Tulsa over Notre Dame: Where does it rank?
Before the NBC broadcast signed off from Tulsa’s upset of Notre Dame, the discussion had turned to whether this was the greatest victory in TU history. The answer was obviously not, though lots of people said it was.
Without even starting the research, you can throw TU’s 31-24 victory at Oklahoma above the Notre Dame game. Yes, I know that was over a hapless John Blake team. And this Notre Dame team is so much better? The Irish is 4-5, with victories over Purdue, Boston College, Pitt and Western Michigan.
Don Rominger, a former coach in the state, including at Northeastern A&M Junior College, has followed Tulsa history and offered all kinds of insight to the question.
Rominger doesn’t want to take anything from the upset of Notre Dame. “It was not a fluke,” Rominger said. “Tulsa had to overcome two 15-yard penalties leading to long third-down conversions to kick the winning field goal. The key to the game: speed. Tulsa had it, Notre Dame didn’t…
“A great, great win for the Hurricane and placing within the Pantheon of greatest TU victories. But even though the stage on which it was held was huge, it wasn’t Tulsa’s greatest victory. First of all, one ordinary team beat another, and Tulsa was only an eight-point underdog.”
Rominger’s choice for TU’s greatest victory: 1971 Arkansas. “Assuming that you are playing in a major venue and are a huge underdog to a good team, you cannot surpass TU 21, Arkansas 20 at Fayetteville. I listened to it on my airplane radio while on a scouting trip. Tulsa came from 20-0 behind and won on a screen pass in the final seconds. Tulsa finished only 4-7, while Arkansas beat Texas 31-7 and finished 8-3-1 and was SWC runnerup.”
That was less than two years after the Big Shootout in Fayetteville, when Texas beat Arkansas 15-14 in what served as a national championship game.
Rominger listed some other notable TU victories:
* 1991: 35-34 over Texas A&M. Those Aggies went 10-1 before losing to Florida State in the Cotton Bowl. TU finished 10-2.
* 1946: 14-13 over Arkansas, which won the Southwest Coinference and tied LSU in the Cotton Bowl. TU finished 9-1.
* 1944: 26-12 over Georgia Tech in the 1945 Sugar Bowl. The Yellowjackets finished 8-3.
* 1943: 20-6 over OU in Oklahoma City. Those Sooners won the Big Six championship and finished 7-2, losing only to Tulsa and Texas. TU finished 6-1-1.
* 1964: 61-14 over Oklahoma State. “This game was early in the Glenn Dobbs/Jerry Rhome era and was absolutely huge,” Rominger said. “OSU at the time was 3-1 in the Big Eight. Skelly Stadium was packed to the gills, and the victory thrust Tulsa onto the national scene. The Hurricane finished 9-2 and defeated Ole Miss in the Bluebonnet Bowl.”
* 1933: 20-6 over Arkansas at Tulsa. Arkansas went on to play in the Dixie Classic, which was the precursor to the Cotton Bowl. TU finished 6-1 and Arkansas 7-3-1.
* 2007: 55-47 over Brigham Young at Tulsa. BYU won the Mountain West Conference. Tulsa finished 10-4. BYU finished 11-2.
* 1958: 24-16 over OSU at Tulsa. Those Cowboys finished 8-3, lost to OU just 7-0 and beat Florida State in the Blue Grass Bowl. TU finished 7-3.
* 1976: 9-3 over Arkansas at Fayetteville, just two years after the Razorbacks had beaten TU 60-0. Those Hogs finished just 5-5-1; TU went 7-4-1.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Comments
Great post, Berry.
I can remember listening on the radio to that ’71 win over Arkansas, with the miraculous 21-point outburst in the 4th quarter to win it.
Headline in the Tulsa World the next day: “Burnt Bacon in Fayetteville.”
Still, a win over Notre Dame is a win over Notre Dame. The 1999 Irish weren’t all that good either, and the Oklahoma Sooners would have been very glad to come away from South Bend with a win instead of a loss.
This brings back memories of when, as a teenage, I listed to TU football on the radio during the Rhome/Twilley/Anderson days. They played such an exciting and entertaining brand of football. It is a shame that they were rarely televised. Glen Dobbs’ offense was so far ahead of the game, if they could have drawn the talent that the big school naturally took in, they might have done some things that were truly incredible in those mid ’60′s. Rhome and Twilley epitimized the concept of people who multiplied a small amount of natural ability into something much larger by becoming excellent at doing one thing. I am glad to know that TU football prowess is significantly greater than what I knew. I always thought the Ole Miss victory was one of the biggest because it showcased the greatness of Dobbs/Twilley/Rhome.
Didn’t rank very high with the DOK! It was one of the greatest wins of their lives for all the Tulsa young men that played in South Bend last Saturday. Poor coverage by the Daily Oklahoman and disappointed.
There is another game some of your Tulsa readers will cite, and it is one of TU’s greatest victories. The game before TU beat Oklahoma in 1996, the Hurricane knocked off Iowa in Iowa City, 27-20. The Hawkeyes finished 9-3, defeated both Wisconsin and Penn State and beat Texas Tech 27-0 in the Alamo bowl. The amazing thing about TU was that they were only 4-7 for the season! Yet they had a three game win streak over Iowa, OU, and Colorado State.
Go figure.
Don Rominger
tulsa biggest win ever = this: 1991: 35-34 over Texas A&M. Those Aggies went 10-1 before losing to Florida State in the Cotton Bowl. TU finished 10-2.