In a play that went down in Sooner football history, Oklahoma Sooner safety Roy Williams knocks the ball loose from Texas quarterback Chris Simms, deflecting the ball to Teddy Lehman who scored a clinching touchdown in the game between the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas, October 6, 2001, in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Illustration by Todd Pendleton. Photo by Paul Hellstern

Here’s how good was Roy Williams’ Superman play against Texas 10 years ago this month. It was so spectacular, Bob Stoops let his guard down and admitted he liked that play right fine. “It’s one of my favorites,” Stoops said.

For the Tuesday Oklahoman Colleague Jenni Carlson wrote about Williams’ recollection of his sack of Chris Simms, which created an easy interception and touchdown for Teddy Lehman in OU’s 14-3 victory at the Cotton Bowl. You can read the column here.

And Stoops re-told the story Monday night that he didn’t even see the play. Texas took over at its 2-yard line late in the game, and during a TV timeout the Sooner defense huddled with the coaches. While defensive coordinator Mike Stoops conversed with Williams, Bob Stoops grabbed defensive end Cory Heinecke and gave specific instructions. Get wider. To counter Williams’ biltz, Simms would likely throw a quick pass in the flat. So Heinecke was to get in the way, get underneath the route.

“When the ball’s snapped, I’m watching Cory,” Stoops said.

Then he heard the roar. “What’s going on,” he said to himself. It took a second for Stoops to get his bearings. Then he focused on which players were celebrating. The white-clad Sooners. Not the burnt-orange Longhorns.

“Everyone’s yelling, ‘TOUCHDOWN,’” Stoops said. “I said, ‘What happened?’ They had to tell me.”

OU head coach Bob Stoops didn't have much to talk about with officials Saturday in Oklahoma's opener vs. Tulsa. The Sooners' committed only two penalties in their 47-14 victory. PHOTO from The Oklahoman archives.

The most encouraging development of OU’s season-opening rout of Tulsa was not Dominique Whaley or Tom Wort or the offensive line. Not any unit or individual.

It was the lack of yellow on the field. The Sooners committed just two penalties, for 20 yards. A 15-yard facemask penalty against David King, and an illegal-formation penalty. One offensive penalty. That’s excellent play in a season opener. Excellent and historic.

In OU history, only twice have the Sooners had two or fewer penalties in a game. In Bob Stoops’ first game, against Indiana State in 1999, OU had one penalty. Talk about a change in culture, after the slapstick days of the John Blake era. And in 1954, against California, OU had two penalties.

Here are the game by game penalty totals of the Stoops’ openers:

Utah State 2010: seven penalties, 70 yards.

BYU 2009: 12 penalties, 93 yards.

Chattanooga 2008: five penalties, 42 yards.

North Texas 2007: nine penalties, 74 yards.

Alabama-Birmingham 2006: five penalties, 40 yards.

TCU 2005: six penalties, 46 yards.

Bowling Green 2004: seven penalties, 65 yards.

North Texas 2003: six penalties, 70 yards.

Tulsa 2002: four penalties, 40 yards.

North Carolina 2001: 10 penalties, 104 yards.

Texas-El Paso 2000: nine penalties, 70 yards.

Indiana State 1999: one penalty, 10 yards.

So Stoops’ teams haven’t incredibly sloppy in openers, with a few exceptions, but neither have they been pristine. They were pristine Saturday night against Tulsa. One turnover (Trey Franks’ fumble). No sacks. Two penalties. That’s a clean performance

I do think, however, that anyone will be hard-pressed to beat The Galloping Ghost as a nickname. Or Crazy Legs.

I mentioned in the column this morning and the video yesterday that I had produced a top-10 list of OU football nicknames. Here are the 10:

10. Claude “Little Tub” Tyler:  Little Tub wouldn’t go over today, but it’s a great name for 1919.

9. Raymond “Sugar Bear” Hamilton: I love nicknames that are opposites. There was nothing sweet about the way Ray Hamilton played defense, either at Douglass High School or OU or the New England football Patriots.

8. Forest “Spot” Geyer: OU’s first great passer, in 1915, nicknamed for his pinpoint passing. Hey, “Spot” Bradford has a nice ring to it.

7. “The Boz”: Pretty much sells itself.

6. “Bugger” Paul Parker: You know, I never have heard why Paul Parker was called “Bugger.” Doesn’t sound very nice.

5. Dewey “Snorter” Luster: Another opposite. Snorter was a mild-mannered coach.

4. Indian Jack Jacobs: Great quarterback from 1940. You never could get away with that today. Indian Sam Bradford?

3. Gilford “Cactus Face” Duggan: Same deal. If I called someone Cactus Face today, I might get a Mike Gundy rant out of Bob Stoops.

2. Leon “Mule Train” Heath: On second thought, this might should be No. 1 and probably deserves to be on the college football 10. Mule Train. Just a fantastic nickname.

1. Ed “Wahoo” McDaniel: I don’t know what it means, but I know I love the nickname of this 1958 linebacker.

My old friend Ed Frost wrote me today about this subject. It was good stuff:

“Agreed, today’s nicknames aren’t as good as yesteryears’.  The question that interests me is: why?  Are Americans less creative now?  Are we falling victim to making everything shorter and quicker — and less interesting?  Is it part of the technology and speed process?  You know, like it happened with songs.  Some of the old folk ballads used to have 20 or more verses and endless variations.  But when records came along and disc jockeys, the radio stations didn’t want songs that lasted more than about three minutes.

“Anyway, I enjoyed the column today, and it brought back memories, like a kid in Hobart who played ball and was known as Booger Red.  Don’t know why.  His real name was William Lee, I think.  And he is deceased, so we can’t ask him. ”

All I can say is, bye, bye, Miss American Pie.

And angered some of the masses. I heard from many an Oklahoman who offered up ideas on how I could have improved my Centennial lists, but most of them suffered from fatal logic. Many wanted me to add someone to the list, but few offered a suggestion on who to take off.

This wasn’t a Dick Vitale NCAA bracket. Listen to Dickie V., and 136 teams should be in the field of 65. If someone goes on the list, someone else goes off.

I was pleased with most of my lists. I wish I could redo the athletes list; I think I would make it strictly Oklahomans, people who were raised here. That would eliminate the collegiate move-ins, but that would have been OK. My team list was so subjective, you could have turned it almost upside down and not been overly scandalous.

But the venues, I thought were great. The coaches was good, too, and the events. Few people have convinced me I made any kind of oversight on those lists.

The criticism can be funny. I’m told Pat Jones, who was very kind after my venue list and had me on his radio show, was upset that I didn’t include the 1984 Oklahoma State football team. Those Cowboys went 10-2 and could have played for a national title had they beaten OU in late November.

But this wasn’t a could-have list. This was a did-have list. Funny thing, the 1984 SOONERS weren’t on the list, either. Don’t you think they deserved to be higher than the ’84 Cowboys?