My First Words: “Hook ‘Em Horns!”
Tonight I’ll get to watch the UT/Texas Tech game with my brother and my dad. That takes me back to my childhood.
I was a campus baby, born eleven months after my parents got married. “We” were attending the University of Texas in Austin, where my dad got his degree in journalism (following a stint in the Army) and my mom got hers in English. They told me that my first spoken words were “Hook ‘Em Horns.”
Even though we moved back to Missouri when I was two or three, we remained Longhorn fans. Once every four years, they’d deck my brother and me (and eventually our sisters) up in orange and take us to the UT/UA game in Fayetteville. We were actually there for the “Game of the Century” in 1969. A few spots of orange in a sea of razorback red.
So, today we’ll be cheering on Colt McCoy and the Longhorns — especially since their last second loss to Tech last year cost them a shot at the national championship. I’ll also be hoping that Taylor Potts, the Tech QB who went to Highland during his high school years, has a great game. But in a losing cause!
Interesting notes in Wikipedia about that “Game of the Century” we attended in December 1969:
President Richard Nixon attended the game along with several members of his staff and U.S. Representatives George H.W. Bush of Texas and John Paul Hammerschmidt of Arkansas, having announced that he would give a plaque to the winner, proclaiming it to be the National Champion — to the chagrin of observers who thought it premature to do so before the New Year’s Day bowl games, and of fans of Penn State, which would also end the season undefeated. Arkansas took a 14-0 lead, and held it into the fourth quarter, but Texas came from behind to win, 15-14, and accepted Nixon’s plaque.
Texas beat Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl, and removed any doubt as to whether it deserved consideration as National Champion, although Penn State fans still insist that their team, also undefeated and winner of the Orange Bowl, was better. However, it is worth noting that the Cotton Bowl first invited Penn State to play the Southwest Conference champions. The Nittany Lions declined the invitation, preferring to spend New Year’s Day in warm Miami, where they defeated Big 8 champion Missouri. This decision was made while Ohio State was still ranked #1 with only one game to play, so at the time, it did not appear that a national championship was likely to be at stake. The 1969 Texas-Penn State conflict, never settled on the field, has been one of the major arguments in favor of a Division I-A playoff. Arkansas lost the Sugar Bowl to Archie Manning-led Ole Miss (ironically, Arkansas ended up joining the SEC in 1992). The entire Texas-Penn State debate and Nixon’s involvement led to a quote from Penn State coach Joe Paterno, a conservative Republican, during a commencement speech at Penn State in 1974 about Nixon, “How could Nixon know so much about college football in 1969 and so little about Watergate in 1973?”
This game has been nicknamed “Dixie’s Last Stand,” since it was the last major American sporting event played between two all-white teams, although two schools in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), LSU and Ole Miss, did not integrate their varsity football squads until 1972.
With the Vietnam War still raging and Nixon in attendance, protestors came to the game, and one of them got into a tree overlooking the stadium and held up an antiwar sign. An urban legend grew up around this game, claiming that this protestor was Arkansas native and future President Bill Clinton. Clinton, however, was not at the game, as he was then a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford in England, and was listening to the game on a shortwave radio with some American friends.
Since Sara is officially a Red Raider now, I’ve been practicing my “Wreck ‘Em’s” for today’s match.
In Austin tonight watching the game from “ground zero.” (not actually AT the game, but hey…) Just tried to eat lunch at the Hula Hut on Lake Austin but couldn’t get in because of all the fans. Finally got into the Oasis on Lake Travis where there were more than a handful of burnt orange shirts, hats, and dresses.
It’s electric down here!
One of our son’s friends is in the Austin area. When their first born was about 2, they were at church one Sunday morning, and I think it was just as a song ended that little B yelled out, “Hook ‘em Horns!” She misinterpreted her daddy’s upraised hands for “Hook ‘em Horns!”
Pulling for the ‘Horns is kinda like being a big fan of gravity. Go Tech! Taylor is DA MAN.
Loved the commentary during the game, “Taylor Potts and Colt McCoy attended church together for a while.” Yes they did. And I can attest that Colt and Jordan Shipley were in assembly on Sunday morning too.
And what a fantastic and gripping performance overall!
Besides that, Colt was recovering from the flu:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2009/09/eating-like-a-kid-helps-colt-mccoy-man-up-against-texas-tech/1
I’m still looking for UT fans here in OK.
Waymon
It always makes me feel better to read columns like this. I am always so worried that ut will run out of fans! Guess not.
Mike, in spite of your love of the orange bovines, I still love you with the love of Jesus. I guess you are confessing this sin and my hope and prayer for you is that you overcome it.
I never have been and likely never will be a fan of that school that wears orange in Austin. However, I must say that Coly McCoy and Jordan Shipley are two of the finest young men in all of college athletics. I would not mind if my daughter were to date or marry one of these two gentlemen.
Congratulations to the Orange Bovines and all of their worshippers. You were supposed to win the game and you did. I am proud of the great effort the Red raiders gave. Amazingly, it took a game with Tech to set a new stadium record.
Here is a scenario for you…
If Tech goes the rest of the season without a loss and the Organge Bovines lose late in the year, I am certain that Tech will get the BCS call. After all, didn’t that happen last year for the orange bovines?
FIGHT RAIDERS FIGHT!
MIKE! – Did you hear the reference from Musberger during the game?….”Taylor and Colt often were at church together”. You’ve officially made the big time.
As a parent of a UT frosh who was there, and family friends with both sides, I too am happy with the outcome, but I have much respect for Taylor. That shot from Kindle under his jaw was unreal – he popped right up and still had some more magic left. Great game.
I heard you tonight at ACU. It was great. I wanted to text you this question, but I really didn’t think it was appropriate for the situation. LOL. So I’m glad I found a way to be able to.
I am from southwest Missouri, and I tend not to run into anyone from there here in Abilene, so I was curious what town you’re from? I grew up in Webb City and did undergrad at Ozark Christian College.