Comments on: Reliving Notre Dame’s upset

By: HeavyGod

HeavyGod — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 08:52:04 +0000

Really good and really interesting post. I expect (and other readers maybe ) new useful posts from you!
Good luck and successes in blogging!

By: Phil Robins

Phil Robins — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:48:04 +0000

I turned five the day after that game, so I don’t really remember it first hand. But your mention of Jack Ogle brings back memories. Years later, we went to church together at the West Wilshire church of Christ and I remember my dad telling me about Mr. Ogle and his media connection to the Oklahoma sooners. I always felt I was in the midst of a big time sooners football celebrity.

By: Braniff Surtees

Braniff Surtees — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:37:55 +0000

I was 14 years old; the black and white tv brought into our living room a game long anticipated in my family. From the start of the game, I feared something was very wrong; though at my age, I didn’t know what. Wilkinson always had his best players sprinkled among the starters unit and the alternates unit; only after the Notre Dame TD did I for the first time know who Wilkinson believed was his best 11 players. The last 3 minutes of the game, OU had 11 players on the field who had never played together as a unit in all the previous games I could recall. But, for the first time, I thought these 11 players are, in Wilkinson’s mind, OU’s best 11. As I remember it, Brewster Hobby was one of those eleven. As the clock went to zero, zero, zero, our black and white tv brought into our living room a story that made me very blue; and for a 14 year old boy, OU football was more than everything in my life. (of course, a couple years later, girls and cars competed with OU football; but, on Saturday afternoon, OU football still won out–and 50 years later, still does).

By: Tony Dum

Tony Dum — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 01:25:44 +0000

I was listening to you this evening with Al and Jim on “The Animal” and heard you talking about the cheating that has gon on in college football and the message on the chalk board in the locker room after the loss to Notre Dame in ’57. The message and the comments by Lynch seem to add credibility to the event as portrayed by Jim Dent in “The Undefeated”.

Check the book if you want, but this is the best I remember of the story:

Wilkinson had been working on a hot shot recruit from Coffeyville Junior College and had him on campus the week befor the Notre Dame game. As a recruit he had access to the players and the locker room through the week. Tuesday was a closed practice to put in new plays for the upcoming game. The practice field, however was not enclosed and the recruit was seen watching practice from across the street.

Notre Dame’s team spent Friday night in (Choctaw? or Chickasha?) and had breakfast in the local diner on Saturday morning. While they were eating, two young Mexican girls, migrant workers (no work for migrants in mid-November), came in and begged the players to “Beat those rednecks who said bad things about the Pope”. When they went to get on the team buses their buses had been spray painted with “F*** the pope” and other anti-Catholic phrases (fodder for the pep talk before the game of course).

Once the game started, the game went so badly the coaches felt that Notre Dame must have someone in their huddle on every play. Then someone noticed the recruit from Coffeyville Junior College on the Notre Dame sideline.

Truth or myth? You tell me. But it makes for a great story.