game more than their opponents, an avalanche of mechanical errors descended in the 7-19 season. At season's end, Coach Sam Aubrey had completed twenty years in O-State's basketball program, the final three as head coach, succeeding Henry P. Iba. His teams had posted an 18-60 record. The respected Aubrey resigned as the season ended, plunging into duties as administrative assistant in the athletic department.

It was a rebuilding year for Dr. Jacy Showers' Cowgirl roundballers, but the predominantly freshman squad turned in a 5-4 season, highlighted by the women's first appearance in Gallagher Hall. The badminton team competed in both intercollegiate and open matches under Coach Jo Flint, and produced ten trophies for OSU. JoAnn Rutherford guided the volleyball team to the state championship and fifth in the regionals in Fort Worth in a 10-1 year.*

The 1973 wrestling lineup was nearly as inexperienced at the collegiate level as the basketball squad had been, but junior college grads Everett Gomez at 118 and Tom Hazell at heavyweight shored up both ends. Coach Tom Chesbro's 11-1 mat season saw wins over the Sooners, twice, and fierce opponents Michigan State and Iowa State; the only loss was a painful 17-16 decision at Washington. Dual victory No. 400 came in the final match against Southern Illinois. Only 28 losses and 15 ties had been recorded since 1915 by four nationally-recognized coaches, each an OSU alumnus, each with his own distinctive style of coaching.

Tucking away first place in the Cowboy Invitational, the Pokes next landed five champions and the team's third consecutive Big Eight title. But the size and pressure of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's annual tourney was increasing. Despite a successful year, OSU dropped to fifth at the 1973 championships at Washington. The team crown continued in Iowa State's possession. Bobby Stites lost a one-point


decision in the finals and for only the fifth time since 1928, the Pokes returned to Stillwater with no individual champions.^

O-State's men's track program ranked ninth in the country in 1972-73. In cross country, John Halberstadt was the individual champion in the five mile at Columbia, coming in with a time of 24:22, to give OSU the Big Eight team championship. Three school records fell during the indoor season. At the Oklahoma City Invitational, Mike Marks set a shot record of 59-1 3/4. During a West Texas State dual, Gary Shum-ski triple jumped 44-7, and at the NCAA at Detroit the distance medley relay quartet of John Holderman, Dennis Schultz, Charles Boatright, and Mike Manke ran 9:48.8. At Houston on a one-fifth mile track, they lowered that to 9:44.4. The indoor track year ended with OSU fourth in the Big Eight.

School marks continued to fall in outdoor track as Schultz ran the 440 in 45.8 at Wichita; shotputter Marks edged to within 3 1/4 inches of his 60-foot goal; George Stevens sent the javelin 255-11 at the Kansas Relays; Boatright, Colin Gumming, Halberstadt, and Manke ran the 4-mile relay in 16:23.0; Steve Pettes, James Kurrasch, Schultz, and Manke lowered the OSU sprint medley relay to 3:16.8 at the Drake Relays; and Manke, Stan Stolpe, Holderman, and Halberstadt cut the distance medley relay to 9:37.0 at the Texas Relays.

At the Big Eight Outdoor at Manhattan, the mile relay team won in 3:12.5 as the Pokes sped to third place overall. All-Americans were Holderman, Schultz, Boatright, Manke, and Halberstadt.^

In 1972 men's tennis gained a permanent coach with the hiring of James Wadley. While rebuilding, he enlarged the 1973 schedule and sent the varsity to a 16-14 dual record and snared third in the Big Eight. A young, inexperienced women's team shaped by Jo Flint stroked its way to a 5-0 record that spring before dropping a dual to Central State University, the state's top women's team.^

Coach Chet Bryan's baseball varsity rebounded from a down year in 1972 to a 15-game winning streak and a sparkling 30-6 season in 1973. The losses came in conference play, including a critical series to the University of Oklahoma, as the Cowpokes landed in second place in the Big Eight. Jim Jacobsen pitched four shutouts and shortstop Mike Cross led the fielding with .957 percent. All-Big Eight players were Cross, second baseman Charlie Meyers, and first baseman Dan Massari.^

Women golfers were in action now, too, although the schedule was brief. With Joyce Seward coaching, the lady linksters split two matches with Southwest Missouri State and took a second and third in an Ames, Iowa, tournament.^

In twenty-seven years as architect of Oklahoma State's golf fortunes, Labron Harris Sr. constructed and maintained the format for success, guiding teams to twenty-four Big Eight and Missouri Valley Conference


team titles. His first OSU team in 1947 finished fifth in the nationals and began to make that level of play an annual occurrence. Only four times had his Cowboys finished out of the NCAA's top ten. Twenty times they placed in the top five, including five runner-up performances. In 1963 the varsity brought home the national championship.

At the same time, Harris was also teaching in the College of Business and serving as golf pro at Lakeside Course in Stillwater. He had also served as president of the National Collegiate Golf Coaches Association in the mid-fifties, chairman of the Collegiate All-America committee, tournament coordinator for the NCAA, sectional PGA president for the South Central area, and had taught in the National PGA schools.

Capping his career, Harris was named Coach of the Year in 1973 by the NCAA, and OSU was awarded the role of host for the national championships at Stillwater Golf and Country Club that June. His varsity stroked its way to second, ten strokes back of winner Florida as a retirement present. ^

Also retiring that spring was Lewie Sanderson, who was completing forty-five years in business management for the university. An ardent sports fan, he had been secretary for the OSU Athletic Council since October 1942. As business manager and assistant vice president for business and finance, he had provided statistics for bond issues, watched academic and athletic facilities expand, and perpetually explored ways to fund operation of one of the state's largest institutions.^^

A final feather in O-State's athletic cap was the acknowledgment of a successful year overall when the school's first Big Eight All-Sports trophy since 1962 was awarded. The Cowboys had won three league championships in golf, wrestling, and cross country. There was a second in baseball, football, outdoor track and men's tennis ranked third, with indoor track and men's swimming fourth.^^

With an experienced quarterback, a good tight end and remarkable depth on the offensive line. Coach Stanley surveyed his 1973 Cowboys with enthusiasm. Using the basic Wishbone and some pro variations, the team romped to lopsided wins over Texas-Arlington, 56-7; Arkansas, 38-6; and Southern Illinois, 70-7, before being hauled down out of the clouds by a determined Texas Tech, 20-7; and a four-point loss to Missouri. But O-State bounded back to tie both Nebraska and Kansas, trip Kansas State and Colorado, then lose to Iowa State and Oklahoma for a 5-4-2 finish.

Linebacker Cleveland Vann was named to the Football Writers All-America first team and defensive back Alvin Brown made the Football News first team All-America.

Sharpening the image of Oklahoma State University sports over the air was the Cowboy Network team of Bob Barry, Jack Ogle, and Bill Piatt. 13


The next best thing to being there is hearing Cowboy sportcasters Bob Barry and Bill Piatt. In 1976 more than twenty-two radio stations featured their colorful accounts, with the complete replay of the games serving more than a half-million televiewers the following day. World-wide overseas coverage of Cowboy football reached alumni via Armed Forces radio and TV networks.

OSU's water polo players added two more wins to their string of six undefeated meets in two years before plunging into a tough, nine-dual swimming and diving season. They also competed in the Big Eight Relays and the Cowboy-Sooner Invitational en route to the conference championship meet in Boulder. Placing first at the Arkansas Invitational and submerging the Sooners, 76-28, the women's swim team proved outstanding in medley and freestyle relay events. Barbara Peterson was outstanding swimmer.

The OSU women's state champion field hockey team turned in a winning record during the fall, even managing to tie Casady of Oklahoma City—a team never in its history defeated by another Oklahoma team. In golf, the women's team took the Southwest Missouri-Stephens triangular, with Patty Livingston medalist. Karen Edwards was medalist in the Stephens Invitational. Spring competition included a ten-school meet at Texas Woman's University in April.^^

Guided by Coach Bernie O'Connell in its first year of strict workouts in 1973, women's track team competition was limited to outdoor meets. Susie Winingham took the 100 high hurdles at the Big Eight and Marilyn Linsenmeyer won the 400 intermediate hurdles and high jump. With the 440 relay team also winning, O-State women claimed third place


in the six-school contest. Nebraska and Colorado did not field entrants. At the NCAA in Haywood, California, Linsenmeyer placed fourth in the high jump and took first in the 200 meter hurdles.^^

It was a tough row to hoe, but Guy R. Strong was hired to re-plant O-State firmly in the fields of the nation's basketball giants. Even a comfortable finish in the Big Eight would be welcome.

Strong, 42, seemed likely to turn the faltering program around. He'd done just that at Kentucky Wesleyan and again at Eastern Kentucky. His style called for a fast break, pressure defense, and utilization of the running game to full advantage. But bolstering a team that had finished in the conference cellar four successive years would take a miracle. Despite the efforts of returning starters Kevin Fitzgerald, Big Eight scoring champ, and Andy Hopson, leading rebounder, the varsity finished 9-17 overall and 3-11 in the Big Eight.^^

With a 10-9 cage season, the women's basketball varsity took the state championship. The young varsity badminton team placed third in both singles and doubles at Texas Woman's University, and played at Baylor, Bethany Nazarene College and in the George Harmon Tournament at Ponca City.

With the formation of varsity gymnastics by Larry Bilhartz, and the excitement of placing first in a triangular hosted on campus, gymnasts felt women were finally coming into their own in OSU's sports.^^

With a 44-5 record behind him in four seasons as Oklahoma State's mat coach, Chesbro was maintaining the wrestling dynasty. To it his teams had added three straight Big Eight titles and an NCAA team championship. Across the country, OSU's chief competitors were toughening their lineups as interest in the sport now packed many college arenas, as it had always done at Gallagher Hall.

Three of the season's fourteen duals were dropped to Michigan State, Iowa State, and Washington, but the 1974 team bounded back to collect a fourth consecutive crown at the 45th annual Big Eight tourney.

At the NCAA, it was a different story. For the first time ever, O-State failed to win a single match in conso

lations or finals on Saturday, competing before 13,000 fans, the largest collegiate wrestling crowd in history, in Iowa State's new Hilton Coliseum. OSU hopes slipped away. Nor did Iowa State prevail. In the very last bout, OU edged Michigan for the team title. Billy Martin and Steve Randall placed second, but no other Poke managed higher than sixth and OSU had to settle for third place.^^

It was a year of highs and lows for the Poke track teams. In November, the O-State cross country team led by Halberstadt and Manke captured the Big Eight league championship at Norman. Coach Tate was named District Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season.

Two-mile indoor relay teammates Leo Meade, Royce Chancellor, John


f f li f I I,

Behind the skill and beauty of gymnastic performances lie endless hours of precision practice. One of the nine new varsity sports at OSU in 1975, gymnastics is coached by Larry Bilhartz, working here with sophomore Janet Klingstedt.

Holderman, and Mike Manke raced to second in the NCAA Indoor meet in Detroit, gaining All-America status. Shot putters Mike Marks and Bob Ringwald ranked first and second respectively at four meets, including the Big Eight Indoor, where the team placed sixth. Marks became the first Oklahoman to cross the 60-foot barrier with 61-7 in the State Federation meet at Norman. Marks and Gary Shumski in 440 intermediate hurdles, were champions at the Big Eight Outdoor at Lincoln as O-State slipped to seventh.

In 1974 when women took to the track in Big Eight Outdoor events at Manhattan for the first time, they ranked third of the six schools then participating. Cowgirl champions were Susie Winingham in the 100 high hurdles and Marilyn Linsenmeyer in the 400 intermediate hurdles and the high jump. The 440 relay team also captured first.

Without a single senior, the 1974 men's tennis squad bustled to a 27-7 season and finished second in conference competition. Wadley coached Charlie Laster to a second straight Big Eight Conference singles title and Glenn Nakazawa and Harry Drummond to the league's number one doubles throne.^^

The 1974 edition of Cowboy baseball saw the team scrap its way to a 24-17 record, but fall short of the conference crown.

Limited travel funds held Joyce Seward's women golfers to four out-


ings, but the team claimed two titles and two second place finishes in 1973-74 against southwestern school squads.20

Despite the retirement of veteran coach Labron Harris Sr., Oklahoma State's topflight golf program didn't stutter. Former team standout Mike Holder, then finishing graduate studies at OSU, moved out of the classroom and onto the course as the youngest mentor among collegiate golf-ing's elite. One of the top amateurs in Oklahoma, Holder was 24 when he inherited O-State's highly successful program.

During his initial year. Holder served as a full-time teacher in the College of Business Administration, again following in Harris' footsteps. The path wasn't paved for immediate success in his rookie year. Reporting were a letterman, two quality freshmen, and a couple of non-lettering squadmen. Rebuilding on the run. Holder's squad promptly took six of eleven tournaments, including the school's 16th Big Eight crown in seventeen years.

Working toward the best combination of players. Holder tried ten different men over the season. He preached confidence and hard work. When the NCAA tourney was over, the Cowboys had roped fifth place in the country. All-America Tom Jones, Big Eight medalist Jaime Gonzalez, and all but one starter would be returning. Alumni relaxed. Another OSU sports tradition was in the hands of a new young giant.^^

As classes began in the fall of 1974, thoughts sometimes strayed from the lecture room toward the gridiron. It wasn't an auspicious team for Coach Jim Stanley's second year. Oklahoma State would be relying on a young quarterback, possibly a freshman tight end, unproven players in the offense. The defensive wall looked decidedly green in places, as well.

Coach Stanley wasn't unsettled despite the ruggedness of the Big Eight as it towered above other conferences. With starters Leonard Thompson and Alfred Nelms, blue-chipper Terry Miller in the backfield, punter Cliff Parsley, and placekicker Abby Daigle, OSU would harvest Fiesta and Tangerine Bowl Championships in two of the next three years.

The 59-0 gallop over Wichita State was a fluke, some said. But when tenth-ranked Arkansas went down, 26-7, the national press began to watch.

Bowl contenders Baylor and Texas Tech, and old foe Colorado were not believers, but Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State, and Iowa State soon were. The Cowboys almost managed to spoil Nebraska's homecoming with a pressure-packed 7-3 game. OSU was still on top, 13-10, in the annual fray against the number one-ranked Sooners with a dozen minutes of the third quarter gone. A Poke fumble and seven unbelievable minutes later, Oklahoma was in control, 44-13, anticipating being the national champion again.22

The Fiesta Bowl bid, the school's first in sixteen years, came despite


An airborne Kenny Walker flies into the end zone to plant O-State's first touchdown of the Fiesta Bowl in 1974. It was OSU's first bowl appearance in sixteen years and the Cowboys neatly held Brigham Young for a 16-6 win.

a string of injuries that wiped out "a backfield and a half." In Tempe, Arizona, the Cowboys limited Brigham Young to a pair of first-half field goals in the nationally televised 16-6 outing. Kenny Walker and Phillip Dokes were named outstanding offensive and defensive player, respectively. Despite a presentable 7-5 record, O-State had battled to only a fourth place finish in the Big Eight, conference of giants.^^

Desperately trying to make it three Big Eight cross country titles in a row, the Poke harriers tuned up by taking firsts at the OSU Jamboree and the University of Texas-Arlington Invitational, but slipped to fourth during the league five-mile run at Ames, Iowa. Bernard Rose, Colin Gumming, and Mike Pinocci qualified for the NCAA meet. With Trevor Vil-joen of South Africa, they were the mainstays of the 1974 squad.2*

A 12-1-2 record by Pauline Winter's two-time state champion women's field hockey team was led by four-year varsity player Pam Fleming and third-season player Jan Wilson. Not the toughest, but the most prized victories were the 8-0 and 6-0 routs against OU. Armed with five returning starters, JoAnn Rutherford coached the women's volleyball team to its fourth consecutive state title.^^

Diving deficiencies, which held the swimmers to a fourth place finish in 1974, were improved when OSU added the three top divers from the state meet, Brian Graham, Jeff Myers, and Bill Hobson. The O-State women's third swimming varsity headed into the Big Eight Championships with a 3-2 record. Twenty-eight women were on the roster, with a travel squad of fifteen. They were coached by Steve Wilson and his assistant, Barbara Peterson.^^

For the first time in years, the Cowboy basketball team had the necessary depth to support its revival efforts. Against both Colorado and Iowa State, the score soared to 101, with guard Ronnie Daniel and freshman


rebounder Olus Holder finding the hoop often, but unable to turn around the 10-16 season.

With quickness compensating for height. Dr. Jacy Showers' Cowgirl basketball team took fifteen games, losing only six, and repeating as state champions. 2 7

The budding gymnastic team gathered in five dual meet victories, losing none, with Barbara Wamsley leading the women to the state championship under the guidance of Larry Bilhartz.

In the 1975 wrestling opener with OU in Gallagher Hall, the Bedlam Series was already at a deafening noise level toward the evening's end when a brawl erupted between Cowboy heavyweight Jimmy Jackson, 6-5 and 265 pounds, and Sooner Bill Kalkbrenner. Twice fans in the lower bleachers flanking the mat disappeared from view as onlookers from both schools surged out of their seats to become participants.

The outbursts were over almost as quickly as they started, with no injuries, and Jackson wrapped it up for O-State, 26-13. To encourage the stunned crowd to stop milling and move out of the field house with no further outpouring of animosity, Paul Montemurro's Spirit Band kept up a flow of lively music.

Susie Winingham successfully defended her 100 high hurdles at the Big Eight Outdoor track meet at Ames as OSU placed third.

As the recession deepened in the United States, athletic department heads worried whether non-revenue sports could survive another five years, at least on a scholarship basis. "While the pinch is being felt at Oklahoma State University as it is everywhere," Outreach reported, "the quality of OSU's spring sports has not deteriorated."2^

There were reasons to celebrate. Armed with quality and depth, Mike Holder's Big Eight champion

ship golf team was coming off a second place finish in the NCAA, just missing the big win when defending champion Wake Forest hit a hot streak. By 1975 tournament play had almost replaced dual meets. Leading the charge to capture eight of twelve tournaments were All-America Jaime Gonzalez, Tom Jones, and Lindy Miller.

The freshmen-dominated baseball varsity had reliable senior Dan Massari to drive in the vital runs in the 22-18 season. It was the sixth time in Bryan's eleven years that a varsity won twenty or more. And it had been fourteen years since OSU had boasted a .410 hitter like Massari, who drove in 40 runs with 50 hits and set career marks with 147 hits, 18 homeruns, and 116 runs batted in, helping the Pokes gain third in the Big Eight.

Unbeaten OSU netmen tripped the Sooners for the first time in fourteen years. Oklahoma and Oral Roberts University had long been in the top twenty, but the Cowboys were now the state's finest. Only one slim point kept Wadley's tennis crew from being Big Eight champions and


five seniors would be back for the 1976 season.2^ The woman's tennis squad produced a winning season, 5-2-1. Shy

on experience. Cowgirl golfers had not yet begun recruiting and played entirely with student walk-ons. Third at the Kansas Invitational was the best mark in six events.^^

Track standout Royce Chancellor met the national qualifying standard time in the 880 and tied the OSU record with 1:51.8 in the 880. As he took fifth in the Big Eight, Rick Geske became the first seven-foot jumper in O-State history. Two-miler Trevor Viljoen streaked to a Big Eight Indoor first, then won the three-mile during the outdoor conference championships. A Big Eight Outdoor first also was claimed by the 440-relay team of Leonard Thompson, Gary Martin, Ken Yehle, and Kenny Walker.^i

Orange and Black fans had long since ceased bumping along over unpaved roads en route to events at OSU, but for many drivers a sleek new highway was now speeding the flow of traffic to and from the campus. The four-lane Cimarron Turnpike linked Interstate 35 east of Enid to Tulsa. The 3.7-mile Stillwater spur led straight to Washington Street, while a second entry was available at the junction of the pike and North Perkins Road. Alumni had worked with state officials since 1969 for the toll road.32

As perspiring players struggled into pads for early football. Coach Stanley refrained from resting on his Wishbone laurels of the previous year. He installed the slot-I offense to complement the Wishbone that had brought him more victories in his first two years than any other Cowboy coach had known. Miller, over the nagging injuries of his freshman year, had been an outstanding I-back in high school. Making the defense work were tackles Dokes and James "Duck" White.^^

Stanley's philosophy was succinct: "If we play as well as we can every game—I'm talking about playing at a fever pitch—everything will take care of itself. "^^ The team took it to heart, and from the stands at Lewis Field came a new roar during games. Outreach magazine reported, "spirit at OSU is reaching an all-time high what with the advent of a new, shattering Cowpoke yell: 'Orange . . . Power!' "^^

O-State opened with milestone victory number 300 as the Pokes trampled Wichita State, 34-0, then spurted unbeaten through the non-conference schedule for the first time in thirty years. Crucial conference games slipped away with errors, but the 7-4 year was satisfying despite a lack of bowl bids.^^

At Boulder, Colin Gumming was runner-up in the Big Eight five mile cross country race, .03 of a second behind the winner, as OSU earned fourth place.

Cowgirl netters took to the courts for a brief fall schedule for the first time in OSU history, coached by new faculty member Betty Edgely. Per-


1$^ POWER S*f|;^^ ' ^

By 1974, a new ear-shattering yell, initiated by cheerleader Sandra Faires, ricocheted across Lewis Field. Cowpokes on both sides of the stands happily bellowed "ORANGE". . . "POWER."

formances by Wamsley and Carol Hutton boosted the gymnasts to a 6-1 season and a second state championship.^^

Steady improvement in speed, accuracy, and form in men's swimming paid off when OSU held the 1975 Big Eight competition. Standouts Ross Seymour and Gene Jackson swam to new conference records in the 200-meter butterfly and 500-meter freestyle. Kansas took the tourney and the Pokes finished a respectable fourth.

In Guy Strong's third year at the helm of Cowboy basketball, the longest winning streak was three games as the team groped for consistency and missed. Three losses in overtime and another pair by a single point made the difference in the 10-16 season.^^

Alternating between being unbeatable and being vulnerable, the women's basketball team recorded its best season, 18-6. The Cowgirls posted the team's most consecutive wins, collecting 13 from January 20 through February 28, 1970, when Central State broke the streak. In the past three years. Dr. Showers' varsities had won 42 and lost 21.

The volleyball spikers under the leadership of Coach Marilyn Linsenmeyer posted a winning season. After an early loss to OU, the women came back during state competition in winning style.^^


Tighter budgets trimmed away extra tournament travel and experience in 1976, and the wrestling squad concentrated on its busy 15-1 season. Iowa State was flexing its muscles that year and gave the Cowboys their only dual blemish. Tommy Chesbro's young team could only muster third at the Big Eight, behind Iowa State and Oklahoma, but crowned champions Steve Barrett, Paul Martin, and Jimmy Jackson. By the NCAA Championships, the new power was Iowa. Iowa State came in a distant second, followed by O-State, third. OSU's only titleholder was an amiable giant, Jimmy Jackson, who was beginning to develop as a heavyweight.

The men's track and field team found itself eighth in the indoor at Kansas City and seventh at the outdoor in Columbia. At the Big Eight Outdoor at Ames, the Cowgirls dropped to sixth.

In the 1976 baseball campaign with a 24-26-1 record, the Cowboys were fifth in conference standings.

Second in the Big Eight following a 23-7 season, the men's tennis team was led by Glen Nakazawa and Harry Drummond, who returned as the Big Eight's top doubles team.*°

With an all-veteran lineup. Cowgirl golfers won their own triangular, but were tenth in tournament fields of fourteen and fifteen teams at the Missouri and Houston Baptist Invitationals. Led by third lowest individual, Patty Livingston, OSU ranked a satisfying fourth at the Big Eight AIAW in Columbia, Missouri. Livingston qualified to play in the AIAW Nationals, did not make the cut, but was one of the first to represent the team at that level.^^

Without a single senior in the lineup, O-State's talented men golfers upset defending national champion Wake Forest to win the 79th annual NCAA Golf Championships at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, June 12. Unpredictable winds were no surprise after Oklahoma, but mountainous terrain seasoned the play of All-Americans Jones, Gonzalez, and Miller, plus Danny Edwards and Britt Harrison.

The only previous NCAA championship had come in 1963. The surprise Cowboy win in 1976 brought Oklahoma State's total of NCAA team titles in all sports to 33, and the school's first national team crown since Tom Chesbro's wrestlers won the NCAA mat title.

Now in his third year. Coach Holder and his Cowboys had added three Big Eight titles in a row, plus 22 of 36 tourneys.*2

During the summer, heavyweight Jimmy Jackson joined alumnus Gene Davis on the 1976 U.S. Olympic team. Davis, who had competed in Munich in 1972, was a bronze medalist at Montreal. OSU's Harry Geris again wrestled on the Canadian team. With teams around the world competing, by the luck of the draw Jackson and Geris met in the first round of the super-heavyweight, with Jackson winning by a fall.


Endnotes

1. Rick Shaeffer, "Setting the Stage for 1973 Season," Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 14, no. 2 (February 1973), pp. 11-13; 1973 Redskin, p. 227, Oklahoma State University Yearbook; 1978 OSU Football Media Guide.

2. 1973 Redskin, pp. 258-259.

3. 1973 Redskin, pp. 244-245.

4. 1973 Redskin, pp. 233, 260-261, 263.

5. Doris Dellinger, Ride 'em, Cowboys! The Story of Wrestling's Dynasty (Stillwater, OK: Frontier Press, 1977), pp. 107-108.

6. 1973 Redskin, pp. 246-249; 1974 Redskin, pp. 182-183, 190-191; Oklahoma State Track and Field Media Guide, pp. 40, 43.

7. 1973 Redskin, p. 257.

8. Pokes Baseball '82, OSU Press Guide, pages not numbered.

9. 1973 Redskin, p. 262.

10. 1974 Redskin, pp. 186-189; 1973 Golf Media Guide.

11. "Ending 45 Years of OSU Service." Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 14, no. 7 (September-October 1973), p. 11.

12. "The Big 8 All-Sports Trophy," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 14, no. 7 (September-October 1973), p. 11.

13. "Focus on Spring Sports," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 15, no. 3 (March 1974), p. 15; RickSchaeffer, "Preseason Look at Cowboy Football '74," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 15, no. 7 (September-October 1974), pp. 4-7; "Special Thanks Given Cowboy Network Team," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 15, no. 1 (January 1974), p. 3.

14. 1974 Redskin, pp. 214-216.

15. 1974 Redskin, p. 212; 1984 Oklahoma State Track and Field Media Guide, p. 47.

16. "Strong Is Named Basketball Coach,"Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 14, no. 5 (May 1973), pp. 3-4; "New Coach, New Era," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 14, no. 9 (December 1973), p. 19; 1975 Redskin, pp. 194-197.

17. 1975 Redskin, pp. 220-221.


19. 1974 OSU Tennis Media Guide; 1975 Redskin, pp. 206-207, 210-211.

20. 1974-75 OSU Women's Golf Prospectus.

21. "Mike Holder Is Named Golf Coach to Succeed Harris," Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 14, no. 5 (May 1973), p. 4; 1974 OSU Golf and Tennis Media Guide; 1975 Redskin, pp. 200-201; 1975 Golf Media.

22. Rick Schaeffer, "Preseason Look at Cowboy Football '74," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 15, no. 7 (October 1974), pp. 4-7; 1975 Redskin, pp. 180-181.

23. 1975 Redskin, p. 212; Rick Schaeffer, "1975 Exciting Cowboy Football," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 16, no. 7 (September-October 1975), p. 5.

24. 1975 Redskin, pp. 210-211.

25. 1975 Redskin, p. 214.

26. 1975 Redskin, pp. 198-199, 218.

27. 1975 Redskin, pp. 194-195, 221; OSU Cowgirl Basketball Media Guide. 28. Rick Schaeffer, "Spring Sports," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 15, no. 7

(September-October 1975), p. 18.

29. Schaeffer, "Spring Sports," pp. 18-19.


30. 1975-76 OSU Women's Golf Prospectus.

31. 1976 Redskin, p. 204; Track and Field Media Guide.

32. "The New Cimarron Turnpike," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 16, no. 7 (September-October 1975), p. 20.

33. Schaeffer, "1975 Exciting Cowboy Football," pp. 5-9.

34. Schaeffer, "Preseason Look at Cowboy Football '74," p. 7.

35. "Back on Campus," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 16, no. 18 (November-December 1975), p. 31.

36. 1976 Redskin, p. 155.

37. 1976 Redskin, pp. 210, 190.

38. 1976 Redskin, p. 195.

39. 1976 Redskin, pp. 189, 191; 1984-85 Cowgirl Basketball Media Guide.

40. 1976 Redskin, pp. 171, 208; 1977 Redskin, pp. 209, 212.

41. 1976 Redskin, p. 227; 1975-76 OSU Women's Golf Results.

42. "Golf Team Unites, Wins NCAA Crown," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 17, no. 5 (June-July 1976), pp. 4-5.


33 Probation and Recovery 1976-1978

Singeing as deeply as the August sun, allegations of football recruiting violations scorched Oklahoma State just as the campus was fine-tuning itself for the autumn semester in 1976. Investigations into OSU's football program were underway by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The school was officially on probation.

Presented the confidential document of allegations, the administration quickly formed a special university panel chaired by Vice President Norman Moore. Aiding him were Professor Ray Chapel, OSU's Big Eight faculty representative; Athletic Director Floyd Gass; legal counsel Charles Drake; and chief investigator Keith McMillan.

Although word of the investigation did not immediately appear in state news headlines, it gradually seeped out. There was no short-term relief. The furor would linger for long months. Not until after May 1977 would the university be able to appeal the proposed penalties. And not until 1978 would the final edict be handed down.

Still, there was an academic year to launch, an athletic schedule to keep, and school spirit to maintain.

When the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum opened next door to Gallagher Hall and the athletic complex on September 11, 1976, it had become a reality largely due to the efforts of President Robert B. Kamm, former professor and alumni president Dr. Melvin D. Jones, and former Olympian and OSU coach Myron Roderick. While support for construction of the unusual museum—the only one of its kind in America—came from across the country, the bulk of donations came from OSU alumni. When the building was completed, it was debt-free.

Seven of the first fourteen distinguished members inducted in an


impressive ceremony were key figures in the growth of amateur wrestling at Oklahoma State and beyond . . . Edward C. Gallagher, Art Griffith, Myron Roderick, Jack VanBebber, Fendley Collins, Cliff Keen, and Rex Peery.

A special unity bonded the Cowboy grid team. Deadly placekicker Abby Daigle was back. Cliff Parsley was intent on leading the Big Eight Conference as a kicker for the fourth year in a row. Charlie Weather-bie's **rifle-like" passing arm was aided by the backfield skills of superstar Terry Miller, **Buffalo" Robert Turner, and Skip Taylor. A junior. Miller was already approaching Bob Fenimore's longstanding career school records.^

Hungry for a conference title, O-State raced past Tulsa in the season opener, bowed to Arkansas in a night game, downed North Texas State and Kansas, but Colorado came on to win. Generally the last opponent of the season, Oklahoma now popped up in mid-season, and the Pokes wondered if they were ready. A powerful showing by the defensive unit combined with the speed and accuracy of the offense for a 31-24 victory, the first since 1966, over the Sooners. The slogan, ' T h e Year of the Cowboys," had proven prophetic.

Missouri, Kansas State, Iowa State, and Texas at El Paso went down, with a stubborn Nebraska marring the record, 14-10. Sporting an 8-3 season, OSU accepted a date with Brigham Young University in the Tangerine Bowl and won the school's sixth bowl outing easily, 49-21.^

Stanley was the university's most successful football coach since O-State joined the formidable Big Eight two decades ago. In five years, he had amassed a 32-23-2 record, tossed in Fiesta and Tangerine Bowl wins, defeated OU and enabled the Cowboys to bask in the warmth of the 1976 Big Eight Tri-Championship.^

In field hockey, the Cowgirls were 16-4-1 and placed third in the Big Eight. Brenda Johnson coached the women's basketballers to their third state championship and a 12-13 season. The OSU gymnastics team captured the school's third state title in a 6-4 season, placed fourth in the Big Eight and second in regional competition.^

Men's cross country runners finished seventh in the Big Eight five-mile competition at Lawrence. Beyond their desire to bring OSU honors lay an inner motivation familiar to all athletes. An anonymous creed in the Redskin defined it:

' 'At 5:45 A.M. the Cross Country runner mechanically dons his running attire. Half awake, he walks outside and the cold morning air sets him into motion. With each step his senses gradually warm up to his surroundings, his thoughts shift to the coordination patterns of his running; or he may just contemplate the infinite patterns of frosted breath. As with each step, it's just closer to the six to eight miles each morning to start his day.


"To some the thoughts of running three miles a week is a lot; but . . . those men who run 100 miles or more a week cannot be driven by sheer competitive success or the coaches' encouragement alone. Cross country provides something for the person itself, to seek out and touch his own limits by pushing his body to the limit of human endurance. To meet nature, competition, and himself in pure athletic endeavor. The ordeal of endless pain, blisters, exhaustion, and personal sacrifices would destroy these motives. The runner's goal—to ultimately overcome them aU."^

The men's cage season failed to improve in 1976-77 as Guy Strong's final team captured only four conference games, posting a 10-17 record. In his four-year stay at OSU, Strong registered 39 victories and 66 losses.

In 1977 one of the athletes' warmest admirers. Dr. Robert B. Kamm, left the office of the president. After a sabbatical, he continued to serve the university, this time as a professor.

In just eight seasons. Tommy Chesbro's wrestlers had added 100 dual wins to the school's heritage, including a 16-0 record against the Sooners. A sparkling 15-2 dual match record against the top teams in the country led the Cowboys almost to the top, as they took second at the NCAA behind Iowa State. Steve Barrett and Jimmy Jackson won titles, adding their names to the ninety-two previous O-State individual NCAA champions.

Outstanding efforts from Greg Pickett, Jim Kelley, and Chuck Roberts brightened men's track. Pickett set a new school pole vault record of 16-7 1/4, while Kelley was clocked at 13.9 in the 120 high hurdles. Roberts won the 400 intermediate hurdles at the Big Eight Outdoor at Lawrence. The men's team ranked eighth at both indoor and outdoor conference meets; the women were seventh in indoor competition but slid to eighth in the Big Eight as all schools fielded teams for the first year. An injury sidelined indoor standout Regina Hardage, but Mary Linemann continued as a fine hurdler for Coach Marilyn Linsenmeyer. All women's track meets were away from home because facilities were so poor.

From an 0-9 start born of inexperience. Coach James Wadley's tennis team made a quantum leap to an 11-13 finale, collecting the Oral Roberts University, Big Gold, and Southern States Invitational tourney titles, snaring second in another three, and tying OU for the Big Eight championship.^

Four games from the end of another downhill baseball season, veteran baseball coach Chet Bryan retired, saying, "It 's time to move along and let another try his hand at turning things around." In thirteen seasons, Bryan posted a 247-198-1 record. His decision to step down came as the Pokes stood 14-26, but the program itself had been slipping since


1970. It was buoyed up briefly in 1973 by Dan Massari as OSU took second in the Big Eight with a 30-6 mark.

Baseball itself was changing at the university level. Limitations were placed on scholarships by the NCAA. Baseball with outstanding budgets and crowd-pleasing facilities were part of the scene. The quality and quantity of players increased. But at O-State a slump had settled in. The Cowboys were sixth in conference play, although power-hitting All-Big Eight Scott Burk set five new season records, smashing 14 home runs, scoring 41 runs, amassing 108 total bases, 63 assists and 40 putouts. It was time for a new coaching philosophy.^

Charging the course at Norman, Coach Ann Pitts' golfers easily captured their first Big Eight women's golf championship. Patty Zimmer was Big Eight medalist. The Cowgirl softball team of Coach Brenda Johnson fielded the state championship and the women's tennis team trained by Sandra Eggert claimed co-championship of the state.

Tucking six tournaments under their belts, Mike Holder's golfers stroked their way to the Big Eight title, the 20th in 21 years of competition. All-American Lindy Miller repeated as individual conference champion. Along the way, they annexed the All-America Intercollegiate, second only to the NCAA Championships in prestige, for a second straight year. At the Sun Devil-Phoenix Thunderbird Classic, State broke all known collegiate records for a single tourney with a screaming 34-under-par total.

Favored at the NCAAs at Hamilton, New York, OSU met chill weather and a tough layout and ended up in second spot behind fast-finishing Houston. Miller tied for fourth and David Edwards for fifth, qualifying both for an NCAA AU-Star trip to Japan.

Miller, who had won the Southern Amateur and Pacific Coast Amateur and was low amateur in the U.S. Open, was on his way to becoming the most decorated golfer in O-State's 31-year golf history. Considered the cream of college linksters. Miller was OSU's first recipient of the Fred Haskins Award, golf's equivalent of the Heisman Trophy, and named to the 1977 Walker Cup team.^

The framework for a grid season to match four successive winning years—including two bowl championships and a Big Eight co-championship—was in place for 1977; the defensive depth wasn't. Injuries severely hampered the Cowboys, but very little hampered All-American Terry Miller. In the closing weeks of his tremendous career, he constantly re-wrote team and conference rushing records.

Miller garnered first and third best single-season rushing efforts in the Big Eight and top career rushing efforts for any Big Eight back. In 1977 he was the league's top rusher, leader in total offense, and number one in all-purpose runners for the year. For his contributions, he was selected as the Big Eight Conference Athlete of the Year, the first


The Cowgirl golfers claimed their first Big Eight women's golf crown in 1977. Pleased with the championship are, left to right, Becky Neal, Carol Lyons, Sydney Bigham, Brenda Lunsford, Coach Ann Pitts, Janie McKee, Patty Zimmer, and Lorrie Allison.

OSU athlete to be so named. On a national basis. Miller often led the country in rushing and finally

finished third overall. The Cowboys ended 18th in the nation in rushing offense and were third in the Big Eight in the same category.

As Miller posted twenty-seven performances of 100 or more yards rushing, attendance soared. In five home games, 232,888 attended for an average crowd of 46,577. Big Eight attendance figures were swelling as well. Overall, conference attendance for 1977 was 2,559,398, third in the nation behind the Big Ten and the Southeastern Conference. But the Big Eight ranked first with 95.1 percent of the eight stadia filled for every league home game.^

Construction of the football office complex in the east end zone of Lewis Field was completed that fall. The new structure housed OSU football personnel and offered a spacious, windowed Posse Club room overlooking the stadium for alumni gatherings.

In late November, the women's field hockey team stormed to a ninth place national rating at the AIAW National Field Hockey Championships in Denver and a 17-4 record. "We found that we could compete on the


national level—that's what we want to know," Coach Sharon Holmberg commented. °

Cross country star Karen Bridges finished her sophomore season placing twelfth in the women's National AAU championships in San Bernardino, California, earning her NAAU All-America status for the second consecutive year. That qualified her for the international cross country meet in Glasgow, Scotland. Earlier she had taken second in the 1977 NAAU 10,000 meters and sixth in the AIAW Nationals.^^

OSU finished eighth in the Big Eight Men's Cross Country five-mile run at Manhattan.

As part of an OSU Heritage of Personalities project, an hour-long documentary movie, Henry P. Iba, was aired in December over a Tulsa television station and slated for rerunning in Oklahoma City in 1978. Three years in the making, the tribute to the towering OSU sports giant included interviews with the Iron Duke's former basketball players and other coaches. 12

After an 18-month study, the NCAA allegations of football recruiting tactics in violation of the group's by-laws were made public January 19 by President Lawrence L. Boger. He called it "a day of relief," observing that he had been honor-bound not to reveal actions taking place during the investigation. Dr. Boger, who had taken over presidential duties June 15, in mid-stream of the inquiry, stressed, "Our position throughout the whole process has been to be open and honest at all t imes."

Along with a public reprimand and probationary period from January 9, 1978, to January 9, 1980, penalties included a ban on post-season play, televised appearances, and television negotiations. For each of the next two school years OSU would be limited to twenty-five football scholarships, representing a reduction of five per season.

The university was neither to solicit nor accept recruiting assistance for varying periods from nineteen unnamed (in accordance with the policies of the NCAA) representatives of its athletic interests involved in the case. Eligibility of two football players, unnamed but known to be lineman-wrestler Jim Clark and defensive end Mike Edwards, was terminated, but the university was already appealing that decision.

The OSU investigating board indicated it considered the penalty too severe and that many of the infractions listed by the NCAA had not occurred. Among positive aspects, the panel stressed that this was the first time in the school's 86-year history that OSU had been investigated, that the hearing before the infractions committee had halved the number of allegations, and that a number of innocent people had been cleared.

Although Athletic Director Floyd Gass sat quietly throughout the president's press conference, he did note the need for alumni recruit-


ing, cautioning, "But we warn all our boosters to be sure of the rules and to contact the coaches before they recruit. "^^

Guiding the men's basketball varsity now was Jim Killingsworth, who had led Cerritos Junior College in California to 158 victories and 47 losses in seven years before taking his Big Sky Champion Idaho State to a 110-54 record in the past six years. But the OSU program had slipped too far to be resuscitated in a season, and when his Cowboys went 10-16, Killingsworth endured his first losing season in 29 years as a cage coach.

Listeners across the state now heard play-by-play radio accounts of Poke basketball by Bob Barry, sports director of KTVY-TV in Oklahoma City. Through the Cowboy Sports Network, Barry had already been the Voice of the Cowboy football the past four seasons.^^

The Cowgirl basketball squad successfully ran up a winning season under the guidance of first-year coach Judy Bugher, then fought to take the consolation semifinals of the Oklahoma AIAW state tourney, its biggest win to date. On the way to an 17-14 record, the women avenged losses to Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Northwestern as senior Donna Ridling set school records with most points in one game (51), most field goals attempted (35), and most field goals made (24), while O-State drilled Tulsa, 112-56. Despite Ridling's 20.5 average, the team finished seventh at the Big Eight Championships. Hitting 617 points in 1977-78, Ridling's career total at OSU was 1,573.^^

Coach Frankie Albitz took the reins of O-State's volleyball program, but inconsistency of play led the team to 20-36 in duals, second in state for the second year, then regional tourney action. The 56-match schedule was twenty-one games longer than it had been in 1976.

Coming on strong, the Cowboys set fifteen new records, qualifying five swimmers in four events for the national championships and finishing fourth in the Big Eight swimming and diving championships in Lincoln. They also swept the top four places in the 500-freestyle event as freshman John Marshall set a new Big Eight school and pool record. It was the first time in conference history that one team had snared the first four places in an event. Marshall was followed by Paul Nash, Joe Dixon, and Rolf Meyer. A 14th place NCAA finish in the 1,650-yard freestyle gained All-America status for Australian Nash for the second year.i^

O-State's women's gymnastics team continued its grasp on the Oklahoma AIAW state crown as the girls crowned their fourth consecutive team and individual champion. Four-year captain Barbara Wamsley edged Yvonne LeVrier for individual honors at the state meet. In Big Eight conference competition, OSU finished fourth, qualifying for the Southwest Regionals for the third straight year. OSU finished third there behind perennially-strong Louisiana State and Texas A&M to wrap up a 16-9 season. 1


Everything but the national title came the wrestlers' way in the 1977-78 campaign. Two victories over the Sooners pushed that streak to 19. The single defeat in the 16-1 season came from the Iowa Hawkeyes on their way to the NCAA team title; it was only the twelfth dual loss in Gallagher Hall in nearly forty years. But it was the spectacular Big Eight, hosted by OSU, that would be remembered with amazement— and aching ears—for the next decade.

It came to be known as Monasmith Night. Nearly 9,000 fans were stuffed into Gallagher Hall, enough to make

the fire marshal and campus police anxious as the tumult mounted. Individual titles had already gone to Kevin Nellis, Lee Roy Smith, Paul Martin, and Eric Wais in the finals. Two Pokes remained. Two more OSU victories were essential to clinch the tourney. Then Daryl Monasmith took on Iowa State's two-time 190-pound NCAA champ, Frank Santana. Not expected to out-man Santana, Monasmith did just that, hooking a leg out of a hiplock and flipping Santana to the mat for a takedown into nearfall, winning 7-4.

Celebrants roared in the aisles, choking matside, delirious. The sound continued to swell to eardrum-bursting proportions. Heavyweight Jackson, up next, finally resumed his seat, hands over ears, trying to shut out the pain-provoking commotion.

Still the tumult swelled. After ten minutes, the crowd subsided. In the final match of the tournament, the business-like Jackson pinned the Cyclones' Tom Waldon in 22 seconds for the team championship.

Bedlam erupted again. It was the only time in which the noise level of the deep-seated rivalry with Oklahoma's crimson and cream had been exceeded in Gallagher Hall. It was not like the night when OU's "Dr. Death" was pinned or the night "Dr. Death" was bitten. The referee, who had been the source of no displeasure, retired from officiating. Apparently one overwhelming night like that was enough for him.

The next day, building maintenance men found the fixtures holding the ceiling lights had been shattered by the unrelenting power of screaming lungs. OSU had six new champions and its 15th Big Eight crown. Maintenance men had repairs to make. Presumably the safety and security forces were limp with relief that the night's tensions had been dissipated almost harmlessly.

For fans, there were both joy and aching ears, souvenirs of the incredible Monasmith Night.

Chances for a repeat performance at the NCAA Championships in College Park, Maryland, faded as Smith, seeded number one, was upset in the first round; Martin dropped a tough decision; freshman of the year Dave Schultz placed third and Monasmith fourth. But "JJ," Jimmy Jackson eked out his final match there, becoming the 25th three-time NCAA champion in collegiate history.^^


Full and partial scholarships gained in the push for women's sports now attracted good Cowgirl track recruits. But before the program could excel, facilities needed attention. The school track lacked a good surface and lighting. Permanent bleachers needed to be completed. The Colvin Center annex was expected to provide the teams with a new indoor facility for training.

Rising above the problems, All-American Karen Bridges sped to first in the 5,000-meter at the Kansas Relays in April, then won the 10,000-meter SPAAU Championship in California. She sprinted an impressive third fastest 10,000-meters in U.S. history at the NAAU; it was the fourth fastest in the world.

Both men's and women's teams settled in for a stay at eighth in both Big Eight Indoor and Outdoor meets. Mrs. Bridges provided the only league victory in the two-mile indoor. The seven-time All-American also ran away with the annual 10,000-meter Bonne Bell race in Denver, crossing the tape ahead of more than 600 women from fifteen states.

Outstanding men on the national level were Jim Kelley, fastest ever to run the 110-meter high hurdles for OSU and ranked in the top ten high hurdlers; Chuck Roberts, Big Eight runner-up in the 400 intermediate hurdles and ranked in the top fifteen in that event; and the spring medley relay team of Mike Shavers, Kelley, Guy McGraw, and Kendall Staggs, ranked in the top five for that event.^^

Three singles and a doubles team won Big Eight titles and handed OSU a league championship in men's tennis following a 25-5 season. In reviving Cowboy tennis, James Wadley had sent OSU to two Big Eight titles, finished second three times—each time runner-up by only one point—and his "worst" year was a third-place finish. The six-year veteran held a 109-49 record at O-State and had coached eight to conference titles.

For Cowgirl netters, being in "the toughest region in the nation" made it difficult to reach competition on the national level, but in the spring of 1978 the women fought their way to second in the Big Eight. With only Lisa Barry and Debbie Cunningham competing in the nationals, OSU captured 14th in the nation.^o

Cowboy baseball was back on its cleats in no uncertain terms that spring. There was nothing static about the new head coach's approach. Gary Ward's mission was to reestablish OSU's winning tradition. The Oklahoma native, one of the nation's top junior college coaches, did it in a single season with an entirely new coaching staff.

With momentum provided by hitters Bill Ireland, Duane Evans, and Greg Pastors, and hurlers Rick Kranitz, Kevin Blaster, and Randy Evans, the Cowpokes broke or tied forty-four team records on the way to a 40-22 record, OSU's first Big Eight Championship since 1969, a Western Conference title, and a berth in the NCAA regional tournament. Ireland and


Kranitz were named All-Big Eight. Intent on better playing facilities for University Park, north of Ben

nett Hall, Ward began developing a long-term master plan for baseball's future at OSU.^^

Undaunted by lack of a field, the Cowgirl softball team sailed through a 24-16 season, took second in the state tourney, and third in AIAW regionals in Texas—without a single home game. Guided by Coach Sandy Fischer, Kathy Scaggs was OSU's most valuable player and All-Big Eight right fielder Susan Dum averaged .350. A softball complex was scheduled for completion in January 1979.^2

Alicia Ogrin was outstanding individual as the Cowgirl golfers pushed to within five strokes of Big Eight Champion Oklahoma for conference runner-up honors. In June, the team made its best showing, finishing in the top twenty-four in the country at the nationals in Haines City, Florida.

During the school year. Coach Ann Pitts organized the first OSU Women's Golf Appreciation Day, drawing thirty-three golfers who paid $75 each to play in a tourney at the Stillwater Country Club. Each foursome was accompanied by a team member. Buoyed by that venture, the fundraiser was later repeated at the Cowgirl Varsity-Duffer Day and ninety-four state women golfers arrived. The club ran short of golf carts. There were strands of barbed wire to be scooted under after errant balls. But the golf scholarship fund gained $1,800 to bring new top student golfers to school in Stillwater. 3

The nation's top-ranked golf squad upset tradition and brought the NCAA Championship home to Stillwater. The Redskin observed, "When a team has won 20 conference championships in 22 years, and two national crowns over the past four, it might lead people to believe that a dynasty has been created. " ^

Few would argue with that concept. Holder's young giants were piling prestige on the program. Three-time All-American Lindy Miller was named Collegiate Golfer of the Year and David Edwards took NCAA medalist honors.

The 1978 chapter of Oklahoma State spring golf opened with a brisk collection of five titles in eight tournaments, including lowering the All-American Intercollegiate record at Houston by 14 strokes. State was second in the three tourneys the team didn't win. Holder's crew of Miller, Britt Harrison, Edwards, Rafael Alarcon, and Bob Tway took the Big Eight in Lawrence by one of the largest margins in league history—49 strokes over Nebraska—as Miller claimed his third consecutive conference crown.

May graduate Miller played in two U.S. Opens, the 1977 Walker Cup Championship and the Masters. A 50-foot putt on the final hole made him the low amateur in the Masters."


It was a summer of disquieting surprises. For more than a year, speculation about Floyd Gass' status as ath

letic director had been circulating. On June 13 after eight years as head of the O-State men's athletic program, Gass announced his resignation. During a press conference, he conceded that outside pressures probably had something to do with his decision, as did his efforts in dealing with the recent NCAA investigation of the football program.

His tenure saw major capital improvements made, including the expansion of facilities at Lewis Field and the remodeling of the press box and track. The athletic budget was extended and began operating in the black.

Hints of an illegal slush fund for the football program had surfaced in April. By mid-June, Dr. Boger had definite information about the allegation of the fund and a secret club of backers and had contacted Big Eight officials.

On July 1, OSU merged its men's and women's athletic program in conformation with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. And, despite the hullabaloo, on July 22 OSU was ranked seventh in the unofficial 1977-78 Collegiate All-Sports Competition. The national survey conducted by the Knoxville Journal was based on NCAA achievements and participation in nine of ten men's varsity athletic events.

Following intensive interviews by the screening committee, university administration, athletic department staff, and university faculty, Dr. Richard A. Young, director of athletics at Bowling Green State University since 1971, was approved by the Board of Regents August 2.

Known as a top-flight administrator with good managerial skills, Young had headed the merging of the men's and women's sports at Bowling Green in 1976. The organizational pattern of that merger had since been followed by several universities.^^

Both the swiftness of the searching process and the omission of interviews with several prominent former OSU athletes and other top candidates caught the public by surprise. But President Boger, in announcing Young's selection, had said, "I feel he's philosophically right for OSU at this time. We've been open with him about OSU's problems and opportunities. "27

Unbounded by previous affiliation with the school, Oklahoma State's eighth athletic director was free to seek solutions and set new directions.

Endnotes

1. "Here Come the Cowboys," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 17, no. 6 (August-September 1976), pp. 4-7.


2. 7977 Reds/</>?, pp. 172-179, Oklahoma State University Yearbook.

3. 1978 Football Media Guide.

4. 1978 Redskin, p. 241; OSU Cowgirls Basketball Media Guide.

5. 1976 Redskin, p. 192.

6. "OSU Spring Sports," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 18, no. 3 (July 1977), p. 15; 1977 Redskin, p. 188; 1978 Redskin, pp. 234, 236-237.

7. Rob Phillips, "They're in Good Hands at O-State," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 51, no. 4 (March 1980), p. 8.

8. "OSU Spring Sports," p. 15.

9. Pat Quinn, "No Place for the Tender or Timid," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 18, no. 4 (August-September 1977), pp. 18-19; Big Eight Conference Service Bureau, 1977 Big Eight Team Rundown (Kansas City, MO), 7 December 1977, p. 5.

10. "O-State Field Hockey Women Able to Compete Nationally," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 19, no. 1 (January-February 1978), p. 5; 1978 Redskin, p. 241.

11. "Oklahoma State Cross Country Star Ranks 12th Nationally, Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 19, no. 1 (January-February 1978), p. 21.

12. "Iba Documented," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 19, no. 1 (January-February 1978), p. 10.

13. Jim Perry, "The NCAA Probation," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 19, no. 2 (March-April 1978), pp. 18-19.

14. 1979 Redskin, p. 196; 1978-79 OSU Basketball Media Guide; 1981-82 OSU Basketball Media Guide, p. 80.

15. 1979 Redskin, p. 244.

16. "Sports," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 19, no. 3 (June-July 1978), p. 13.

17. 1979 Redskin, pp. 240-241.

18. 1979 Redskin, pp. 200-205.

19. 1979 Redskin, pp. 212, 233.

20. "Sports," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 19, no. 3 (June-July 1978), p. 13; 1979 Redskin, pp. 218-219, 236.

21. "Sports," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 19, no. 3 (June-July 1978), p. 13; 1979 Redskin, p. 214.

22. 1979 Redskin, pp. 218, 226.

23. "Spons," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 19, no. 3 (June-July 1978), pp. 12-13; 1979 Redskin, p. 235.

24. 1979 Redskin, p. 209.

25. "Sports," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 19, no. 3 (June-July 1978), p. 12.

26. "Sports," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 19, no. 4 (August-September 1978), pp. 8-9.

27. "Sports," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 19, no. 4 (August-September 1978), p. 8.


34 Reshaping the Program 1978-1980

In August 1978 new athletic director Dr. Richard A. Young stepped into the unrest surrounding a continuing probe into Oklahoma State football by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Yet Young expressed enthusiasm for education and the challenges ahead. Sharply aware of the controversy that lingered over the merging of men's and women's varsity programs, the new director made it clear he expected the integration to work.^

In contrast to his predecessor's work in fund raising and alumni relations. Young cited as his chief focus the athlete's standing as a student. He stressed the need to increase the retention and graduation rates of OSU athletes.

"Education is the most important reason we are here ," the former Bowling Green athletic director and baseball coach affirmed. Young's long range plans called for updating of baseball and track facilities and a new "convocation center," presumably to replace or supplement aging GaUagher Hall.

Coming off a 4-7 football season in 1977, Coach Jim Stanley fielded a team that couldn't get untracked for its first five games. There were difficulties in operating under a two-year probation by the NCAA, the new investigation of alleged slush fund activity, and without All-America running back Terry Miller.^

In an unusual non-conference schedule of three night games, the Cowboys were upended by Wichita State, Florida State, and Arkansas, before surrendering to North Texas for the first time. Four-year starter safety Gary Irons was out with a broken clavicle. Battered by crucial mistakes and low yardage all season, O-State next bowed to Kansas State.


Weary of nine straight losses, dating back to the previous season, the Pokes finally drowned Colorado in their frustrations before 41,000 at home.

They went to Nebraska to win, but lacked nine points to bring that about before a sell-out crowd of 75,786. Outstanding middle linebacker John Corker was lost with a knee injury. Given up for dead, the Cowboys rose up to smite Kansas, then homecoming foe Missouri, before Iowa State nudged them and Oklahoma and Heisman Trophy winner Billy Sims proved how formidable the Sooners were.

At season's end, Stanley's release from his contract came amid confusion and controversy. In six years, OSU's 17th head football mentor had compiled a 35-31-2 record; his teams had delighted fans with victories in the 1974 Fiesta Bowl and the 1976 Tangerine Bowl games.^

An infusion of cheer was added in mid-December when Dr. Young introduced to the press 35-year-old Jimmy Johnson, Pittsburgh assistant head coach. Johnson had been reluctant to apply for the task of rescuing the troubled program. The final applicant interviewed, his coaching sharpness and upbeat attitude were what the search committee had been seeking. Johnson had turned down three previous head coaching offers, but finally accepted the OSU challenge.^

The genial Johnson greeted sportswriters with, "I guarantee it's a sunny day." While keeping a positive outlook, he was open with them, adding, "It 's not going to be easy. But if we all pull the wagon together, we can get where we want to."^

Meanwhile, other sports had settled into their fall routines. Dee Deichman was the sole senior on the youngest volleyball team

the school had fielded, but the Cowgirl spikers pulled out an 18-31 record while gaining experience. After a rugged road schedule of tournaments and invitationals, O-State earned fourth place in its own tourney. Even ranked third at the Oklahoma AIAW state tournament, the team was asked to compete at the 16-team Southwest Regionals. To sharpen skills, year-around competition developed as the girls continued winter workouts in the United States Volleyball Association.^

The men's cross country conference crown continued to elude the Pokes in 1978, as the team settled for seventh place in the 10,000-meter race at Norman. The season had been plagued by flu and foot problems, but OSU's Jon Mathiason gained attention in the extreme heat of the Wichita State Wheatshocker Gold Classic four-miler when he lost a shoe halfway, and finished the contest barefooted.

The fledgling Cowgirl squad competed in the first Big Eight Cross Country 5,000-meter race at Columbia, without enough runners for a team score. Still, it was a start. During fall cross country competition, All-American Karen Bridges paced the Cowgirl team. She finished 11th in the National AIAW, 17th in the NAAU, 4th in the Big Eight and 1st


in Region Four. She became one of only two cross country runners in AIAW history to achieve All-America status three times.^

Scouring the junior colleges for prospects to bolster his second OSU cage team. Coach Jim Killingsworth found Ed Odom, Don Youman, and Jon Moorehead. Also lending aid to returning Randy Wright and Mark Tucker were Oklahoma's 1978 Player of the Year, Matt Clark, high school All-American Brad Livingstone, 6-9, and two Californians, Jimmy Reason, 6-8, and Mark Connolly, 6-6, plus a Floridian, Brad Currelly, 7-0 center.

Despite the tremendous recruiting year, after building early leads the Cowboys dropped games through shooting slumps, turnovers, and injuries. Tucker joined the list of Pokes scoring over 800 career points, but it was a 12-15 campaign.

Despite installation of twenty metal halide lights to brighten Gallagher Hall's court, the season was a dark one for a coach with a fine past winning history. In March Killingsworth became the head coach at Texas Christian University. His two-season record at OSU was 22-31. On April 10, affable Paul Hansen, head basketball coach and athletic director at Oklahoma City University, accepted the formidable task of rebuilding OSU's cage reputation.^

Increased attention for women's sports to the tune of $45,000 at last meant an increase in scholarships. Women's Athletic Director Susan Hall said available aid for the program was enabling it to grow rapidly. Her role encompassed coordination of schedules, directing the booster club and the budget, and working with coaches. Ann O'Brien was the new women's sports information director and assistant athletic director.^

Rhonda Kite Stunkard poured in 456 points in the 17-10 Cowgirl cage season, averaging 16.9 points per game.

On the heels of the exciting fourth place conference ranking in 1978, men's swimming slipped to fifth in 1979 for want of experienced divers and a diving coach. At one point a student manager was entered in dual competition so the Cowboys would receive a team point in each of the diving events. Still, they shattered two conference relay records at the Big Eight Invitational. Robert Casselman, Rolf Meyer, John Marshall, and Paul Nash set a new 1,400-meter freestyle mark, while Andy Fox, Marshall, Nash, and Meyer broke the 800 meter freestyle. ^

Snowstorms abbreviated the women swimmers' travel schedule, one of the toughest in its four years as a varsity, to a 3-2 finish and seventh in the Big Eight Swimming and Diving Championships in Columbia. Under the eye of assistant swim coach Mike Barden and diving coach John Phillips, twenty-five personal records fell with performances by Ellen Buelow, Diana Watters, Staci Jo Findley, Ellen McGowan, and Karen Brown. ^

For the fifth consecutive year, O-State's gymnasts reigned as team


champions in Oklahoma AIAW competition. The vaulting crown went to Kevn Mabrey, while Barbie Cantwell swept impressively the balance beam, floor exercise, uneven parallel bar, and all-around titles. On the heels of an 18-3 year, the team earned third at the Big Eight and second at the Southwest AIAW Regionals. At the national tourney, Mabrey became OSU's first AIAW ail-American, with Cantwell ranking in the top ten, a graceful stride forward for the young campus sport.^^

It looked like a year to add another national wrestling crown to OSU's collection of 27 gleaned over 49 years. Eager for their 16th Big Eight title, the Cowboys took their 16-3 record into Ames, Iowa, only to be unseated in the finals by Iowa State. Lee Roy Smith captured his third conference title and Charles Shelton and Eric Wais were also champions. Wais' fireman's carry took him to the top at the NCAA Championships, the only first place the Cowboys saw as the team finished sixth.^^

The track program still lacked momentum, and the men's and women's teams both remained in the Big Eight cellar. However, at the league outdoor championships at Manhattan, Mrs. Bridges, wife of coach Larry Bridges, won the 10,000-meter run and Debbie Smallwood took first in the javelin. ^

Despite another Big Eight title, the men's tennis team was still ranked 21st in the nation on the heels of a 24-10 year. Coach Wadley had recruits from as far as South Africa and Australia, and his goal now was to cross the barrier into the top twenty. He started by toughening the schedule once again.

After compiling a 10-4 fall record, the OSU women's tennis squad continued a successful spring foray led by Debbie Cunningham, finishing third in the Big Eight conference tourney. In two years. Coach Betty Edgley had guided the team to second and third place finishes and a 33-11-1 record.15

A 24-17 softball record included Cowgirl participation in five regional tournaments, and second place in the Big Eight, second in the Oklahoma AIAW State Championship, and a 2-2 finish in the Southwest AIAW Regional.

On the diamond, the Cowboys galloped to a 33-19 outing in 1979, as second-year coach Gary Ward led them to a tie with Oklahoma for first in the Big Eight Western Division.^^

The women golfers were beginning to come into their own under Coach Ann Pitts as they captured firsts in the Kansas and Missouri Invitationals, placed second at the Lady Sun Devil Invitational and fifth at the Susie Maxwell Berning All-College before repeating as Big Eight Champions. Alicia Ogrin was again individual medalist in conference play, with Cowgirl Brenda Lunsford placing second. The entire team qualified for the 1979 AIAW National Championships for the second year and the Cowgirls placed twelfth.


Bob Tway became the 13th OSU golfer to be named first team All-America while leading the men's team to a first place Big Eight finish and a second place finish in the NCAA Championship. Individually, Tway and Britt Harrison tied for fifth as late-charging Ohio State won by two strokes. 1

A continuing area economic slump made itself known more tangibly in June as Athletic Director Young announced that both varsity swimming programs had been dropped due to "inflated fiscal obligations," and a lack of returning coaches and swimmers. When the Campus Activity Fee Allocation Committee provided at least $275,000 less than the athletic department had requested for the coming school year, something had to give. Continuing varsity sports would be a basic six of basketball, baseball/softball, track and field, cross country, golf, and tennis for both men and women plus wrestling and football for men and volleyball and gymnastics for women.

During the fifteen years Jim Cutter had been head coach, his men's team won twenty-two Big Eight Conference individual and relay championships and set fifteen league records. He developed the men's team in 1963-64 and the women's in 1964 before being named head coach in 1965. With Cutter's retirement set for September and top swimmers John Marshall and Paul Nash remaining at home in Australia to prepare for the 1980 Olympics, intercollegiate swimming became a thing of the past at Oklahoma State.^^

Gathering a young and enthusiastic coaching staff around him, Johnson swooped onto the artificial turf of Lewis Field in high spirits in 1979. Of his optimistic outlook, the first-year head coach grinned and said, "I like to have a good time. On the field I like to whoop and holler and yell. When it comes to playing ball, I want my players to have the feeling of if you want a part of us, just come ahead," he explained.

Despite the unresolved NCAA probe, Johnson had noted on arrival in Stillwater, "Everybody here is going all out for our program. That's one of the things that impressed me the most about coming here. With that support, there's no way to go but up."^^

And the Cowboys did. Riding hard, with a potent passing game and inspired by linebacker Rick Antle, they headed into a 7-4 year. All four losses were to bowl-bound teams. An unbelievable string of injuries left twenty freshmen on the 55-player travel squad.^^ At mid-September Tom Dirato wrote in the Oklahoma Journal, "Jeff Fair's training room looked like a battlefield infirmary. The players were literally assigned numbers Sunday as they arrived for early morning treatment."^^

But five conference victories etched OSU's name firmly in third place in the Big Eight rodeo and Johnson was branded Big Eight Coach of the Year by United Press International and the Associated Press. Although Johnson recruited nationwide, he concentrated on players from Okla-


homa, student athletes "who want to come to OSU for an education as well as to play football for the Cowboys." Along with seventy-seven appearances at high school banquets and fundraisers in three months, he invited faculty members to watch an afternoon practice, bridging a gap between faculty and coaches for better rapport and understanding of players' needs and goals at the university.22

Highly visible at all major school events. Pistol Pete continued to embody the good natured ole Cowhand, ever-ready to sign autographs for shy youngsters, pose for pictures, and brighten the sidelines at games and matches. A long line of young collegians had portrayed Pete. Scot Kirtley once explained that it took at least an hour of preparation, mentally and physically, before one of Pete's appearances.

It meant donning boots, holster, chaps, and the 40-pound fiberglass head. Oh, and remembering the lariat for lassoing cheerleaders and pompon beauties. Then, legs bowed and a sauntering gait in place, Oklahoma State's unique mascot was ready to kick off homecoming festivities on the library lawn, shoo away outlaws during parades, shake endless hands stretched his way, and lend an ongoing tribute to the original Pistol Pete, sharp-shooter Frank Eaton.^^

Cowgirl softball took on added vitality as its new field neared completion and the autumn of 1979 saw the first season of sixteen fall games at O-State to sharpen skills. Playing in the same region as OU, Texas, and Louisiana, schools with well-organized, well-equipped teams, OSU's program gained respect when its new facility was unveiled, head coach Sandy Fischer pointed out. Pam Compton batted .357, driving in nine runs in the short, 10-6 season.^^

By Frankie Albitz' third year of coaching, she had installed a sophisticated volleyball system in Gallagher Hall and beefed up competition. Although the year began with only four returnees—and none taller than 6-1 Jan Flood—a car accident sidelined three of the top six players just before OSU hosted the Big Eight conference tournament. The revised line-up went down to the wire before losing to Oklahoma and eventual champion Nebraska, to finish last.^^

Hosting the Big Eight Men's Cross Country in Stillwater, the Cowpokes finished the 10,000-meter race in fifth place. Earlier Mike Andrews won the five-mile Oral Roberts Intercollegiate. Guiding them now was Ralph Tate's assistant, Steve Baker. Dorsey Reirdon was coaching the women, who ran seventh in the conference 5,000-meter at Lincoln.^^

While Johnson had initiated the slogan, "Press On" for football, new head basketball coach Paul Hansen rearranged it into "Put the press on." The former Oklahoma City University coach arrived at OSU with a 499-211 (.701) career coaching record, only to inherit a team generally expected to occupy the bottom of the Big Eight ladder.

The outgoing Hansen readily defined his recruiting practices: "I 've


never cheated when recruiting a player. I don't buy clothes or provide tires. If that's what a player wants, then he's got the wrong man. You know, in that regard, I feel I'm right for OSU. Maybe that wasn't the case five years before or maybe it won't be five years from now. But, I see it now as an excellent partnership."^^

It was also a demanding partnership. With 6-7 forward Don Youman and guard Matt Clark injured early,

and two other key players academically ineligible two games into the Big Eight schedule, the prophecy was nearly fulfilled in the 10-17 season. But there was time to celebrate. On November 30, the Pokes trounced Texas Weslyan, 102-47, for Hansen's 500th career victory. Ed Odum emerged as the conference's leading scorer with over 600 points.

On the women's team, hitting 49 of 55 free throws, Julie Moser had an impressive .890 average during the 1979-80 basketball schedule. Strength and depth had been a concern when the tallest woman athlete ever to play at OSU, 6-4 Laura Poe, left school. But the Cowgirls of Judy Bugher averaged nearly 70 points a game while allowing the opposition only 60. In their finest outing yet, the women turned in a 19-13 record. 28

At Christmas break, a gymnastics clinic was sponsored by Coach Bilhartz and his wife, Jan, at Circus World in Florida. The large event intrigued circus personnel, particularly trapeze artists.

"Will you be working out with us today?" Bilhartz asked one of the trapeze flyers watching the collegiate routines.

"Oh, no ," came the answer. "What you're doing is too dangerous."^^ Back home, although the gymnastics squad was hampered with only

six competitors, the women were bolstered by AIAW All-Americans Kevn Mabrey and transfer Patti Dannemiller. They claimed first places at Jacksonville State, University of New Mexico-Emporia State, Texas Christian and Kansas-Memphis State, were second in the Big Eight and Southwest AIAW Regional and vaulted into the nation's top fourteen. State championships were not held.^°

The number one-ranked Pokes collected a 22-17 wrestling victory at Norman in the 1979-80 season, but knee surgery for NCAA champion Wais dropped the ranking to sixth and plans for another NCAA team title suffered a blow.

Oklahoma State's 500th dual victory came January 16, 1980, as Portland State fell, 46-0. Pre-match ceremonies honored members of OSU teams that won the school's 100th, 200th, 300th, and 400th dual victories. With them was Ward Chase, whose win at Emporia State (Kansas) in January 1917 handed Coach Ed Gallagher his first team victory.

Chase, 84, who grew up scufQing in strawstacks on a farm near Ralston, was as calm about the 500th as he recalled being about that first match that launched a dynasty. A heavyweight who learned formal wres-


tling holds only after arriving at A&M, Oklahoma State's first wrestling hero was a member of Gallagher's gym class. Wrestling was not considered a sport on campus although the matmen had met—and lost—to three opponents from 1915 to 1917.

"When I wrestled, the mats were canvas covered and were about 20 by 20. There were about six weights and things were just really different ," Chase recalled. After graduation, he continued his interest in the sport, coaching in Oklahoma schools for ten years.^^

With travel difficult and early wrestling schedules limited, it took eighteen years to achieve the 100th victory, a 24 1/2-7 1/2 win over Oklahoma at Stillwater by Gallagher'steam. Number 200 came in another eighteen years, an 18-10 decision over Illinois at Gallagher Hall by Art Griffith's team. Stepped-up travel and longer seasons gave A&M its 300th in a dozen more years, a 23-7 victory over Colorado by Myron Roderick's team in Boulder. Eight years later, the Cowboys of Oklahoma State were guided by Chesbro to their 400th triumph in 1973, a 35-2 win over Southern Illinois at Gallagher Hall.

Chesbro had now become OSU's all-time coach with the most victories, etching 143 victorious matches against only 17 losses. Another achievement went into the record book during the 1980 season as the 100th dual shut-out was recorded over Brigham Young, 47-0. Thomas "Jake the Snake" Landrum gained fans as he snared the most falls record with sixteen.

At the Big Eight, Lee Roy Smith was named outstanding wrestler as he and Ricky Stewart collected firsts and the team placed second. Troubled by injuries, the mat men captured second at the NCAA tourney in Corvallis, Oregon. Smith and Stewart were OSU's national champions there. 2

In 1980 Cowboy tracksters began to sparkle again. It was James Butler's season all the way. Dubbed "the find of the season" by Track and Field Federation News, the fleet junior amassed honors all year, setting indoor and stadium records.

With Butler first in the 60 and 300 yard dashes, he combined with Kendall Staggs, Greg Rozell, Jon Mathiason, and John Sharp on the winning distance medley, as OSU took fourth at Lincoln in the indoor. Later, the varsity raced to third in the outdoor at Manhattan as Butler broke the tape on the 100 and 200 meters, then anchored Sterling Starks Jr., Donald Lee Briggs, and Ron Ingram in the winning 440-yard relay.

As the outstanding performer at the Big Eight Outdoor Track Championship, Butler was honored by the Omaha-WorJd Herald with the Henry F. Schulte Award. He was the fourth OSU recipient since 1961. After placing second in the 200-meter dash and 400-meter relay at the NCAA Championships, he went on to sweep the heats and the Olympic team trial finals, only to run into the U.S. boycott of the Moscow


First-year head tennis coach Ike Groce called his 1980 team "the hardest working girls I've ever coached." The team included (front row) Chris Christopher, Cindy Reed, and Jana Coates; (back row) Coach Groce, Carol Mortarotti, Pam Compton, Stacy Williams, Holly Harris, and Mary Jewett.

Olympics. From March through May 1980, Butler had tallied fifteen firsts in

collegiate competition. In June and July he would turn to European tracks from Norway to Sweden to West Germany and London and back at Philadelphia, becoming a world class sprinter as he piled up another six victories in seven races.^^

Eight school records fell as the women's track team bettered marks in the indoor long jump, and the relay team of Karen Hughes, Jane Pat-ton, Leslie Parkhill, and Rochelle Armstrong rewrote four more. The Cowgirls remained eighth in both championships. The new Kay Barrett Droke Track and Field Center adjacent to the all-weather track on the northwest edge of the campus now provided runners with a weight, trophy, and dressing rooms, and a whirlpool.

Tying Oklahoma for the most Big Eight tennis crowns, the men's varsity claimed OSU's fourth straight conference championship, with a 25-5 season that saw the team take on seven teams ranked in the top twenty. A $50,000 donation from Duke and Catherine DeBois helped fund eight new lighted courts west of the Colvin Center, with seating for 1,000 fans.


Keeping pace with other Cowgirl sports, the women's tennis varsity produced a 27-5 record. They were now under the direction of outstanding tennis player Ike Groce, who set about turning the team from a mid-conference finisher to a Big Eight powerhouse and national contender. He began recruiting players from Scotland, Ireland, Poland, and Australia. ^

In a tremendous burst of prowess, the Cowgirls' softball team posted a 34-20 record, captured OSU's first Big Eight championship in that sport, climbed to second in regionals and landed in fifth place in the AIAW National Tournament at Norman. That fifth represented the highest national ranking any Cowgirl athletic team had achieved. Pitcher Nancy Teehee's 22 wins and 8 shutouts were a major factor in the success of a team that had begun the year rated fourth by conference coaches and seeded second only because of their runner-up status in 1979.^^

College baseball fans across America had plenty of opportunity to read about Oklahoma State's dramatic improvement in 1980. Ranked third in the nation for six weeks, the Pokes welcomed the national attention, but for the second year lost their top pitcher in Big Eight tournament play and slipped to third. Power-hitter Duane Evans made league history as the Big Eight's all-time home run king. Overall, it was a 43-10 season. Coach Ward's efforts had established the Cowboys as a national caliber club.^^

Tucking their third consecutive Big Eight women's championship trophy into their golf bags, the Cowgirls stroked their way to 16th place at the AIAW Nationals. The conference's individual medalist, Val Skinner led season play, along with Patty Coatney, two-time Big Eight medalist Alicia Ogrin, Janet Groen, Jennie Huvendick, Janice Burba, and Becky Neal.^^

It was a triumphant moment when the Oklahoma State golf team and coach Holder accepted the Cowboys' fourth NCAA championship trophy in 1980. Aided by the superb final round play of Rafael Alarcon, the team scrabbled back from a five-stroke deficit to earn the national title, the school's third in five years. Tway gained two-time All-America status. Also on that team were Eric Evans, Jeff Walser, and Willie Wood. At Lawrence, Big Eight individual titleholder Alarcon kept the linksters ahead as the Cowboys won their twelfth consecutive conference crown by 23 strokes.3«

With limitations in the number of athletic scholarships and the advent of women's varsity sports, the decade of the 1970s brought an abundance of walk-ons—athletes who arrive without scholarships. They want a chance to play, to prove themselves. They try out for a varsity sport with no guarantee of a scholarship or financial aid.

Without these volunteers over the past ninety-five years, OSU would have often been unable to field a team. Through sheer determination,


these men and women have often risen to become mainstays on varsity squads. Now and then, their names make headlines across the Southwest—sometimes, across the nation. From them often come O-State's young giants.

They have names like Abby Daigle, John Doerner, Mel Campbell, and Rick Antle.

Success seems unlikely for some, right from the start. Daigle arrived in Stillwater from a small Texas school that hadn't won a grid game during his years there. But he fought his way onto the team and tied or broke nearly every OSU kicking record and was named All Big Eight.

Football may not be the primary sport blessed with walk-ons. Head Baseball Coach Gary Ward believes walk-ons may be more important in baseball than in any other sport. His 1978 Big Eight championship team was built by forty players. Only twenty-five were on scholarship. But walk-on Brian Weaver was the Pokes' leading hitter. With scholarships limited, walk-ons are the unheralded players who become the practice and scout teams. The odds are slim that any will make it to the starting line-ups. Still, there's that unquenchable personal goal to make it. Conditioning, morale, and a measure of talent help. But there's something else that often makes a walk-on a winner.^^

' 'When you are a walk-on, you get in the habit of giving extra effort,'' wide receiver Lynn Beck told the Tulsa World.*^

For most of the athletic program's history, another group of dedicated athletes performed far from the spotlight. The largest group of contributors was in women's sports, where most teams were for so long completely dependent on non-scholarship "volunteer" athletes. Title IX brought about more aid to women's athletics, and, with this boost, the teams' own skills have generated more interest and wider folio wings.

Football Coach Pat Jones isn't one to write off would-be varsity men. He himself was a walk-on as a linebacker and nose guard at Arkansas.*^

Blue chip recruits will always be sought and admired. But at OSU, there's plenty of room for that welcome walk-on spirit and hustle.

Endnotes


2. Ron Holt, "78 Cowboy Football," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 19, no. 4 (August-September 1978), pp. 2-3.

3. OSU 1979 Football Media Guide.

4. Rob Phillips, "A Popular Myth-Conception," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 51, no. 5 (July 1980), p. 2.

5. 1979 Redskin, p. 193.


6. 1979 Redskin, p. 239. 7. 1979 Redskin, p. 243; "Sports," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 20, no. 1 (January-

February 1979), p. 14.

8. 1979 Redskin, pp. 196-199; "Sports," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 20, no. 1 (January-February 1979), p. 14; "Sports," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 20, no. 3 (June-July 1979), p. 15.

9. 1979 Redskin, p. 226.

10. 1979 Redskin, p. 206.

11. 1979 Redskin, p. 243; "Sports," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 20, no. 1 (January-February 1979), p. 14.

12. Author's personal communication with Larry Bilhartz.

13. 1980 Redskin, pp. 260-261.

14. OSU 1984 Track Media Guide.

15. 1980 Redskin, pp. 278-281, 291; 1979 Redskin, p. 236; 1980 OSU Women's Tennis Media Guide.

16. 1980 Redskin, pp. 290-291; "Sports," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 20, no. 3 (June-July 1979), p. 17; OSU 1980 Baseball Media Guide.

17. 1980 Redskin, pp. 282-285, 291; "Sports," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 20, no. 3 (June-July 1979), p. 17.

18. 1980 Redskin, pp. 266-267.

19. 1979 Redskin, p. 193.

20. Phillips, p. 4.

21. Oklahoma City Oklahoma Journal, 17 September 1979, p. 13. 22. 1980 Redskin, p. 241; Tom Dirato, "The First Step, Ride 'Em: Inside Cowboy Sports, vol.

1, no. 2 (December 1979), pp. 6-12; Phillips, p. 4.

23. 1981 Redskin, p. 321.

24. 1980 Redskin, pp. 272-273.

25. 1980 Redskin, pp. 264-265.

26. 1984 OSU Cross Country Press Guide, p. 12; 1980 Redskin, p. 248.

27. Tom Dirato, "It Was the Right Choice," Ride 'Em: Inside Cowboy Sports, vol. 1, no. 2 (December 1979), pp. 20-22.

28. 1980 Redskin, pp. 252-255; Dirato, "It Was the Right Choice," p. 22; 1980 Redskin, p. 255; OSU Basketball Media Guide.

29. "Women's Gymnastics: No Cinderella Story," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 51, no. 4 (March 1980), p. 8.

30. 1980 Redskin, pp. 258-259, 290; Bilhartz communication; David Ronck, "Challenge Accepted, " Ride 'Em: Inside Cowboy Sports, vol. 1, no. 2 (December 1979), p. 29.

31. Stillwater NewsPress, 16 January 1980, p. 14.

32. 1980 Redskin, p. 261.

33. 1981 Redskin, pp. 296-297; 1981 OSU Track Media Guide.

34. 1981 Redskin, pp. 300-303; 1983-84 OSU Cowgirl Tennis Media Guide, p. 1.

35. 1981 Redskin, pp. 294-295.

36. 1981 Redskin, pp. 290-293.

37. 1981 Redskin, pp. 308-309.

38. 1981 Redskin, pp. 304-307.

39. 1979 Redskin, p. 225.

40. Tulsa World, 31 October 1985, p. 5C.

41. Oklahoma State 1985 Football Press Guide, p. 5.


35 The Mountain Ahead

Baseball, immigrant Saul Steinberg once observed, is an allegorical drama about America, "a poetic, complex and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate and sober self-esteem." Without a thorough knowledge of baseball, the artist declared, it was impossible to understand the country.^

Oklahoma State understands. Despite strong dedication to other sports, baseball mania rides high

in Cowboy Country when the latest national contender squad takes the field with Coach Gary Ward. While O-State has had a quality program for the last three decades, the most visible changes—broader recruiting, finer facilities, closer rapport with major league scouts and the media, and the bonus of ESPN's television coverage—have appeared under Ward. 2

Under Coach Henry Iba, from 1935-41, baseball flourished as a well-rounded program and his teams were 79-37. Toby Greene stepped in in 1942, and by 1959 he was working with more than 20 scholarships and a comfortable budget. It netted OSU its first NCAA championship. Greene's Cowboys went on to win three Big Eight and six NCAA district titles and made seven appearances in the nationals. Greene was honored by entry in the National Hall of Fame of Collegiate Baseball.^

The school was a baseball power when Chet Bryan arrived on campus, and from 1965 to 1969, the crusty mentor kept it in the national spotlight. In Bryan's second season the Cowboys won the Big Eight and zoomed all the way to second in the NCAA, then sent his squad back to the CWS the next two seasons. He produced four Big Eight champions and an NCAA runnerup. Three NCAA district crowns also came


his way. Sixteen of his players made the professional ranks.^ Winning the Big Eight Conference Championship his first year. Ward

was the first to break the one-coach-does-it-all mold, enlarging the budget for two much-needed assistants. Still, it is the six CWS trips in nine years that stand out.

Broad recruiting pastures now beckon. Like his fellow coaches, Greene aimed primarily at boys from Oklahoma and adjacent states, but with Bryan, Oklahoma State began in the sixties to tap both coasts for talent. Under Ward, nationwide searches have netted high caliber sign-ees, leading OSU to lofty annual ratings by Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball.

Public relations skills became valuable in the seventies and eighties as coaches accepted the fact that professional scouts would continue to sign hot prospects before college graduation or even before they reached the campus. Consequently, Bill Piatt, longtime observer and radio voice of the Cowboys since 1958, recalled in 1986 that, in a neat reverse, the current staff now receives tips on good college-bound players from friendly scouts.

Even after signing a letter of intent to attend OSU, a player may face an offer he can't refuse.

"When the money gets up to $170,000 or $180,000, they capitulate and sign," Piatt said. "You always take that chance with the real good ones. And I don't blame them. If you have a chance to sign for that much money . . . . "

The gem of a ballpark, Allie P. Reynolds Stadium looms as one of the university's largest accomplishments in the sport. It stands on the site of OSU's previous field. Beyond that there is little to compare. Thirty years ago, a big media night at the ballpark consisted of a reporter or two, Otis Wile keeping score, and Piatt at the microphone. Working arrangements for the press were as primitive as the park itself.

"When I first started broadcasting, they had a one-by-twelve propped up by two-by-fours at the top of the stands, with just two iron pipe railings behind it," Piatt recalled. "We bought some plastic to put up behind it, to try to keep the southwest wind from eatin' you up. Then the university put a top and a back on it, over the one-by-twelve. When Coach Ward came, he closed the thing in. Made a little door, board windows. You raised the windows, but you were protected underneath, on the side, on the top. With an electric heater, you could keep pretty warm up there.

"I remember talking to Gary his first year. We were down around the batting cage, and it was a cold day. I said, 'Gary, I really do appreciate you closing that press box. Man, it really helps. ' He said, 'The only thing I can tell you. Bill, is that it's going to get better.'

"After they built the new stadium and press box, I said, 'You remember fixing the old press box, Gary?' He said, 'Yeah.' And I said, 'In my


wildest dream I had no idea what you had in mind when you said it was going to get better.' We have a major league facility now."

A prime pusher and fundraiser for construction of the park. Ward had help from Dr. Dick Young, then athletic director, and a generous donor, former New York Yankee Super Chief and OSU alumnus, Allie Reynolds. Response from other alumni continued during the quest for $100,000 for lights. There's a story that when Ward called on longtime supporter Tom Mace, the latter asked, "Gary, how much do you need?"

And Ward was said to have responded, "Well, I've got 10 and I need 90 ."

Mace's casual reply was, "Well, just put 'em in ." Through combined efforts, the new facility provided a tremendous

shot of adrenalin for the sport.^ The stadium's namesake is a modest, soft-spoken Creek athlete from

Oklahoma City who came to Oklahoma A&M in 1934 to throw the javelin, and star as a broad jumper and dash man. But new basketball-baseball coach Henry P. Iba lured him into a pitching try-out that led Reynolds after graduation to a 13-year major league career that spawned a record of 182-107 for the Cleveland Indians and the New York Yankees. Capping that were two no-hitters for the American League pennant-winning Yankees and a role in six World Series from 1947-1954.

How did he happen to enroll in Stillwater? "It was the only school that would provide some assistance while

I got my education," Reynolds said in 1986. "Assistance" amounted to an essential $20 a month during his freshman year—and all the janitorial and construction work he could manage.

"Of course, I worked hard for that $20. Later, it blossomed up to $25 ." Nearly every athlete was working his way through school then, but Allie had additional responsibilities in the form of a wife and a child or two. Even after a knee injury ended his promising future in track, he continued to bolster the football team.^

Then came an invitation from Coach Iba to pitch at batting practice. "He said he'd heard I had a hard ball. I didn' t know what batting

practice was—I was trying to get 'em out. There were growls because I was throwing harder than customary." The growls told Mr. Iba what he wanted to know and Allie was sent off to get a uniform. The track man who'd never envisioned a major league baseball future, was on his way.

While not a spectacular pitcher at A&M, Allie's promise was apparent. Well, most of the time.

' 'When I started, I just threw between first and third, ' ' he once said. "A Yankee scout came to watch me in a college game. I got knocked

out of the box." The scout's report read something like, "Will never amount to anything." With a chuckle, the Super Chief indicated that


in later years in the majors his path frequently crossed that of the scout. The man who predicted Allie would never go far never referred to that early report. Neither did the famous big right hander.

But at Oklahoma A&M his sights were set on a practical goal. With a pleasant little, almost embarrassed laugh, Reynolds said his plans had been to teach and coach.

"I was in the school of education and I have a lifetime teaching certificate. I could always fall back on that. ' ' A small vestige of pride broke through at the mention of the cherished certificate, but was gone again as he earnestly described Mr. Iba's aid in landing a $1,000 bonus offer to sign with the Indians in 1938. That $1,000 marked the first mammoth bonus offered anyone in the entire Missouri Valley Conference in the post-Depression years. And, out-of-the-blue, an earlier job offer had come from a professional football team. He was the New York Giants' third-round draft choice.^

There were pennants, headlines, championships, and celebrations for the superb pitcher. There was the presidency of the American Association. But he's back home in Oklahoma, a member of the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, as unassuming as when he signed that bonus contract in 1938 and headed for experience in the minor leagues. Bill Piatt attests to that.

"About the first or second year after they built the stadium, we had the NCAA Midwest Regional Championship game here. Allie and his wife decided to come up and see it. Well, they get up here and the ticket line is clear back out there. They get in line and tickets're sold out before the Reynolds get to the windows. So they went back and sat in the car and listened to the game. Allie told me that.

"I said, 'Allie, what's the matter with you? They named the stadium after you. All you have to do is to go to the gate and ask for Coach Ward or Coach HoUiday.' He wouldn't do that. That's the kind of person he is. He didn't want anything free. He wouldn' t even ask if the coaches had a ticket he could buy so he could get in the stadium."^

Each long surge toward the Big Eight Conference, NCAA Regional, and College World Series title ends in June. But by July, Coach Ward has mentally packed away OSU's most recent diamond achievements and begun mapping the new season. As he guides sun-baked summer campers at Reynolds Stadium, he's also immersed in tidying up, reshelv-ing supplies and strategies, priming his energies. It's a process that, from 1978 through 1986, has netted Ward an illustrious 448-146 record.

No longer a simple, minor spring sport, baseball consumes the entire calendar for Ward and assistants Tom and Dave HoUiday. The drive and intensity of each year are ingrained in Ward's public face, his game face. Challenges well-met must be savored on the run, as new ones sweep into place.


Shortly after the handsome Allie P. Reynolds Stadium was completed on the northeastern edge of the campus, the Pokes hosted the 1982 NCAA Midwest Regional competition. Fans turned out in record numbers, lines were long, and tickets were sold out before the stadium's namesake could purchase a pair. The unassuming Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds returned to their car and listened to Bill Piatt describe the game on the radio.

There's one basic to bear in mind: Despite OSU's high national ranking annually, there's never an easy campaign.

Every summer professional contracts still dangle, tempt, and inflict punishing turnovers among eligible veterans and top recruits. Until last year's stars and this year's freshmen actually begin classwork. Ward's lineup is in limbo. Too, it is essential for the coaching trio to raise over $100,000 annually to supplement OSU funding for the sport.^

Every siege begins the way it ends, in earnest. From the early foothills on. Ward readies his troops for a rugged

assault on Big Eight and regional powers. Fall practice extends into October and marks a departure from the regimen followed by his predecessors. Greene scheduled no formal work before the second semester; Bryan sometimes did. On the heels of practice and exhibition games come informal meets with 18-20 junior college teams, giving coaches an opportunity to study transfers and newcomers.

"You don't have to go until the 15th of January to find out what this freshman you recruited last May can do , " explained Piatt. "The coaches


work hard in September and October, days and nights. That's part of their success." Standards for academic work and behavior are clear-cut, and work-oriented, as well. Piatt commented, "They lose very few from grades. If a kid won't study, he's gone at the end of the semester. "^°

It happens every spring. In the midst of an early series, along comes a dynamic game. It triggers electricity like sheet lightning, and fosters almost unrealistic anticipation as the squad goes on to scale each conference and regional peak. It spreads like wildfire across the campus, permeates local conversation, and enthralls alumni. All over again, there's conviction in the air that this might be the year for the Black and Orange in Omaha.

A heady feeling, it is enormously difficult to live up to. But then Gary Ward is both a realist and a master mountain climber. He's also "probably the leading hitting coach in the country."^^ Before signing with Montreal, pitcher Darren Dilks concurred. Tom HoUiday shaped Dilks' pitching arm, and Ward worked on his hitting.

' 'Coach Ward can teach a blind man to hit. He is that type of coach,' ' Dilks told the Daily O'Collegian. "It 's something Ward's zeroed in on, to become proficient," Piatt said.^^

An accomplished speaker. Ward handles a quip as well as he does a batter.

In 1985 when "Pistol" Pete Incaviglia was college baseball's most exciting player, setting and resetting NCAA records with his bat. Ward worked with Pete to improve his ragged fielding, which was not setting records. Still, the coach admitted it was exciting to watch Pete field.

"It 's sometimes like a pinball machine out there," he noted, tongue firmly in cheek.^^ But even in Incaviglia's biggest year. Ward didn't skip a beat in singling out other exceptional efforts on the fast, powerful, high scoring squad.^*

"Sometimes I look up at the scoreboard and I see my American Express number. It looks like a zip code, " he said.^^

Following a triumphant resurgence in the regional finals. Ward told newsmen that same year, "This team has accepted many challenges this year. We've got one more. And this is the biggest mountain you can c l imb . "16

The "mountain" never varies. Its stature is never diminished. It is Rosenblatt Stadium, crisply painted, poised atop a cliff on the Missouri River outside Omaha, Nebraska. For the rest of the baseball world, it is the home of the Omaha Royals, the Kansas City Royals farm club. To student-athletes, it is the site of the annual NCAA College World Series, college baseball's Mecca. It is the mountain the Cowboys want most to conquer again.

CWS bats can suddenly sing or be silenced by future major leaguers among college ranks. The mountain smiles, of course, on a single team


Intent on launching a new assault on the College World Series each season. Head Coach Gary Ward

also focuses on the moment's on-field action. His teams have

always been a dominant force in college baseball.

during the annual scramble. Since 1959, that smile has been an elusive one for O-State.

Although the actual elevation of that bluff may hover around 1,040 feet, it proves insurmountable for all but eight teams each year. Making it "all the way to Omaha" confers enormous approval on any university's program. Six times in Ward's nine years OSU has vaulted into the elite stratosphere. The Cowboys have finished second, third, fourth, and, three times, fifth.^^

When it rained at Omaha—and it always rains—O-State had three restless days off in 1985 before meeting Miami.

"It only took seven days, according to Biblical scripture, to create the world. It took us eight days to play three games," Ward exclaimed. "That expresses my opinion about what you have to do at Omaha and how difficult it is to sustain concentration and effort."

After a 2-1 loss to Miami that sent the Cowboys home without a championship, the coach told the press, "I thought that kind of epitomized what the College World Series is all about and what great college baseball is about. You've got the tying run at the plate, a guy with 19 saves [Miami's Rick Raether] facing a guy with 48 home runs [Incaviglia].

"I 'd pay to watch that."^^ He's candid about emotions spawned in the struggle at the top. "There's a tremendous exhilaration when you win up here ," Ward


has said. "But there is heartbreak when you lose and the pain won't go away until the Fourth of July. It's been that way for six years. "^^ With effort, that ache can be folded and tucked out of sight by July, gaining independence from last year's memories, making room for new ones in Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.

"A continuance of hard work," Allie Reynolds says approvingly of OSU's baseball past and future.

"Hard work. That's at the top of Ward's list," Piatt says. "He works long and hard. I think about him like I do about Mr. Iba. Either could have been successful in whatever he chose to do. That's because of hard work, intellect, drive. They're just people that stick out. Just top-notch people. "20

It becomes apparent the rhythmic recurrence of the word "work" linked with names like Reynolds and Ward is no accident.

That's what it takes for a man and a team with a mountain to climb.

Endnotes

1. Russell Lynes, "Russell Lynes Observes," Architectural Digest, vol. 39, no. 12 (December 1982), pp. 42, 48.

2. Ron Phillips, "They're in Good Hands at O-State," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 51, no. 4 (March 1980), p. 8.

3. Author interview with Bill Piatt, 5 August 1986, Athletics Centennial History Collection, Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

4. OSU Baseball Media Guide 1982; 1978 Redskin, p. 231, Oklahoma State University Yearbook.

5. Piatt interview.

6. Author telephone interview with Allie P. Reynolds, 11 July 1986.

7. Reynolds telephone interview; Tulsa World, 7 May 1986, p. 20.

8. Piatt interview.

9. Stillwater NewsPress, 16 June 1985, pp. 1B-2B; Siillwater Juke Joint Journal, June 1986, p. 7.

10. Piatt interview.


12. Oklahoma State University Daily O'Collegian, 4 April 1981, p. 2.

13. Tulsa World, 5 April 1985, p. 10.

14. Tulsa World, 8 June 1985, p. IB.

15. Tulsa World, 20 May 1985, p. IB.

16. Tulsa World, 29 May 1985, p. 20.

17. Tulsa World, 3 June 1986, p. 5B; Stillwater NewsPress, 26 May 1986, p. 11.

18. Oklahoma City Sunday Oklahoman, 9 June 1985, p. 30.

19. Tulsa World, 8 June 1986, p. IE.



36 Superb Facilities Added 1980-1982

There were blue skies over the Oklahoma State football program in the fall of 1980. The university entered its 90th year with a $4.1 million athletic budget and a national prominence that the school's first students and faculty would have had difficulty comprehending. But the best campus news was that Coach Jimmy Johnson's team was the first to take the field in two years unhampered by NCAA restrictions on scholarships, post-season play, and potential television appearances.^

And how the Pokes wanted a bowl bid! By a slim point. West Texas State dampened a Cowboy drive for a

victorious opener. The nationally-ranked Razorbacks were less gentle: 33-20. After marching O-State to two fourth-quarter, face-saving touchdowns, reserve quarterback Houston Nutt defined the long rivalry, "In Arkansas, you just don't beat the team, you're beating the whole state." The old foes would not meet again for more than five years.^

Three more losses aided by a weak offense shelved the dream, but four consecutive wins that saw running backs Ernest Anderson and Shawn Jones and kicker Colin Ankersen star bolstered morale before a final pair of defeats. Strong safety Pete DiClementi might have been summing up the 4-7 season when he said, "Any time you lose, it is bad. All of us played so hard . . . . It even hurts more when you play hard and still lose."^

Injuries and disciplinary problems dropped a winning volleyball program into what the Redskin referred to as a "dark interlude between backrow obscurity and a national reputation," as the spikers ended up 23-28-2 in tournament action. Volleyball would be dropped as a varsity sport after the 1981 season.^


OSU men claimed sixth place at Columbia in the Big Eight's 10,000-meter cross country championship; the women's team slipped to eighth.^

Despite a bout of hepatitis that kept Coach Paul Hansen home-bound and coaching from there the first four weeks of the season, the Cowboy cagers rocketed to a 16-3 season that saw an average of 2,234 more fans than usual crowding into Gallagher Hall to see the reborn Pokes. In the second game of OSU's best season since 1964-65, Eddie "Half-Court" Hannon heaved a 45-footer into the basket to upset defending national champion Louisville, 72-71.

After twenty-four years, the team once more played in the prestigious All-College Tournament in Oklahoma City and came away with the title. Superstar guard Matt Clark and center Leroy Combs were all-tournament selections, and Clark was the tourney's Most Valuable Player. Then, shades of Coach Henry Iba's reign, a stretch of nine wins saw O-State perched atop the Big Eight after the first half of the conference season. Quick and aggressive, the sharp-shooting Cowboys had the fourth highest scoring average in the nation and Sports Illustrated ranked them 19th.

Opponents began taking Hansen's men seriously after they defeated Kansas, 76-73, in a three-overtime thriller at home. With a 16-3 record, excitement was at the highest pitch in the past twenty years. Abruptly six losses against only two victories ended the schedule at 18-9. Six of the nine losses were to teams with twenty or more wins. OSU ended up fifth in the Big Eight. Taking the blame for the downturn, Hansen declined a National Invitation Tournament bid.

For his vastly improved varsity, Hansen was named Big Eight Conference Coach of the Year by the Associated Press, District Five Coach of the Year, and was inducted into the All-College Tournament Hall of Fame. Clark made first team AP and UPI All-Big Eight and United States Basketball Writers All-District. He and Combs were Big Eight players of the week.^

Top scorer Kelly Pehrson, who hit 379 points in thirty games, led the women's basketball team to a 16-15 mark and a fourth-place finish in the Oklahoma AIAW tournament. OSU rebounded from graduation inroads to place third in the Minnesota Classic and second in the Roadrunner Classic before falling to eighth in the conference tourney.^

But the spirit and hustle of the women's games continued to go almost unnoticed by students, alumni, and the media. Cheers from scant attendees hadn't the same ring; Gallagher Hall seemed cavernous. Empty stands were unnerving.

"Sure, it hurts to be an unknown," one Cowgirl basketballer admitted in 1980. "In high school, more people came to watch us than came to see the guys play. Now we hardly ever get a decent crowd. At home,


anyway. We see a few on the road." She added, "Sure, we 'd like fan support. We'd love i t ."

But the competitive spirit remained strong. Like their male counterparts, women athletes were learning to budget time for practice, full classloads, laundry and personal chores, travel, and competition.

"It 's not so bad," a female gymnast said. "I feel like I'm gearing up for when I get out of school. I'll have to put things together some day. It isn't easy now, but it won't be easy then, either."^

Bending and balancing, blending strength with beauty of line and form, the OSU gymnasts' technique saw them through an outstanding 22-3 season capped by their first Big Eight Conference title. Individual titles in all five categories went to Kevn Mabrey in the vault, floor exercise, and all-around competition, Liz Parry in the uneven parallel bars, and Lisa Hartmann in the balance beam. All-Big Eight selections were Mabrey, Hartmann, Parry, and Patti Dannemiller.

The gymnasts went on to win the AIAW regional competition over arch-foe Louisiana State. Seeded number eight at the national meet, the Cowgirls were led by Mabrey's second-place rating on the vault to finish eighth.^

They were young and inexperienced, and it showed. Six of the eight starters had to be replaced. But when the Cowboy wrestlers survived four lop-sided losses, under superb technician Tommy Chesbro, the team went on to sixteen victories. They finished third in the conference with Randy Willingham the only Big Eight champion.

A fourth place national ranking before the NCAA meet proved accurate. The Pokes ended up in that spot when national mat champ Ricky Stewart successfully defended his title. Former national champ Lee Roy Smith led the most career wins with 114, while pin artist Thomas Landrum electrified crowds with 16 more falls for a record career total of 46.10

Powered by fleet James Butler, who sped to first in the Big Eight Indoor at Lincoln in the 60 and the 300, the track team ranked fifth. Improving by leaps and bounds, the Cowboys were third at the Outdoor as Ingram took the 100; and Butler, Curtis Thomas, Sterling Starks Jr., and Ron Ingram won the 400-meter relay. The relay team and Butler qualified for the NCAA Outdoor championships in Baton Rouge, where Butler ran fourth in the 200.

Anchored by a strong 1,600-meter relay team, the women tracksters worked to raise themselves toward national recognition. Coached by Dorsey Reirdon, the squad faced its big challenge against nationally-ranked competition in the John Jacobs Invitational in Norman. Lowering five of their own records in the Sooner meet, the Cowgirls finished fourth as Theresa Brantley won the 400-meter dash and was a member of the winning 1,600-meter relay team.


In the Oklahoma Invitational, Jane Patton lowered her own school mark in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles as the Cowgirls won six events and finished in the top three teams. In Big Eight tournaments, the Cowgirls were still in last place, as Ralph Tate oversaw both track programs. 11

Nearing completion were two facilities and a renovation project that would provide a tremendous boost to morale and actual achievement. By late March, the baseball team was practicing on the new diamond north of Bennett Hall. On April 4, Missouri downed OSU in the initial game, but O-State centerfielder Benji De La Rosa hit the first two home runs in Allie P. Reynolds Stadium during the game. The Cowboys chalked up the first win in their new home park the following day, thumping Missouri. Formal dedication of Reynolds Stadium came on AprU 24, 1981.

Named for former O-State and New York Yankee pitching great Allie Reynolds, the stadium had a price tag of $2.1 million when the second phase was finished the following year. The "Super Chief" himself had a considerable hand in making the dream a reality.

One of the finest collegiate baseball facilities in the nation, the stadium was built on the site of the old University Park. Seating 3,000, it offered a modern press box with capacity for twenty-five writers and broadcasters, a service made necessary now that skilled Gary Ward had revived the Cowboy program into an annual national contender.

Home team facilities were located on the east side, and there was also a weight-training room, trophy room, coaches' offices, locker room, multi-purpose classroom, training room, storage and equipment rooms, public restrooms, an enclosed concession stand, and ticket booths. Wrapping up the final phase of the installation were major league-quality lighting, artificial turf, additional locker areas, and the enclosure of the area beneath the west side for pitching/hitting cages.^^

The lights were especially welcome to Ward. "Now we can play spring and summer baseball at night ," he said.

A stickler for students absorbing education, the coach added frankly, "This way, fans won't have to skip class to come watch Cowboy base-baU."i3

A final aid to year-around practice was a $100,000 indoor baseball work-out area in Gallagher Hall. The previous December, bulldozers had carved huge chunks of earth tamped as hard as concrete from the original dirt floor below the building. Long known as the dungeon, the workout area took on a new look with a rubber turf track, bright lighting, and an overall paint job.

Since early winter, the $130,000 renewal of the coaching-teaching space had housed baseball, softball, track, wrestling, football, and other athletes in need of general conditioning activities. By using the actual


configuration of the original building, it was not possible for the track to comply with indoor competition specifications, but it would continue to serve runners in cold months.i*

On May 2, 1981, the second major sports ceremony opened the Kaye Barrett Droke Track and Field Center, less than a mile west of Reynolds Stadium. A $300,000 track renovation was accompanied by a new $250,000 office buUding.

"This track and field complex is as good as any you can find in America," veteran coach Ralph Tate said. "It's the shot in the arm our program has really needed." A weekend track celebration concluded with the first Ralph Higgins Invitational Relays.

"We've needed a place like this for our athletes and fans to enjoy. It's incredible just how fine a job they have done with this track. We no longer are working out on just a piece of ground. It's beautiful,'' said a deeply pleased Tate.

Replacing the 440-yard facility the Cowboys had been using was a slightly smaller but universal 400-meter oval. Rubber turf was in place first, with 1,500 seats, a press box, and judge's stand to be added. Cowgirl tracksters would also use the center, which included fenced-in areas for shot, discus, high jump, triple jump, and pole vaulting competition.

' 'We hope to light the area so we can run at night,'' Tate added, ' 'but that's not on tap this year."i^

Earlier, on March 28, 1981, the first meet was run in meters at the Kaye Barrett Droke track. With the automatic timing system in use, only a handful of school records remained that had been timed manually.i^

As the spring sports continued to unfold, a Big Eight Championship-

J l ^

The newly-completed Kaye Barrett Droke Track and Field Center awaits a flurry of activity from OSU athletes in 1981. Long overdue, the $250,000 facility stands on Hall of Fame Avenue, facing the Colvin Center. A $300,000 track renovation rounded out the complex.


studded ending to the school year appeared. Some victories were cinches. Poke netmen took a 12-point lead into

the tournament through round robin season play, and wrapped up OSU's fifth straight league title in James Wadley's regime. The tennis varsity was 27-6 in dual play, winning seven of nine titles along the path to the newest Big Eight. The Cowboys finished a dozen points ahead of Oklahoma as Mark Johnson took the number one singles crown and teamed up with Kirk Loomis to earn the top doubles trophy. Other singles winners were Loomis, Peter Johnston, and Eddie Meyers. Johnston and Meyers won the number two doubles championship before the team headed for the NCAA tournament. Gaining All-America status were Johnson and Johnston. ^

The women's tennis and softball teams joined the gymnasts at the top of the conference, and the Cowgirl golfers finished second, illustrating the growing, balanced program available at Oklahoma State.

The new Big Eight singles champions were Sue Mowery, Mary Jewitt, and Stacy Williams. Doubles winners were Anastasia Petrovic and Holly Harris, Jewitt, and Mowery. In an 11-2 season, the team took second in the Northeast Louisiana tourney and won the Oklahoma AIAW meet. Coached by Ike Groce, the Cowgirls had compiled a 72-24 record heading into league tournament action.

At the Big Eight softball tournament in Stillwater, Sandy Fischer's squad claimed its second straight league crown impressively, blanking three straight teams. Finishing with a 39-12 record, it was the "winning-est" softball team in school history. Twenty-five games were played in a three-week period and included a defeat over number two-ranked Indiana.

Pam Harper, Jan Krug, Kris Bergstrom, and Tina Schell were All-Big Eight tourney selections. It was the third such honor for Schell. With an at-large bid, the team made it to the national championships, beating Michigan but bowing to Big Eight rival Missouri and then to Cal-State FuUerton.

The most prolific Cowboy baseball team in school history turned in a 52-17 record, upset Nebraska in the final game of the Big Eight tournament to scoop up its ninth league title when it wasn't given much of a pre-tourney chance. Considered less likely to make it past the tough Midwest Regional, the Pokes twice downed tenth-ranked Oral Roberts to gain the regional crown. Without hesitating, the team romped off with three of five College World Series games to become second best in the nation.

But "close" isn't quite enough. Even with hearty applause, ESPN cameras recording, and the runner-up trophy held high in Rosenblatt Stadium, Coach Ward evinced a blend of disappointment in the loss and pride in his players.


' >?t ^

Second baseman Diane Van Fossen completes a double play as the Cowgirls stack up a 2-1 home victory over the Lady Sooners in 1981. With a 34-20 season, the squad won the Big Eight softball championship, placed second in the regionals and fifth nationally.

"To come within one game of realizing every goal you set as a team—as a family—is something that takes a while to get over," he managed to say, between handshakes. "But this has truly been one of those great years—one we'll remember for quite some t ime." With a 168-68 record at O-State, Ward added, "Our motto was 'whatever it takes.' Our players knew they would do it no matter what it took or how deep they had to reach down within themselves to get it done. That is what drove us from the early part of the Big Eight season, "i^

Not only had OSU baseball gained national prominence, so had the school's bat girls. The 1981 OSU Diamond Dolls were selected first among 200 entrants for the "All-American Bat Girl" title. The top-ranked group was formed in 1977-78 by Coaches Ward and HoUiday as an integral part of the program. In addition to bat girl duties at University Park, the Dolls aided in recruiting, tutoring players, attending social functions with the team, and providing secretarial assistance in the office. To support their group and OSU baseball, the Dolls raised over $6,500 in 1981. As a result, eleven were able to accompany the team to the College World Series in Omaha.^^

In nine golf tournaments, Val Skinner was runner-up in two and individual medalist at the Sooner Invitational won by the Cowgirls. At


the Big Eight, OSU was unseated by Oklahoma after back-to-back championships, and was the runner-up before coming in 13th in AIAW National Championships.

Coach Pitts was chosen by the NCAA to coach the USA women's golf team traveling to Tokyo to compete against a team of Japanese all-stars. It was a fortuitous trip. Mrs. Pitts' acquaintance with Yoshiko Ito, Japan's top women's amateur golfer, led to the young standout's arrival on the OSU campus in the fall of 1982 to enter the English Language Institute. By 1983, Ito would make a decided difference in the Cowgirl golf team.20

Defending the Big Eight championship and winning the 23rd crown in the school's 24-year conference participation was the easy part for O-State golfers. Defending their 1980 national championship at the NCAA in Palo Alto, California, was the tough. Well back among the collegiate teams after the first day, the pre-season favorite Cowboys led by Bob Tway began a serious move to the top but could only spear fourth place. Brigham Young University, the previous year's closest opponent, slipped into the throne room in 1981.

Tway, a three-time All American, was the 1981 winner of the Fred Haskins Award, symbolic of the top collegiate golfer, and took three of eight tournaments, placing in the top eight in the other five. Winner of the 1978 Trans-Mississippi Amateur, the 1979 Southern Invitational, the 1979 Big Eight, 1980 Pan-American Invitational, 1980 Georgia Open, 1980 Southern Amateur, 1981 Rafael Alarcon and Chris Schenkel Invitationals, he played on the 1980 World Amateur team and would be a Masters participant in 1981. Also on the NCAA tourney team were Willie Wood, Andy Dillard, Tommy Moore, and Eric Evans.

Six impressive Big Eight Championships in 1981 pushed OSU's overall total to sixty since the university joined the conference in 1958-59, and underscored its continuing efforts for excellence among student-athletes.

Oklahoma State's Big Eight and All-American gymnast Kevn Mabrey returned from the 11th Maccabiah Games in Tel Aviv, Israel, with a gold medal in vaulting. She was among 400 U.S. athletes and 4,000 participants from thirty-five countries. After outstanding performances for OSU, Mabrey retired from collegiate competition to begin preparing for medical school entrance examinations.^^

"As optimistic as we are, we're the least experienced team in the Big Eight," Jimmy Johnson said of his third Cowboy team. The disappointing campaign of 1980 didn't flavor the game plan for 1981. He attributed the sunny picture painted the previous year as "a calculated risk. We rolled craps instead of sevens, but that doesn't mean we don't have another roll ." His early goals at OSU were to create a positive attitude, generate enthusiasm among writers, broadcasters, students, and


fans. And he had. "You know, when you're at Notre Dame or Alabama, as soon as you

win one game, people say you're great," Johnson explained. "At an Oklahoma State, it takes six wins before anyone notices. You need recognition early." And so the man who majored in psychology in college was still beating the drum for the Pokes again in 1981 with a genial grin and no apologies. He was more businesslike. Cutting back on visits around the state, Johnson concentrated on teaching football. Buck Leahy's quarterbacks worked steadily on the new I-formation. Quick to adopt their coach's attitude, the players now projected a quiet confidence, less cocky than they had been a year earlier.22

A 7-5 season and an Independence Bowl bid vindicated Johnson and proved the hard-working Cowpokes were quick studies. Nearly 10,000 Orange and Black fans headed for Shreveport, Louisiana, December 12. Linebacker Mike Green headed OSU's nationally-ranked defense as O-State met Texas A&M for the Oklahoma school's seventh bowl game. But disabling injuries to running backs crippled the Cowboys and A&M's lightning fast aerial touchdowns contributed to OSU's loss, 33-16.23

Green was named outstanding defensive player and Coach Johnson was quick to praise the team's accomplishments on the heels of early predictions of perhaps only two or three wins.

"Everyone connected with our program benefitted from the bowl game—in a very positive way," Johnson reminded. "It was a great reward for our team, coaches, and all those who have worked so hard in making this program one we can all take pride in . "

Nationally broadcast and televised, the game drew 47,300. Each school was expected to receive a check for "at least $200,000," according to a bowl official.2^

The finest season in seven years was in store for the 1981 men's cross country squad. Under Coach Steve Baker, two-time All-Big Eight selection John Sharp was the season's top runner, winning the individual championship at the Oklahoma Invitational while O-State took the team title. Sharp, Dallas Cox, Joe Metcalf, Brian Olsen, and Paul Lauderback placed one through five at that meet. At Ames, in the 10,000-meter Big Eight race, the men clinched fourth, their best since 1975. A week later, the Cowboys placed eighth at the toughest NCAA regional district meet in the country.

The Cowgirls cross country squad remained in eighth place in the conference in the 4,000-meter race at Ames, but six qualified for the Southwest AIAW region meet.2^

After the 1981 turnaround, cage Coach Hansen and his aides, Wayne Ballard and Kenny Turner, were eager to build on that experience, to improve on defensive strength and develop patience on offense when the fast break didn' t materialize. Cowboy basketball was now molded


in the Hansen style. And familiar names were ready for the tip-off. With stars Clark, Combs, and Hannon, were outside shooting threat Ricky Jacobs and top offensive rebounder Raymond Crenshaw. Depth was a plus, and although the team couldn't match the previous year's record, the Pokes turned in a 15-12 season and promise of things to come.26

Claiming their fourth state championship, the Cowgirl cagers had been ranging increasingly farther from the southwest as new opponents were met. On New Year's Eve, the varsity headed for the California State-Chico Invitational as pre-tourney favorites. O-State blitzed Alaska-Anchorage, Boise State, and the host team and forward-guard Charmaine Johnson, guard-forward Rae Rippetoe, and guard Bridget Nixon were named all-tournament. Forward Rosie Aldridge was most valuable player with 71 points over the three games. The team placed third in New Mexico State's Roadrunner National Invitational.

With the rise of NCAA competition, the Cowgirls switched from a generally mild AIAW regional schedule to a double round robin Big Eight schedule, playing top twenty teams.

"This is the first time we've gotten to what I consider the big girls team—the NCAA is the big t ime," Coach Bugher said.

Despite dire Big Eight predictions, the women headed into conference play with the top (13-2) record. A family death and a player's broken foot reduced the team's effectiveness, but OSU finally recovered from a lengthy slump. The women turned in the best season scoring average of 73.6, putting up 2,283 points in 31 games, with the most field goals, 939, and advanced to AIAW regionals for the first time in 4 years.2^

The Athletic Council was now headed by Earl Mitchell, who succeeded Betty Abercrombie as head of the group which reviewed and recommended policy for intercollegiate athletics at OSU. Membership consisted of six faculty members, one administrator, three alumni, two students, two staff members, the OSU athletic director and one representative to both the Big Eight Conference and AIAW.

Faculty members included Mitchell, Allen Kelly, Joseph Jadlow, Douglas Aichele, Jeanne Agnew, and John Jobe. Pat Hofler was the administrative member, with F. M. "Pete" Bartlett, Scott Russell, and Charles Anderson, alumni. Michael Deyong and Kiran Phansalkar represented the students; Jim Hromas and Kathleen Purdum were from the staff. Raymond E. Chapel and Susan Hall were Big Eight and AIAW representatives respectively, and the final position was filled by Athletic Director Dick Young.2^

Despite injuries, the gymnastics team was ranked tenth in the nation in mid-February, won the five-team regional in Gallagher Hall, then placed third in the Big Eight and first in the NCAA and Southwest AIAW Regionals. Nationally the Cowgirls landed in ninth place at the NCAA finals and eight at the AIAW. All-Big Eight winner Janette Cortright


Unity and quickness were goals for women basketballers in the early eighties. Here Rae Rippetoe, who lettered four times, drives past Missouri University's Maggie LeValley for a lay up.

zoomed to eleventh in the all-around at the AIAW nationals. Liz Parry repeated as All-Big Eight and then placed third on bars at the AIAWs. Since 1974, OSU teams had amassed a 90-31 won-loss record.2^

OSU's matmen had matured. There were quality wrestlers two and three deep at some weights, a result of a bumper recruiting year, although


some would be red-shirted for future use. But the Cowboys weren't alone in honing skills. A realist, Chesbro pointed out, "Those teams that finished ahead of us this past season return most of their point producers. It will be difficult to show a better finish, "^o

Eighteen and three in duals, the team repeated the previous year's standing, third in the Big Eight, crowning Kenny Monday, Ricky Stewart, and Mike Sheets, and fourth in the nationals, as Monday and Sheets lost overtime bouts in the finals.^^

With Butler sparkling in the 300, men's track jumped to third in the Big Eight Indoor at Lincoln. Other Cowboy champions were Joe Dial in the pole vault; and Greg Patton, Starks, Thomas, and Butler in the mile relay. At Norman, three outdoor medals went to Butler in the 200; Dial in the pole vault at 18-0 1/2; and Jim Evans, Starks, Butler, and Ingram in the 400 relay as the Poke team ranked fifth. Five All-Americans were crowned as the team tied for 14th at the NCAA meet in Pontiac, Michigan. The mile relay quartet of Patton, Thomas, Starks, and Butler finished third. OSU's other All-American was Dial, who a week earlier at the Colorado Invitational set an NCAA freshman record, clearing 18-3, managed 17-5 3/4 for fourth at Pontiac.^2

Women's track, a budding program since Dorsey Reirdon had became coach four years earlier, seemed on the verge of blossoming in 1982. Eight track and field records were set and the concept of highly competitive women's athletic success had been gaining publicity, administrative support, and interest. Leading the squad was Vicki Fretwell, who scored in the hurdles in both the Big Eight Indoor and the Outdoor Championships, and was also on the mile relay team with Terry Purdyk, Margie Crossno, and Susan Corey. The women remained last in the league, but Debbie Smallwood repeated and bettered her 1979 javelin outdoor championship at Norman. Also, 400-meter intermediate hurdler Jane Patton was another top performer.^^

All the cross-state pressure was present as the men's tennis team battled Oklahoma in the continuing saga of the Big Eight vendetta, falling three points short of hauling in another championship for OSU. The league crown slipped away for the first time in six years although the Cowboys advanced all nine players to the finals in Kansas City, sacking up individual crowns for All-American Mark Johnson, Australian Peter Mallet, and South African Brian Panovka, and doubles titles for Mallett and Johnson, Scott Nichol and Steve Town, and Panovka and fellow South African Darryl Weisz.^*

Having five freshmen aboard didn't slow down the women's tennis varsity as Groce's Cowgirls snared their second Big Eight title in as many years. Recruiting had begun to pay off with strong contributions from Texans Lori McNeill and Nancy Talley. Freshman McNeill became O-State's first NCAA All-American.^^


Piling up an impressive 61-18 record on their way to second in the AIAW and sixth in the NCAA championship tournaments, the intense Cowgirl softball team posted more wins than any other OSU's women's varsity. Coach Sandy Fischer's squad, quick with big hitters, beat the third-ranked team in the country, Cal-Poly, two of the three games in the NCAAs to go into the finals. But two extra-inning games, each lost by one run, drained the team and OSU fell short.^^

Only three returning starters from the 1981 NCAA runners-up were on deck when baseball practice began, but discipline and hard work again developed the Pokes into a cohesive unit, ranked third in the nation as OSU won the Big Eight and the Midwest Regional for the second straight year, but finished fifth at the College World Series. Catcher Robbie Wine was named to the first team All-America by the American Association of College Baseball Coaches, as was first baseman Jim Traber, who then turned professional. All-Big Eight honorees were Wine; Gary Green, short stop; James Hudson, third base; Kurt Lieter, pitcher. The young squad set a school record with fifty-seven wins.^^

Cowboy golfers warmed up by winning three of four tournaments in the fall and five of nine in the spring, then running away with the Big Eight by 16 strokes under Oklahoma. Petite Willie Wood took medal honors at the league championships. Pan American and Chris Schenkel festivals. An unanimous All-America selection, he received the Fred Haskins Award. At the NCAA Championship, the greens were slow at Pinehurst No. 2, and defending champion Houston was on a roll, edging runner-up Oklahoma State by 10 strokes.

In their finest showing, the Big Eight Champion Cowgirl golfers soared to third in the nation at the inaugural NCAA Championship and ninth at the AIAW Championship. Led by Val Skinner and Janice Burba, the team swept four major tournaments, with Skinner taking individual medalists honors six times and Burba twice. Coach Pitts, chairman of the NCAA Women's Golf Committee, was in charge of collecting data for the computer procedure used to select teams for the national championship.^^

In final confirmation of the developing women's golf program, Val Skinner was named the Big Eight Conference female athlete of the year, the first OSU woman to be given the honor.

Endnotes

1. Tom Dirato, "Cecil Grissom," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 52, no. 2 (December 1980), pp. 9-10.



3. 1981 Redskin, p. 272.

4. 1982 Redskin, p. 284.

5. 1984 OSU Cross Country Press Guide, p. 12.

6. 1981 Redskin, p. 277; 1981-82 OSU Basketball Media Guide, p. 3.

7. 1981 Redskin, p. 281.

8. 1980 Redskin, p. 256.

9. Tom Dirato, "Six Big-8 Championships Add Up to Great Season," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 52, no. 5 (July 1981), p. 7.

10. 1981 Redskin, p. 287.

11. 1982 Redskin, p. 256.

12. "New Baseball Stadium, Track and Field Center to Become Reality," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 52, no. 4 (March 1981), pp. 11-12.

13. 1980 Redskin, p. 271.

14. 1982 OSU Baseball Media Guide; "Gallagher Hall Features New Track,'' Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 52, no. 3 (February 1981), p. 12.

15. "New Baseball Stadium, Track and Field Center to Become Reality," pp. 11-12.

16. OSU 1984 Track Media Guide, p. 36.

17. 1982 Redskin, p. 268; Dirato, "Six Big-8 Championships Add Up to Great Season," p. 7.

18. Dirato, "Six Big-8 Championships Add Up to Great Season," pp. 6-7.

19. Pokes Baseball '82 Media Guide.

20. 1982 Redskin, p. 292; 1984-85 Cowgirl Golf Media Guide; Stillwater NewsPress, 21 April 1985, p. 4B; Tulsa World, 26 May 1985, p. 10E.

21. Connie Falk, "Kevn Mabrey: Retired After a Gold Medal," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 53, no. 1 (Fall 1981), p. 25.

22. Tom Dirato and Lisa Little, "OSU Football: Back to Basics," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 52, no. 5 (July 1981), pp. 3-4.

23. OSU 1985 Football Press Guide, p. 95.

24. Tom Dirato, "The 1981 Independence Bowl," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 53, no. 3 (Spring 1982), p. 16.

25. 1982 Redskin, p. 253; 1984 OSU Cross Country Media Guide; Oklahoma State University Oklahoma Stater, April 1982, p. 7.

26. Tom Dirato, "Cowboy Basketball: Have the Fortunes Turned?" Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 53, no. 1 (Fall 1981), pp. 13-14.

27. OSU Cowgirl Basketball Media Guide; 1982 Redskin, p. 281; "Cowgirl Basketball," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 53, no. 2 (December 1981), p. 19.

28. "OSU's Athletic Council Gets New Chairman," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 53, no. 1 (Fall 1981), p. 14.

29. 1982 Redskin, p. 286; 1983 Redskin, pp. 390-393; Oklahoma Stater, April 1982, p. 7.

30. Tom Dirato, "Poke Wrestling: Will the Improvement Be Recognized?" Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 53, no. 1 (Fall 1981), p. 15.

31. 1982-83 OSU Wrestling Media Guide.

32. 1983 Redskin, pp. 346-349; Oklahoma Stater, April 1982, p. 7.

33. 1983 Redskin, p. 350.

34. 1983 Redskin, pp. 362, 364.

35. 1983 Redskin, pp. 367-368; Oklahoma State University Daily O'Collegian, 7 June 1983, p. 6.

36. 1983 Redskin, pp. 342-345.

37. 1983 Redskin, pp. 338-341.

38. 1984-85 OSU Cowgirl Golf Media Guide.


37 36th NCAA Team Title 1982-1983

They were major strides, those initial steps taken by Coach Jimmy Johnson and his staff since 1979. Oklahoma State football's new, solid foundation enabled the school to compete more effectively in the Big Eight and in recruiting high school blue chip players in Oklahoma and Texas. A championship looked possible. Academic standing was improved. The drop-out rate was down. The media and alumni felt in touch. The goal now was to produce consistently winning teams.

These accomplishments had been carried out despite probation and only fifty-five scholarship players in 1979. With the probationary terms behind, Johnson was now working with the maximum ninety-five scholarships, backed up by four solid recruiting years and a successful walk-on program. Forty-three lettermen returned and optimism soared. But mistakes, fumbles, and interceptions blurred together in a 4-5-2 season as the inconsistent Pokes failed to get untracked.^

There were bright spots. Rotating quarterback Rusty Hilger was one. Tailback Ernest Anderson opened the season against North Texas State with 220 yards—the first of four Big Eight-record tying 200-yard games. He went on to lead the nation in rushing for the entire season, setting new school and conference single season rushing marks with 1,877 yards, the fifth best in NCAA history. Johnson's efforts were acknowledged when he was selected to coach in the 1983 Japan Bowl.^

In cross country, the men carried off first place honors at the Wichita State Gold Classic and Sooner Invitational, placed fourth in the Big Eight for the second year and fifth in NCAA District V. The top Poke finisher in the 10,000-meter run, Joe Metcalf took All-Big Eight honors. He set an American Junior Marathon record at the prestigious Boston Mara-


thon and just missed setting an American father-son record with his father. He also established an American junior 20-kilometer record in 1:03:53.

The fleet Cowgirls were out of the Big Eight's basement at last. Runners-up at the Sooner event, they zipped into sixth at the conference championships and eighth in district finals. Making the difference were Linda Thompson, OSU's top finisher at both the Big Eight and District V races, and Angela McGeown, both of Scotland. Despite updated training facilities, OSU cross country runners often trained on the old intramural fields, whose hills offered the typical swelling terrain they would face in races.^

The top four scorers and rebounders returned to Cowgirl basketball 1982-83 to steer a strong freshman corps. But instead of a fruitful year, the team suffered its worst year, a dismal 4 wins against 23 losses. The leading scorer, Rosie Aldridge, returned to Texas for cancer therapy. Without Aldridge, the team played tough competitors close and were *'almost, but not quite" up to their potential in big-time basketball. It was Coach Judy Bugher's final—and only losing—season. In six years, her teams had claimed 90 victories and 89 losses.*

' T h e team we have coming back should have the potential to win a Big Eight title," Coach Paul Hansen said of his 1982-83 Cowboy cagers. ' T h i s is the strongest team I've had in four years." Not given to superlatives, the veteran strategist held his ground, to the surprise of those who recalled the painful 15-12 season just past. Valuable experience in the form of Matt Clark, Leroy Combs, Lorenza Andrews, Ray Crenshaw, Joe Atkinson, and Bill Self, provided one of the quickest front lines in the conference, he promised.

Even when Atkinson's wrist was broken, the Pokes went on their winning way, piling up a 24-7 epic, not remotely paralleled since the 24-5 record of 1954. They were back on target as they hadn't been for years, beating Kansas, Kansas State, and Missouri. Titles in the Blade-Grass Invitational at Toledo and the All-College also came their way.

The cohesive team snared the Big Eight tournament in their debut in that event, scrambling all the way up the basketball ladder to the first game of the NCAA Western Regional. Although they lost the lead and the game to Princeton, 56-53, the outing marked the Pokes' first trip to NCAA competition since 1964-65. Clark made the Big Eight's first team and Andrews the All-Big Eight Academic team. The Cowboys's strong run at the conference title landed them in third place, behind Missouri and Oklahoma.^

But all was not well in the athletic director's office. In mid-December, having led Oklahoma State out of probation-related problems. Director Dick Young resigned. Supporters of the popular director were surprised and dismayed. A lengthy search for Young's replacement followed. It


Coach Paul Hansen's starting five changed frequently, but key starters were Matt Clark, Raymond Crenshaw, Lorenza Andrews, Leroy Combs, and (in front) Eddie Hannon.

was a position that would be filled with care.^ Meanwhile, All-Americans Liz Parry and Janette Cortright were lead

ing the gymnastics team to a 6-8 record, fourth in the Big Eight, and sixth in the NCAA Regional. Hampering the team was a bicycle accident that sidelined the accomplished Linda Elstun with a broken collarbone. When Parry captured her third straight title on the uneven bars, she established a new Big Eight record for individual crowns. Working on the vaults, freshman Terri Collins also made All-Big Eight.

Nor was gymnastics the primary purpose of these athletes' daily routine on campus. As Coach Larry Bilhartz continued to encourage scholastic achievement, six of the seven team members were listed on their deans' honor rolls or the president's honor roU.^

Experience and point producing mat talent were on tap as Tom Chesbro launched his 14th year. There was the problem of compensating for the graduation of four-time All-American Ricky Stewart, but there were two-time All-American Randy Willingham, along with Kenny Monday and Mike Sheets, who had dropped heartbreaking overtime decisions in the 1982 NCAA finals, and Mitch Shelton, who'd pinned Oklahoma's Steve "Dr. Death" Williams to win a Bedlam dual and a hero's adula-


tion last winter. Clar Anderson, Karl Lynes, Mark Perry, Leo Bailey, and red-shirted

Matt Skove and Rey Martinez helped round out the lineup that zoomed to a glossy 22-0 season and the first Big Eight title since 1978. Champions were Willingham, Monday, Skove, and Sheets; and Chesbro registered his 200th career win against 26 losses on January 15. That eased some of the growing pressure on Chesbro's program to regain dominance of collegiate wrestling, but alumni of a university that was the proud possessor of twenty-seven NCAA wrestling championships wanted the dynasty continued.^

Having been ranked number one most of the year, the Cowboys were more realistically shifted to second behind defending champ Iowa going into the nationals. The era of Iowa against the world would continue, to the chagrin of all non-Hawkeyes. The Hawks, owners of the five previous titles, wasted no time in stretching it to six. Despite a flawless season, the Pokes found themselves 53 points behind Iowa Saturday night. At 102 points, they were owners of second place. Anderson and Sheets starred as individual champions.

On the eve of the 53rd national mat tourney at the Myriad Convention Center in Oklahoma City on March 9, Oklahoma State University had announced the confirmation of Myron Roderick as the new director of athletics.

Roderick was a popular choice. News of Roderick's return quickly filtered through crowded hotels adjacent to the Myriad and into the workout rooms. When he arrived at the tournament, it was remarkably easy for former rivals among the coaches to pound him on the back, growling warm congratulations, knowing they would never again have to face the fiercely competitive Roderick across the mat. Besides, he had sweated to make weight, wrestled when he was injured, paid his mat dues as wrestler and coach. Now he was in the top spot in his alma mater's sports program. It was good for wrestling—and, in the years ahead, similar promotions just might come to others in the same arena that week.

Seventh in the Big Eight Indoor at Lincoln, the men's tracksters took fourth in the outdoor hosted in Stillwater. Cowboy medalists were Paul Williams in the 800 and Randall Nass in the shot put. Pole vault talent came from Joe Dial and walk-on Eric Forney. The women's team remained eighth in both standings.

Oklahoma may have nudged Cowboy netmen aside during the run for the Big Eight trophy in 1982, but the 1983 OSU tennis squad stormed back to sweep the sixth conference title under Coach Wadley. Singles crowns went to Scott Nichol, Peter Mallett, Jay Sims, and Kirk Loomis, with Mallett and Loomis taking number two doubles.^

Cowgirl tennis hit the big time as the women swept their third straight Big Eight with five singles and all three doubles titles. Senior


One of OSU's brightest prospects was All-American Lori McNeill, who left OSU to join the professional tennis circuit.

Stacy Williams won her third conference doubles crown. Ranked among the nation's top net teams and tied for ninth, the girls sported a 26-6 record. All-American Lori McNeill left O-State to join the professional tennis circuit.

Three of four big hitters were gone, but the quick, young softball varsity veered toward speed instead of relying on big hits. The women battled to a second place finish in the Big Eight and a 34-14 season, but failed to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. It marked the first time in four years OSU had not participated in the post-season tourney.^°

A 48-16 record and the Big Eight baseball title brightened things considerably for Poke diamond fans as the Midwest Regional Championships came to Stillwater. On May 29, 4,650 fans crowded into the 3,000-seat Reynolds Stadium for non-stop excitement. They had the right idea. Now one of the finest baseball programs in the country, OSU prevailed a second time over Middle Tennessee State to earn the title and College World Series trip. Left fielder Scott Wade was named the region's most valuable player; honorees were first baseman Joe Gorman, shortstop Gary Green, designated hitter Pete Incaviglia, and pitcher Dennis Livingston.


Leading the Cowboys in Omaha was All-Conference catcher Robbie Wine, also recognized by Sporting News as the college player of the year. Other Big Eight honorees were Glenn Edwards, Livingston, and Eric Schmidt. Playing all out, OSU could only manage fifth in the NCAAs, the school's third consecutive effort there. Incaviglia and centerfielder Tim Knapp made the CWS All-Tournament team.^^

Although the women golfers placed third in the Big Eight, a low finish in the field they had begun to dominate, Janice Burba came home with the individual league title.^^

Texas and Houston were breathing down the Big Eight Champion Pokes' putters at Fresno, California, but the Cowboy golfers charged to their fourth NCAA Championship in eight years. In seventh place after the first round. Holder's crew steadily eliminated the opposition to earn the team title by seven strokes over runner-up Texas. Willie Wood, Tommy Moore, Scott Verplank, and Andy Dillard made All-America teams, the sixth time in eight years OSU had four players named.

Coach of the Year honors went to the highly successful Holder. In eight of his last nine years, the Cowboys had either won or finished second at the NCAA level. The conference victory marked the 25th Big Eight title in twenty-six years.

And, for the third time in six years, the prestigious Fred Haskins Award found the country's top college golfer on O-State's campus. All-American and Big Eight champion Wood was the 1983 selection. Already he was looking ahead to the pro tour. Walker Cupper Philip Walton passed up his senior year to join the pro tour in Europe.^^

With five Big Eight Conference trophies brightening the campus, it had been an impressive spring as the men shone in golf, tennis, baseball, and wrestling, and the women's tennis varsity also sparkled. With the advent of the newest NCAA golf crown, thirty-six national team titles had been generated by OSU's sports program.

"On paper, it might look like this year's team could be dominated by the offense, with a young defense getting better as the season moves along," Coach Johnson mused before the grid season began. "My feeling is . . . this group can be the one that makes the difference in our winning or losing. "^^ Add a strong kicking game, improved punt coverage, numbers, talent, and confidence. Despite stiff opposition, it signalled a blue-ribbon, 8-4 season for the Pokes.

But it was the unheralded defense that propelled OSU to 8 wins by an average of 15.1 points; 4 games were lost by a slim total of 12. Ranked eighth nationally against the rush, they were ninth in holding opposing teams in scoring, and first in interceptions and turnover ratio. Nebraska slipped past by 4 points; Oklahoma by a wrenching single point. Another one-pointer went to Kansas State, plus a final six-point loss as Missouri rolled.


It was enough for a Bluebonnet Bowl bid, and a resounding New Year's Eve victory over Baylor in Houston's Astrodome, 24-14. Sparking OSU were quarterback Rusty Hilger and All-America tailback Ernest Anderson. Despite leaving the game late in the first half with a mild concussion, Hilger had decimated the Bears' secondary for 137 yards and two touchdown passes on twelve first-half completions and was named the game's Most Valuable Player.

Injuries kept Anderson out of four regular season games, but he was in great form for the Bears. It was Anderson's running and a stout Cowboy defense that limited Baylor's efforts, along with Larry Roach's 44-yard field goal with 13 seconds remaining in the first half. Anderson and defensive back Chris Rockins were named to the Senior Bowl team.^^

That fall, in the 10,000-meter cross country run at Lawrence, the Pokes came in sixth and the women runners slipped to seventh. The men, who won the North Texas State Invitational, were also sixth at the District V Championships. Metcalf was the top Cowboy finisher for the second year, as Dick Weis assumed head coaching duties. Christine McMiken won top ten finishes in all but one race, earned All-Big Eight honors, and placed eleventh in the District V. ^

There were major holes to plug in lineups for men's basketball in 1983-84. Expected to settle near the bottom of the conference, OSU's only chances for a better finish according to the Daily Oklahoman were "Joe, Ray and pray." The heart of the squad, forward Raymond Crenshaw became the tenth school player to break the 1,000-point scoring mark. Crenshaw teamed with Joe Atkinson and Charles Williams along the front line . . . as the Cowboys often relied on a spread offense, but straggled to seventh place.^^

In an astounding turn-around, new coach Dick Halterman took the Cowgirl basketball varsity in hand and sent them to their best season in three years, an 18-11 mark that saw OSU third in the Big Eight Conference, for a best-ever finish. Kathy Schulz led the scoring parade with 591 points in twenty-nine games for an average of 20.4 per game.

The 1983-84 gymnastics varsity returned Big Eight gymnasts Terri Collins and Lisa Hartmann. The 1981 balance beam champion and 1982 NCAA regional all-around champion, Hartmann was redshirted in 1983 with mononucleosis. She held the school record of 9.7 on the beam. Back as student coach was Liz Parry Baker, only the second gymnast to win three straight Big Eight titles in any event. The team continued to work out in the Colvin Center, sharing facilities with physical education classes and using Gallagher Hall to host events.

Since Larry Bilhartz had begun coaching the Cowgirls in 1974 as a graduate assistant, he had led the team to five state championships by 1979. OSU had since claimed a Big Eight Conference championship and


placed in the nation's top ten three times, crowning three All-Americans. The gymnasts were fourth at the Big Eight in 1983-84 with a season meet record of 7-9. Kim Goggans, third on the balance beam, and Linda Elstun, second on uneven bars, were All-Big Eight.^^

Four All-Americans returned from last year's Big Eight titlist crop. But, despite a 19-0 wrestling season, it was a barren year to national title hunters. Gable's burley team rang up another NCAA team championship. O-State had not claimed the number one spot since 1971. For fifty-five years, college wrestling had been dominated by OSU. But in the seventies, few schools shed tears as Iowa, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and others spurted even with—and often ahead of—O-State. There were sharp changes in wrestling rules. Programs were being beefed up and by 1976 the drought was on.

There were muddled reports of attempts to replace Chesbro as coach at OSU. Scorching rumors struck from all sides. On April 1, in a emotional press conference called by Roderick, Chesbro stepped aside to assume administrative responsibilities. The Chesbro era, spanning fifteen seasons, bringing 227 victories and 26 losses, was over. Aside from the NCAA tourneys, it had been two years and forty-four straight duals since his team had known defeat. ^

Flying into Stillwater was new wrestling chief Joe Seay. Known for molding Cal-State's program into one of the nation's most powerful NCAA Division II programs, Seay would initiate a new style with stress on increased intensity in the standing positions and more movement while the wrestler continued to control the tempo.

In an award-laden weekend, Kenny Monday and Mike Sheets won NCAA wrestling titles, and Joe Dial vaulted 18-0 for his first NCAA track title. He became the school's first indoor track champ since 1966 and only O-State's twelfth national championship in track. Seven of the eight men and one woman running in the NCAA Track and Field Championships in Syracuse gained All-America standing.

Dial's 18-6 ranked as the seventh highest indoor mark in the world. The All-America distance medley relay team of Paul Williams, Sterling Starks, Mike Wood, and Paul Larkins ranked tenth.^o

Christine McMiken became only OSU's second indoor conference champ and tenth Cowgirl league finalist when she won the indoor Big 8 three mile run in 15.41.5—the fastest world time this season.

Aided by a major restocking of the men's tennis squad, the varsity reacted swiftly with a 24-9 season leading runner-up Oklahoma by 20 points and snared its second straight Big 8 championship.^i

An excited Ike Groce saw his Cowgirl netters win their fourth straight Big 8 team title taking eight of nine crowns. A berth in the national soft-ball championships beckoned the Cowgirls once more in the spring of 1984, following a 15-4 season. Coach Sandy Fischer had pointed out


the lack of a consistent centerfielder for outfield leadership, but there was good pitching and hitting talent.22

Ward's baseball Cowboys were Big Eight and Midwest Regional champs in their 48-16 season that saw OSU taking fifth in the College World Series. In six seasons at OSU, Ward had compiled a record of 273 wins and 100 losses.^^

This year Coach Pitts felt she had the players she needed to win the conference. "I feel really good about our recruiting," she said. "This is our first year under NCAA recruiting rules. We've got three outstanding recruits." Events proved her on target. At the Big 8 tourney, medalist Robin Hood led the field from start to finish and OSU won handily, 25 strokes under runnerup Nebraska. At the NCAA Hood won the long drive contest and finished tied for 24th.2*

Despite the growing collection of men's golf trophies, the annual OSU Pro-Am tourney continued to aid in supporting the progressive program. But not to worry. There was Scott Verplank, characterized by teammate Willie Wood as "the best player ever to come out of OSU."^^

As Big Eight golf play ended, another newspaper clipping went up amid years of victorious headlines on Mike Holder's office wall. This one detailed an embarrassment. Only when Scott Verplank's 12-foot putt sank on the final hole of league play could OSU even tie Oklahoma for second in the conference. Missouri romped off with the 1984 Big Eight title; the state schools were five strokes back.

It was the second time since O-State joined the conference in 1958 that the Big Eight trophy had not gone to the Cowboys. Twenty-five had. Holder's wall provided his varsity food for thought.^^

In early June, Pat Jones, assistant head football coach, swung aboard his bike for some sun and exercise. Behind him was a vigorous recruiting season. Ahead were strategy sessions for the 1984 season. But a spin in the soft June weather was relaxing, a luxury. He stopped by Lions Park for a companionable moment's visit with Stillwater NewsPress sports editor Ron Holt.

That was Jones' quota of spare time for years to come. Out of the blue, OSU football coach Johnson accepted the head foot

ball post at the University of Miami, Florida. Forty-eight hours later on June 7, in one of the smoothest transitions ever made on the campus, Jones, one of the most knowledgeable defensive assistant coaches in the nation, became head coach at Oklahoma State.2^

In his five years at O-State, Johnson had given the football program a fresh start as his teams won 30, lost 25, and tied 2 games, while playing in both the Independence and Bluebonnet Bowls and lifting athletes' academic standing.


Endnotes

1. Tom Dirato, "Cowboy Football: Solid Accomplishments and Expecting to Win, Too," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 53, no. 3 (Spring 1982), p. 18; Tom Dirato, "Continuing to Be Optimistic in Football," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 54, no. 4 (Summer 1983), pp. 14-15; 1983 Redskin, pp. 374-377, Oklahoma State University Yearbook.

2. 1983 Bluebonnet Bowl Press Guide (San Francisco, California: Touchdown Publications).

3. 1983 Redskin, p. 372; OSU 1983 Cross Country Media Guide.

4. 1983 Redskin, pp. 382-383; 1984-85 OSU Cowgirl Basketball Media Guide, p. 20.

5. 1983 Redskin, pp. 378-381; Tom Dirato, "Cowboy Basketball," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 54, no. 1 (September 1982), p. 17.

6. 1983 Redskin, p. 334.

7. 1983 Redskin, pp. 390-392; 1983 OSU Gymnastics Media Guide; Stillwater NewsPress, 3 March 1983, p. 2B.

8. Stillwater NewsPress, 16 January 1983, p. IB.

9. 1984 Redskin, pp. 350-353, 368-371.

10. 1983 Redskin, pp. 366-369; 1984 Redskin, pp. 360-367; Oklahoma State University Daily O'Collegian, 3 May 1984, p. 7.

11. 1984 Redskin, pp. 356-359.

12. 1985 Redskin, pp.37 A-377.

13. 1984 OSU Golf Media Guide.

14. Dirato, "Continuing to Be Optimistic in Football," p. 15.

15. 1984 Redskin, pp. 380-387.

16. 1984 Cross Country Press Guide; 1984 Redskin, pp. 354-355; 1985 Redskin, pp. 366-367.

17. 1984 Redskin, p. 388.

18. 1983 OSU Gymnastics Media Guide.

19. Stillwater NewsPress, 28 March 1984, p. 13, 29 March 1984, p. 13; Tulsa World, 28 March 1984, p. 20, 29 March 1984, p. 2D; Oklahoma City Da//y 0/c/a/70/77an, 29 March 1984, p. 21.

20. Daily O'Collegian, 13 March 1984, p. 6, 26 April 1984, p. 8.

21. Daily O'Collegian, 28 April 1984, p. 7; 1985 Redskin, p. 369.

22. Daily O'Collegian, 26 April 1984, p. 7; 1985 Redskin, pp. 380-383.

23. 1985 Redskin, pp. 358-361.

24. Oklahoma State University Cowgirl Golf 1984-85.

25. 1985 Redskin, p. 379.

26. Sunday Oklahoman, 12 May 1985, p. 40.

27. Stillwater NewsPress, 21 December 1984, p. 2B.


38 Roderick Returns

On March 21, 1983, the man who loves a challenge settled into the athletic director's chair at Oklahoma State University. It was the first day in OSU's top sports post for Myron W. Roderick, 48, an alumni favorite for thirty years as an Olympic athlete, a record-setting coach, an ardent supporter. Never one to sit when he could be off accomplishing things, Roderick brought to the position the blend of business acumen, coaching insight, and fund-raising skills in school history.

"I 've always been a person who thrived on challenges," the Winfield, Kansas, native volunteered later that year. "I guess that 's because challenges were thrown at me early. No sooner had I left college and I was coaching at OSU. Then, when I got out of coaching, I got into the U.S. Wrestling Federation as the first executive director."

After organizing that national program, he served in the same top capacity for the International Racquetball Association, then left to operate a racquetball and court panel system and other sports-related businesses. Once each was running well, he moved on to a new project.

"I was excited each time, but this is my biggest and most important challenge yet," he said of the athletic directorship. "I want it to be successful."^

Two years into the job, Roderick has demonstrated that the chair fits. He's shifted personnel, lighted Lewis Field, and finished a weight

and training center for athletes. Improvements to Gallagher Hall were defined and recommended in late 1985. Head Football Coach Pat Jones, strongly tempted by an offer from the University of Pittsburgh, remained in the Cowboy stable. It has been a productive era for the former three-time national wrestling champ.


m:

In 1985, an impressive lighting system made it possible to schedule night workouts and football games, along with many special events at Lewis Field. When those first sizzling fall games could be played in somewhat cooler evening hours, fans, players, and marching bandsmen all benefitted. Additional national television exposure was another bonus.

Roderick has even adjusted to the fact that deskwork claims a larger chunk of time than he might prefer. Challenges have crowded in thick and fast during his administration, he acknowledges.2 But a look at the vigorous AD on a non-stop sprint through a workday with staff, athletes, and supporters shows not the slightest dent in that tangible enthusiasm for the tasks that lie ahead.

Still intact, too, is an unbending commitment to do everything he can to make Oklahoma State athletics a success.

He's accustomed to success. As OSU's youngest wrestling coach, he collected 7 NCAA titles and 9 Big Eight crowns, nourished a string of 87 match victories, and rolled up a record of 140-10-12. Five more conference trophies came home with Roderick's tennis teams in those years.^

"Intensity is close to being Myron's middle name," one of his former wrestling champions said recently.* That trait enables him to guide a staff of seventy and a progressive intercollegiate sports program.

How does he feel about that busy first floor office, where most business is conducted quickly and without formality, with both parties standing casually, a few steps inside the east entry of Gallagher Hall? Before the query is out, there's that familiar grin. Then words are slingshot in return.

"I enjoy it. Every day's kind of a new day," Roderick says. There's a rueful laugh before the postscript is added: "You never know for sure what 's going to happen!

"But the thing that really makes me excited about being athletic director at Oklahoma State is that I love Oklahoma State University. It's been


my life, and everything that I've done or accomplished has really started here. I hope that it'll finish here at Oklahoma State.

"Another thing that makes this job easier for me than it would be in most places is our people out in the field. They love Oklahoma State. Most of the people who support our program went to school here and they love Oklahoma State, not because of athletics, but because they enjoyed going to school here and they love what we're doing."^

Circumstances have altered dramatically since the initial physical director, F. A. McCoy, headed the penniless young sports program in 1905. Roderick, tenth in line, inherited a $6 million budget McCoy could never have envisioned. In the days of Edward C. Gallagher, bills were said to have filled a desk drawer and, until the Depression eased, Henry P. Iba faced the same problem.

"Of course, athletics has changed a great deal in the last ten to fifteen years," Roderick says with assurance. "The big change is that now everything is based on finance. Before, the school and athletic department could operate without outside help. Now, private funding is essential. Our budget'U probably be over $8.5 million in 1986. It's big-time business and we try to operate that way.^

"There'll be days that I'll have four or five meetings—not just in the office here, with our people, but within the town or the university. The athletic director here reports directly to the president, so when you have any heads of department meetings, you're involved. I think that's great, because they get to see and know what the athletic department is doing and vice versa. I'm a strong believer that the athletic department should be just an extension of the university and not something that sits out here on the side and operates without feelings or—part of the educational process.

"I think once we get that in perspective, college athletics is going to be where it's supposed to be . "

Does Roderick think the National Collegiate Athletic Association will make the sweeping changes critics have said must take place?

"You can't make rules to stop everything that 's going on. What the NCAA has to do is get their rulebook down to where the rules they have are really vital to your program, both in eligibility and recruiting. What's happened is, they've got so many rules that it doesn't really make any difference whether a student athlete comes to Oklahoma State or the University of Nebraska or elsewhere. To me, there's no reason for those rules to be in there. Whether we send a poster to a prospective student athlete or not will not affect that person coming here or going some place else. Those types of rules are in there.

"I think the first thing they've got to do is take a look at the rule-book and cut out all unnecessary rules. Second, I think the NCAA has to penalize individually the people who are involved and not take it as


Working closely together to enhance the Cowboy varsity's performance. Head Football Coach Pat Jones, left, and Athletic Director Myron Roderick always find plenty to talk about.

an institutional penalty. Nobody can guarantee there's not going to be some violations. Any time you've got more than one person you're in charge of, you can't guarantee that because you can't guarantee what another person's going to do.

"You can set policies and philosophies and checkpoints, and all kinds of things. But if somebody wants to cheat in college athletics, they can. The student-athletes and their parents ought to have to sign an agreement that if they violate these rules, there's a penalty for it so there's responsibility on both sides. Once the NCAA does that, then I think they'll start helping the situation."

Negatives in the daily press bother Roderick considerably. "The only thing you read in the paper is what's bad about college

athletics. I've been around sports all my life and I can assure you that there's a whole lot of good going on. There're kids going to school and getting an education who would never get one unless it was for college athletics.

"Another thing. We have kids at Oklahoma State and there are student-athletes at other places who are not going to graduate. People out in the public have to understand that we have a higher percentage in athletics graduating than the student body does. If you ask somebody how many students who started in 1980 graduated by 1985 in the student body at Oklahoma State, they'd say, *Oh, probably 80 or 90 per-


cent.' And that's not true. It's less than 50 percent. ' T h e question that I have to ask as an athletic director when we bring

somebody in as a student athlete is *what is our responsibility?' It's important that we do everything possible so that the student-athlete has an opportunity to get an education. There'll be some who won't. As long as they've improved socially, morally, and academically—even if they don't get a degree—when they leave here, they're better off than when they came in. Then I think we've done some good."

He isn't through. "The thing we've got to stop—and it is changing—is giving them

something for nothing. When you do that, then you harm the student-athletes, you don't help them. In college athletics, we've got to stop that mainly in academics. If a person was good enough in past years, in most places, somehow, some way they would get eligible. They'd take courses that really didn't mean anything, that type of thing. With the new rules, that can't happen because after four semesters, they're got to pass 24 hours toward a degree, which is a great rule and going to help college athletics."

Between meetings, Roderick is apt to be on the move, circulating between athletic facilities during practices.

"I think it's important that I know the people (coaching staff and athletes) and they know me. Any event we have at OSU, I go to, unless I happen to be out of town. Whether it's baseball, tennis, track, basketball, women's basketball, gymnastics, I go because I think I need to go, for one reason. For another, I enjoy going. I enjoy sports. If you want to get support from athletes, you've got to show support from this end. ' '

Although his door is open, not every problem crosses his threshold. "I 'm really excited about the people we have in administrative posi

tions now. A lot of problems are dealt out and go to other areas. Once people know who's in charge of those areas, they go there directly instead of coming here. I have faith in our administration that if there's a problem that they need help on, they'll come to me with it. I do deal direct with all head coaches. With all their problems, they come direct to me . "

So engrossing are his challenges at OSU that taking time for relaxation and recreation has become a problem. Before accepting the position, Roderick played top level competitive racquetball, retaining a high ranking by playing four or five times a day in national tournaments.

"I 've not done that since I've been here, but I'm going to get back at i t ," he promises. "When you sit at a desk all day long, or at meetings, why, you need to do something. Supporting Cowboy and Cowgirl teams as they perform is kind of relaxing," he added, blue eyes sparkling. "Especially, if you get into a baseball doubleheader, you know, you've got about eight hours ." Eight hours outdoors with alumni to


greet, the latest in facilities and equipment, and quality players to watch—who could ask for more?

Roderick frequently has to field questions pertaining to enlarging or replacing Gallagher Hall.

"We've gotten together with Dr. George Oberle, director of health, physical education and leisure services, and Chuck Schelsky, assistant director of Colvin Center facilities, and Dr. Ron Beer, head of student services. We have put all of our facilities together and said, *How can we best work together?'

"I feel very strongly that if we've got facilities that we're not using now, they should be available to the student body and faculty. So this is the kind of attitude that developed: Let's pool all our facilities and see how we can best use those facilities for the whole university. This is how this project got started.

"Basically, we would redo Gallagher as it is. We would not make it any larger. Cushioned seats, air conditioned, heated like it's supposed to be, new ceiling, new sound system, a trophy room would be added. The east part of GaUagher, the offices and the corridor, would be opened up. It would go out into an open area with a ticket office and concessions.

"We're real excited about it. We think it would be a great project for the total university community, where everybody's involved in sharing and working together on it ."

Roderick pointed out that the Colvin Center now operates over its capacity, and explained why.

"Here at Oklahoma State, we have the highest percent of student body involved in intramurals of any place in the country. It's number one. About 85 percent of the male students and 60 percent of the women students here take part in the intramural programs. So they have big demands on facilities. This would help a great deal ."

What are his goals for the future? "In the near-future, there'll be no additional sports added. I think

we'll struggle financially, trying to keep all the sports we have now." Making the most of athletic dollars isn't new to OSU, but Roderick didn't tie the oncoming problem to Oklahoma's sluggish economy in 1986. Instead, he attributed it to the way athletic departments are set up.

"Basically, you're trying to support fifteen or twenty non-revenue sports with one or two revenue sports, mainly football. There comes a time when you just can't support that many. Either you have to cut sports out or cut them down to where you're not competitive in them."

Apparently neither was a pleasing prospect, but Roderick is a realist. "My belief is that if you can't be competitive, at least on your con

ference level, then you shouldn't have an intercollegiate sport." By implication, he seemed to be suggesting that if some varsity sports were to be slashed, greater emphasis might be given them as campus club


* "19

i

OSU's first athletics-oriented teleconference aired September 4, 1984. A series of such high-technology programs heralding the dramatic successes of the university's intercollegiate sports was scheduled to reach alumni via satellite during the Centennial Decade of 1980-90. An OSU Educational Television Service crew films the spring football practice.

sports. In 1986 a strong program linking thirty sports revolved around in-state travel and participation, he pointed out.

College athletics face big changes in the next five years, he predicted. "But the main thing I'd like to stress, more than anything else, is

that athletics are good. You hear 10 or 15 percent of the bad things about athletics, but the 85 or 90 percent is good. I think it's very important that you have a good athletic program at a university. It is kind of the cheerleader for the university.

"There's a lot of things besides gate receipts and publicity that athletics brings to a university. There's a kind of an esprit de corps. It's necessary to have a good spirit at the university. There needs to be a positive approach all the time. You have to really push the positive end of things.

"People pick up a paper, they want to hear positive things about Oklahoma State, whether it's in athletics or in the business school or vet medicine. We can get more publicity in one week—good or bad— than the whole university can in a year. That's an area you have to be very careful about. When people represent OSU, both student athletes and coaches, they're doing it in a very professional manner and with


class. I won't put up with it if we don't have that, ' ' he said flatly, almost fiercely.

"Win-and-loss is important, but it isn't as important as how you conduct yourself.''

What does Roderick like best about the job? "The people . . . and Oklahoma State University." He laughs, a man

on top of his world. In another, that enthusiasm could be interpreted as skilled public relations. But "up front" is a term that might have been coined for Myron. His deep-rooted affection for his alma mater spills over and he makes no apologies.

"Our alumni and the people I deal with are the best part of the job. When people call me or write me, probably 95 percent of them are writing because they're concerned about Oklahoma State and how we can better our program. I need that input. Sometimes you get too close to the picture. People outside look in and give you different ideas. We've changed a lot of things because people have concerns.

"There's no doubt about it. The people are what make our operation work."^

Endnotes

1. Tom Dirato, "The Man Who Loves Challenges is Back," Oklahoma State University Out-rach, vol. 54, no. 4 (Summer 1983), pp. 3-4.

2. Author interview with Myron Roderick, 20 December 1985, Athletics Centennial Histories Collections, Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

3. Dirato, p. 4.

4. Remarks by Gene Davis upon induction into National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma, 16 November 1985.

5. Dirato, p. 4.

6. Dirato, p. 4.

7. Roderick interview.


39 The Year of the Cowboy! 1984-

Experienced and eager, Erwin Patrick Jones moved easily into the head football coaching assignment, added the necessary one-size-fits-all discipline, and produced a season like no other before it at Oklahoma State University.

It was a campaign that stirred memories of the glory years of Fenimore and the forties, one that produced ten football victories for the first time in school history and saw the Cowboys earn nationwide respect and season-long ratings among the nation's elite.

But even at this level, football was only part of the year's success story. Baseball, golf, and track saw three Cowboys flash across the national scene like skyrockets, as the spectacular exploits of Pete Incaviglia, Joe Dial, and Scott Verplank kept OSU in the spotlight.

Yet football was the bellwether. From the first crushing 45-3 defeat of highly regarded Arizona State, it was obvious that years of frustration and lack of national ratings could end with an overwhelming rush. Even with a letdown against Bowling Green, OSU's margin was a comfortable 31-14, as Mark Moore returned an interception 17 yards for one touchdown and Rod Brown dashed 95 yards to score with another. Larry Roach, on his way to a school career record of seventy field goals, kicked four of them in the 19-16 squeaker over San Diego State. Defensive tackles Leslie O'Neal, perhaps the best of a long series of great Cowboy linemen, and Rodney Harding helped smother Tulsa, 31-7.

O-State was rated No. 9 and toe-to-toe with eighth-ranked Nebraska. Rusty Hilger passed for 242 yards and the Cowboys clung to a 3-0 lead through three quarters, but three muffed scoring opportunities let the Cornhuskers off the hook, 17-3. Approximately fifteen million


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Like so many before him. Rusty Hilger wasn't expected to do great things on the gridiron. But the spunky quarterback steered the Cowboys to the Independence, Bluebonnet, and Gator Bowls and broke nine school records in an exhilarating football era from 1981 to 1984.

televiewers tuned in for the clash in Lincoln, the highest single rating for any college football game during the 1984 regular season, according to a post-season announcement by ABC-TV.

The world didn't end with the loss. Still fired up, the offense exploded for 551 yards to out-man Kansas, 47-10. Although the Cowboys tried hard to fumble away the Colorado game—a snap for them in any other year—they couldn't. A free-wheeling 34-6 shot at Kansas State earned a No. 7 ranking and unveiled a new star as freshman tailback Thurman Thomas rushed for 206 yards and heralded bright things to come.

When the Cowboys cavorted beneath rented lights in college football's first night game at Lewis Field in fifty-two years, Tom Kensler of the Daily Oklahoman dubbed 'em "The Saturday Evening Pokes," and they kept the lid on Missouri, 31-13.

As the spectacular Saturdays unfolded, the nation learned its view of the Sooner State as a one-team state was a misconception. For Oklahomans who had not previously noticed, 1984 emphasized that the state had two nationally-ranked powerhouses.


Game 10 was a 16-10 soaked and shivering struggle with Iowa State in Stillwater, but it also brought OSU a No. 3 national ranking. The annual struggle with Oklahoma called for a near-perfect game. Coach Jones warned. No turnovers at Norman. The Pokes held a 14-7 lead over Oklahoma early in the third quarter, when a handoff was fumbled. The Sooners capitalized on it and another bobble to douse, 24-14, those perpetual "Maybe This Is The Year We'U Beat OU" fires.^

A Gator Bowl invitation eased the pain, along with the joy of a 9-2 season. And for Black and Orange fans whose unquestioned loyalty bore deep-seated nicks and scrapes from decades of cheers interrupted by untimely fumbles and interceptions, heartbreaking losses, a one-sided rivalry infrequently requited, and the ancient, lingering litany, "poor Aggies," Pat Jones' Cowboys were nothing short of miraculous.

Although OSU's ninth bowl game was nationally televised, 12,000 Cowboy fans trekked to Jacksonville, Florida, helping set an attendance record for the December 30 matchup. NBC Radio carried the event on 280 stations as OSU, now rated ninth, took on No. 7 South Carolina.^

Thomas gained 155 yards rushing, scored a touchdown, and hurled a six-yard touchdown pass to Hilger to earn the Most Valuable Player award. But Cowboy prospects looked dim when they started a last-gasp drive from their own 12, trailing 14-13 with just 3:41 to go. Hilger kept OSU hopes flickering by completing passes on third-and-ten and fourth-and-six, the latter a 13-yarder to Barry Hanna from midfield.

Then Hanna, a senior who had not scored a touchdown since his freshman year, grabbed a pass from Hilger from the 25 and managed to stay in bounds, while towing three Gamecock defenders into the end zone for the winning score. OSU collected its seventh bowl victory in nine outings, 21-14.

"Only one team in eighty-one years of Oklahoma State history has won ten games, and that's us , " commented happy first-year Coach Jones. ' * We won all the games we were supposed to win and not too many teams in the nation can say that."*

But it was Rusty Hilger's game, too. From Jacksonville, Daily O'Collegian sports writer Dan O'Kane wrote: "Hilger, the first quarterback in OSU history to play in three post-season bowl games, has followed the same pattern of progress as the Cowboys—improving each year—and he had his best season in '84 just as the Pokes had their best season in '84.

"Hilger led the Cowboys to the Independence Bowl in 1981, the Bluebonnet Bowl in 1983 and the Gator Bowl in 1984. The Pokes did not go to a bowl game in 1982 when Hilger suffered a shoulder separation and sat out that season. "^

Hilger's career was a rags-to-riches story. He entered OSU on the 29th and last scholarship issued in 1981. He left for professional football hav-


ing rewritten nine school records: all-time leading passer, with 3,982 yards; most career completions, 316; most career attempts, 573; most career touchdown passes, 24; best career completion percentage, 54.89; lowest career interception percentage, 4.1, with 23 interceptions in 573 attempts; most passing yards in a season, 2,076; most completions in a season, 165; lowest season interception percentage, 2.1, with 6 interceptions in 281 attempts.^

Other records flew, as well. Linebacker Matt Monger made his 189th tackle of the season, improving on Mike Green's 1982 mark. But Nebraska and Oklahoma were a step ahead and OSU settled for third in the Big Eight Conference.

The exhilarating season's six home games drew 264,500 in 1984. And when it came to whooping things up. Pistol Pete, the band, cheerleaders and pompon girls had company. There were T-shirted Bleacher Bums yelling mightily. Others waved Orange towels provided by the Cowboy marching band, known as the Spirit of Oklahoma State. And a new scoring tradition swept onto the field in the form of the Spirit Rider.

Whenever OSU put points on the scoreboard, a horse and rider gal-

The Cowboys score! And around Lewis Field trots the Spirit Rider, astride a handsome mount. OSU Rodeo Association President John Beall and his quarterhorse, Delia, were the first horse and rider team to celebrate each touchdown in 1984, creating a new symbol that captivated fans. Sometimes Beall's Blue Heeler cow dog. Hooker, happily tagged along.


loped in from the west end zone to participate in the celebration. Brandishing a 3x5-foot O-State flag, OSU Rodeo Association member John Beall and his mount were the first to participate as the familiar symbols of "Ride 'em. Cowboys!" heritage. A concept of OSU band director Richard Kastendieck, the Spirit Rider also appeared in pre-game ceremonies and parades.^

Special honors went to Leslie O'Neal, consensus All-American and Big Eight defensive player of the year. Defensive back Rod Brown also earned All-America honors and Thurman Thomas was named offensive newcomer of the year in the Big Eight by Associated Press. United Press International honored Pat Jones as conference Coach of the Year. Final rankings by UPI placed OSU fifth in the nation; the AP poll had them seventh.

The 1984 season was easily summed up. Asked casually what happened at the Gator Bowl, OSU sports information director Pat Quinn dropped his voice in unaccustomed awe, and said, "Honey, they caught lightning in a jar down there!"

It was lightning that made the university glow across the country. The campus was moving in other directions that fall—even into outer

space. To widen alumni contacts. Athletic Director Myron Roderick took advantage of the space age communications used by OSU's academic sector. On September 4, the first one-hour teleconference gave sports fans a look at the 1984 football team and new head coach Jones through a satellite link with Westar IV. During a question-and-answer segment, viewers were able to telephone the live conference and have Jones respond to their queries. The innovative venture marked the first use of such high technology by any university in the field of athletics.^

Strengthened by increased conditioning and paced by Tony Leach, the Cowboy cross country squad soared to second during the 52nd annual Big Eight Championships at the University of Colorado. Leach was the fifth to finish, witfi Trevor Fieldsend, Brian Matthews, and Mike Wood close behind. With most of the team running over 900 miles during the summer in personal fitness programs, preparation definitely hiad paid off. 9

Fleet New Zealander Christine McMiken took the Big Eight women's cross country title for OSU, and it was only the start of her remarkable track year.^°

Picked last in the conference before a single basketball thumped on Gallagher Hall's ancient maple floor, the Cowpokes refused to roll over and play dead. Versatile Joe Atkinson established a new Big Eight career record for blocked shots and continued to add to it while heading the O-State scoring chart in early January. By late January, OSU was 11-5 and third in the league.

The Cowboys handled conference champion Oklahoma and All-


American Wayman Tisdale unsuccessfully, but as well as anyone. In the second meeting of the two, Terry Faggins suddenly got hot and scored 23 points in the second half against the Sooners. But road trips were dangerous and the up-and-down team ended at the bottom as predicted in a 12-16 season.^^

Eleven new players enlivened Cowgirl hoop prospects. A little short on height, they fell a little short of their 20-win goal in a 17-10 regular season featuring struggles with such powers as Louisiana Tech, UCLA, Cal State-FuUerton, and Nevada-Las Vegas. Seniors Jackie Glosson and Kathy Schulz, playing together throughout their collegiate careers, each topped the 2,000-point mark at the end of March and led OSU to a 9-5 conference reading.^^

Ghosts of victories past surrounded Joe Seay as OSU's new head wrestling coach walked into Gallagher Hall. He was entrusted with the care and feeding of a dynasty long enshrined in alumni hearts, a massive force for much of collegiate wrestling's history, yet fading now under the onslaught of Dan Gable's rampaging Iowa Hawkeyes. Seay met some warmth, but mostly an uncharacteristic wall of coldness from those angered by the loss of Tom Chesbro, resentful that it had been passed along to a non-alumnus.

But ghosts of giants past and sparsely filled stands did not daunt Seay. While undergoing repeated bouts of plastic surgery after a September auto accident, Seay met endless queries about the team's chances: "If we're successful, then we can win the nationals. If we're not, then we'll have to keep working until we are."^^

Aided by assistant coach Lee Roy Smith, he juggled a short-handed lineup, seeking the maximum from available talent. John Smith and Bill Dykeman herded the Pokes to their second straight Midwest holiday tournament title in Ames, Iowa. Later that week, the team put on 33-9 show against ninth-ranked Penn State, but only about 2,000 showed up in Gallagher Hall. Stillwater NewsPress writer Rex Holt took the public to task in print for taking out their personal opinions of the coaching on the wrestlers, who continued to need fan support during the 13-3 season.

A streak of ten victories was shattered by top-ranked Iowa, 49-6, the worst drubbing in OSU's long mat history. Smith and Leo Bailey suffered injuries and Luke Skove was hospitalized. The Cowboy bid for a third straight Big Eight team championship stalled, as OU gathered up its 20th conference trophy and OSU was second. Titleholders for State were Mark Perry, Smith, Dykeman, and Kahlan O'Hara.^*

When the NCAA returned to Oklahoma City's Myriad in 1985, the Hawks breezed to their eighth consecutive championship. The Cowboys finished fourth and, like the rest of the country, were never a threat. Although five were All-Americans, runner-up Smith came the closest to an individual crown.^^


After three " d o w n " years, gymnastic statistics edged up to 11-10 in 1985. Linda Elstun collected the Big Eight All-Around championship and qualified for the NCAA regionals.

OSU's second-story man, pole vaulter Joe Dial, again swept Big Eight and NCAA championships, both indoors and outdoors, and twice cleared fantastic heights above 19 feet, sailing the height of a two-story house. The A&M vaulters of the turn of the century, proud to top 8 1/2 feet, never would have believed it.

Indoors, he scaled 18-6 1/2 at the Missouri Gold Classic, the best by an American at that stage of the 1985 season. He then repeated as Big Eight champion at 18-1 1/4 and as NCAA champion at a record 18-6. Those efforts just set the stage for an even more spectacular outdoor performance. ^

Dial "warmed u p " in the Sooner Invitational at 18-9. In mid-May, the six-time Big Eight Indoor and Outdoor champion stole the show at the conference meet in Manhattan, Kansas, when he soared 19-1 1/2, the fourth best vault of all time anywhere.

"A couple of weeks ago I barely touched 19," he said later. "I knew it was there. There was no doubt in my mind I could jump it."^^

A week later during the OU Invitational track meet. Dial boosted his mark up to 19-2 1/2, the third best vault in the history of track and field. Only world record-holder Sergey Bubka of the Soviet Union, with 19-5 3/4, and Thierry Vigneron of France, with 19-4 3/4, had gone higher.^^

The overwhelming favorite at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, Dial won his second consecutive title with an 18-6 vault which bettered his 1984 mark of 18-2 1/2. Hopes of bettering his American record faded, Joe said, when he was physically drained by the reported 120 degrees on the stadium's artificial turf in Austin. Eric Forney of O-State took eighth with a 17-8 vault as the team tied for 20th nationally. ^

When Dial was named Big Eight Conference male athlete of the year, it marked the second year in a row that an OSU athlete had garnered that honor. Two-time NCAA champion wrestler Mike Sheets received it in 1984. Dial also received the Henry F. Schulte Award for conference performances. 20

There were more headlines during the summer. Dial and Billy Olson, the American indoor record holder, tied for first at a large meet in Bremen, West Germany. Dial had left for Europe in late June after winning The Athletics Congress (successor to the AAU) national title at 18-9 1/4. 1

With all his heroics. Dial shared state and national headlines throughout the year with distance sensation Christine McMiken in a season that saw considerable focus on OSU's track program guided by Jim Bolding and Dick Weis.

McMiken opened the indoor campaign with a winning mile in the Sooner Relays and followed with a two-mile victory in the Missouri Gold


' ' Conference and world records fell when the popular New Zealand distance runner All-American Christine McMiken kept the spotlight

•^^^m^'V'^' ' °^ ^^^ Cowgirls' track and field and cross ^^m.i.T^^. •• country program.

Classic and a record-setting mile at the Oklahoma Track Classic. Next came the Big Eight Indoor and a world record performance in the three-mile.

Christine won the championship at 3,000 meters at the NCAA Indoor in Syracuse, New York. She also participated in her first world-class event, the International Amateur Athletic Federation's world cross country championships in Lisbon, Portugal, where she represented her native New Zealand.22

"She's the best thing that the women's track and field and cross country program has produced here," Coach Weis commented. "She's a four-time All-America. I don't believe anyone at Oklahoma State has been All-American four times lin track and field]."^^

The excitement continued outdoors. McMiken broke the conference record at 5,000 meters in the Big Eight meet and won the 1,500 at the OU Invitational. At the NCAA Championships, she ran second at 10,000 meters and fifth at 5,000.^*

Throughout the season, there were other outstanding performances, notably by Big Eight Indoor and Outdoor champions Paul Larkins and Leisa Davis.


Larkins won the mile at the Big Eight Indoor, helping the Cowboys place fifth, and captured the 1,500 meters at the Outdoor, where Desmond Ross added a 200-meter victory to aid a fourth place finish. Larkins won mile and half-mile races throughout the season, and Ross swept the 100 meters at both the Arkansas and Texas Relays. Larkins, of England, missed qualifying for the NCAA by one-tenth of a second.

Leisa won conference titles in the 440 indoors and the 400-meter hurdles outdoors as the Cowgirl team finally escaped the Big Eight cellar with a pair of seventh place finishes. For the year she had a series of victories in hurdles and flat races at various distances, including 500 meters as the American record-holder.

In the summer, now married and listed as Leisa Davis-Knowles, she won the gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles at National Sports Festival VI in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.^^

College baseball had never seen a home run hitter like Pete Incaviglia. The sport may never see one again. He hit them far, he hit them often, he hit them with men on base. In three years as a Cowboy, he hit a hundred of them for an NCAA career record.

The nickname "Pistol Pete" was a natural, as he pulled the trigger game after game and led the Cowboys to their fifth straight Big Eight championship and their fifth straight trip to the College World Series. He kept college baseball fans hanging on his latest statistics.

"He had a season that was humanly impossible," Ward mused. "He did things that no one else had done. He did things that no one may ever do again. Someone may dust off the record book in 1995 and find Pete Incaviglia's name. It was a beautiful thing to watch."^^

He didn't just hit home runs. He batted .464 and led the conference. "He's college baseball's most exciting player, Tulsa World writer

John Klein promised readers. "One swing of the bat will show you why. He will look horrible on two strikes, then send the next pitch air mail, far out of the park. With runners aboard, he 's deadly. His average and on-base percentage is as impressive as his home run total. "^^

While Pete captured most of the headlines, he had plenty of help in leading the Cowboys to an over-all record of 58-16-1. Center fielder Doug Dascenzo set school records with 68 stolen bases and 103 runs scored and was joined as an all-Big Eight selection by third baseman Kevin Fowler. Catcher Mike Day, shortstop Randy Whisler and pitchers Jeff Bronkey and Chris Rockman set additional school records.^^

By May 21, OSU had vaulted to No. 1 in the college baseball poll and had won its last eight games while outscoring opponents 119-45. Three days later, Incaviglia hit his 97th career homer, tying the NCAA record, before a record crowd of 4,711 in Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.^^

The Cowboys became the first conference team to win five consecutive Big Eight Championships. They swept the Big Eight tournament


One of O-State's long line of talented baseball stars is All-America outfielder Pete Incaviglia, who shattered national season home run and runs-batted-in records and powered the Cowpokes to their fifth consecutive College World Series in 1985. Pete was College Baseball Magazine's player of the year and, like so many other top diamond stars from OSU, he was signed to a pro contract.

by defeating Oklahoma 11-5 and 19-4 in Oklahoma City, and Incaviglia was named Most Valuable Player. Other all-tournament players were Whisler, Dascenzo, Day, Bronkey, and second baseman Sergio Espinal.

In Midwest Regional play at Reynolds Stadium, OSU downed Minnesota and Wichita State, dropped a 7-2 rematch with the Wheat-shockers, then trounced them 10-6 as Day homered, tripled and doubled. Day and Dascenzo made the all-tourney team with Incaviglia, again named Most Valuable Player although Wichita handed Pete five straight intentional walks in the title game.^°

At the 39th annual tournament in Omaha, before a national television audience, OSU couldn't get the bats going, but Mississippi State did, 12-3. The crisp plays, the sparkle of the Cowboys' regular season were missing. O-State bounced back, 16-11, over South Carolina, but it required a 3-hour, 55-minute walk-a-thon. The long season of heroics ended in the third round when Miami of Florida won 2-1.^1

The phenomenal season was over. The Pokes were fifth in the nation, a permanent presence in the top ten nationally, and an annual visitor to the College World Series.

Incaviglia, of course, earned All-America honors. College Baseball Magazine named him player of the year.32 A junior, Incaviglia was the


first pick of the Montreal Expos in the professional baseball draft, and elected to forego his senior year. (In the fall, he signed a contract that called for an immediate trade to the Texas Rangers.)

"On his shoulders, Oklahoma State rode to the College World Series," the Tulsa World observed. "He had, without question, the finest season in collegiate baseball history. In the greatest of ironies, in his final at-bat, Pete Incaviglia struck out."

In his three years, Incaviglia set NCAA records for most home runs in a season, with 48; most runs batted in in a season, 143; most total bases in a season, 285; highest slugging percentage for a season, 1.140; most home runs in a career, 100; highest slugging percentage for a career, .913; he also set O-State one-season records with 75 games played and 116 hits, and career records with a .398 batting average, 694 at-bats, 276 hits, 247 runs scored, 47 doubles, 324 runs batted in, 634 total bases, and 15 times hit by a pitch.^^

Who but Mike Holder could pack three freshmen, a sophomore, and a junior off to the demanding 88th NCAA Golf Championships and have the team pursue favored Houston within three strokes of the title? He could and did. Of course, the junior was Scott Verplank. Before the year was out, he would become the most talked-about young man in the world of competitive golf.

Back in September, he had won the National Amateur Championship at Oak Tree in Edmond, his fourth major amateur triumph of the summer. Now, as the young Cowboys faced disaster in the first round of the NCAA, he provided the leadership that steadied their nerves and kept them in the hunt. Heading into the finals, a spectacular comeback had pulled the Cowboys within a stroke of old nemesis Houston. The battle went to the final hole before the Cougars nailed it down. Kevin Whipple, E. J. Pfister, Brian Watts, and Mike Bradley shared that silver medal and, best of all, the entire lineup of the team ranked in the country's top three all season would return.^* As a prelude to the nationals, the Cowboys had taken the Big Eight crown for the 26th time in 28 years.

During the summer, Verplank stood the golf world on its ear. On August 4 in Chicago, he won the Western Open, a fixture on the professional tour, by defeating veteran Jim Thorpe in a playoff. Thorpe won the money and the young Cowboy won a trophy, but with it he won the hearts of the nation and even a nomination for the Sullivan Award as all-sports Amateur Athlete of the Year.

Not since 1954 had an amateur won a PGA tour event. Not since 1910 had anyone won both the Western Amateur and the Western Open. Verplank was six under par for the Amateur and nine under par for the Open. He also won the Texas Amateur, was low amateur in the U.S. Open, placed second in the Northeast Amateur, then won the Sunnehanna, the Porter Cup and the Lajet Classic. On the final day of the latter event


In 1985 the golf world was stunned by Cowboy Scott Verplank, the first since

1910 to win both the Western Amateur and the Western Open in the same

year. He also helped the United States' Walker Cup team stroke its way to

victory, then returned to the campus for his senior year before turning

professional. mk

at Abilene, Texas, he shot his best round ever, a 63, and won the tournament for the fourth straight time at 14 under par.

At the end of August, he headed to New Jersey and led the United States to victory in the 30th Walker Cup matches. Little did it matter that his National Amateur title slipped away, it was the greatest year for an amateur golfer since an Ohio youngster named Jack Nicklaus had burst on the scene some three decades earlier.^^

O-State's women golfers overcame a cool drizzle and gusty winds as they took the top four individual spots and the team title at the 10th Big Eight tournament at Manhattan, Kansas, 67 strokes ahead of second-place Missouri. Medal honors went to OSU freshman Lisa Stone of Guam. Tied for second two strokes back were her teammates, Robin Hood and Sara Killeen. Senior Yoshiko Ito of Tokyo was fourth.

Ito had won the Guadalajara Intercollegiate and the Lady Cardinal Invitational, and placed in the top ten in all but two of the seven tournaments the Cowgirls played in during the spring. For her last opportunity to play collegiate golf in the United States, she was selected as an individual entry in the 1985 NCAA Championships on Cape Cod. At OSU, she was a second team All-American and, with teammate Killeen, an Academic AU-American.^^

For the first time in school history, both tennis squads made it to


the NCAA Championships. Poke netmen grabbed the Big Eight title and crowned singles champs Pat Connor, Robin Scott, Kirk Loomis, and Christian Schatz. Doubles finalists for the team champions were Loomis-Peter Mallet and Scott-Schatz. At the NCAA in Athens, Georgia, Pat Harrison in singles and Loomis-Mallet in doubles did not survive first round matches. 3

In a season of 29 victories and only 7 losses, the Cowgirl tennis squad finished among the final top teams in America. The host team and Big Eight champion, OSU was seeded No. 14 of 16 entries, but upset third-ranked Texas in the first round of the single-elimination team portion of the 1985 NCAA in Oklahoma City. Their impressive drive propelled OSU in the next round against California. Four-time letterwoman Stacy Swanson swept seven conference titles in her four years, adding three singles crowns to four doubles titles for a new school record.

In its fourth straight year of qualifying for the NCAA meet under Coach Ike Groce, OSU was the only varsity invited from the Central Region. Only Renata Baranski survived the first round of individual play before going out in the next. Mary Boudreaux played in her third consecutive nationals in both singles and doubles. In five years at the helm, Groce had guided his team to four Big Eight championships, four NCAA tournament appearances and more than 100 dual wins.^^

In softball, the Cowgirls swept their own invitational tournament and enjoyed a 25-12 season, tying for fifth with Missouri in the Big Eight. Pitcher Nancy Mulry was named to the Academic All-Big Eight women's team.

At year's end, the Big Eight Conference had placed three football teams in the nation's top ten, three wrestling teams in the top five and three baseball teams in the NCAA tournament.

The Knoxville Journal, in its fifteenth annual review of successful athletic programs, ranked the Cowboys fourth in the country, a notch ahead of Oklahoma. Ratings are based on performance in the NCAA's ten leading sports.^^

It was another year of giants, and of gigantic achievements for Oklahoma State University.

Endnotes

1. 1985 OSU Football Press Guide; Stillwater NewsPress, 23 December 1984, p. IB.

2. 1985 OSU Football Press Guide.

3. Stillwater NewsPress, 23 December 1984, p. IB; 1985 OSU Football Press Guide.

4. Oklahoma State University Daily O'Collegian, 15 January 1985, p.12.

5. Daily O'Collegian, 15 January 1985, p. 12.


6. Daily O'Collegian, 15 January 1985, p. 12.

7. 1985 Redskin, p. 17, Oklahoma State University Yearbook; Stillwater NewsPress Exposure, 15 October 1985, p. 4.

8. Tom Dirato, "OSU Airs First Athletic Teleconference," Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 56, no. 1 (September 1984), pp. 20-21.

9. 1985 Redskin, p. 367.

10. Stillwater NewsPress, 13 February 1985, p. 17.

11. Stillwater NewsPress, 24 January 1985, p. 12.

12. 1985 Redskin, pp. 354-357.

13. 1985 Redskin, p. 339.

14. Stillwater NewsPress, 7 January 1985, p. 6; Daily O'Collegian, 2 February 1985, p. 8, 5 March 1985, p. 8.

15. Daily O'Collegian, 19 March 1985, pp. 8-9.

16. Stillwater NewsPress, 10 March 1985, p. I B .

17. Tulsa World, 11 May 1985, p. I D .

18. Tulsa World, 20 May 1985, p. 6B.

19. Tulsa World, 1 June 1985, p. I B ; 1984-85 Year-in-Review, Big Eight Conference.

20. Stillwater NewsPress, 9 June 1985, p. 3B.

2 1 . Stillwater NewsPress, 30 June 1985, p. 2B.

22. Stillwater NewsPress, 13 February 1985, p. 17, 10 March 1985, p. I B .

23. Stillwater NewsPress, 21 March 1985, p. 15.

24. Stillwater NewsPress, 30 May 1985, p. 13, 2 June 1985, p. I B .

25. Stillwater NewsPress, 29 July 1985, p. 8.

26. Tulsa World, 8 June 1985, p. 1.

27. Tulsa World, 5 April 1985, p. 1C.

28. Oklahoma City Sunday Oklahoman, 9 June 1985, p. 3.

29. Stillwater NewsPress, 21 May 1985, p. 11; Tulsa World, 25 May 1985, p. IB .

30. Stillwater NewsPress, 16 June 1985, p. IB .

3 1 . Tulsa World, 8 June 1985, p. IB .

32. Stillwater NewsPress, 13 May 1985, p. 11.

33. Tulsa World, 8 June 1985, pp. 1B-2B.

34. Dan O'Kane, "Encore! Encore!" Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 56, no. 4 (July 1985), p. 21 .

35. "Anything But Amateurish," Sports Illustrated, vol. 63, no. 7 (12 August 1985), pp. 9. 12; Barry McDermott, "A Walker Cup on the Wild Side," Sports Illustrated, vol. 63, no. 10 (2 September 1985), pp. 20-21; Don Wade, "Super Amateur!" Golf Digest, vol. 36, no. 10 (October 1985), pp. 45, 74-77.

36. Tulsa World, 24 April 1985, p. 90 , 26 May 1985, p. 10E; Stillwater NewsPress, 24 May 1985, p. 12.

37. 1984-85 Year-in-Review, Men's Big Eight Conference.

38. Stillwater NewsPress, 15 May 1985, p. 11, 17 May 1985, p. 18, 19 May 1985, p. I B .

39. Stillwater NewsPress, 21 June 1985, p. 13.


Epilogue

More than eighty years ago, would-be athletes at Oklahoma A&M coached themselves or hustled up a volunteer who'd actually seen a football game elsewhere and maybe knew a bit about baseball, too. In financially tough times, those same young students also tried to raise enough money to pay a coach's salary—or even half of it—themselves. Other state colleges provided coaches. The lively farmers knew they weren't going to gain much skill or success without at least a professor who could work out with them after classes. All they wanted was one coach.

Today, more than the university's name has changed. In addition to a fully-staffed athletic department and coaches with

corps of assistants, Oklahoma State University provided students medical care, certified trainers, strength and conditioning experts, and academic counseling to guide them on the demanding road to varsity athletic participation and college graduation.

To Dr. Donald L. Cooper, athletes are about the most fascinating group of people on earth to work with. Exciting and dynamic are words he employs as deftly as he treats patients at the University Hospital and Clinic.

"It 's a delightful age group to take care of. They have so much going for them healthwise that if you give them competent care, they will get well very rapidly and make you look good. We try to give them the best possible medical care at the least possible expense."

He's openly admiring when the topic turns, as it does with surprising frequency, to athletes. Medical expertise has taken him to work at the Olympic Games, the World Games for the Deaf, the United States Olympic Committee Training Center, to the White House, the Oklahoma


Legislature and around the world. In November 1985, Cooper was one of fifteen American doctors chosen for a 1986 trip to China for a series of lecture exchanges on sports medicine.^

At OSU, Doc Cooper wears three hats. Basically, he's the administrator in charge of the total health service, which involves over fifty employees. In addition to treating patients at many levels, he is team physician and a familiar sight at Cowboy athletic events. And he is internationally known in sports medicine.

"Athletic medicine has always had a respectable priority here at OSU," he said. "Certainly had it when I came here. We've tried to embellish and expand on it, and I think we have."

Drug testing, one of the newest phases of sports health care, began on campus in the fall of 1985 as the nation began to realize the dimensions of chemical abuse in every walk of life, from the man in the street to business people to professional athletes.

"Sports medicine is like many areas of medicine. It has become very, very sophisticated and technologically advanced in the last 25 years. I've been fortunate to have been involved in it through the tremendous transition, and am what you would call one of the old-timers in sports medicine. I was doing sports medicine when it wasn't particularly thought of as any different or special field."

When a condition or an injury extends beyond the health center's capabilities, immediate arrangements are made for care at a secondary care facility such as Stillwater Medical Center, or tertiary centers in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

As a sports medicine speaker. Cooper is a frequent traveler. He also accompanies the football team and heads off to basketball tournaments that are of several days' duration. And, reminded the polished member of both the President's and the Governor's Councils on Physical Fitness, eyes twinkling, "I always go with the teams to the Big Eight and the 'rasseling' NCAA. Haven't missed one in twenty-five years."

Do present athletes differ from the school's fine athletes of fifty years ago?

"Oh, yes! Oh, my! They differ from ten years ago. The size and the strength and the speed. Look at the records that are continuing to be broken every year. Recently this kid ran a 3:46 mile. I remember when we were thinking wouldn't it be wonderful if somebody could bust the four minute mile. Here's a guy that's running fourteen seconds under. There's no question the athletes are better. Pole vaulters are up to 19-10 now. It never ceases to stop.

"At the start of school, I did physicals. We had a defensive tackle that weighed 290 pounds, is 6-6, and he's not fat. We had an offensive tackle 6-6 and 275. We had another offensive tackle at 6-4. He came in at 288. We've got BIG kids now. And they're not just big, they're strong.


They're well-built and they're knowledgeable. "The sophistication in all sports, with your slow-motion video cas

settes and the computer, all of the different techniques for studying motion and learning the physics and the biomechanics are amazing. Biomechanics has only been in existence for maybe fifteen years. Already we've been able to turn things up, in terms of the quality and the quantity of effort. What's the limit? I don't know."

Zest for Oklahoma State's programs surged through his words as Doc Cooper brought up the school's new weight and training quarters.

"We have a training room that is second to none in the world. The latest piece of equipment is called a Cybex testing and strength-building machine. It only cost $30,000," he said wryly. Then he hurtled on.

"We've got one sittin' right here on our campus! We also have many modalities, types of physical therapy apparatus. The facility is right on top of the old football dressing room that was built in '68 or '69. In the weight room and the training room, we have two facilities that are competitive with anybody in the world in terms of equipment and in terms of staffing."2

Cooper's opinion is easily shared by those who work with students in the 10,000-square foot complex atop the athletic dressing room building. Strength and conditioning coordinator John Stucky, acquainted with other weight rooms around the Big Eight, found no corner-cutting in quality in devising his new domain.

"This puts us on a level with the other schools in the Big Eight," he said comfortably. "It is a first-class facility. We've really enjoyed i t ."

For nearly fifty years, OSU athletes trained in a dark, cubbyhole in the basement of Gallagher Hall. It lacked space, airiness, windows, quality. Only twenty to twenty-five players could be accommodated.

It was a far cry from the new weight and training center, one of nation's finest. Now Coach Stucky and his aides can work with forty to fifty athletes simultaneously in two or more sports throughout the 7,000-square foot department. The up-beat atmosphere automatically sets the tone for productive workouts. Its appeal as a recruiting plus to potential OSU athletes can't be overlooked, either, according to Stucky.

NewsPress Sports Editor Ron Holt spelled out the difference in the old and the new when he noted, "OSU has come out of the dark ages as far as weight training is concerned."^

For Jeff Fair, Cowboy coordinator of sports health, safety and equipment, and his staff, the 3,000-square foot training area is the culmination of a dream that began thirteen years earlier when Fair took over as Oklahoma State's head trainer.

"I knew we would eventually get something better," Fair commented shortly after the facility opened in March 1985. "There were a lot of other priorities ahead of us, like the new turf on the field and the new


press box. We were doing a good job down there [in Gallagher Hall's cramped 'dungeon'l, but it was just hard to work in everyone."

Although Fair designed his quarters and helped plan the weightlift-ing area, he received input from Dr. Cooper and from Dr. Gary Couch, the team's orthopedic surgeon. The latter also donated some equipment. In the tripled space, there's a storage room instead of the original storage closet. With the top floor co-ed during the morning, five certified trainers can work on rehabilitation for many types of athletic injuries.

An examination room enables players needing medical care to have stitches there rather than, as happened previously, in the midst of others undergoing various treatments. OSU's Jog-A-Thon money purchased a computer for record-keeping on each student treated, as well as stereo equipment, almost a "mus t" for collegians. Instead of three treatment tables, nine are available; instead of two whirlpools, a glass-enclosed room houses five.

A Cryo-Tempo machine provides everything needed for ankle sprains—cold water, pressure, and elevation for the injured area. The Cybex machine is top of the line and measures muscle strength in every joint before issuing a computer printout.

"Doc" Fair explained the way it's used. "Tony Wilkins (a Cowboy offensive lineman) is a good example of

what can happen. We were working with his knee and he just wasn't coming along. We tested it on this machine and his strength was all right, but he was low in endurance. We've worked on that area and he hasn't had any problems since."

Both Stucky and Fair credit Athletic Director Roderick for buying the much-needed equipment.

' *I think the fact that Myron used to be a coach himself helps because he knows the value of a quality training facility,'' Fair said. * *I have not seen any training rooms in the Big Eight like this. This is the best. Most pro teams aren't as good. We have some players who are in the pros and they've come back here and said this is better than what they had. The equipment is state of the art."

Equipment not transferred to the new center has been moved to other campus training areas for use in sports.*

On September 28,1985, the training room was dedicated to the memory of longtime trainer Byron Bird. As one of only two trainers at OSU following World War II, Bird simply worked out of a medical kit, on an almost mythical budget, alongside longtime trainer "Doc" Johnston. Before the greatly respected Bird retired in 1981, athletic care was provided by a staff of skilled trainers utilizing updated methods, including whirlpool baths and orthopedic surgery. The granite plaque on the training room wall from "his boys" is a tribute to both Bird and the progress the program made during his years at OSU.^


Whatever the sport, when it hurts. Dr. Donald L. Cooper (left) and Jeff Fair are there. Nearly every health problem faced by an athlete can be handled at the modern OSU Student Health Center or the superlative weight and training center.

"I don't know if the athletes will get well any faster in this facility, but it will certainly make it easier for us to do our job," Fair, designer of the *OSU Brand' emblem used on Cowboy uniforms, added. "The athletes are tickled to death. The main thing now is that they don't have to wait. It's just a heckuva lot more pleasant in here."^

The demanding road of varsity athletic participation often requires more than physical fitness—academic eligibility.

In 1976, Dr. Dale Roark joined the staff as OSU's first academic counselor. At first he juggled tutoring sessions with his job as assistant baseball coach. Gradually his responsibilities to students grew into a full-time job. Along with Reg Noland, assistant athletic counselor, and Ron Brown, Roark works to help Cowgirls, as well as Cowboys stay academically eligible.

The three-man team heads a program found in few of the country's universities. Athletes receive a complete orientation, survival skills seminars, study halls, tutoring, and special programs to develop math, reading, spelling, and composition skills. The counseling staff also stays in touch with professors to monitor athletes' progress.

"More and more professors now pick up the phone and call u s , " Roark says. * 'They truly are interested in our program.' ' While it hasn't always been smooth sailing for academic advisers to spring students from practice in order to take tests offered at times that conflict with team


workouts, Roark says today coaches honor the requests. "I want the kid to graduate," he adds. "Everyone here wants the

kid to get his degree. That's why he's here."^ If they could see OSU now, yesterday's students of a century ago

would be astounded by the changes in the simple playing fields they helped carve from the prairie. . . and the giants who have excelled on them.

In 1985 night's shadows were shouldered aside by the new $836,000 lighting system at Lewis Stadium when the Cowboys loped onto the football field against North Texas State September 14. Playing under "near daytime vision," at the end of a hot day proved successful for both the teams and their fans, as well as more than fifty high school bands who appeared at halftime. In the past, sizzling temperatures on the artificial turf had occasionally caused visiting band members to faint, but the cooler evening air added zest to their first performance under the high-powered lighting system.

Late afternoon and early evening grid practices, too, were possible all fall, allowing team members to complete the day's classes before donning pads. Providing the illumination visible for miles were six 180-foot tall poles behind north and south stands. On each of the 15-story poles were mounted 72 individually adjusted floodlights, which provided a total of 432 bulbs producing 650,000 watts.

The contractor evaluated the design and termed it, " the best lighting system of any college stadium in the U.S."^

OSU thus joined Kansas State as the only two Big Eight schools with lighted stadiums. OSU scheduled special events such as the state football finals in five classes for 1985, the Special Olympics for 1986, and other evening activities. Private donations and other non-appropriated funds were being used to pay for the system. The first memorial plaque placed on one of the new poles honored Larry G. "The Poke" Barnett, long-time member of support groups for OSU athletics.^

Game time munchers didn't lack refreshments at home games. Pistol Pete's image enlivened fifteen new full-service concession stands, four fast-fills, and eight satellite stands operated by a non-university concessionaire beneath the stadium. When the weather grew downright frosty, high-speed coffeemakers were capable of keeping 50,000 sippers warm. 10

The first All-Americans of 1985-86 were OSU cheerleaders Anna-Lisa Grant, Geoff Hiner, and John Jacobsen, along with Rick Wilson for his role as Pistol Pete. Wilson was the first Cowboy mascot ever to be honored as an All-American. Second-team winners were Mike McFarland and Kristin Sufflebean. Earning Celebrity All-America honors from the National Cheerleaders Association were pompon girls Leslie McGregor, Heidi Bodenheimer, and Cristi Collins. Oklahoma State


had the most honorees in the Big Eight. Previously only one pompon and three cheerleaders had been recognized as All-Americans.^^

The athletic year was a satisfying one for fans. Winning eight of their first nine games, Cowboy gridders were ranked as high as tenth in the nation during the season. Scouting the homecoming game against Kansas State were representatives from five bowls—the Gator, Sun, Bluebonnet, Liberty, and Citrus. The team returned to the Gator Bowl for a third straight post-season outing. Individual honors went to Thurman Thomas as Associated Press Offensive Player of the Year and United Press International's Player of the Year. Thomas and Mark Moore were first team All-Americans. 12

Scott Verplank, who snared the Western Open as an amateur, capped an unbelievable collegiate golf career by earning individual honors at the National Collegiate Athletic Association tourney at Wake Forest. His first NCAA title came just before Verplank turned professional, but he left the course in tears when Wake Forest rallied from 12 strokes down on the final nine holes to edge the Cowboy team and capture the team trophy.

Finishing in the top four nationally were the wrestling, baseball, and golf teams. Cowgirl netters were fifth in the nation and the women golfers were tenth. Both tennis teams captured Big Eight titles. And for the eighth consecutive year, Oklahoma State's balanced program of education and athletics gained coast-to-coast recognition in the Knoxville, Tennessee, Journal's annual all-sports poll. OSU landed in the number eight spot nationally on the strength of top-five finishes in three men's sports.

Fresh from its sixth straight NCAA Midwest Regional Tournament title, won at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium, the Cowboy baseball team saw freshman Robin Ventura snap three individual batting records. He was named Freshman of the Year by Baseball America and Most Valuable Player of the Big Eight Tournament, while Jimmy Barragan earned Midwest Regional MVP honors. At Omaha, OSU ended up fourth in the nation. 1

There was unrest as Cowboy basketball failed to thrive. English recruit Alan Bannister, 7-4, began to pick up O-State's style, but the downswing in cage fortunes continued and Coach Paul Hansen was not retained. Leonard Hamilton, former assistant at the University of Kentucky, joined the OSU staff as head coach.

By the end of the summer of 1987, Oklahoma State Cowboys and Cowgirls had won 99 Big Eight team championships and crowned hundreds of individual stars. With 37 titles, OSU had earned more NCAA team championships than any other school in the United States with the exception of University of Southern California and the University of California at Los Angeles. Eighty-six individual athletes have become NCAA champions, and scores have been named All-Americans. Fifty


men who wore the Orange and Black also demonstrated their expertise by being selected to attend Olympic Games. Dozens more have exchanged the Orange and Black for other team colors and gained success in professional sports.

These are the talented Cowboys and Cowgirls who've made sports history. Annually their ongoing story is told through state, regional, and national headlines. Their goals and achievements are light years removed from those first high-spirited, impromptu games at lunch time in the 1890s, but the athletic program those first students began has become an integral part of O-State's drive to develop physical skills to complement mental skills.

A campus of champions in education and athletics, Oklahoma State University is home to the giants of the prairie.

Endnotes

1. Tulsa World, 19 November 1985, p. 13B.

2. Author interview with Dr. Donald L. Cooper, 14 August 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection, Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

3. Stillwater NewsPress, 7 April 1985, pp. 1B-2B.

4. Stillwater NewsPress, 14 April 1985, pp. 1B-2B.

5. Stillwater NewsPress, 27 September 1985, p. 8, 28 September 1985, p. IB.

6. Stillwater NewsPress, 14 April 1985, p. 2B.

7. Oklahoma State 1985 Football Press Guide, p. 12; 1985 Cowboy Football Program, Oklahoma State vs. N. Texas State, 14 September 1985, pp. 22-23.

8. Tulsa World, 11 July 1985, p. ID.

9. Stillwater NewsPress, 7 October 1985, p. 7; Dan O'Kane, "Encore! Encore!" Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 56, no. 4 (July 1985), p. 20.

10. Stillwater NewsPress Exposure, 10 September 1985, p. 2.

11. Stillwater NewsPress, 29 October 1985, p. 2.

12. Tulsa World, 7 November 1985, p. 20; Stillwater NewsPress, 2 September 1986, p. 19.

13. Stillwater NewsPress, 2 September 1986, p. 19.


Appendices

Appendix 1

Conference Teann Channpionships

Southwest Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Dec. 8, 1914, to Dec. 6, 1924 Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Dec. 6, 1924, to June 1, 1957 Big Eight Conference June 1, 1957, to present

1922

1923 1924 1925

1926 1929 1930 1931 1932

1933 1934 1937 1938

Men's Cross Country Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Men's Basketball Wrestling Football Men's Track and Field Football (tie) Men's Basketball (tie) Football Men's Track and Field Football Men's Track and Field Men's Basketball Men's Basketball Men's Track and Field


1939

1940

1941 1942

1944

1945

1946

1947

1948

1949

1950

1961

1952

1953

1954

1955

1956

Men's Basketball (tie) Men's Track and Field Men's Basketball Men's Track and Field Men's Track and Field Men's Basketball (tie) Men's Track and Field Men's Basketball Football Men's Basketball Football Men's Basketball Men's Track and Field Men's Golf Men's Track and Field Baseball Men's Basketball Men's Track and Field Men's Golf Football Baseball Men's Tennis Men's Basketball Baseball Men's Track and Field Men's Golf Men's Tennis Men's Golf Men's Track and Field All Sports Men's Golf Men's Track and Field Men's Basketball All Sports Men's Golf Men's Track and Field Men's Basketball Men's Track and Field Men's Golf Football Men's Tennis Men's Golf Men's Track and Field Men's Basketball Baseball All Sports Men's Golf Men's Track and Field Baseball All Sports Men's Track and Field


1957

1958

1959

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970 1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

Men's Track and Field All Sports Men's Tennis Men's Golf Wrestling Baseball Men's Tennis Men's Golf Men's Cross Country Baseball Men's Golf Wrestling Baseball Men's Tennis Men's Golf Wrestling Men's Tennis Men's Golf Wrestling Men's Tennis Men's Golf Wrestling Men's Golf Men's Basketball Wrestling Men's Golf Wrestling Baseball Men's Golf Baseball Men's Golf Wrestling (tie) Baseball Wrestling Baseball Men's Golf Men's Golf Wrestling Men's Golf Men's Cross Country Wrestling Men's Golf Wrestling Men's Golf Men's Cross Country Wrestling Men's Golf Wrestling Men's Golf Football (tie) Men's Golf Men's Tennis (tie)


Men's Golf Women's Golf

1978 Wrestling Baseball Men's Tennis Men's Golf

1979 Men's Tennis Men's Golf Women's Golf

1980 Men's Tennis Men's Golf Women's Golf Softball

1981 Women's Gymnastics Baseball Men's Tennis Women's Tennis Men's Golf Softball

1982 Baseball Women's Tennis Men's Golf Women's Golf

1983 Wrestling Baseball Men's Tennis Women's Tennis Men's Golf

1984 Baseball Men's Tennis Women's Tennis Women's Golf Wrestling

1985 Baseball Men's Tennis Women's Tennis Men's Golf Women's Golf

1986 Women's Cross Country Baseball Men's Tennis Women's Tennis Men's Golf Women's Golf

1987 Wrestling (tie) Baseball Women's Tennis Men's Golf Women's Golf

Due to inconsistent and incomplete records, conference team titles were taken from the Southwest Conference Roster & Record Book — Football 1987, Missouri Valley Conference Records Book 1969-70, Big 8 Conference Record Book 1987-88, and Big 8 Conference Women's Championships Record Book 1987-88.


Appendix 2

NCAA Team Channpionships

1928 1929 1930 1931 1933 1934 1935 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1945 1946

1948 1949 1954

1955 1956 1958 1959

1961 1962 1963 1964 1966 1968 1971 1976 1978 1980 1983 1987

Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Men's Basketball Men's Basketball Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Cross Country Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Baseball Wrestling Wrestling Men's Golf Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Men's Golf Men's Golf Men's Golf Men's Golf Men's Golf


Appendix 3

Baseball All-Annericans First Team

Jimmy Barragan Tom Borland Joe Buck Gary Green Jim Ifland Pete Incaviglia Dick Soergel Danny Thompson Robin Ventura Robbie Wine Jim Wixson

1986-87 1955 1951 1984 1987 1983-84-85 1960 1968 1986-87 1983 1961

Appendix 4

Men's Basketball All-Annericans First Team

Bob Harris Don Johnson Dick Krueger Bob Kurland Bob Mattick Gale McArthur Bud Millikan Jesse Renick Merle Rousey Mel Wright

1949 1952 1938 1944-45-46 1953-54 1951 1942 1940-42 1937 1957


Appendix 5

Football All-Americans First Team

Ernest Anderson Neill Armstrong Alvin Brown Rod Brown Harry Cheatwood John Corker Phillip Dokes Bob Fenimore Derrel Gofourth Jon Kolb Gary Lewis Terry Miller Mark Moore Leslie O'Neal Larry Roach Thurman Thomas Cleveland Vann John Ward James White Jim Wood Ricky Young

1982 1946 1973 1984 1967 1978 1976 1944-45 1976 1968 1982 1976-77 1985-86 1984-85 1982 1985 1973 1969 1975 1958 1981


Appendix 6

Men's Golf All-Americans

NCAA INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONS David Edwards 1978 Grier Jones 1968 Earl Moeller 1953 Scott Verplank 1986 Brian Watts 1987

THREE-TIME ALL-AMERICANS Lindy Miller 1976-77-78 Bob Tway 1979-80-81 Scott Verplank 1984-85-86

TWO-TIME ALL-AMERICANS Bob Dickson 1965-66 Danny Edwards 1972-73 David Edwards 1977-78 Mark Hayes 1970-71 George Hixon 1963-64 Brian Watts 1986-87 Willie Wood 1982-83

ONE-TIME ALL-AMERICANS Michael Bradley Tim Fleming Jaime Gonzalez Labron Harris Jr. Grier Jones Tom Jones Ab Justice Tommy Moore Jimmy Wright

1987 1987 1975 1961 1968 1974 1958 1983 1960

Appendix 7

Women's Golf All-Americans

Robin Hood 1986-87 Val Skinner 1982


Appendix 8

Gymnastics All-Americans

Lisa Hartman 1981 (AIAW) Kevn Mabrey 1980 (AIAW) Liz Parry 1984

App( 3ndix 9

Softball All-Americans

Kris Bergstrom Jan Drummond Kim Fabian Mary Hammen Pam Harper Jan Krug Dale Munn Tina Schell

1982 1980 1982 1986 1982 1982 1984 1982

Appendix 10

Swimming All-Americans

Paul Nash Ross Seymour


Appendix 11

Women's Tennis All-Americans

Renata Baranski 1986 Lori McNeill 1982

Appendix 12

Men's Tennis All-Americans

Pat Connor Mark Johnson Kirk Loomis Peter Mallet

1986 1984 1984-85 1985


Appendix 13

Track NCAA All-Americans

INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONS James Butler George Davis Joe Dial

Arnold Droke Jim Graham

Johan Halberstadt Paul Larkins J. W. Mashburn

Chris McCubbins Christine McMiken Jim Metcalf

David Perry John Perry

Tom Von Ruden

ALL-AMERICANS

George Davis Charles Boatright

Jim Bolding

Donald Briggs James Butler

Joe Dial

Aubrey Dooley Arnold Droke Fredrik Eckhoff Forest Efaw Miles Eisenman

Eric Forney

Jackie Goodman Jim Graham

Veronica Haberl

1982 1961 1984 1984 1985 1985 1966 1956 1959 1972 1986 1955 1956 1967 1985 1965 1966 1965 1965 1966 1965 1965 1966

1961 1971 1973 1970 1971 1980 1980 1980 1982 1982 1982 1983 1983 1984 1985 1984 1985 1960 1966 1954 1939 1959 1959 1984 1984 1985 1985 1986 1956 1959 1986 1987

200-Meter Dash Pole Vault Indoor Pole Vault Pole Vault Indoor Pole Vault Pole Vault Indoor Two-Mile Relay Pole Vault Pole Vault 10,000-Meter Run Indoor Mile Run 440-Yard Dash 400-Meter Dash Steeplechase Indoor 3000-Meter Run Indoor Two-Mile Relay Indoor Two-Mile Relay Indoor Two-Mile Relay Indoor Two-Mile Relay Indoor Two-Mile Relay Indoor 880-Yard Run Indoor Two-Mile Relay Indoor Two-Mile Relay

Pole Vault Cross Country Distance Medley Relay Indoors 440-Yard Relay 400-Meter Hurdles 400-Meter Relay 200-Meter Dash 400-Meter Relay 200-Meter Dash 400-Meter Relay Pole Vault Indoors Pole Vault Indoors Pole Vault Pole Vault Indoors Pole Vault Pole Vault Pole Vault Indoors Pole Vault Two-Mile Relay indoors Cross Country Cross Country 3 Mile Run Cross Country Pole Vault Indoors Pole Vault Pole Vault Indoors Pole Vault Cross Country Pole Vault Pole Vault Cross Country 3000-Meter Run Indoors


Johan Haberstadt

Earl Harris John Holderman Ron Ingram

Peter Kaal Leisa Knowles

Sture Landqvist

Paul Larkins

Jeff Litvak Mike Manke J. W. Mashburn

Chris McCubbins

Christine McMiken

Dan Metcalf Jim Metcalf

Joe Metcalf Hal Oswalt David Perry

John Perry

Larry Rose Dennis Schultz

Sterling Starks

Charles Strong

Ralph Tate

Curtis Thomas Tom Von Ruden

Paul Williams Mike Wood

1972 1972 1973 1970 1973 1980 1982 1972 1985 1986 1986 1954 1955 1984 1984 1985 1986 1986 1970 1973 1955 1956 1965 1966 1967 1984 1984 1984 1985 1985 1985 1985 1986 1961 1946 1965 1965 1966 1985 1970 1965 1965 1965 1965 1966 1971 1970 1973 1973 1980 1982 1984 1963 1963 1943 1946 1982 1965 1965 1965 1966 1966 1966 1984 1984

Cross Country 10,000-Meter Run Cross Country 440-Yard Relay Distance Medley Relay Indoors 400-Meter Relay 400-Meter Relay Cross Country 400-Meter Hurdles 500-Meter Run Indoors 400-Meter Hurdles Cross Country Cross Country Distance Medley Relay Indoors 1500-Meter Run 1000-Meter Run Indoors Mile Run Indoors 1500-Meter Run 440-Yard Relay Distance Medley Relay Indoors 440-Yard Dash 400-Meter Dash Cross Country 3000-Meter Steeplechase 3000-Meter Steeplechase 3000-Meter Run Indoors 10,000-Meter Run Cross Country 3000-Meter Run Indoors Cross Country 5000-Meter Run 10,000-Meter Run 10,000-Meter Run Cross Country 100-Yard Dash Two-Mile Relay Indoors Two-Mile Relay Two-Mile Relay Indoors Cross Country Long Jump Indoors Two-Mile Relay Indoors Two-Mile Relay Two-Mile Relay Indoors Two-Mile Relay Two-Mile Relay Indoors 1000-Yard Run Indoors 440-Yard Relay Distance Medley Relay Indoors 440-Yard Dash 400-Meter Relay 400-Meter Relay Distance Medley Relay Indoors 220-Yard Dash 440-Yard Dash 120-Yard Hurdles 120-Yard Hurdles 400-Meter Relay 880-Yard Run Indoors Two-Mile Relay Indoors Two-Mile Relay Two-Mile Relay Indoors 880-Yard Run Mile Run

Distance Medley Relay Indoors Distance Medley Relay Indoors


Appendix 14

Wrestling All-Americans

THREE-TIME INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONS David Arndt, 136, 145 Conrad Caldwell, 165, 175 Ross Flood, 126 Stanley Henson, 145, 155 Richard Hutton, hwt Jimmy Jackson, hwt Earl McCready, hwt Joe McDaniel, 118, 121 Rex Peery, 118 Myron Roderick, 137, 130 Jack Van Bebber, 155, 165 Yojiro Uetake, 130

1941-42-43 1929-30-31 1933-34-35 1937-38-39 1947-48-50 1976-77-78 1928-29-30 1937-38-39 1933-34-35 1954-55-56 1929-30-31 1964-65-66

TWO-TIME INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONS

Geoff Baum, 190, 191 Dick Beattie, 157 Ned Blass, 177 Bob Johnson, 177 Alan Kelley, 145 Darrell Keller, 134 Dwayne Keller, 126 George Layman, 137 Vernon Logan, 155 Gene Nicks, hwt Mike Sheets, 167 Virgil Smith, 165 Ricky Stewart, 158 Al Whitehurst, 136

1970-71 1958-59 1953-54 1961-62 1933-34 1970-71 1968-70 1951-52 1940-42 1952-54 1983-84 1941-42 1980-81 1940-41

ONE-TIME INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONS

Clar Anderson, 134 Lloyd Arms, hwt George Bancroft, 135 Steve Barrett, 142 Harvey Base, 165 Doug Blubaugh, 157 Jack Brisco, 191 Ronnie Clinton, 167 Melvin Clodfelter, 145 Fred Davis, 167 Gene Davis, 1.37 Harold DeMarsh, 125 George Dorsch, 175 Ted Ellis, hwt Fred Fozzard, 177 Yoshiro Fujita, 126 Jim Gregson, 175 Bill Harlow, 190 John Harrell, hwt Masaaki Hatta, 123 Tadaaki Hatta, 115 Charles Hetrick, 128 Richard Hutton, hwt Joe James, hwt Phil Kinyon, 157

1983 1942 1929 1977 1937 1957 1965 1962 1928 1955 1966 1928 1946 1959 1967 1971 1949 1966 1939 1962 1965 1949 1950 1964 1961


Frank Lewis, 155 1935 LeRoy McGuirk, 155 1931 Kenny Monday, 150 1984 Duane Murty, 167 1958 Bobby Pearce, 126 1931 Grover Rains, 177 1951 Ron Ray, 167 1975 Lloyd Ricks, hwt 1937 George Rule, 175 1928 Dale Scriven, 155 1938 Jack St. Clair, 155 1948 John Smith, 134 1987 Lee Roy Smith, 142 1980 Harley (Doc) Strong, 145 1936 Earl VanBebber, 155 1941 Eric Wais, 190 1979

FOUR-TIME ALL-AMERICANS Richard Hutton, hwt 1947-50 Mike Sheets, 167 1981-84 Ricky Stewart, 158 1979-82

THREE-TIME ALL-AMERICANS Clar Anderson, 134 1981, 83-84 David Arndt, 136, 145 1941-42. 46 Lloyd Arms, hwt 1942, 45-46 Steve Barrett, 134, 142 1975-77 Geoff Baum, 177, 190, 191 1969-71 Doug Blubaugh, 147, 157 1955-57 Conrad Caldwell, 165, 175 1929-31 Ronnie Clinton, 167, 191 1960-62 Fred Davis, 167 1954-56 Gene Davis, 137 1965-67 Gordon Dupree, 175, hwt 1933-34, 36 Bill Dykeman, 158 1982, 84-85 Ross Flood, 126 1933-35 Fred Fozzard, 177 1966-68 Bill Harlow, 177-91 1964-66 Masaaki Hatta, 123 1960-62 Stanley Henson, 145, 155 1937-39 Jimmy Jackson, hwt 1976-78 Joe James, 191, hwt 1962-64 Dwayne Keller, 123, 126, 1341966, 70-71 Phil Kinyon. 157 1961-63 Vernon Logan, 145. 155 1939-40. 42 Billy Martin. 126 1973-74. 77 Paul Martin. 150. 167 1975. 77-78 Earl McCready, hwt 1928-30 Joe McDaniel, 118. 121 1937-39 Kenny Monday, 150 1982-84 Gene Nicks, hwt 1952-54 Kahlan O'Hara. hwt 1983-85 Rex Peery. 118 1933-35 Mike Reding. 147, 152, 157 1964-66 Myron Roderick, 130, 137 1954-56 Jim Rogers, 137, 145 1964, 66-67 Luke Skove. 142, 150 1984-86 Lee Roy Smith. 134. 142 1977. 79-80 Ray Stapp. 115, 118 1969-71 Byron Todd. 147, 155 1950-52 Yojiro Uetake, 130 1964-66 Jack VanBebber, 155, 165 1929-31 Eric Wais, 177, 190 1977-79


TWO-TIME ALL-AMERICANS Jay Arneson. 150 Leo Bailey, 134. 142 Nathan Bauer, 136 Dick Beattie. 157 Ned Blass. 177 Dave Bowlin, 115 Jack Brisco, 191 Bruce Campbell, 167, 177 Bob Drebenstedt, 167 Dennis Dutsch, 123 Ted Ellis, hwt Tom Erikson, hwt James Gregson. 175 Tadaaki Hatta, 115 Tom Hazell, hwt Andrew Hesser. 118, 125 Bill Jernigan, 114, 121 Bob Johnson, 177 Adnan Kaisy. 191 Darrell Keller. 134 Alan Kelley, 145 Jerry Kelly, 126 George Layman, 137 Harmon Leslie. 123 Fpank Lewis. 155 Willard Loretti, 175. 191 Mark McCracker, 115, 123 Paul McDaniel. 125, 128 LeRoy McGuirk. 155, 175 David McQuaig. 177 Calvin Melhorn, 121 Daryl Monasmith, 190 Ray Murphy. 137, 145 Duane Murty, 157, 167 Fred Parkey, 135 Robert Pearce, 123, 126 Mark Perry, 118 Steve Randall, 142 Ralph Raser, 135 Ron Ray, 158. 167 Lloyd Ricks, 175. hwt Mike Riley, 130. 134 Dale Scrivens, 155 Vince Silva. 150 John Smith. 134 Virgil Shiith, 165 Jack St Clair, 155, 160 Bobby Stites, 134, 142 Bob Taylor, 115 Alfred Whitehurst, 136 Randy Willingham, 118 Doug Wilson, 137 Robert Wilson, 137, 147 Shelby Wilson, 137

1971-72 1983-86 1947-48 1958-59 1953-54 1955-56 1964-65 1960-61 1966, 68 1964-65 1959, 61 1986-87 1949, 56 1965-66 1973-74 1929-30 1947-48 1961-62 1958-59 1970-71 1933-34 1980-81 1951-52 1956-57 1934-35 1936-37 1962-63 1947-48 1931-32 1975-76 1940-41 1976, 78 1968-69 1958-59 1937-38 1931-32 1984-85 1974-75 1932, 35 1974-75 1935, 37 1969-72 1937-38 1986-87 1985-87 1941-42 1946, 48 1972-73 1958-59 1940-41 1981-82 1961-62 1959, 61 1958-59

ONE-TIME ALL-AMERICANS Clay Albright, 165 1940 Alan Albright, 158 1972 George Bancroft, 145 1929 Harvey Base, 165 1937


Dormer Browning, 175 1936 George Chiga, hwt 1940 Howard Cline, 125 1930 Melvin Clodfelter, 145 1928 Dennis Crowe, 130 1968 Harold DeMarsh, 115 1928 John Devine, 135 1931 Mike Farrell, 167 1987 Melbourne Flesner, 165 1949 Yojiro Fujita, 126 1971 Elias George, 145 1949 Harry Geris, hwt 1972 Gary Germundson, 177 1980 Richard Gillihan, 115 1957 Tom Green, 115 1968 John Harrell, hwt 1939 Greg Hawkins, 190 1982 Bob Herald, 123 1958 Charles Hetrick, 128 1949 Jon Jackson, 167 1974 Tom Keys, 123 1951 Thomas Landrum, 134 1980 Glen Lanham, 158 1987 Joel Lobaugh, 123 1954 Karl Lynes, 190 1984 Earl Lynn, hwt 1958 Sidney Marks, 128 1942 Don Meeker, 136 1949 Hal Moore, 130 1951 J. B. Moore, 135 1928 J. Boyd Nelson, 169 1939 Grady Peninger, 121 1949 Ted Pierce, 130 1958 Grover Rains, 177 1951 Robert Ritt, 128 1940 Woodrew Rorex, 128 1939 George Rule, 175 1928 Dave Schultz, 150 1978 Charles Shelton, 150 1979 Mitch Shelton, hwt 1983 Jim Shields, hwt 1971 Dell Shockley, 115 1929 Matt Skove, 158 1983 Parker Snead, 152 1968 Sherman Stephenson, 135 1930 Jerry Stone, 160 1967 Harley Strong, 145 1936 Dillard Talbutt, 128 1941 Arlie Thompson, 145 1930 Donald Thompson, 147 1954 Tom Titsworth, 157 1952 Mark Van Tine, 167 1986 Earl VanBebber, 155 1941 George Walker, 165 1946 John Ward, hwt 1969 Edgar Welch, 145 1946 Bob Williams, 175 1939 Reggie Wilson, 177 1986 Russ Winter, hwt 1965 Eddie Woodburn, 118 1986 Walter Young, 145 1931 Bob Zweiacher, 167 1964


Appendix 15

Olympians

Coach Henry P. Iba headed the basketball delegation an unprecedented three times. In competition. Bob Kurland and Yojiro Uetake each earned two coveted gold medals. Other two-time Olympians were Bobby Douglas, Gene Davis, and Harry Geris. Jim Graham was awarded the USA Olympic Sportsmanship Trophy.

Bruce Baumgartner Dick Beattie Clarence Berryman Doug Blubaugh Conrad Caldwell George Chiga (Canadian team) Melvin Clodfelter Fendley Collins (manager) Dr. Donald Cooper (physician) Gene Davis

Bobby Douglas

Roy Dunn Ross Flood Dr. Clarence Gallagher (trainer) E. C. Gallagher (honorary coach) Harry Geris (Canadian team)

Jim Graham Gary Green Art Griffith (coach) Masaaki Hatta (referee) Tadaaki Hatta (referee) Ralph Higgins (manager)

(staff) Richard Hutton Henry P. Iba (coach)

(coach) (coach) (honorary coach)

Jimmy Jackson William Jernigan Cliff Keen (manager) James King Bob Kurland

Frank Lewis Guy H. Lookabaugh J. W. Mashburn Earl McCready (Canadian team) Hal Moore Fred Parkey Buel Patterson (manager) Robert Pearce Rex Peery (coach) Jesse Renick J. Robinson

gold

gold

bronze

silver

gold gold silver gold

gold gold gold gold

gold

gold

gold

1984 Los Angeles 1956 Melbourne 1928 Amsterdam 1960 Rome 1932 Los Angeles 1936 Berlin 1932 Los Angeles 1964 Tokyo 1968 Mexico City 1972 Munich 1976 Montreal 1964 Tokyo 1968 Mexico City 1936 Berlin 1936 Berlin 1936 Berlin 1936 Berlin 1972 Munich 1976 Montreal 1956 Melbourne 1984 Los Angeles 1948 London 1968 Mexico City 1968 Mexico City 1956 Melbourne 1960 Rome 1948 London 1964 Tokyo 1968 Mexico City 1972 Munich 1984 Los Angeles 1976 Montreal 1948 London 1948 London 1968 Mexico City 1948 London 1952 Helsinki 1936 Berlin 1924 Paris 1956 Melbourne 1928 Amsterdam 1948 London 1936 Berlin 1952 Helsinki 1932 Los Angeles 1964 Tokyo 1948 London 1972 Munich

Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling

Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling

Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Track Baseball Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Track and Field Track and Field Wrestling Basketball Basketball Basketball Basketball Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Basketball Basketball Basketball Wrestling Wrestling Track Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Basketball Greco-Roman Wrestling


Myron Roderick George Rule Charles Strack Harley Strong Orion Stuteville Ray Swartz (coach) Yojiro Uetake (Japanese team)

Jack VanBebber Tom VonRuden Shelby Wilson

gold gold gold

gold

1956 Melbourne 1928 Amsterdam 1928 Amsterdam 1936 Berlin 1924 Paris 1952 Helsinki 1964 Tokyo 1968 Mexico City 1932 Los Angeles 1968 Mexico City 1960 Rome

Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Track Wrestling


1945 1946 1949 1958 1974 1976 1981 1983 1984 1985

Cotton Sugar Delta Bluegrass Fiesta Tangerine Independence Bluebonnet Gator Gator

Appendix 16

Bowl Games

Oklahoma A&M Oklahoma A&M William & Mary Oklahoma State Oklahoma State Oklahoma State Texas A&M Oklahoma State Oklahoma State Florida State

35 33 20 15 16 49 33 24 21 34

Texas Christian St. Mary's Oklahoma A&M Florida State Brigham Young Brigham Young Oklahoma State Baylor South Carolina Oklahoma State

00 13 00 06 06 21 16 14 14 23


Selected Bibliography

In addition to the specific items listed, other sources include innumerable articles, letters, memos, programs, brochures, notes, minutes, reports, speeches, informal interviews and conversations, and other miscellaneous sources of information.

ARTICLES

Adams, J. H. "When the College Was Young." Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 1, no. 4 (December 1929), pp. 9, 21. "Aggie Headquarters." OklahomaA. andM. College Magazine, vol. 21, no. 3 (November 1949), p. 7.

"A. & M. Admitted to 'Big 7' and It Is Now 'Big 8.'" Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 28, no. 10 (June 1957), p. 11.

"A. and M. Wins 17th MV Championship." OklahomaA. and M. College Magazine, vol. 28, no. 10 (June 1957), pp. 10-11.

"An 'Athletic Marker' Dated June 1, 1957." Oklahoma State University Magazine, vol. 1, no. 1 (July 1957), pp. 14-15.

"Anything But Amateurish." Sports Illustrated, vol. 63, no. 7 (12 August 1985), pp. 9, 12.

"Back on Campus." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 16, no. 8 (November-December 1975), p. 31.

"The Big Eight All-Sports Trophy." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 14, no. 7 (September-October 1973), p. 11.

Blackburn, Louis A. "The One-hoss Shay Has Seen Its Day." Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 1, no. 1 (September 1929). p. 13.

Gates, Eldon. "The New Fieldhouse." Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 9, no. 5 (February 1938), pp. 5, 14.

"Coach Floyd Gass Named Athletic Director." Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 11, no. 1 (January 1970), pp. 4-5.

"Cowboys Play Difficult Schedule Great Team Emerges Victorious." Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 17, no. 4 (January 1945), pp. 8-9.

"Cowgirl Basketball." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 53, no. 2 (Winter 1981), p. 15.

Crichton, Kyle. "Eager Aggies." Collier's, vol. 118, no. 5 (12 October 1946). pp. 18-19. 50, 52.


Dirato, Tom. "The First Step." Ride 'Em: Inside Cowboy Sports, vol. 1, no. 2 (December 1979), pp. 6-12.

Dirato, Tom. "It Was the Right Choice." Ride 'Em: Inside Cowboy Sports, vol. 1, no. 2 (December 1979), pp. 20-22.

Dirato, Tom. "The Man Who Loves Challenges Is Back." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 54, no. 4 (Summer 1983). pp. 2-5.

Dirato. Tom. "Poke Wrestling: Will the Improvement Be Recognized?" Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 53. no. 1 (Fall 1981). p. 15.

Dirato, Tom. "The 1981 Independence Bowl." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 53, no. 3 (Spring 1982), pp. 16, 17.

Dirato, Tom. "Cowboy Basketball: Have the Fortunes Turned?" Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 53. no. 1 (Fall 1981), pp. 13-14.

Dirato, Tom. "Six Big-8 Championships Add Up to a Great Season." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 52, no 5 (July 1981), pp. 6-7.

Dirato, Tom. "Cecil Grissom." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 52, no. 2 (December 1980), pp. 9-10.

Dirato, Tom. "OSU Airs First Athletic Teleconference." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 56, no. 4 (September 1984), pp. 20-21.

Dirato, Tom. "Cowboy Basketball." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 54, no. 1 (September 1982), pp. 17-18.

Dirato, Tom. "Continuing to Be Optimistic in Football." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 54, no. 4 (Summer 1983), pp. 14-15.

Dirato, Tom. "Cowboy Football: Solid Accomplishments and Expecting to Win, Too." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 53, no. 3 (Spring 1982), p. 18.

Dirato, Tom. "A Different Script for Wrestling." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 54, no. 1 (September 1982), pp. 18-20.

Dirato, Tom and Lisa Little. "OSU Football: Back to Basics." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 52, no. 5 (July 1981), pp. 2-4.

Dollar. Doug. "Guy Lookabaugh: The First Super Aggie." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 20, no. 1 (January-February 1979), pp. 7-9.

Donnell, Guy R. "Ah! . . . That Was Life." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 17, no. 2 (March 1976), pp. 12-13.

"Ending 45 Years of OSU Service." Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 14, no. 5 (May 1973), p. 14.

Falk, Connie. "Kevn Mabrey: Retired After a Gold Medal." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 53, no. 1 (Fall 1981), p. 25.

"Finest Aggie Squad Plays Most Difficult Schedule." Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 18, no. 7 (October 1946), pp. 8-9.

"Focus on Spring Sports." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 15, no. 3 (March 1974), pp. 14-15.

"Gallagher Hall Features New Track." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 52, no. 3 (February 1981), p. 12.

"'Gibraltar of Grappling' Produces Another Great Oklahoma A. and M. Team." Life, vol. 6, no. 9 (27 February 1939), pp. 26-28.

"Here Come the Cowboys." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 17, no. 6 (August-September 1976), pp. 5-7.

"His Objective: A Winning Football Team." Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 10, no. 2 (February 1969), pp. 4-6. Holt, Ron. '"78 Cowboy Football." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 19, no. 4 (August-September 1978), pp. 2-3.

"Iba Documented." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 19, no. 1 (January-February, 1978), p. 10.


"Illegal Tender." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 52, no. 1 (September 1980), pp. 10-11.

Jarrell, Alfred Edwin. "The Founding of Oklahoma A. and M College: A Memoir." Chronicles of Oklahoma, vol. 34 no. 3 (Autumn 1956), pp. 315-325.

"Kurland Named to Basketball Hall of Fame." Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 2, no. 6 (June 1961), p. 21.

"A Lifetime of Coaching Achievements." Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 8, no. 5 (May 1967), p. 2.

"Living Subject for A & M Cowboy Cartoon." Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 27, no. 7 (March 1956), p. 9.

Lynes, Russell. "Russell Lynes Observes." Architectural Digest, vol. 39, no. 12 (December 1982), pp. 42, 48.

McDermott, Barry. "A Walker Cup on the Wild Side." Sports Illustrated, vol. 63, no. 10 (2 September 1985), pp. 20-21.

"Mike Holder Is Named Golf Coach to Succeed Harris." Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 14, no. 5 (May 1973), p. 4.

"Name of Oklahoma A. and M. Changed to Oklahoma State University." Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 28 no. 10 (June 1957), p. 5.

"Nationally Honored." Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 18, no. 7 (April 1947), p. 3.

"New Baseball Stadium, Track and Field Center to Become Reality." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 52, no. 4 (March 1981), pp. 11-12.

"The New Cimarron Turnpike." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 16, no. 7 (September-October 1975), p. 20.

"New Coach, New Era." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 14, no. 9 (December 1973), p. 19.

"New Regime." Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 22, no. 1 (September 1950), p. 9.

O'Kane, Dan. "Encore! Encore!" Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 56, no. 4 (July 1985), pp. 19-21.

"O'State Field Hockey Women Able to Compete Nationally." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 19, no. 1 (January-February 1978), p. 5.

"Oklahoma State Cross Country Star Ranks 12th Nationally." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 19, no. 1 (January-February 1978), p. 21.

"OSU Athletics: Goals, Benefits and a Long Tradition." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 20, no. 1 (January 1979), pp. 2-5.

"The OSU Centennial Advisory Commission." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 56. no. 3 (Spring 1985), pp. 134-142.

"OSU Wins NCAA Wrestling Title.'' Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 9, no. 5 (May 1968), pp. 10-11.

"OSU Golf Team Unites, Wins NCAA Crown." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol 17, no. 5 (June-July 1976), pp. 4-5.

"OSU Spring Sports." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 18, no. 3 (June-July 1977), pp. 14-15.

"OSU's Athletic Council Gets New Chairman." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 53, no. 1 (Fall 1981), p. 14.

Perry, Jim. "The NCAA Probation." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 19, no. 2 (March-April 1978), pp. 18-19.

Phillips, Rob. "A Popular Myth-Conception." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 51, no. 5 (July 1980), pp. 2-6. Phillips, Rob. "They're in Good Hands at O-State." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 51, no. 4 (March 1980), pp. 8-9.

"Phil Cutchin Named Head Football Coach." Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 4, no. 2 (February 1963), p. 6.


/

Quinn, Pat. "Labron Harris Concluding 27 Years as Golf Coach." Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 14, no. 4 (April 1973), pp. 3-4.

Quinn, Pat. "No Place for the Tender or Timid." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 18, no. 4 (August-September 1977), pp. 18-19.

"Radio Network to Cover Football Games." Oklahoma State University Magazine, vol. 1, no. 3 (September 1957), p. 18. Ronck, David. "Challenge Accepted." Ride 'Em: Inside Cowboy Sports, vol. 1, no. 2 (December 1979), pp. 28-29.

Schaeffer, Rick. "Spring Sports." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 16, no. 7 (September-October 1975), pp. 18-19.

Schaeffer, Rick. "1975 Exciting Cowboy Football." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 16, no. 7 (September-October 1975), pp. 5-9. Schaeffer, Rick. "Preseason Look at Cowboy Football '74." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 15, no. 7 (September (1974), pp. 4-7.

Schaeffer, Rick. "Setting the Stage for 1973 Season." Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 14, no. 2 (February 1973), pp. 11-13.

Shull, Warren E. "Mr. Iba: The Man and the Legend." Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 11, no. 2 (February 1970), pp. 6-9.

"Smith Named Head Football Coach." Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 13, no. 6 (June-July 1972), p. 3.

"Special Thanks Given Cowboy Network Team." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 15, no. 1 (January 1974), p. 3.

"SpeegleRelievedof Coaching Job." Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 4, no. 1 (January 1963), p. 10.

"Sports." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 20, no. 3 (June-July 1979), pp. 15-17.

"Sports." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 20, no. 1 (January-February 1979), pp. 14-15.

"Sports." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 19, no. 4 (August-September 1978), pp. 8-9.

"Sports." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 19, no. 3 (June-July 1978), pp. 12-13.

"Strong Is Named Basketball Coach." Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 14, no. 5 (May 1973), pp. 3-4.

"Those High-Riding Cowboys." OklahomaA. and M. College Magazine, vol. 24, no. 7 (March 1953), pp. 24-25.

"University in Action." Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 9, no. 9 (December 1968), p. 4. Wade, Don. "Super Amateur!" Golf Digest, vol. 36, no. 10 (October 1985), pp. 45, 74-77.

Wile, Otis. "The Bell Clapper Comes Home." Oklahoma State Alumnus Magazine, vol. 7, no. 1 (January 1966), pp. 4-8.

Wile, Otis. "Bob Kurland 7-Foot All-American." Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 17, no. 7 (April 1945), pp. 6-7. Wile, Otis. "Coach Jim Lookabaugh." Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 10, no. 4 (January 1939), pp. 3, 10. Wile, Otis. "Meet Coach Whitworth." Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 21, no. 5 (January 1950), p. 14.

Wile, Otis. "That '48 Cage Season Is Here." Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 19, no. 3 (December 1947), pp. 16-17.

Wile, Otis, "The 1947 Football Preview . . . Shows the Aggies Fighting." Oklahoma A. and M. College Magazine, vol. 19, no. 1 (October 1947), pp. 16-17.

Wile, Otis. "Veterans of '04 OU-Aggie Game Will Rally Saturday." Payne County Historical Review, vol. 2, no. 2 (October 1981), pp. 27-29.

"Women's Gymnastics: No Cinderella Story." Oklahoma State University Outreach, vol. 51, no. 4 (March 1980), pp. 10-11.


BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS

Allen, Dr. Forrest C. Coach 'Phog' Allen's Sports Stories for You and Youth. Lawrence, Kansas: Allen Press, 1947.

Bischoff, John Paul. Mr. Iba: Basketball's Aggie Iron Duke. Oklahoma City: Western Heritage Books, 1980. Dellinger, Doris. Ride 'em. Cowboys! The Story of Wrestling's Dynasty. Stillwater, Oklahoma: Frontier Printers, 1977.

House, R. Morton. "In the Beginning." Oklahoma State University Museum, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

House, R. Morton. "That Wonderful A. and M. Class of 1903." Oklahoma State University Museum, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Kamm, Robert B. They're No. One!: A People-Oriented Approach to Higher Education Administration. Oklahoma City: Western Heritage Books, 1980.

Kephart, John H. "A Pictorial Study of Oklahoma A. and M. College, 1891-1942." Master of Science thesis, Oklahoma A. and M. College, 1942.

Menke, Frank G. The Encyclopedia of Sports, 5th revised edition. Cranbury, New Jersey: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1976.

Record Book Committee, compiler. "Selections from the Record Book of the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College. 1891 -1941. Compiled on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversity of the Founding of the College." Two volumes. Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma. Redskin. Oklahoma State University Yearbook, 1910-1986.

Rulon, Philip Reed. Oklahoma State University-Since 1890. Stillwater: Oklahoma State University, 1975.

Weeks, Jim. The Sooners: A Story of Oklahoma Football. Huntsville, Alabama: Strode Publishers, 1974.

Wile, Otis. "Oklahoma State Sports Memoirs: The Chronological Story of Sports at Oklahoma State University From the Beginning in the 1890s Through the 1960s." Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

COLLECTIONS

Athletics Centennial History Collection. Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Angelo C. Scott Collection. Special Collections, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Athletic Council Files. President's Office, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Files. Oklahoma State University Athletic Department, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Files. Oklahoma State University Museum, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

INTERVIEWS Author interview with Ann Baer, 16 June 1986, Athletics Centennial History Collection.

Author interview with Dr. Donald L. Cooper, 14 August 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection.

Author interview with Gordon DuPree, 22 January 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection. Author interview with Bob Fenimore and Neill Armstrong, 28 April 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection.

Author interview with Kenneth Gallagher, 11 February 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection.

Author interview with Bill Piatt, 5 August 1986, Athletics Centennial History Collection.

Author interview with Loyd Ricks, 4 June 1985.


Author interview with Myron Roderick, 20 December 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection.

Author interview with Jimm Showalter, 12 August 1985, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Author interview with Allie P. Reynolds, 11 July 1986.

Greg Mosier interview with Randle Perdue, Winter 1984, Athletics Centennial History Collection.

Pat Quinn interview with Labron Harris Sr., 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection.

Pat Quinn interview with Ralph Higgins, January 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection.

Pat Quinn interview with Henry P. Iba, 27 February 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection.

Pat Quinn interview with Jimmy Schatz and Mike Holder, January 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection.

Pat Quinn interview with Richard W. Soergel, February 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection.

Pat Quinn interview with Ralph Tate, January 1985, Athletics Centennial History Collection.

Don Sayenga interview with Art Griffith, May 1975, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

NEWSPAPERS New York Times. 29 August 1940; 27 March 1946.

Oklahoma A. and M. College Mirror. 15 May 1895; 15 December 1895; 15 April 1896; 15 May 1896; 15 December 1897; January 1898; February 1898; April 1898.

OklahomaA. and M. College Orange and Black. April 1908; September 1908; October 1908; November 1908; January 1909; October 1909; November 1909; December 1909; February 1910; 9 October 1912; 10 September 1913; 10 December 1913; 12 June 1915; 27 September 1915; 1 December 1917; 8 April 1920; 15 April 1920.

Oklahoma A. and M. College Paper. 15 May 1899; 30 May 1899; 1 October 1899; 1 November 1899; 1 December 1899; 1 January 1900; 1 February 1900; 1 March 1900; 1 May 1900; 1 October 1900; 1 November 1901; 2 December 1901; July 1902; November 1902; 16 November 1903; December 1904; March 1905; June 1905; October 1905; November 1905; November 1906.

Oklahoma City Daily Oklahoman, 26 April 1912; 18 October 1953; 29 March 1984; 12 May 1985; 9 June 1985; 29 December 1985.

Oklahoma State University Daily O'Collegian. 12 March 1935; 15 January 1985.

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma Stater. April 1982.

Stillwater NewsPress. 20 November 1954; 16 January 1980; 16 January 1983; 3 March 1983; 28 March 1984; 29 March 1984; 21 December 1984; 23 December 1984; 7 January 1985; 24 January 1985; 13 February 1985; 10 March 1985; 21 March 1985; 7 April 1985; 14 April 1985; 21 April, 1985; 13 May 1985; 21 May 1985; 29 May 1985; 30 May 1985; 2 June 1985; 9 June 1985; 16 June 1985; 30 June 1985; 21 July 1985; 29 July 1985; 27 September 1985; 15 October 1985 (Exposure); 24 October 1985.

Tulsa World. 18 January 1980; 19 March 1983; 28 March 1984; 29 March 1984; 2 February 1985; 3 April 1985; 24 April 1985; 19 May 1985; 20 May 1985; 25 May 1985; 26 May 1985; 1 June 1985; 8 June 1985; 20 July 1985; 21 July 1985; 9 August 1985; 31 October 1985; 19 November 1985; 29 December 1985; 28 March 1986.


Index

A&M Alumni Association, 18. "A&M College Song," 24. ABC-TV, 215. Abercrombie, Betty, 338. Abercrombie, Galveston, 11. Abilene Christian College, 87. Adair, Jerry, 212, 214, 216, 242. Aggie Football Almanac, 205. "Aggie Miracle Man," 111. Agnew, Jeanne, 338. Agnos, John, 221, 225. Agricultural Experiment Station, 6, 13, 45. Ahern, Raymond, 69. Aichele, Douglas, 338. Alarcon, Rafael, 306, 318, 336. Albitz, Frankie, 303, 314. Aldridge, Billy Joe, 166. Aldridge, Rosie, 338, 344. All-College Basketball Tournament, 113,

115, 126, 130, 134, 149, 151, 167, 169, 170, 178, 182, 185, 198, 202.

Allen, Bill, 271. Allen, Claude M., 50. Allen, Forrest C. "Phog," 55, 120, 126,

140, 142, 154, 180. Alley, Major Jack, 15. All Sports Association, 114. Allie P. Reynolds Stadium. See Reynolds

Stadium. Amateur Athletic Association of America

(Amateur Athletic Union), 39, 302, 305, 310

American Association of Wrestling Coaches, 92. See also American Wrestling Coaches Association and National Wrestling Coaches Association.

American Bowl, 259. American Gears, 142. American Wrestling Coaches Association,

202. Amulet, Saskatchewan, Canada, 83. Anderson, Arthur W., 21-22. Anderson, Billy, 245. Anderson, Charles, 338. Anderson, Clar, 346. Anderson, Don, 186. Anderson, Ernest, 329, 343, 349. Anderson, John, 230. Andrew, Bob, 184, 242. Andrew, Bruce, 218, 221, 227, 242. Andrews, Jim, 261. Andrews, Lorenza, 344. Andrews, Mike, 314. Anglemeyer, Ron, 221, 225. Ankersen, Colin, 329. Antle, Rick, 313, 319. Appleman, Ron, 198. Arizona State University, 252, 254, 361. Armory and Shops Building, 37. Arms, Loyd "Pig," 132, 155. Armstrong, Neill, 135, 145, 146, 148, 149,

152, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 198, 215, 226.

Armstrong, Rochelle, 317. Arndt, David "Buddy," 131, 132, 155. Arneson, Jay, 261, 270, 272.


Arterburn, E. F., 198, 202. Artificial turf, 281. Ashmore, Ward, 200. Assistant physical director, 41. Associated Press, 152, 281, 313, 330,

365, 381. Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for

Women, 276. Astrodome, 252, 259, 349. Athletic Association, 12, 19, 30, 35, 36,

39, 46, 267. Athletic Association of the Oklahoma

Agricultural and Mechanical College, Inc., 97, 267.

Athletic business manager, 103. Athletic Council (Cabinet), 46, 81, 83, 89,

102, 108, 114, 117, 129, 134, 147, 172, 205, 215, 225, 229, 231, 258, 259, 267, 285, 338.

Athletic director: 50, 59, 89, 94, 96, 97, 99, 101, 102, 108, 112, 147, 166, 172, 180, 209, 225, 228, 233, 240, 258, 259, 263, 264, 267, 278, 282, 297, 302, 307, 309, 311, 313, 323, 338, 344, 346, 353, 354, 365, 378.

Athletic dormitory. See Iba Hall. Athletic Dressing Room building, 377. Atkinson, Joe, 344, 349, 365. Aubrey, Sam, 133, 142, 154, 167, 216,

223, 256, 264, 268, 269, 271, 283. Austin, Burl, 205. Austin College, 198, 259. Aycock, Tom, 72, 73, 87.

B Babb, Fred, 185, 198, 242. Babers, Don, 179. Bacigalupo, Terry, 251. Bacon, Don, 242. Badminton, 283, 287. Baer, Ann, 277, 280. Bailes, Jerry, 135. Bailey, Leo, 346, 366. Baird, Bill, 272. Baird, Obie, 39. Baird, R. C, 31. Baker, Jack, 87, 89, 124, 160, 169, 177,

198, 215, 229, 261. Baker, Liz Parry, 331, 339, 345, 349. Baker, Steve, 314, 337. Baker University, 49, 55, 61. Baldwin, Richard, 271. Ballard, Wayne, 337. Bailer, Mickey, 230. Baltimore Orioles, 214. Bancroft, Ben, 218, 221. Bancroft, George, 87. Banfield, Tony, 215, 220, 223.

Bannister, Alan, 381. Baranski, Renata, 373. Barden, Mike, 311. Barger, Bruce, 267. Barlow, Bob, 135. Barnes, Lauren, 85. Barnes, Sam, 58, 127. Barnes, Weldon, 103, 122. Barnett, Larry G., 380. Barnhill, Richard, 170. Barnhouse, V. R., 185, 198, 202. Barragan, Jimmy, 381. Barrett, Silas, 69. Barrett, Steve, 294, 299. Barringer, Bill, 114, 116. Barry, Bob, 285, 303. Barry, Lisa, 305. Bartlett, Bob, 179. Bartlett Center for the Studio Arts, 50, 150. Bartlett, F. M. "Pete," 338. Base, Harvey, 114. Baseball, 5-8, 10-12, 19-20, 33, 41, 42,

46-48, 50, 55, 63, 68, 70, 83, 86, 87, 89, 92, 94, 96-98, 102, 104, 105, 109, 114, 118, 124, 127, 128, 131, 132, 134, 151, 156, 167-170, 172, 175, 179, 181-183, 186, 187, 189, 191, 201, 204, 205, 207, 214, 218, 221, 225, 227, 228, 229, 230, 241, 242, 244, 245, 249, 254, 257, 260, 261, 264, 270, 272, 284, 285, 288, 291, 294, 299, 300, 305, 309, 312, 313, 318, 319, 321-328, 332, 334, 335, 341, 347, 348, 351, 357, 361, 369, 371, 373, 381.

Baseball America, 322, 381. Bashara, Ellis, 94. Basketball: men, 5, 33, 37, 42, 46, 50, 55,

62, 64, 68-70, 75, 82, 83, 85, 88, 89, 91-93, 96-98, 100, 102-104, 107-115, 125-127, 129, 130, 132-135, 137-144, 149, 151, 153-156, 167, 169-172, 175, 178-180, 182, 184, 185, 187, 189, 191, 195, 198, 202, 209, 212, 214, 216, 220, 223, 225, 226, 229, 230, 232, 240, 242, 243, 245, 247, 252, 256, 258, 259, 264, 266, 267, 268, 269, 271, 280, 283, 287, 290, 293, 299, 302, 303, 311, 313, 315, 323, 330, 337, 338, 344, 349, 357, 365-366, 381; women, 22-23, 32, 36, 37, 276, 279, 283, 287, 291, 293, 298, 303, 311, 313, 315, 330, 331, 338, 344, 349, 357, 366.

Basketball Coaches Association of America, 167.

Basketball's All-Time Hall of Fame, 111. Bauer, Nate, 167. Baugh, Sammy, 197, ^ r j . Baum, Geoff, 265, 269, 270.


Baxter, Glenn, 242, 245. Bay, Hubert, 170. Baylor University, 51, 124, 125, 131, 133,

149, 281, 287, 289, 349. Beall, John, 364. Beanblossom, Floyd, 69, 70. Beattie, Dick, 204, 212, 216. Beaty, Harold, 223. Beck, Lynn, 319. Bedlam Series, 17, 172, 197, 269, 291,

345. Beer, Ron, 358. Bell clapper. See Old Central. Bellmon, Henry, 229. Benien, Jim, 266. Benn, Gerald, 220, 223. Bennett, A. L., 167, 169. Bennett Hall, 204, 306, 332. Bennett, Henry G., 87, 89, 91, 96, 98,

101-103, 108, 113-115, 125, 177, 180. Bennett, Howard, 244. Bennett, Mary, 114. Bennett, Ron, 180-183, 201, 242. Bensinger, Toby, 218. Bergstrom, Kris, 334. Berry, George, 272. Berryhill, Lester, 240, 269. Berryman, Clarence, 58, 86. Best, Leo, 86. Beta Theta Pi House, 159. Bethany College, 92. Bethany Nazarene College, 287. Bickford, Larry, 254. Bicycling, 8, 9, 11. Biddick, Dave, 271, 283. Big Eight Athletic Conference, 63, 78, 84,

109, 172, 192, 205, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 223, 224, 225, 227, 228, 228, 230, 231, 234, 237, 239, 240, 241, 243, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 251, 252, 253, 254, 257, 259, 260, 261, 264, 265, 266, 267, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 279, 280, 281, 283, 284, 286, 287, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 294, 297, 298, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 307, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316, 317, 318, 319, 321, 322, 324, 325, 331, 332, 333, 334, 335, 336, 337, 338, 339, 340, 341, 343, 344, 345, 346, 347, 348, 349, 350, 351, 354, 364, 365, 366, 367, 368, 369, 371, 372, 373, 376, 377, 378, 381. See also Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association.

Bigham, Frank, 185, 198. Bigham, George, 181. "Big Henry." See Henry G. Bennett. Big Seven Athletic Conference, 109, 172,

176, 177, 183, 198, 201, 205, 209. Big Six Athletic Conference, 84, 96, 109,

126, 127, 147, 167, 169, 208. Big Ten Conference, 78, 84, 116, 126,

301. Bilhartz, Jan, 315. Bilhartz, Larry, 280, 287, 291, 315, 345,

349. Billings, Josh, 48. Bird, Byron, 132, 177, 218, 378. Birmingham News, 167. Blackman, Brent, 271. Blackwell Baptist College, 49. Blakley, Don, 224. Blanchard, Felix "Doc," 152. Blasier, Kevin, 305. Blass, Ned, 182, 185-186, 198, 199, 216. Bleacher Bums, 364. Bleakmore, Betty Jeanne, 173. Blubaugh, Doug, 199, 206, 207, 221. Bluebonnet Bowl, 157, 349, 351, 363,

381. Blue Grass Bowl, 157, 215, 219. Blue-Gray Bowl, 197, 216, 220, 223, 259,

263. Board of Regents, 208, 238, 247, 263,

271, 273, 307. Boatright, Charles, 272, 284. Bodenheimer, Heidi, 380. Boger, Lawrence L., 302, 307. Bogerud, Bjorn, 192, 198. Boise State, 338. Bolding, Jim, 193, 196, 266, 270, 272,

367. Bonar, Howard T., 48, 49. Bond, Ray, 221, 227, 242. Bonebrake, Bob, 181. Bonfire, 246. Booher, Don, 201. Boomer Field: early A&M baseball dia

mond, 156. Boomer Lake, 234, 242. Boone, Tommy, 245. Borland, Tom, 186, 201, 242. Boston College, 221. Boston Red Sox, 128, 179. Bothwell, Ray, 241. Boudreaux, Mary, 373. Bowles, Sidney, 73. Bowlin, Davey, 199, 202. Bowling Green State University, 154, 307,

309, 361. Bowman, Bilie, 92. Boxing, 8, 52, 94, 105, 114, 116, 117. Boyd, Bobby, 215. Boyd Field, 47-48, 50. See University of

Oklahoma. Boydston, Don, 126, 127, 131, 132, 194.


Bradberry, George, 177. Bradford, William K., 12. Bradley, Joe, 171. Bradley, Mike, 371. Bradley, Ray, 105. Bradley University, 178, 180, 185, 218. Bragg, Don, 221. Brantley, Theresa, 331. Bratcher, Glen, 205. Bredde, Bill, 180, 184, 185. Brewer, Jim, 224. Brickey, Bob, 215. Bridges, Karen, 302, 305, 310, 312. Bridges, Larry, 312. Bridgewater, B. A., 118. Briggs, Donald Lee, 316. Brigham Young University, 195, 241, 260,

298, 316. Bright, Johnny, 174, 180. Bringham, Leycester "Sally," 73, 82. Brisco, Jack, 63. Briscoe, Frank "Snake," 70, 72, 76, 77. Bronkey, Jeff, 369. Brooklyn Dodgers, 247. Brothers, Buddy, 174. Brown, Alvin, 285. Brown, Karen, 311. Brown, Rod, 361, 364. Brown, Roger, 253. Brown, Ron, 379. Brown, Terry, 259. Brunskill, Don, 69. Bryan, Chet, 242, 244, 249, 254, 257,

260, 266, 272, 284, 291, 299, 321, 322, 325.

Bryan, Chris, 179. Bryant, Paul "Bear," 197, 229, 282. Bubka, Sergey, 367. Buck, Bob, 264. Buck, Joe, 179, 242. Budzik, Jerry, 202. Buelow, Ellen, 311. Buffington, Harry, 198, 215, 229. Bugher, Judy, 303, 315, 338, 344. Bull, Joe, 86. Bullard, Jim, 261. Bunch, Eddie, 224, 226. Burba, Janice, 318, 341, 34a Burch, Tom, 217. Burchart, Larry, 254. Burdette, Floyd, 135. Burdick, Gary, 13-14. Burgess, Bill, 221. Burk, Scott, 300. Burke, Harold, 132. Burleson, Grady, 89. Burlison, W. L., 31. Burns, Bobby, 24.

Burrus, Herschel "Sandstorm," 117. Butler, James, 195, 316, 317, 331, 340. Butler University, 97. Butterfield, Frank, 89. Buttram, Frank, 105. Bynum, Gaither, 105.

Cafeteria, 37, 107. Caldwell, Conrad, 87, 91, 94. California State-Bakersfield, 350. California State University-Fullerton, 334,

366. Callahan, O. P., 30-31. Calmes, Bill, 82. Camp MacArthur, 64. Camp, Walter, 41, 79. Campbell, Bruce, 220. Campbell, Forrest, 216. Campbell, George, 82. Campbell, Jeff, 52, 61. Campbell, Mel, 319. Campus Activity Fee Allocation

Committee, 313. Canadian National Championships, 83. Canon, Dickie, 221, 224, 228, 229. Cantwell, Barbie, 312. Cantwell, J. W., 45, 53, Capitol Hill High School, 119. Carlisle Indian School, 89. See also Albert

Exendine. Carter, Mack, 185, 198, 202. Casady School, 286. Casey, Orman, 102. Casper, Cy, 174. Casselman, Robert, 311. Cathey, Doug, 251. Centenary College of Louisiana, 115, 116. Central State Normal School. See Central

State University. Central State University, 9, 19, 22-26, 30,

36, 39, 40, 46, 48, 49, 64, 73, 73, 85, 103, 104, 127, 158, 284, 293.

Cerritos Junior College, 303. Cerrudo, Ron, 253. Chadwick, Lynn, 245. Chamberlain, Wilt, 206, 212. Chancellor, Royce, 287, 292. Chapel, Raymond E., 267, 297, 338. Chase, Ward, 70, 76, 77, 315-316. Cheatwood, Harry, 256. Cheek, J. D., 165. Cheers, 32. Chemistry Building, 15, 159. Chesbro, Ray, 265. Chesbro, Tommy, 260, 261, 265, 266,

269, 270, 271, 272, 283, 287, 294, 299, 316, 331, 340, 345, 346, 350, 366.


Chicago Bears, 160, 167. Chicago Daily News, 175, 179. Chilocco Indian School, 11, 28, 40. Chinese University, 50, 63. Christian, J. B., 252. Cimmaron Turnpike, 292. Citrus Bowl, 381. City College of New York, 125, 130, 133. Clapham, W. L., 123, 131, 194. Clark, Arlen, 212, 216. Clark, Jim, 302. Clark, Matt, 311, 315, 330, 338, 344. Class fights, 10. Classen High School, 97, 190, 191. Cleveland Indians, 323, 324. Clinton High School, 198. Clinton, Ronnie, 220, 227, 229. Clodfelter, Melvin, 58, 85, 94. Cloud, Hugh, 86. Clump, Thomas, 76. Coaches All-America Bowl, 259. Coatney, Patty, 318. Cobb, M. L., 73. Cochrane, Paul, 125. Coe, Charles, 228, 253. Coldiron, Reed, 64. Colgate, 83. Colhouer, Jake, 135, 146, 148. College Athletic Grounds, 32. College Auditorium, 206. College Baseball Magazine, 370. College Basketball Hall of Fame, 258. College of Arts and Sciences, 276. College of Business Administration, 37,

285, 289. College World Series, 214, 218, 221, 225,

249, 254, 261, 321, 322, 324, 326, 327, 334, 335, 341, 347, 351, 369, 370, 371.

Collegiate Baseball, 322. Collier's Magazine, 165. Collins, Cristi, 380. Collins, Fendley, 83, 132, 170, 186, 298. Collins, John, 96. Collins, Merle, 96. Collins, Terri, 345, 349. Colorado State University, 240. Columbia University, 228, 284. Colville, A. M., 50, 52. Colvin Recreation Center, 240, 256, 260,

271, 305, 317, 349, 358. Colvin, Valerie, 260. Combs, Leroy, 330, 338, 344. Compton, Pam, 314. Condon, Glen, 69. Congregational Church, 5. Connell, J. H., 18, 40, 41 , 45. Connolly, Mark, 311. Connor, Bill, 110.

Connor, George, 74, 82. Connor, Pat, 373. Connors, Bill, 142, 251. Cook, Bob, 178. Cook, Ed, 30, 3 1 . Cook, Lee, 133, 193. Cooley, Dan, 52. Cooley, Larry, 229, 232. Coonfield, Hugh, 240. Cooper, Donald, 227, 243, 258, 375-378. Cooper, James, 240. Cooter, J. C , 64. Corbett, John M., 50-53. Cordell, Harry B., 101. Corey, Susan, 340. Corker, John, 310. Cornell College, 82, 182. Cortright, Janette, 338-339, 345. Corvallis, Oregon, 83, 224. Cosell, Howard, 216. Cotton Bowl, 79, 112, 147-149, 151, 157,

165, 166, 173, 174, 187, 201, 215, 233, 245.

Couch, Gary, 378. Couch Park, 205, 234. Courtright, Ray, 48. Covert, Ken, 192, 207, 214, 217. Covert, Terry, 224. Cowbells, 171. Cowboy Headquarters, 173. Cowboy Relays, 117, 175, 183, 186. Cowboy Sports Network, 285, 303. Cowden, Jim, 244. Cox, Dallas, 337. Cox, Ted, 103, 104, 113, 115, 119. Cox, Whitley, 115. Coyle, John, 31 , 32. Craig, Justine, 279. Cram, Jack, 218. Creager, Mack, 211. Creighton University, 79, 87, 90, 97, 103,

125, 130, 134. Crenshaw, Ben, 270. Crenshaw, Raymond, 338, 344, 349. Cronley, John, 202. Cross country: men, 5, 35, 71 , 86, 91 ,

189, 198, 209, 220, 223, 225, 229, 241, 244, 245, 248, 253, 270, 272, 283, 285, 290, 292, 298, 302, 310, 313, 314, 330, 337, 343, 344, 349, 365; women, 279, 302, 310, 311, 313, 314, 330, 337, 344, 349.

Cross, Dave, 211, 223, 365. Cross, George, 255. Cross, Mike, 284. Crossno, Margie, 340. Crowley, Ray, 124. Crutchfield Hall, 20, 53.


Cuba, Paul, 197. Gumming, Colin, 284, 290, 292. Cundiff, Ellsworth, 117. Cunningham, Debbie, 305, 312. Currelly, Brad, 311. Curtin, Gerald, 91. Curts, Larry, 253, 257. Cushing, Oklahoma, 222. Cutchin, Phil, 229, 239, 242, 245, 246,

247, 251, 254, 259. Cutsinger, Gary, 225. Cutter, James F., 240, 244, 248, 256,

260, 271, 283, 313. Cutter's Cuties, 271.

Daigle, Abby, 289, 298, 319. Daily O'Collegian, 85, 91, 101, 103, 114,

115, 126, 173, 326, 363. Daily Oklahoman, 65, 146, 148, 167, 172,

179, 184, 202, 224, 255, 349, 362. Daily Oklahoman Milk and Ice Fund, 114. Dale, Tom, 72. Dallas Athletic Club, 131. Dallas Cowboys, 160, 164. Daniel, Ronnie, 290. Dannemiller, Patti, 315, 331. Danner, Bill, 181, 184, 187. Darcy, Pete, 175, 178. Dascenzo, Doug, 369-370. Davidson, Russell, 94. Davies, George, 192, 224, 228. Davis, Clayton, 174. Davis, Darrell, 228. Davis, Frank, 73. Davis, Fred, 198, 199. Davis, Gene, 247, 253, 273, 294. Davis, Glenn, 152. Davis, Paul Jones, 42, 46, 48, 51, 52, 61. Day, Mike, 369-370. Dean of American wrestling coaches. See

Edward C. Gallagher. Dearinger, Tom, 267. Deaton, Jim, 261, 267. DeBois, Duke and Catherine, 317. Deerinwater, Bub, 263. DeHart, Dale, 214, 221. Deichman, Dee, 310. Delaporte, Otis, 198, 215, 219. De La Rosa, Benji, 332. Dellinger, Bob, 224. Delta Bowl, 157, 170, 171, 174, 187. DeMarsh, Harold, 73, 85. Dempsey, Jack, 117. DePaul University, 127, 136, 142, 149,

150, 153, 167, 175. DeWatteville, Dick, 179, 184. Dewhirst, John, 181.

Deyong, Michael, 338. Dial, Joe, 21, 340, 346, 350, 361, 367. Dickerson, Lewis, 70. Dickinson College, 42, 99. Dickson, Ben, 187. Dickson, Bob, 235, 244, 245. 249. 253,

257. DiClementi, Pete, 329. Dilks, Darren, 326. Dillard, Andy, 336, 348. Dillard, Harrison, 156, 193, 194. Dillard, Jim "Fairfax Freighter," 225. Dinkins, Merle, 149. Dirato, Tom, 313. Dixon, Joe, 303. Dobbs, Bill, 254, 261. Dobbs, Glenn, 130. Dobson, Jim, 218, 221, 225, 227, 242. Dodge, David, 87. Dodson, Bill, 215. Doerner, John, 319. Dokes, Phillip, 290, 292. Dolman, Harry, 103, 118, 131. Donart, C. R., 11. Donnell, Guy, 205. Dooley, Aubrey, 192, 213, 217, 221, 224. Dorsch, George, 155. Dose, Herman, 52. Doss, Clayton T., 12. Douglas, A. E., 17, 25. Douglas, Bobby, 242, 243, 258. Douglas Cup, 17-26, 43. Doyle, Howard "Danny," 116, 124, 127,

128, 135, 179. Doyle, Tommy, 240. Drake, Bruce, 109. Drake, Paul, 297. Drake University, 74, 84, 90, 103, 114,

117, 120, 123, 124, 131, 133, 136, 166, 172, 174, 175, 178, 180, 192, 193, 196, 200, 208, 214, 217, 224, 249, 257, 266, 284.

Drebenstedt, Bob, 248, 256. Droke, Arnold, 192, 248. Droke Track and Field Center, 195, 317,

333. Drummond, Harry, 288, 294. Dry, F. A., 182. Duke University, 126, 212, 225. Dum, Susan, 306. Dunn, Cotton, 224. Dunn, Roy, 104. DuPree, Gordon, 97. Duquesne University, 127, 202. Durham, Sam, 124. Durkee, Charlie, 239, 246, 247. Duval, Fred, 197, 242. Dykeman, Bill, 366.


East Central State College, 72, 158. Eastern Kentucky University, 287. East-West basketball game, 169, 171. East-West Shrine football game, 92, 185,

201, 252, 256, 259. East-West Wrestling Classic, 252. Eaton, Frank B. "Pistol Pete," 81 , 314. Eben, Hermann, 267. Eckhoff, Fredrik, 181, 186, 192, 198, 200. Edgely, Betty, 292, 312. Edmond, Oklahoma, 9, 19, 24, 30, 36,

40, 50. See also Central State University. Edmonton Eskimos, 160, 198. Edwards, A. C , 194. Edwards, Danny, 270, 272, 294. Edwards, David, 300, 306. Edwards, Glenn, 348. Edwards, Karen, 286. Edwards, Mike, 302. Edwards, Terry, 261, 267. Efaw, Forest, 117, 124, 167, 170, 253. Eggert, Sandra, 300. Eggleston, Lonnie, 126, 130, 132. Eichelberger, Dave, 231, 244. Eisenhower, Dwight D., 228. Eisenman, Miles, 217, 220, 253. Elder, Cliff, 82. Elliot, Jimmy, 223. Elliott, Larry, 245. Ellis, B. F., 73. Ellis, Jack, 214, 218. Ellis, Kim, 200, 207. Ellis, Raymond, 89. Ellis, Ted, 216. Elstun, Linda, 345, 350, 367. Emporia, Kansas, 62. See Kansas State

Normal College. Epperly, Cecil, 224, 229, 269. Eppler, Willard "Cy, " 114. Epworth Methodist University, 30, 49. Erwin, Hubert, 95. Eskridge, James B., 71 . Espinal, Sergio, 370. ESPN, 321, 334. Esslinger, Adam, 169. Ethridge, Raymond "Pug , " 66. Evans, Duane, 305, 318. Evans, Earle "Duke," 231. Evans, Eric, 318, 336. Evans, Jim, 340. Evans, Randy, 305. Evans, Tommy, 220. Ewens, Bill, 244. Ewing, Fred, 30. Exendine, Albert, 89, 94, 96, 97, 99, 100,

103.

Experiment Station. See Agricultural Experiment Station.

Faggins, Terry, 366. Fair, Jeff, 313, 377-378. Fairbanks, Chuck, 255. Faulkner, John, 86, 87. Favara, Joe, 197, 201. Fencing, 55. Fenimore, Bob, 135, 145, 146, 148, 152,

153, 156-166, 174, 194, 216, 298, 361. Fenimore, Harry, 163. Ferguson, Larry, 225, 227, 230. Ferguson, Reed, 207. Fetzger, Dale, 76. Fewell, Rolo, 69. Fiala, Victor, 114. Field Day, 9, 11, 19-22, 32. Field hockey, 282, 286, 290, 298,

301-302. Fields, John, 10, 13-15, 20, 26, 45. Fieldsend, Trevor, 365. Fiesta Bowl, 157, 289, 298, 310. Findley, Staci Jo, 311. Finnegan, Phil, 181, 186, 242. Fiocchi, Marv, 249. Firth, Gene, 186. Fischel, Bob, 192. Fischer, Sandy, 279, 306, 314, 334, 341,

350. Fisher, Conrad, 92. Fitzgerald, Kevin, 287. Flag service, 64, 68. Fleming, James, 261. Fleming, Pam, 290. Flesner, Melbourne, 171. Flint, Jo, 283, 284. "Flivver Derby," 85, 90. Flood, Jan, 314. Flood, Ross, 58, 96, 97, 104, 106. Florida State University, 216, 309. Flower, A. W., 27. Foliart, Jess, 72, 73. Folz, Bob, 228, 229, 231. Folz, George, 228, 232. Football, 6-8, 10-15, 19, 27-31, 32, 35-40,

42, 45, 50, 51 , 55, 61-64, 68-71, 73-75, 77, 81 , 83, 84, 87, 89, 90-92, 94-96, 97, 99, 100, 101, 103, 104, 108, 112, 113, 115, 117, 119, 120, 124, 125, 128-134, 136, 145-148, 151-153, 155-167, 169, 170, 172-177, 179, 180, 182, 184, 185, 188, 189, 193, 195, 197, 198, 201, 202, 205, 209, 211, 214-216, 219, 220, 223, 225, 226, 228, 229, 232, 233, 239, 240, 242, 245-247, 251, 254-256, 259, 261, 263-265, 267, 268, 271, 273, 276-278,


280, 281, 283, 285, 289, 297, 298, 300, 301, 302, 307, 309, 310, 313, 319, 323, 336, 337, 343, 348, 349, 351, 353, 358, 361-365, 373, 381.

Football News, 285. Footrace, 7. Former Students Association, 173. Forney, Eric, 346, 367. Forrester, Bullet, 64. Foster, Don, 69. Foster, Fay, 50. Foster, Ivan, 72, 82. Foster, Ralph, 145, 146, 148, 169. "Four-H Club and Student Activity

Building." See Gallagher Hall. Fowler, Kevin, 369. Fowler, Littleton, 225, 227. Fox, Andy, 311. Fozzard, Fred, 247, 252, 256, 265, 270,

272. Francis, Luke, 114. Frank, Richard, 244, 254. Franklin and Marshall College, 123. Fred Haskins Award, 300, 336. 341, 348. Free, Nim, 242. Fresno Raisin Bowl, 166. Fretwell, Vicki, 340. Friels, Vernon, 116. Fritz, A. J., 170. Fucci, Mike, 178. Fujita, Yoshiro, 269, 272. Fuller, Tom, 185. Fuquay, Maurice, 170, 194.

Gabbard, Curtis, 85. Gable, Dan, 350, 366. Gallagher, Clarence, 98, 105. Gallagher, Cliff, 63, 66. Gallagher, Don, 98. Gallagher, Edward C , 18, 35, 39-41, 43,

49, 50, 53, 55-60, 62, 67-70, 72-74, 76-78, 81-83, 86, 87, 89, 91-94, 96, 97, 101, 103-105, 108, 114, 116, 120, 122, 125, 127, 128, 130-132, 175, 190, 202, 227, 252, 254, 264, 265, 298, 315, 316, 355.

Gallagher Hall, 58, 101, 107, 108, 115, 118, 120-122, 125, 126, 128, 130, 134, 138, 139, 142, 149, 153, 168, 169, 171, 178, 180, 185, 206, 212, 216, 217, 220, 227, 240, 248, 259, 264, 265, 266, 283, 287, 291, 297, 304, 309, 311, 314, 316, 330, 332, 338, 349, 353, 354, 358, 365, 366, 377.

Gallagher, Kenneth, 56, 59, 96, 98. Gallagher, Stella (Mrs. Ed), 60.

Gardiner Hall. See Bartlett Center for the Studio Arts.

Garretson, Carroll, 117. Garrison, Walt, 239, 247. Gary (Indiana) YMCA, 82. Gass, Floyd, 259, 261, 263, 267, 271,

273, 282, 297, 302, 307. Gates, Bob, 244. Gator Bowl, 157, 175, 282, 363, 363, 365,

381. Gattis, John, 146, 148. Gautt, Prentice, 215. Gay, Thurman, 63, 64. Gear, Dick, 224. Geller, Henri, 181, 186, 192, 198. George, Elias, 171. George Harmon Tournament, 287. Georgetown University, 99. George Washington University, 126, 120,

133, 134. Geris, Harry, 273, 294. Geske, Rick, 292. "Ghost ball," 90. GI Bill of Rights, 165. Gibson, Dorsey, 184, 185, 219, 229. Gilbert, N. T., 14. Gilchrist, Billy, 175. Gill, Jerry, 242. Gilmore, Bruce, 185. Girls' Athletic Association, 36, 73. Girls' Rooters Club, 36. Glass, Peyton, 92, 94, 96, 134. Glossen, Jackie, 366. Glosser, Lawrence, 168, 234, 235. Goal-tending rule, 149. Goetz, Bobby, 181, 201, 204, 207. Goggans, Kim, 350. Coin, Ted, 270. Gola, Tom, 185. Golf: men, 5, 32, 73, 83, 86, 94, 102,

105, 115, 118, 127, 131, 151, 156, 168-170, 172, 176, 179, 181, 184, 187, 201, 204, 207, 214, 218, 219, 221, 224, 225, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233-238, 241, 244, 245, 249, 253, 257, 258, 261, 264, 267, 271, 272, 284, 285, 289, 291, 294, 300, 306, 313, 318, 336, 348, 351, 361, 371-372, 381; women, 235, 279, 284, 288, 294, 300, 306, 312, 313, 318, 335, 336, 341, 348, 351, 372, 381.

Gomez, Everett, 283. Gonzalez, Jaime, 289, 291, 294. Goodfox, Amos, 116. Goodwin, Benny, 263. Gordon, L. C, 224. , Gorman, Joe, 347. Gosney, Larry, 259, 261. Govaerts, Ken, 224.


Cover, Ben, 40. Graham, Brian, 290. Graham, Dick, 267. Graham, James, 192, 203, 204, 213, 217,

221. Graham, Ray, 223. Graham, Skip, 261. Grand Opera House, 32, 38. Grange, Red, 103. Grant, Lisa, 380. Green Bay Packers, 193. Green, Bobby, 184, 185. Green, Gary, 341, 347. Green, Mike, 337, 364. Greene, Toby, 124, 130, 132, 136, 156,

160, 167, 169, 170, 172, 175, 177, 179, 181, 182, 186, 198, 201, 207, 215, 218, 221, 225, 227, 229, 230, 241, 242. 249. 321, 322, 325.

Greer, Fritz, 224. Gregson, Jim, 171. Grid-graph, 69. Griffith, Art, 129-132, 136, 155, 156,

167-170, 175, 179, 181, 182, 184, 185, 198, 199, 202, 203, 206, 233, 252, 265, 268, 298, 316.

Grimes, Bill, 152. Grinnell College, 74, 84, 115, 208. Grober, George "Sparky," 264. Groce, Ike, 279, 318, 334. 340, 350, 373. Groen, Janet, 318. Grose, Larry, 244, 249. Grout, James D., 73. Groza, Alex, 171. Gundersen Hall, 18, 159. Guthrie Fair Grounds, 17, 22, 24. Guthrie, Oklahoma, 6, 9-11, 13-15, 17, 19,

20, 22-27, 30, 31. Gutowski, Bob, 203, 204. Gymnasium and Armory, 64, 69, 70, 72,

93, 99, 100, 105, 107, 108, 114, 120, 131, 156, 204, 240, 256.

Gymnasium teams, 36, 43, 52, 55, 62. Gymnastics, 258, 280, 287, 291, 293,

298, 303, 311-312, 313, 315, 331, 338-339, 345, 349, 357.

H Hacker, Albert, 64. Haddox, Vernon, 214. Halas, George, 160. Halberstadt, Johan "Johnny," 196, 272,

284, 287. Halbert, Joe, 149. Hale, Jerry, 202, 212. Hall, Art, 204, 207. Hall, Clyde, 82. Hall, Susan, 311, 338.

Halterman, Dick, 279, 349. Hamilton, Leonard, 381. Hammer throw, 11. Hamra, Al, 214. Hankins, Cecil, 145, 146, 149, 152, 153,

162, 214. Hanna, Barry, 363. Hannon, Eddie "Half-Court," 330, 338. Hansen, Paul, 311, 314-315, 330, 337,

338, 344, 381. Haraughty, John, 223. Hardage, Regina, 299. Hardin-Simmons University, 184, 197. Harding, Rodney, 361. Hardy, Jim, 248, 261. Harlan, Tom, 217. Harlow, Bill, 247. Harnden, Millard, 64. Harp, Dick, 127, 206. Harper, Charlie, 247. Harper, Pam, 334. Harrell, John, 119, 123. Harrington, Foster, 96. Harris, Bob, 168, 171. Harris, Earl, 196. Harris, Earl, 261, 266. Harris, Holly, 334. Harris, James, 221, 235. Harris, Labron, 156, 168, 170, 179, 181,

184, 187, 204, 214, 224, 228, 230, 231, 233-238, 241, 258, 267, 272, 284, 285, 289.

Harris, Labron, Jr., 221, 224, 225, 228, 229, 235, 253.

Harrison, Britt, 294, 306, 313. Harrison, L. D. 48. Harrison, Pat, 373. Hart, Don, 198. Harter, Reid, 272. Hartman, Jack, 174. Hartman, T. J., 73. Hartmann, Lisa, 331, 349. Hartpence, Neil, 82. Harvard University, 41. Harvest Carnival Day, 50, 63, 71. Harvest Carnival Day fire, 50. See also

Bartlett Center for the Studio Arts. Haskell Institute, 36, 63, 68, 103. Haskins, Don, 175, 226. Hassman, Gary, 229, 240, 243. Haston, Hudie, 91. Hatta, Ichiro, 217. Hatta, Masaaki, 217, 220, 227, 229, 258. Hatta, Tadaaki, 243, 247, 258. Hawaii, 50, 63. See also Chinese

University. Hawk, Larry, 229, 240. Hayes, Mark, 261, 267, 270, 271.


Hays, Jack, 203. Hazell, Tom, 283. Hazley, Orlando, 192, 207, 214, 217. Heard, Billy, 181, 184, 186, 200, 201. Heisman Trophy, 300, 310. Helms Foundation Hall of Fame, 143, 150,

171, 178, 180, 182, 185, 216, 220. Hemperly, Mayo, 207. Henrick, Bob, 185. Henry, Hiram, 246. Henry Kendall College, 37, 50, 63, 64, 65,

69, 72. See also University of Tulsa. Henson, Stanley, 60, 114, 116, 119, 123. Herald, Bobby, 213. Herald, Winston, 119, 130. Herbert, Victor, 38. Herron, Jack, 133. Hesser, Andy, 58, 93. Hester, Ron, 248. Hetrick, Charles, 171. Hickey, Eddie, 171. Hicks, Ken, 178. Higgins Day, Ralph M., 254. Higgins, Ralph M., 73, 74, 82, 83, 102,

103, 105, 114, 117, 118, 123, 124, 127, 132, 136, 156, 168, 170, 172, 175, 176, 179, 181, 183, 184, 187, 189-195, 198, 199, 207, 213, 220, 228, 230, 241, 244, 253, 254, 333.

High jump, 7. Hilger, Rusty, 343, 349, 361, 363. Hill, Boyd A., 36, 41. Hillcrest Golf Course, 181, 234. Hillier, James C, 267. Hilton, Harold, 253. Hiner, Geoff, 380. Hitt, Don, 220. Hixon, George, 231, 235, 241, 261. Hixson, C. J., 181, 184, 185, 187, 198,

201. Hobart, Roger, 156. Hobson, Bill, 290. Hodge, Dan, 198, 207. Hofler, Pat, 338. Hoke, Wilbur, 115. Holder, Mike, 236-238, 258, 261, 267,

289, 291, 294, 300, 306, 318, 348, 351, 371.

Holder, Olus, 291. Holderman, Bill, 205. Holderman, John, 284, 287-288. Holland, George, 266. Holley, J. Andrew, 205. HoUiday, Dave, 324. HoUiday, Tom, 324, 326, 335. Holman, Nat, 130. Holmberg, Sharon, 302. Holmes, Davis L. 39.

Holsinger, Preston, 228, 230, 241. Holt, Dick, 109. Holt, Rex, 366. Holt, Ron, 351, 377. Holter, George, 8. Homecoming, 91, 124, 133, 146, 174. Hood, Robin, 279, 351, 372. Hopper, James, 235. Hopson, Andy, 283, 287. Horlen, Joel, 214, 218, 242. Horton, Earl, 64. Houck, John, 69. Houck, Steve, 257, 261. Houdini, 103. House, R. Morton, 18, 19-21, 24, 29, 30.

139. Houska, Joe, 28, 29, 30, 36. Houston Baptist University, 254, 294. Howard, Bob, 244, 249, 253. Howard, Mike, 267. Hromas, Jim, 338. Hudson, James, 341. Hughes, Karen, 317. Hula Bowl, 259. Hull, Mike, 266. Hunt, DeWitt, 53, 69, 73, 96, 102, 115,

127, 131. Hurlburt, Kent, 214, 218. Hurley, Paul, 172, 175. Hutchison, Bill, 170. Hutton, Carol, 293. Hutton, Dick, 170, 171, 175, 187. Huvendick, Jennie, 318.

I Iba Hall, 247. Iba, Henry Payne: coach and athletic

director, 55, 98, 100, 101, 102, 103, 105, 107-112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 118, 120, 134, 125, 126, 129, 130, 131, 132, 134, 135, 136, 137, 139, 140, 141, 142, 144, 147, 149, 150, 151, 153, 154, 166, 167, 169, 171, 172, 175, 178, 180, 182, 185, 192, 194, 198, 202, 205, 209, 212, 216, 220, 223, 225, 226, 228, 229, 230, 233, 234, 240, 242, 243, 247, 252, 256, 258, 259, 263, 264, 268, 269, 273, 283, 321, 323, 324, 328, 330, 355; documentary, 302; "Iba's Folly," 101, 108.

Iba, Howard "Skip," 240, 247. Iba, Moe, 216, 224, 226, 252. Ice skating, 19. Idaho State, 303. Incaviglia, Pete, 326, 327, 347, 348, 361,

369-371. Independence Bowl, 157, 337, 351, 363. Indian Hills Golf Course, 201.


Indian Territory, 17, 36. Indiana University, 91, 94, 97, 122, 127. Inglis, Ray, 93. Ingram, Ron, 316, 331, 340. Iowa State University, 58, 70, 74, 83, 84,

155, 169, 170, 198, 208, 212, 213, 216, 224, 227, 240, 241, 242, 243, 248, 250, 252, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 263, 265, 268, 269, 271, 272, 281, 283, 285, 287, 290, 294, 298, 299, 304, 310, 312, 363.

Ireland, Bill, 305. Irish, Ned, 115, 130. Iron Duke. See Henry P. Iba. Irons, Gary, 309. Irwin, Hale, 228, 253. Ito, Yoshiko, 235, 336, 372.

Jackson, Elton, 123. Jackson, Gene, 293. Jackson, Jimmy, 291, 294, 299, 304. Jacksonville State University, 315. Jacobs, Ricky, 338. Jacobsen, Jim, 284. Jacobson, Jack, 242. Jacobson, Jim, 267. Jacobson, John, 380. Jadlow, Joseph, 338. James, Harold "Puny," 92, 97. James, Joe, 227, 241. Jamieson, Jim, 231. Jaquet, Tom, 170. Jarrell, Ed, 7. Jefferson Law School, 95. Jenkins, Alice E., 25. Jenkins, Alvin, 91, 92. Jernigan, Bill, 167, 170. Jessee, Walter, 37, 39. Jewett, Fred E., 205. Jewett, Mary, 334. Jobe, John, 338. Johnson, Arthur, 120. Johnson, Bob, 224, 227, 229. Johnson, Brenda, 298, 300. Johnson, Charmaine, 338. Johnson, Dave, 248, 256. Johnson, Don, 175, 178, 180. Johnson, Everett, 198. Johnson, Foster, 132. Johnson, Gene, 229, 240. Johnson, Howard "Moose," 177, 220. Johnson, Jimmy, 310, 313, 314, 329,

336, 337, 343, 348, 351. Johnson, Mark, 334, 340. Johnson, Ronnie, 259. Johnston, J. H. "Doc," 177, 229, 254,

378.

Johnston, Peter, 334. Jones, Bobby, 228, 253. Jones, Gomer, 245. Jones, Grier, 235, 253, 257, 261. Jones, Melvin D., 297. Jones, Pat, 319, 351, 353, 361, 363, 365. Jones, Randall J., 231, 258, 267. Jones, Rick, 267, 270, 272. Jones, Shawn, 329. Jones, Tom, 289, 291, 294. Justice, Ab, 187, 204, 214.

K Kaal, Peter, 196, 266, 272. Kaisy, Adnan, 213, 216, 217. Kalkbrenner, Bill, 291. Kalsu, Charles, 116. Kamm, Maxine, 247. Kamm, Robert B., 203, 247, 255, 267,

297, 299. Kansas City Athletic Club, 52. Kansas City Royals, 326. Kansas State Normal College, 62, 63. Kansas State University, 39, 40, 84, 85,

86, 97, 114, 127, 132, 169, 172, 174, 178, 208, 212, 213, 219, 224, 226, 228. 229, 239, 240, 242, 249, 252, 256, 258. 259, 263, 267, 281, 285, 288, 289, 298, 309, 344, 348, 362, 380, 381.

Karns, Don, 225. Kashwer, Keith, 201. Kastendieck, Richard, 365. Kaye Barrett Droke Track and Field Cen

ter. See Droke Track and Field Center. Keen, Cliff, 73, 78, 93, 132, 170, 186,

252, 298. Keen, Paul, 93, 94, 104. Keller, Darrell, 256, 265, 269, 270. Keller, Dwayne, 256, 257, 265, 269, 270. Kellert, Frank, 242. Kelley, Alan, 96, 97. Kelley, J. E., 20. Kelley, Jim, 299, 305. Kelly, Allen, 338. Kempa, Loddie, 168, 170, 172, 233, 234. Kendall, Leiand, 197, 226, 229. Kennedy, John F., 239. Kenny, H. E., 116. Kenny, Roy "Wash," 61, 64, 68, 69, 89,

96, 101, 190, 254. Kensler, Tom, 362. Kentucky Exposition Grounds, 216. Kentucky Wesleyan College, 287. Kern, Weldon, 154, 167. Kerr, Bill, 198. Kevin, Jim, 127. Killeen, Sara, 372. Killingsworth, Jim, 303, 311.


King, James, 229, 240, 243, 258. Kingfisher College, 11-15, 19, 22, 23, 24,

25, 26, 27, 29, 32, 48. Kingsolver, Jim, 207. Kinnamon, Ken, 186, 201, 242. Kinyon, Phil, 216, 221, 224, 227. Kirby, Gustavus T., Award, 204. Kirtley, Scot, 314. Klein, John, 369. Knapp, Bradford, 73, 74, 82, 83, 84, 87. Knapp, Tim, 348. Knight, Bobby, 111. Knight, Ralph, 92. Knoxville Journal, 307, 373, 381. Knowles, Leisa Davis, 279, 368-369. Kolb, Jon, 256, 259. KOMA Radio, 113. Kramp, W.C, 64. Kranitz, Rick, 305. Kratka, Ralph, 29. Krause, Gary, 228. Kroutil, Wayne, 181. Krueger, Dick, 109, 114, 115, 116. Krug, Jan, 334. KSPI Radio, 254. KTVY-TV, 303. Kurland, Bob, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138,

139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 149, 150, 154, 155, 167, 170, 182, 187, 229, 258.

Kurrasch, James, 284. Kuykendall, Don, 244. KVOO Radio, 113.

LaBrue, Paul, 229, 240. Lackey, Don, 231. Lakeside Golf Course, 168, 234, 237, 285. Landqvist, Sture, 183, 186, 192, 198, 200. Landrum, Thomas "Jake the Snake," 316,

331. Landry, Tom, 164. Lane, Lester, 185. Lansing (Michigan) Athletic Club, 216. Larkins, Paul, 350, 368-369. LaRue, Bob, 185, 197. LaSalle University, 185. Laster, Charlie, 288. Lauderback, Paul, 337. Laverty, Russ, 230, 241. Layman, George, 178, 181. Layne, Bobby, 166. Leach, Tony, 365. Leahy, Buck, 337. Leino, Eino, 77-78. Leslie, Harmon, 202, 206. LeVrier, Yvonne, 303. Lewis, Erwin, 9.

Lewis Field: 46, 69, 72, 73, 74, 82, 83, 90, 91 , 96, 104, 115, 120, 129, 133, 146, 164, 165, 174, 177, 180, 181, 193, 197, 215, 242, 251, 252, 263, 267, 271, 281, 292, 301, 307, 313, 353, 362, 380; lighting, 271, 380; track, 193, 271.

Lewis, Frank, 104, 106. Lewis, L. L., 20, 25, 26, 45, 46, 254. Liberty Bowl, 381. Library Building. See Williams Hall. Liddell, D. V., 114. Liddell, Marvin, 114. Lieter, Kurt, 341. Life Magazine, 120. Linemann, Mary, 299. Linn, Larry, 244. Linsenmeyer, Don, 226, 229. Linsenmeyer, Marilyn, 286, 287, 288, 293,

299. Lipe. Gib, 146. Lister, Miles, 253. "Little Henry." See Henry P. Iba. Little, John, 263. Little, Lawson, 253. Litvak, Jeff, 266. Livingston, Dennis, 347, 348. Livingston, Patty, 286, 294. Livingstone, Brad, 311. Lobaugh, Joe, 182, 186. Logan, Vernon, 123, 127, 132. London, Merlin, 165, 166. Long Beach State, 240. Long, Bill, 166. Long, Frank, 31 . Long Island University, 171. Look Magazine, 178, 185. Lookabaugh, E. M. "J im, " 79, 82, 103, 108,

119, 124, 125, 128, 129, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 145, 147, 151, 152, 153, 159, 160, 165, 166, 169, 173, 174, 198, 233, 259, 271.

Lookabaugh, Guy H., 64, 66, 70, 72, 73, 74, 75-80, 82, 92, 190.

Loomis, Kirk, 334, 346, 373. Looper, Jerry, 207. Los Angeles Athletic Club, 82. Los Angeles State, 240. Louderback, Brad, 279. Louis, Joe, 142. Louisiana State University, 174, 266, 303,

331. Louisiana Tech University, 116, 366. Lovellette, Clyde, 180. Loyd, Alex, 174. Loyola, 126, 175. Lunsford, Brenda, 312. Lunsford, Earl, 184, 185, 197, 201. Luster, Dewey "Snorter," 131.


Lynes, Karl, 346. Lynn, Earl, 213.

M Mabrey, Kevn, 312, 315, 331, 336. MacArthur, Douglas A., 45. Macauley, Ed, 171. Mace, Tom, 323. Mackenzie, Jim, 255. Maddox, Robert, 229. Madison Square Garden, 107,116,126,130,

149, 154, 171, 175, 202. "Madison Square Garden of the West." See

Gallagher Hall. Maddox, Buford, 133. Maestro, the, 60. Mahseet, Carl "Chief," 62, 76. Makovsky, Bohumil "Boh , " 53, 96, 122. Mallet, Peter, 340, 346, 373. Maloney, Tom, 185, 198. Manke, Mike, 196, 272, 284, 288. Manneberg, Don, 179. Manwarring, Charles, 200. Marks, Mike, 284, 288. Marland, E. W., 101, 103, 115. Marshall, John, 303, 311, 313. Martin, Ben, 215. Martin, Billy, 287. Martin, Chris, 266. Martin, Gabe, 87. Martin, Gary, 292. Martin, J. D., 217, 221. Martin, Paul, 294, 304. Martin, Veronica, 279. Martinez, Rey, 346.

Marysville State Teachers College, 191. Mascot, 81 , 314. Mashburn, J. W., 181, 184, 187, 192, 199,

200, 201, 203, 207. Massari, Dan, 272, 284, 291, 300. Mathews, T. Becker, 31 . Mathiason, Jon, 310. Matthews, Brian, 365. Matthews, Joe, 166. Mattick, Bob, 180, 182, 185, 198, 212, 243. Maulbetsch, John F., 70, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86,

174, 190. Maxwell, Bill, 254. Maxwell, Billie, 168. Maxwell, Billy, 234. Mayo, Rich, 215. Mays, Bruce, 277. McArthur, Gale, 175, 178. McCann, Terry, 199, 222. McClain, Elgin, 244. McCoin, Rick, 251. McCollum, Harold, 114. McCoy, F. A. 35, 36, 355.

McCoy, Frank, 35. McCoy, Hal, 253. McCracken, Mark, 224, 227. McCrary, Paul, 173. McCready, Earl "Moose," 83, 85, 86, 87, 89,

9 1 , 103. McCubbins, Chris, 248, 249, 253, 254. McCullough, Ken, 184. McCune, Buddy, 168, 170, 172, 175. McDaniel, Joe, 58, 114, 116, 119, 123. McDaniel, John, 103. McDaniel, Paul, 134, 167. McDaniel, Wahoo, 215. McElroy, C. H., 64, 73, 83, 87, 89, 96, 108,

129, 134, 147, 172, 205. McFarland, Mike, 380. McFarling, Bob, 214. McGeown, Angela, 344. McGowan, Ellen, 311. McGraw, George, 92. McGraw, Guy, 305. McGregor, Leslie, 380. McGuirk, LeRoy, 92, 94. Mcllvoy, Connie. 218. McKenna, Bob, 232, 244. McKenzie, Walt, 225. McMahon, Jack, 179. McMiken, Christine, 279, 349, 350, 365,

367-368. McMillan, Keith, 297. McNeely, Oscar, 64. McNeill, Lori, 340, 347. McPhail, Jack, 223. Meade, Leo, 287. Meadors, Max, 86. Means, George, 11, 19. Meece, Volney, 184. Meeker, Don, 171. Meinert, Dale, 184, 185, 197. Meisenheimer, Darrell, 178. Melhorn, Calvin, 123. Memphis State University, 252, 269, 315. Mersch, Grayson, 218, 221, 225, 227, 242'. Metcalf, Danny, 229. Metcalf, Jim, 192, 194. Metcalf, Jim, 244, 248, 249. Metcalf, Jimmy, 134, 142. Metcalf, Joe, 337, 343, 349. Meyer, John, 271. Meyer, Rolf, 303, 311. Meyers, Charlie, 272, 284. Meyers, Eddie, 334. Meyers, Fred, 197. Michigan State University, 132, 170, 186, 244,

252, 256, 257, 265, 272, 283, 287. Middle Tennessee State University, 347. Middlesworth, Hal, 167, 172. Mikan, George, 136, 140,142,149, 150,153.


Milam, "Whisperin' Joe," 104. Miller, Dick, 172. Miller, Jack, 228, 230, 241. Miller, Lindy, 291, 294, 300, 306. Miller, Mickey, 248, 249. Miller, Mike. 240. Miller, Norman, 106. Miller, Terry, 289, 292, 298, 300, 301, 309. Millikan, Howard "Buddy," 132, 252. Mills, Billy, 223. Mills, Jim, 198. Milwaukee Journal, 228. Minnesota Vikings, 160. Mississippi State University, 267, 370. Missouri Hall of Fame, 111. Missouri Valley Athletic Conference, 63, 74,

78, 82, 83, 84, 87, 90, 91, 95, 97, 98, 100, 103, 105, 109, 113, 114, 115, 117, 118, 120, 123. 124. 126, 127, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 148, 151, 154, 156, 157, 168, 169, 170, 172, 175, 176, 178, 179, 180, 182, 184, 185, 187, 190, 191, 192, 193, 197, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 207, 209, 212, 214, 234, 254.

Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association, 84, 208, 241. See also Big Six, Big Seven and Big Eight.

Missouri Wesleyan, 67. Mitchell, Earl, 338. Mitchell, Gail, 64. Mitchell, Jack, 184, 211, 242. Moe, Lewis H., 205. Moeller, Earl, 184, 187, 235. Monasmith, Daryl, 304. Monday, Kenny, 340, 345, 346, 350. Monger, Matt, 364. Montana State, 178. Montemurro, Paul, 291. Montreal Expos, 371. Moore, Glenn, 152. Moore, Hal, 170. Moore, Mark, 361, 391. Moore, Norman, 297. Moore, Tommy, 336, 348. Moorehead, Jon, 311. Morrill Hall, 35, 45, 50, 67, 107, 159. Morris, Ken, 249. Morris, Oscar M., 6, 9. Morrison, Ed, 205. Morrow, Charles, 24, 27. Moseley, Melvin, 192, 198. Moser, Julie, 315. Moulder, Fred, 244, 247. Mowery, Sue, 334. Mulry, Nancy, 373. Multnomah Athletic Club, 82. Munn, Billy, 194. Murphy, Bob, 245.

Murphy, Ray, 261, 266. Murray, Clive, 64. Murray, William "Alfalfa Bill," 59, 96. Murty, Duane, 212. Myers, Jeff, 290. Myriad Convention Center, 346.

N Nahrgang, Willard, 251. Nakazawa, Glenn, 288. Nash, Paul, 303, 311, 313. Nass, Randall, 346. National Amateur Athletic Union, 55, 56, 77,

82-84, 101, 104, 108, 115-117, 119, 120, 124, 132, 134, 143, 155, 176, 192, 207, 216.

National Association of Basketball Coaches, 111.

National Baseball Coach of the Year, 219. National Basketball Association, 142. National Coach of the Year, 111, 150. National Collegiate Athletic Association, 55,

60, 80, 83, 85, 87, 91, 92, 94, 96-98, 101, 104, 109, 114, 116, 120, 123, 124, 126, 127, 131, 132, 134, 142, 143, 149, 151, 154, 155, 167-172, 175, 176, 178-187, 189, 192, 194, 195, 198, 199, 201-204, 206, 212-214, 216-221, 224, 225, 227, 228, 230, 233, 234, 236, 238, 240, 241, 243-245, 247, 248, 253, 254, 256, 257-261, 264, 265, 267, 269, 270-272, 276, 277, 279, 280, 283, 284, 285, 287, 288, 289, 290, 291, 294, 297, 299, 300, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 309, 312, 313, 315, 316, 321, 324, 329, 331, 334, 336, 338, 340, 341, 343, 344, 346, 347, 348, 349, 350, 351, 354, 355, 356, 366, 367, 368, 369, 371, 372, 373, 376, 381.

National Collegiate Golf Coaches Association, 189, 285.

National Hall of Fame of Collegiate Baseball, 323.

National Invitation Tournament, 107,116,126, 136, 149, 167, 202, 205, 212, 330.

National Wrestling Coaches Association, 59, 92, 270.

National Wrestling Hall of Fame, 60, 80, 297. Navy Clippers, 133. Navy Relief Fund, 132. Navy Zoomers, 146. NBC Radio. Neal, Becky, 318. Nellis, Kevin, 304. Nelms, Alfred, 289. Newman, Zip, 167. New Mexico State University, 338. Newton, Roy, 64. New York Athletic Club, 116.


New York Giants, 324. New York University, 116, 149. New York Yankees, 124. 323, 332. Nichol, Scott, 340, 246. Nichols, Don, 181, 187. Nichols, Ross, 167, 170, 194. Nicholson, Bonnie, 71. Nicklaus, Jack, 225, 372. Nicknames: school, 81. Nicks, Gene, 181, 182, 185, 186. Nippert, Merlin, 207. Nixon, Bridget, 338. Nixon, Glenn, 178. Noland, Reg, 379. Norman, Oklahoma, 9,18, 21, 25, 40, 47, 52,

65, 84, 85, 90, 97, 123, 129, 130, 146, 149, 152, 159, 181, 185, 198, 220. 245. 257. 264, 288, 310, 315, 318.

Norris, Lennie, 279, 271. Northeast Center of Louisiana State Univer

sity. See Northeast Louisiana University. Northeast Louisiana University, 116, 334. Northeastern State College, 92. Northrip, Gerald, 73. Northup, Frank D., 13. North-South Shrine Bowl, 167, 259. North Texas State University, 117, 181, 184,

187, 204, 207, 215, 217, 298, 309, 343, 349, 380.

Northwestern State College, 19, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 63, 72, 90, 99, 124, 158, 303.

Northwestern University, 97. Nutt, Houston, 329.

"O" Association, 52. O. A. Association, 42; emblem, 49. OAMC wave song, 38. Oberle, George, 358. O'Brien, Ann, 311. Occidental College, 203, 204. "O" Club, 94, 149, 215, 229. O'Connell, Bernie, 286. Odell, Clarence "Pop," 117, 123. Odom, Ed, 311, 315. O'Donnell, Fred, 96. Oehschlager, Cam, 221. Ogle, Jack, 285. Ogrin, Alicia, 306, 312, 318. O'Hara, Kahlan, 366. Ohio State University, 87, 174, 249, 313. Oil Bowl, 166, 175. O'Kane, Dan, 363. Oklahoma, State of, 55, 59, 62-64, 69, 75,

90-92, 97, 104, 108, 113, 115, 124, 137, 156, 206, 229, 234, 235, 241, 252, 256, 260, 313, 316, 322, 324, 343.

Oklahoma A&M College, 233, 234, 254; name change, 207.

Oklahoma A&M College Magazine, 147, 165. 173.

Oklahoma Amateur boxing. 94. Oklahoma Amateur Golf Championship. 170.

187. Oklahoma and the Seven Dwarfs. 211-212. Oklahoma Baptist University, 117. 172. Oklahoma Board of Agriculture, 41, 52, 87,

101, 119. Oklahoma City, 62, 63, 65, 72. 75, 94, 98,

108-110, 113, 119, 124, 126,147. 149, 158, 169, 190, 201, 230, 243, 266, 270, 286, 302, 323, 330, 344, 346, 373.

Oklahoma City Central High School, 89. Oklahoma City Sportswriters and Sport

scasters Association, 182. Oklahoma City Times, 81. Oklahoma City University, 72, 85, 89, 90, 92,

103, 115, 118, 185, 202, 311. Oklahoma Day. See Field Day. Oklahoma Golden Gloves, 105, 114, 116. Oklahoma Hall of Fame, 111. Oklahoma Intercollegiate Athletic Association,

17, 19, 23, 26, 35, 40, 63. Oklahoma Intercollegiate Oratorical Associa

tion, 9, 10, 19, 22. Oklahoma Intercollegiate track and field meet,

39, 49, 70, 72. Oklahoma Journal, 313. Oklahoma Land Run of 1889, 5, 22. Oklahoma Methodists, 49. Oklahoma News, 103. Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, 324. Oklahoma Sportsman of the Year, 182. Oklahoma State Military Institute, 30. Oklahoma State Tech, 264. Oklahoma State University: name change, 72,

109, 207. Oklahoma Territory, 5. 9. 10, 17, 36. Old Central: building, 7, 8, 9,15, 18, 33. 45,

66, 74, 91; bell clapper, 115,148. 159. 246. 247.

Olsen. Brian, 337. Olson, Bob, 116. Olympic Club of San Francisco, 82. Olympic oak tree, 106. Olympics, 55. 58, 64, 73, 77, 78, 86, 92, 93,

94, 95, 98, 101, 103, 104, 105, 106, 111, 119, 120, 122, 143, 169, 170, 175, 182, 189, 192, 195, 199, 203, 204, 206, 213, 217, 221, 222, 240, 242, 247, 248, 253, 254, 258, 259, 269, 273, 297, 313, 316, 317, 382, 353, 375, 382.

Omaha Royals. 326. Omaha-World Herald, 316. O'Neal, Leslie, 361, 365.


Oral Roberts University, 291, 299, 314, 334. Orange and Black, 61, 64, 65, 72, 76. Orange and black, school colors, 8, 30. Orange Bowl, 125, 146, 175, 215, 223, 229,

239. 241, 243,. 245, 255. OSU Band, 246. OSU Cattlemen's Club, 220. OSU Development Foundation, 267. OSU Hospital and Clinic, 375. OSU Outreach, 275, 291, 292. OSU Posse Club room, 301. Oswalt, Hal, 257, 261, 266. Ott, Tate, 128. Owen, Bennie, 66. Owen Field, 97, 115, 131, 152, 168, 245. Owens, Steve, 263.

Pager, Bob, 178. Palmer, Arnold, 172. Panovka, Brian, 340. Parker, Austin, 86. Parker, Frank, 225, 229. Parkey, Fred, 104, 105, 116. Parkhill, Leslie, 317. Parks, J. L., 154, 167, 169, 171. Parmer, Jim, 165, 166. Parnell, Jack, 204, 207. Parnell, Tom, 184. Parrack, Doyle, 149. Parry, Ed E., 38, 39, 40, 41. Parsley, Cliff, 289, 298. Pastime Theatre, 42. Pastors, Greg, 305. Pathe News, 79. Patrick, Jerry. 205. Patterson, Buel, 82. Patterson, Jerry, 184, 187. Patton, Billy Joe, 228. Patton, Greg, 340. Patton, Jane, 317, 332, 340. Paul, Claud, 118. Pawnee, Oklahoma, 29. Payne County Fair Ground, 20. Payne, John, 184. Pearce, Bobby, 92, 93, 94, 222. Peck's Corner, 63. Peck, C. P., 63. Peck, H. L. 63. Peery, Gordon, 74, 82, 190. Peery, Harold, 82. Peery, Jerald, 181. Peery, Rex, 58, 96, 97, 186, 298. Pegues, Sam, 224. Pehrson, Kelly, 330. Peier, Dale, 202. Peninger, Grady, 171, 252.

Pennsylvania State University, 91, 116, 199, 218, 256, 366.

Percival, Charles, 64. Percy, Fred, 66. Perry, Dave, 192, 241, 244. Perry, John, 192, 241, 244, 248, 249. Perry, Mark, 346, 366. Perry, Oklahoma, 27, 28, 29. Peterson, Barbara, 286, 290. Peterson, Roy, 214, 218, 242. Petrovic, Anastasia, 334. Pettes, Steve, 196, 284. Pfister, E. J., 371. Phansalkar, Kiran, 338. Phelan, Jim, 152. Phelps, Ed, 105, 114, 116, 117. Philadelphia Eagles, 160. 167. Phillips, George, 256. Phillips, John, 311. Phillips 66ers, 143, 170, 283. Phillips University, 49, 71, 124, 149. Physical culture, 8, 11, 41. PIC Magazine, 166-167. Pickett, Greg, 299. Pierce, Ted, 213. Pilgrim, Norman, 171, 175, 178. Pinocci, Mike, 290. Pistol Pete, mascot, 81, 314, 364, 380. Pitts, Ann, 279, 300, 306, 312, 336, 341, 351. Pittsburg State University, 125. Pixlee, James E., 67, 69, 70. Piatt, Bill, 211, 254, 285, 322, 324, 325, 326. Poe, Laura, 315. Poizner, Mike, 214. Ponca City, Oklahoma, 221. Pontius, Tom, 197, 201. "Pony backfield," 91, 95. Portland State University, 257, 315. Posey, Vance, 97. Potter, Will, 39. Potts, Clay, 99, 252. Pounds. Tony, 267, 271. Press box, 82, 105, 169, 307, 322. Price, Cliff, 253, 258, 261. Princeton of the West, 8, 15. Princeton University, 8, 42, 344. Pritchard, Earl A., 64, 66, 67. Prizefighting, 8. Purdue University, 179, 204, 221, 225. Purdum, Kathleen, 338. Purdyk, Terry, 340. Putnam, Walter "Benny," 145.

Q Quinn, Pat, 215, 216. 261, 365.

Racquetball, 357.


Rada, Louis, 214. Radio broadcasting, 113. Radio WOI, Des Moines, 83. Radnich, Spence, 87. Raether, Rick, 327. Rahill, Phillip, 94. Rainbolt, Earl, 193. Rains, Grover, 178. Ramming, Ron, 214. Randall, Dennis, 252. Randall, Steve, 287. Rasor, Ralph, 58, 94. Ray, Wilbur. 64, 69. Reason, Jimmy, 311. Recruiting, 70, 276. Reding, Mike, 247. Redlich. F. W., 73, 83. Redskin. 73. 102, 116, 120, 128, 135. 254,

298, 306, 329. Reed, Fred, 115. Reed, Hubert. 202. Regis College, 240. Reirdon, Dorsey, 314, 331, 340. Renick, Jesse "Cab," 120, 126, 127, 170,

220. 264. Reynolds, Allie P., 105, 114, 124, 130, 242,

322, 323, 328, 332. Reynolds, Jack, 255. Reynolds, Jim, 128, 130, 152. 153. Reynolds Stadium, 322-324, 328. 332, 333,

347, 369, 370, 381. Rice, Grantland, 155. Rice University, 51, 149, 167,172, 185. 254. Richardson, Bob, 257. Ricks, Loyd, 114. Rider College, 254. Ridling, Donna, 303. Rinehart, Virgil, 64. Ringwald, Bob, 288. Ripley Hills, 64. Rippetoe, Rae, 338. Rivers, John, 244. Rivers, Pete, 125. Roach, Larry, 349, 361. Roark, Dale, 181, 182, 185, 379-380. Roberts, Chuck, 299, 305. Roberts, Edd, 73. Roberts, Eddie, 192, 203, 207. Robertson, J. B. A., 70. Robertson, Oscar, 212. Robinson, Elliott, 86. Robinson, J., 260, 273. Rockins, Chris, 349. Rockman, Chris, 369. Rockne, Knute, 79, 95. Roderick, Myron, 187, 198, 199, 202, 204,

206, 212, 213, 214, 216, 217, 218, 224. 225, 227, 230, 240, 241, 243, 244, 247,

252. 256, 257, 258, 259. 260. 265. 277. 297. 298. 316, 346, 350, 353-360. 365.

Rodgers, Phil, 89. Rody, George, 89. 91. 92. Rogers, Dan. 147. Rogers. Harold. 182. Rogers, Jim, 247, 253. Roosevelt, Theodore, 36. Rooters Club, 48. Rose, Bernard, 290. Rose Bowl. 107. 146, 157, 165. 175. Rose. Larry. 196. 270. Rosenblatt Stadium, 326, 334. Rosett, Jess. 97. Ross, Desmond, 369. Ross, James K., 42. ROTC team. 94. Rousey, Merle, 114. Rowing, 8. Royal Opera House, 19, 22, 25. Rozell, Greg, 316. Rule, George, 85, 86. Rundle, Larry. 215. Rupp, Adolph, 167, 180, 230. Russell, Scott, 338. Ruth, Babe, 136. Rutherford, JoAnn, 283, 290. Ryan, Buddy. 201. Ryun, Jim, 248.

St Clair, Jack, 155. 170. St Clair, James W., 135. SL John's, 249. St. Joseph's University of Philadelphia, 130. St. Louis University, 201. St. Mary's College of California, 152. St. Regis of Denver, 87. Sale. Claude, 64. Sandefer. Jakie, 211. Sanders, Rick, 257. Sanderson. J. Lewie, 205, 285. San Diego State University, 361. San Francisco Forty-Niners. 97. San Jose State University, 224. Santa Clara, 185. Santana. Frank, 304. Santee, Wes, 183, 199. Sasahara, Shozo, 217. Saulsberry, Charles, 81. Saxton, Nick, 244. Sayers, Gayle, 242. Scaggs, Kathy, 306. Scandinavian Athletic Club, 198. Scanland, Al, 133, 193. Scarth, Frank, 221. Schatz, Christian, 373. Schatz, F. L., 234.


Scheffler, Merle, 114, 116, 120. Schell, Tina, 334. Schelsky, Chuck, 358. Schermerhorn, Fred, 200, 203. Schmidt, Eric, 348. Schmidt, Richard, 254. Scholarships: athletic, 6 1 , 108, 109. 165. Schreiber, W. E., 4 1 , 42, 46, 50. Schulte Award, Henry F., 316, 367. Schultz, Dave, 304. Schultz, Dennis, 196, 266, 270, 272, 284. Schulz, Kathy, 349, 366. Scott, Angelo C , 11-12, 17, 26, 32, 36, 40. Scott, George, 221, 242. Scott, Herman, 61 , 64. Scott, J o e C , 119. Scott, Robin, 373. Scrivens, Dale, 116. Seaman, Dean, 180. Seay, Joe, 350, 366. Sechrest, Don, 204. Seidle, Neil, 229. Seldomridge, H. G. "Seldy," 38. Self, Bill, 344. Sellari, Tony, 242, 244, 245, 249, 254. Senior Bowl, 220, 259, 349. Settle, Happy, 246. Seward, Joyce, 284, 288. Sewell, Vernon, 223. Seymour, Bob, 175, 178. Seymour, Ross, 283, 293. Shade, Jim, 261. Shafer. Carl, 198. Sharman, Bill, 240. Sharp, John, 316, 337. Shaver, Bob, 221, 225. Shavers, Mike, 305. Shaw, Charles, 174. Shawnee Athletic Club, 46. Sheets, Kendall, 178. Sheets, Michael, 340, 345, 346, 350, 367. Shelton, Charles, 312. Shelton, Jack, 171, 175. Shelton, Mitch, 345. Sherk, Jerry, 260, 263. Shilling, Greer, 82. Shively, Rex, 29. Shops Building, 15, 18. Shotts, Ron, 245. Showers, Jacy, 283, 291, 293. Shumski, Gary, 284, 288. Sigma Chi House, 159. Sigma Nu House, 159. Simmons, David, 198, 202. Simms, Norris, 97. Sims, Billy, 310. Sims, Jay, 346. Simon Eraser of British Columbia, 252.

Skinner, Val, 335, 341. Skove, Luke, 366. Skove, Matt, 346. Slack, John, 114. Slade, Harvey, 116. Slaybaugh, Joe, 20-21. Smallwood, Debbie, 312, 340. Smelser, Carroll, 116. Smelser, Gene, 120, 130, 175, 269. Smith, Bill, 77. Smith, Dave, 273, 281, 282. Smith, Harold, 223. Smith, Jack A., 170. Smith, Joe, 261. Smith, John, 366. Smith, Keith, 175, 178. Smith, Lee Roy, 304, 312, 316, 331, 366. Smith, Ray, 248. Smith, Virgil, 131, 132. Smoot, Bill, 198. Smoot, "Soupy," 79. Soccer, 189. Soergel, Dick, 70, 211, 214, 215, 216, 218,

219, 220, 221, 223, 242. Soergel, Don, 221. Softball, 276, 279, 300, 306, 312, 313, 318,

334, 341, 347, 373. Softball complex, 306. Sooners. See University of Oklahoma. Sooter, Clarence, 96. Southeast Athletic Conference, 167. Southeastern State College, 72, 87, 103, 172. Southerland, Ray, 184. Southern Illinois University, 316. Southern Methodist University, 73, 151, 166,

174, 177, 187, 190, 212, 281. Southwest Missouri State University, 284, 286. Southwestern College (Winfield, Kansas), 40,

85, 115. Southwestern Intercollegiate Athletic Confer

ence, 39, 43, 51 , 53, 63, 70, 78, 83, 167, 176, 177, 190, 208.

Southwestern Normal School. See Southwestern State College.

Southwestern State College, 35, 7^, 72, 75, 104, 114, 120, 124, 158, 234.

Southwestern University (Georgetown, Texas), 51 .

Spanish influenza, 68. Spavital, Jim, 145, 146, 147, 201, 215, 229. Speegle, Clifton, 169, 198, 201, 205, 211,

215, 219, 225, 226, 229, 232. Spencer, Chester "Choppy," 201. Spirit Band, 291. Spirit Rider, 364-365. Sporting News, 348. Sports Broadcasting Company, 211. Sports Illustrated, 217, 227, 242, 330.


Sports medicine, 56, 376. Sports publicity director, 103. Sprague, Buddy, 187. Stadium: expansion, 33, 83, 89, 91, 96-97,

105, 129, 169, 177, 273, 271, 307; lighting, 90.

Stadium Corporation, 82, 97. See also Athletic Association of the OAMC, Inc.

Stafford, Fred, 66. Stagg, Amos Alonzo, 96. Staggs, Kendall, 305, 316. Stanford University, 176. Stanley, Jim, 282, 285, 289, 292, 298, 309,

310. Stansbery, Will, 225, 228. Stapley, Ed R., 205. Stapp, Ray, 266, 269. Starks, Sterling, Jr., 316, 331, 340, 350. State Board of Agriculture. See Oklahoma

Board of Agriculture. Stebbins, Bob, 40. Steele, Bob, 179. Steinberg, Saul, 321. Steinmeir, Lou, 133. Stephens College, 286. Stevens, George, 196, 284. Stewart, Chet, 127. Stewart, Darryll, 281. Stewart, George, 270. Stewart, Ricky, 316, 331, 340, 345. Stillwater Boomers, 114. Stillwater Daily News, 103. See also Stillwater

NewsPress. Stillwater Daily Press, 116. See also Stillwater

NewsPress. Stillwater Golf and Country Club, 295, 306. Stillwater High School, 12, 32, 260. Stillwater Municipal Airport, 224. Stillwater NewsPress, 351, 366, 377. Stillwater, Oklahoma, 5, 12-13, 15, 18, 21, 22,

24, 25, 27, 29, 31, 32, 39, 45, 55, 59, 61, 104, 106, 110, 116, 117, 120, 127, 130, 133, 134, 135, 138, 149, 159, 178, 179, 184, 186, 191, 201, 202, 205, 207, 215, 216, 219, 230, 234, 235, 237, 241, 246, 251, 260, 275, 284, 292, 306. 313, 319, 323, 334, 346, 347, 350.

Stites, Bobby, 283. Stockton, Gerald, 178. Stockton, Steve, 253. Stolpe, Dick, 170, 175, 176, 270. Stolpe, Stan, 266, 270, 284. Stone, Billy, 220, 223, 224, 228. Stone, Lisa, 372. Stowe, L. D., 11. Strack, Charles, 83, 86. Strevey, Don, 182. Strong, Charles, 224, 228, 229, 230, 241.

Strong, Guy R., 287, 293, 299. Strong, Harley "Doc," 104. Stucky, John, 377. Student Army Training Corps, 68. Student Union building, 18, 197, 216, 246. Stufflebean, Kristin, 380. Stunkard, Rhonda Kite, 311. Stuteville, Orion, 73, 78, 82, 83. Sugar Bowl, 79,112,113, 133, 146,147,151,

152, 153, 157, 165, 167, 170, 174, 175, 181, 183, 185, 187, 199, 203, 207, 224, 228, 233, 241, 244, 245.

Sun Bowl, 165, 381. "SuperAggie." See Guy H. Lookabaugh. "Super Chief." See Allie P. Reynolds. Suttner, Roger, 240. Sutton, Eddie, 212. Sutton, Virgil, 20, 29. Suzuki, Katsumi, 260. Swaffar, Bob, 230, 240, 243, 247. Swanson, Stacy, 373. Swartz, Raymond, 89, 103, 104, 127, 132,

186. Swimming: men, 91, 114, 124,127, 131, 240,

244, 245, 248, 252, 256, 260, 261, 267, 269, 271, 282, 283, 285, 290, 293, 303, 311,313; women, 282, 286, 290, 311,313.

Swim's, 109. Syracuse University, 89, 225.

Talbot, Taft, 48. Talley, Nancy, 340. Tangerine Bowl, 157, 289, 298, 310. Tarr, Arthur, 24, 28. Tarr, James, 124. Tarrant, Harold, 170. Tarver, Red, 48, 51, 64. Tate, Mike, 261. Tate, Ralph, 126, 131, 132, 133, 134, 156,

189, 192, 193, 194, 195, 254, 257, 261, 266, 270, 272, 287, 314, 332, 333.

Taton, Bob, 96. Taylor, Bob, 213. Taylor, Jackie, 132, 194. Taylor, Ralph, 175. Taylor, Skip, 298. Teakell, J. R., 156, 167. Teehee, Nancy, 318. Temple University, 113, 116, 149, 167. Tennis: early, 8, 10-11, 20; men, 50, 55, 73,

85, 86, 92, 94, 96, 97, 102, 115, 118, 127, 131, 151, 156, 168, 169, 170, 172, 175, 179, 181, 184, 187, 201, 214, 218, 219, 221, 221, 224, 225, 228, 229, 231, 232, 234, 241, 244, 245, 249, 253, 258, 261, 267, 270, 272, 284, 288, 291, 294, 305, 312, 313, 317, 334, 340, 346, 348, 350,


354, 357, 372, 373, 381; women, 36, 73, 276, 279, 284, 292, 300, 305, 312, 313, 318, 334, 340, 346-347, 348, 350, 372, 373. 381.

Tennis courts, 12, 15, 46, 53. Territorial Athletic Board, 26. Territorial Legislature, 6. Tewell, Doug, 261, 270. Texas A&M University, 12, 39, 51. 63. 72,

124, 131, 168, 172, 175, 182, 197, 266, 282, 303. 337.

Texas Christian University, 73, 82, 148, 152, 171, 173, 178, 229, 268, 311, 315.

Texas Rangers, 371. Texas Tech University, 135, 145, 152, 184,

197, 211, 244, 263, 285, 289. Texas Wesleyan College, 315. Texas Western, 226. Texas Woman's University, 286, 287. Theta Pond, 151. Thiessen, Valor, 118. Thom, Billy, 122. Thomas, Amos, 259. Thomas, Clendon, 211. Thomas, Curtis, v331, 340. Thomas, Joe, 153, 166. Thomas, Raymond D., 234. Thomas, Thurman, 363, 365, 381. Thompson, Danny, 254, 257. Thompson, Donnie, 182, 186. Thompson, Frank, 270. Thompson, Harry, 8. Thompson, Leonard, 289, 292. Thompson, Linda, 344. Thompson, R. B., 205. Thornberry, Wallace, 20-21, 28, 29. Thorpe, Jim, 89. Thorpe, Jim, 371. Tigers, 8, 10, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 37, 39, 42,

50, 51, 81. Timken, Joe, 159. Tisdale, Wayman, 366. Tishomingo High School, 158. Title IX, 275, 276, 277, 278, 280, 307, 319. Titsworth, Tom, 181, 182. Tolan, Eddie, 92. Tomlinson, B. L. "Turk," 170. Toney, Bob, 249. Town, Steve, 340. Traber, Jim, 341. Track and Field Federation News, 316. Track and field: men, 37, 38, 41, 43, 45, 46,

48, 49, 50, 53, 55, 62, 70, 72, 73, 83, 86, 89, 92. 94, 96, 101, 103, 104, 105, 114, 117, 118, 123, 134, 127, 131, 132, 134, 136, 156, 168, 169, 170, 172, 175, 176, 179, 181, 183, 184. 186, 187 189-196, 198, 199, 203, 204, 207, 213. 214, 217, 219,

220, 224, 225, 228, 229, 230, 232, 241. 244. 245, 248, 249, 253, 254, 257, 261, 264, 266, 270, 284, 285, 292, 294, 299, 305, 307, 309, 312, 313, 317, 323, 331, 340, 346, 357, 361, 367, 369; women, 195, 278, 286, 287, 288, 291, 294, 305, 312, 317, 331, 340, 346, 368, 369.

Track, indoor: men, 192, 213, 220, 225, 228, 230, 241, 244, 245, 248, 258, 266, 272, 284, 285, 287, 288, 292, 299, 305, 331. 340, 346, 350, 367; women, 299, 305, 340, 346, 350, 368, 369.

Trainers, 35, 132, 145, 177, 218, 229, 254, 270.

Treadway, Olen, 226, 229. Trimble, Charles, 251. Tucker, Mark, 311. Tug-of-war, 7-8, 67. Tulane University, 103, 113, 266. Tulsa Athletic Club, 216. Tulsa Business Men, 30. Tulsa Central High School, 130. Tulsa Crescent Club, 132. Tulsa World, 103, 110, 118, 142, 251, 319,

369, 371. Turner, "Buffalo" Robert, 298. Turner, Dick, 172. Turner, Kenny, 337. Tway, Bob. 313, 336. Twilley, Howard, 245.

u Uetake, Yojiro, 240, 242, 243, 247, 248, 258,

269. Umezawa, Jyo "Little Joe," 227. Underwood, Dwaine, 205. United Press International, 313, 330, 365,

381. U.S. Air Force Academy, 215, 255. U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 247. U.S. Marine Corps, 221. U.S. Military Academy, 36, 152, 156, 229,

232, 247. U.S. Naval Academy, 84, 127,132,186, 223,

257. U.S. Olympic Committee, 202, 256. U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, 112. U.S. Track and Field Federation, 270, 272. U.S. Volleyball Association, 310. U.S. Wrestling Federation, 260, 266, 353.

Later USA Wrestling. University of Alabama, 174, 198, 229, 252,

337. University of Arizona, 133, 218, 221. University of Arkansas, 48, 50, 51, 63, 82, 86,

87,91, 114, 117, 145, 149, 151, 162, 165, 167, 172, 175, 177, 178, 179, 182, 184, 211, 217, 219, 230, 241, 242, 248, 251,


253, 255, 259, 263, 266, 267, 271, 281, 285, 285, 286, 289, 298, 303, 309, 319.

University of California at Los Angeles, 97, 187, 220, 266, 381.

University of Chicago, 38, 96, 119, 126. University of Cincinnati. 212, 219, 254. University of Colorado, 98, 108, 110, 116,

132, 191, 198, 208, 214, 216, 221, 224, 225, 228, 229, 241, 242, 248, 249, 252, 253, 254, 256, 257, 258, 259, 271, 281, 285, 286, 287, 289, 290, 298, 310, 316. 362, 365.

University of Denver, 145.151, 158,165,174, 215.

University of Detroit, 133, 174,176, 180, 183, 185, 197, 270, 284.

University of Florida, 285. University of Georgia, 166, 175, 244, 245. University of Houston, 180, 182, 183, 184,

187, 197, 200, 201, 202, 204, 207, 214, 218, 221, 225, 228, 230, 231, 241, 244, 248, 251, 253, 254. 257. 259, 261, 263, 266, 267, 270, 284, 285, 306, 341, 348, 371.

University of Idaho, 52. Universityof Illinois, 64, 103, 116, 127, 131,

170, 178, 316. University of Iowa, 91, 170, 186, 198, 199,

216, 221, 294, 304, 346, 350, 366. University of Kansas, 13, 14, 55, 74, 83, 84,

86, 89, 92, 103, 120, 125, 126, 154, 167, 171, 172, 174, 177, 180, 182, 183, 185. 190, 192, 196, 197, 199, 200, 203. 206. 207, 208, 211, 212, 214, 216, 217, 219, 220, 223, 225, 229, 241, 242, 244, 245, 249, 252, 253, 255, 258, 259, 261. 266, 267, 268, 281, 284, 289. 293, 298, 299, 305, 306. 310, 312, 315, 330, 344, 349, 362.

University of Kentucky, 167. 171, 178, 230, 381.

University of Maryland, 252, 272, 304. University of Miami, 351. 370. University of Michigan. 71. 132, 170, 186,

190, 252, 287. 334. University of Minnesota, 84, 92, 103,'104,

113. 178, 221, 370. University of Mississippi, 185. University of Missouri, 61, 74, 84, 94, 174,

177, 192, 204, 208, 214, 218, 223, 225, 228, 230. 242, 244, 248, 249, 255, 257, 258, 259. 269, 271, 272. 281, 285, 289, 294, 298, 310, 312, 332, 334, 344, 348, 351, 373.

University of Nebraska, 52, 70, 74, 76, 84, 85, 103, 118,126,127, 128,134, 169, 170, 172, 208, 216, 217, 220, 239, 244, 245, 248, 249, 255, 258, 259, 271, 281, 285,

287, 289, 288, 298, 306. 310, 314, 334. 348, 355. 361, 364.

University of New Mexico, 125.214, 294. 315. University of North Carolina, 154. 221, 249. University of Northern Iowa, 181, 225. University of Notre Dame, 79, 95, 145, 212,

337. University of Oklahoma, 9, 17.19, 22, 23. 24.

25, 26, 27, 30, 31, 39, 40. 46, 47, 48. 49, 50, 51, 58. 61, 62, 63, 65, 66, 67, 70, 72, 73, 74, 75. 76. 79. 84, 85. 86, 87. 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 96. 97. 100, 102,104, 108. 113, 114, 115, 117, 118, 120, 124, 125, 126. 127, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 146, 147, 148, 152. 156, 158, 159, 166, 167, 168, 171, 172. 174. 175, 177. 178, 179, 181, 182. 183, 185, 186, 193, 197. 198, 201, 206, 207, 208, 211, 212, 214. 215. 216, 217, 219, 220, 223, 224, 229, 230, 231, 240, 241. 242. 244, 245, 246, 247, 248. 249, 251, 252, 253, 255, 256. 257. 258, 259, 260, 261, 263, 264, 265, 267, 268, 269, 271, 279, 281, 283, 284, 286, 287, 289, 291, 294, 298, 299, 300. 303, 304, 306, 310. 314, 316, 317, 331, 335, 330, 344, 345, 346. 348, 350, 351. 363, 364. 365, 373.

University of Pittsburgh, 186. 310. 353. University of South Carolina. 363. 370. University of Southern California, 130, 209,

213, 224, 225, 258, 264. 381. University of Southern Illinois. 283, 285. University of Texas, 39, 49, 51, 52, 62, 63.

64, 72, 85, 86. 127. 128. 131, 134. 146, 166, 167, 169, 172, 192. 196, 200, 203, 214, 215, 217, 220, 230. 239. 248, 249, 253, 255, 257, 259, 270, 281, 284. 290. 298, 314, 348, 373.

University of Tulsa, 85, 87, 90, 97. 117, 124, 125, 127, 130. 131. 133, 146, 148. 152. 158. 166. 174, 182, 183, 184, 185, 197. 224. 226. 230, 239. 245. 261, 266, 283, 361. See also Henry Kendall College.

University of Utah, 149, 152, 205. University of Washington. 212. 283, 287. University of Wisconsin, 19, 350. University of Wyoming. 185. 197. University Park, 306. See also Reynolds

Stadium. University Preparatory School of Tonkawa, 30.

V Vachon, Mike, 251. VanBebber, Earl, 131. VanBebber, Jack, 87, 91, 92, 93, 94, 222,

248, 298. Van Zant, Pete, 240. Vann, Cleveland, 281, 285.


Varsity Store, 42. Vaughn, Frank, 52. Ventura, Robin, 381. Verplank, Scott, 348, 351, 361, 371-372, 381. Vessels, Billy, 182. Veterans' Village, 165. "Victory" halls, 159. Vigneron, Thierry, 367. Viljoen, Trevor, 290, 292. Virginia Military Institute, 127. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univer

sity, 281. Voight, John, 170, 175, 176, 181. Volleyball, 283, 290, 293, 303, 310, 314, 329. Von Ruden, Tom, 192, 244, 245, 248, 249,

254, 258. Vrooman, Roscoe, 181.

W Wade, Scott, 347. Wadley, James, 284, 288, 291, 299, 305,

312, 334, 346. Waggoner, Roy E., 31. Wahl, Vernon, 79. Wais, Eric, 304, 312, 315. Wake Forest University, 172, 291, 294, 381. Waldon, Tom, 304. Waldorf, Lynn 0., 89, 90, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96,

97, 99, 101, 124, 125. Waldrop, Vernon, 73. Walker, George. 155. Walker. Kenny, 290, 292. Walk-ons, 318-319, 343. Wallace, Don, 228, 229. Wallis, Wally, 146, 255. Walser, Jeff, 318. Walser, Joe, 181, 184, 187. Walseth, Sox, 110. Walters, "Sticky-Fingers Joe." 63. Walton. Jack, 15. Walton, Philip, 348. Wamsley, Barbara, 291, 293, 303. Ward, Gary, 305, 306, 312, 318, 319,

321-328, 332, 334, 335, 350, 369. Ward, John, 256, 260, 263. Ward, Leon, 251. Warmack, Bob, 251. Warner, Bob. 214. Warner, Glenn "Pop," 99, 113. War veterans, 69, 70, 101. Washburn College, 14, 71, 97, 125. Washington State University, 99, 179, 182. Washington University (St. Louis, Missouri),

74, 84, 85, 90, 114, 124, 133, 138, 171, 178. 208.

Water polo. 283, 286. Watson, Bo, 242. Watson, Jim, 243.

Watson, Nate, 166. Watters, Diana, 311. Watts, Brian, 371. WAVES (Women Appointed for Volunteer

Emergency Service), 134, 159. Weaver, Brian, 319. Weaver, Carl, 64. Weaver, Walter, 69, 70, 72. Weatherbie, Charlie, 298. Weatherly, Wayne, 249, 257. Webster, James, 215, 229. Webster, Jerry, 214. Wedemeyer, Herman, 152, 153. Weigeant, Dale, 116. Weight and training center, 353, 376. Weis, Dick, 279, 349, 367, 368. Weisz, Darryl, 340. Welsh, Edgar, 155. Wentz, Lew, 105. West End Racquet Club, 46. West, Jerry, 216. West Liberty State College, 242. West Point. See U.S. Military Academy. West Texas State University, 145, 284, 329. West Virginia University, 84, 87, 90, 216. Western Michigan University, 218. Westminster College, 70, 98, 100, 108. Wheeler, Dub, 131. Whipple, Kevin, 371. Whisler, Randy, 369, 370. Whistle, power plant, 61. White, Byron "Whizzer," 116. White, Chris, 82. White House, Washington, D.C, 84, 375. White, James "Duck," 292. White, Jim, 93. Whitehurst, Al, 127, 131. Whitehurst Hall, 159. Whitehurst, John A., 70. Whitenton, R. O., 205.' Whitley, Stan, 261. Whitworth, Jennings Bryan, 174, 177, 179,

182, 184, 198, 220. Wichita State University, 127,156, 174, 178,

180, 184, 185, 197, 225, 231, 242, 284, 289, 292, 309, 310, 343, 370.

Wilber, Herbert, 69. Wilber, Phil, 64, 69, 101, 169. Wilcox, Terry, 218, 224, 225. Wile, Otis, 29, 86, 115, 120, 122, 139, 146,

187, 190, 205, 213, 215, 260, 261, 264. Wiley, David, 124, 127. Wiley, Ivan, 229. Wilhelm, Bruce, 253. Wilkins, John, 230. Wilkins, Tony, 378. Willham, Oliver S., 180, 205, 246, 247, 255. William and Mary, 171.


Williams, Blake, 154. Williams, Bobby "Pee Wee," 145. Williams, Charles, 349. Williams Hall, 12, 15, 17, 159. Williams, Paul, 346, 350. Williams, Stacy, 334, 347. Williams, Steve "Dr. Death," 345. Williamson Rating, 201, 205. Willingham, Randy, 331, 345, 346. Wills, Fred, 192. Wilson, Bob, 216. Wilson, Doug, 227. Wilson, Jan, 290. Wilson, John, 64. Wilson, Rick, 380. Wilson, Shelby, 213, 216, 221. Wilson, Steve, 290. Wine, Robbie, 341, 348. Wininger, Bo, 168, 170, 172, 176, 233, 234,

235. Winingham, John, 230, 244. Winingham, Susie, 286, 288, 291. Winn, Eddie, 228, 230. Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 160, 273. Winter, Pauline, 282, 290. Winters, N. E., 118. Wismer, Harry, 215. Wixson, Jim, 221, 225, 227. WKY Radio, 113, 131. WKY-TV, 173. Women's Athletic Association, 73. See also

Girl's Athletic Association. Women's Building. See Bartlett Center for the

Studio Arts. Wood, C. A., 39. Wood, Duane, 205, 216. Wood, Everett, 205. Wood, Jim, 205. Wood, Mike, 350. Wood, Willie, 318, 336, 341, 348, 351. Wooden, John, 220. Woodson, Clay, 50. Woodson, Marion Marie, 24. Woodson, Mort, 64.

Woodward High School, 158. Woolard, Jim, 242. Workman, Bob, 261. World War I, 63, 64, 133. World War II, 115, 124, 128, 129, 131, 132,

133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 142, 145. 147. 150, 151, 157, 158, 165, 170, 193, 206. 233, 254.

Wrestlers homecoming, 171,175, 216, 247, 260.

Wrestling, 5, 7, 52, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 62, 63, 68, 69, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 82, 83, 84, 87, 89, 91, 92. 93. 94, 96, 97, 100, 101, 103, 104, 105, 106, 108, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 119, 120, 123, 125, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131. 132, 134, 145, 146, 151, 155, 156, 167, 169, 170, 171, 172, 175. 178, 179, 181, 182, 185, 186, 187, 198. 199. 202, 204, 206, 207, 212, 213, 214, 216, 217, 219, 220. 224, 225, 227, 229, 230. 232, 233, 240, 241, 242, 243, 245, 247, 248, 249, 252, 253, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262, 264, 265, 266, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 283, 284, 285, 287, 291, 294. 299, 304, 312, 313, 315, 316, 338, 345, 346, 348, 350, 354, 366, 373, 381.

Wright, Ab, 84, 85, 86, 87. Wright, Jim, 218. 221. 224. 225. Wright, Mel, 198, 202, 205, 206, 207, 242. Wright, R. V., 117, 123, 124. Wright, Randy, 311. Wylie, John 170.

XYZ Yale University, 175, 209, 213. Yates, Vernon, 171. Yehle, Ken, 292. Yost Lake Golf Course, 127. Youman, Don, 311, 315. Young, R. A., 41. Young, Richard A., 307, 309, 310, 313, 323,

338, 344. Zimmer, Patty, 300.


Doris Dellinger - Digital Collections - Oklahoma State University

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