Jim Thorpe's Ghost

The last time we played the Sooners, we had a few join and post for while even after the game. But you're right - we don't seem to have any at the moment. On the other hand, when you think about it, there really aren't any representing the South teams at all. We've had a few Aggie fans that stuck around for a while, but haven't seen them lately. And I can't remember a single Okie State fan that's posted. Well, I've posted here and there.

It will be, ABC or ESPN I'd reckon. Today we've got to take care Kansas - and I hope we win by a big enough margin to help me finally forget last week. I'm one of those Oklahoma fans who wishes OU vs Nebraska would come back every year, even if we both had to drop a non-conference game. So much history and tradition in those classic games between our teams - it is missed as a regular item on every fall schedule we play by about every OU fan I've ever talked to down here. Wish the Cornhuskers all the best in their game today against Iowa State - see you guys on Nov. 1st in Norman.

Some of these kinds of threads takes me back ten years or so to 1997-98 just before Stoops was hired at OU. In the chat rooms and OU fan boards of the day the frustration was palpable, and folks were calling out Blake, the entire coaching staff, and various players. Then some well-meaning savant would come along and say "OMG the players are reading this they're going to lose every game left in the season because of what some anonymous somebody posted on a message board pleeeeze stop!!!!!11" It was nonsense then when posted by a despondent OU fan in 1998, and it's nonsense now when said by a Nebraska fan on your board. Folks, listen up: frustrated fans are going to blow off steam. A forum like this is the perfect place for it, and asking them to bury their frustrations and only post nice ON AN ANONYMOUS MESSAGE BOARD is really kind of silly. The players of your team are not sitting around the locker room reading your internet posts, guys. And even if they are, so what? These are big, tough college football players, not tender little Miss Moppets who are going to faint in a swoon when they read some critical comment on a message board by a fan somewhere. "Dialing it down" is appropriate at the office or similar such places, but this board should be the very place where fans express their frustrations. It gives fans of your team a place to vent their frustrations at some of the problems your team has faced the last couple of years. Trust me, I've been there in the nineties with OU, and know exactly how you feel. Nebraska is a storied program, and you will be back. In the meantime, the net nannies need to lay off folks who are simply disappointed at some of things going on with Cornhusker football. They have every right to vent. Carry on.

I felt the same way about the Cornhuskers during the 1980's when I was a teenager, though obviously from the other side. Then a funny thing happened: I grew up, and matured. This Sooner fan is not asking any Cornhusker to "like" my team. But I think the "respect" has been earned, in both directions.

Like/Respect Nebraska - by a long shot. Texas Aggie Could take or leave/indifferent Kansas Missouri Kansas State Baylor Iowa State Hate Texas - to the core. Oklahoma Aggie (aka, Oklahoma State Cowboys) - more a feeling of contempt rather than "hate". Starting to seriously dislike - at least this year (Heh) Colorado Texas Tech Worship The Oklahoma Sooners

Congratulations, Huskers, on your new coach and hopefully a new era for your storied program. This Sooner fan wishes you all well.

Occasionally monitoring this board over the last few months, as I have, I can't help but be struck by how many of the posts resemble the Sooner boards in 1998. The same anger, frustration, laments, desperation, over a legendary program brought low by a combination of bad coaching (and coaches) and long-term hangover from poor athletic program mistakes made years before. And, oh yeah, I remember posts like yours, too, wsccubsfan19. Anyone who has seen my (few) posts here know I am not an Oklahoma homer trying to troll or sow disruption on the Nebraska board. Though I certainly am not going to sit here and try to convince everyone that I like Nebraska in the sense that we're chummy buddies, I nevertheless think anyone who's read my few contributions here knows that I sincerely respect your program and its storied history, and the classiness of your fans. I've seen the Game of the Century. Even through the somewhat distorted filter of replayed TV, it was nothing less than a majestic clash of true titans. I've watched the legendary contests through the late seventies and eighties, contests the outcome of which often meant either OU or Nebraska was headed to play for bigger things at the end of the season. I miss that, just as I'm sure many of the Nebraska fans here would tell you that they missed the larger-than-life excitement of those kind of games between our two teams when OU was at such a low point during the 1990's. I want the Nebraska I remember from those days back, wsccubsfan19, and I'm a Crimson & Cream Sooner fan to the core. I want those games, those epic struggles between the Sooners and the Cornhuskers, struggles that really matter in the college football scheme of things year after year after year! I seem to want it more than you do, going by the OP you posted. Because, and I say this with all due respect to this board, you're never going to get it with Callahan as your head coach. Guys like you posted on the Sooner board back in 1998 all the myriad reasons why we should give our manifest failure of a HC umpteenth chances to "turn it around" until the year 2038, and they spent a good deal of hair-splitting effort arguing just as you are now in this thread about all the reasons why we just didn't get it. It's almost like being in a time warp; the only thing different is the name of the team, the fans involved, and the coaching staff being discussed. I think many of your fellow Cornhusker fans are no longer interested in all the myriad excuses and "just give it time" pablum you're peddling in this OP. I know I wasn't when I was in their place as a Sooner fan, back in 1997. I just think your fellow Cornhuskers want to start the process of putting their storied program back into the powerhouse pantheon where it properly belongs year after year. And this Sooner fan agrees with them. Thank you for letting me have my say.

I see you've never been to a game in Stoolwa-er, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

I have never seen one poster argue so long and hard on a message board that it was the responsibility of the other team's offense to stop themselves.

And as a Sooner fan, I can back up what HSKRNOKC is saying to the hilt: back in the nineties, you couldn't scare up an OU fan in some venues around here. They were very thin on the ground judging by the OU apparel in places like sports bars, restaurants, just walking around the Malls, etc. Then Stoops came in and turned things around, and by golly walk down the street in about any city outside Stoolwater, and it's Crimson & Cream sports wear on Saturdays, and OU flags flying below Old Glory on front yard flagpoles. One word of caution, though: I stuck with my Sooners, and didn't pull a Peter-heard-the-rooster-crow-act during that time. But there was a certain kind of fan who didn't just stick with our team, but insisted nothing was wrong. I stuck by the Sooners, but I refused to wear the rose-colored glasses about their performance at that time, either. Anyway, Nebraska will be back. Trust me, I've been right where you are now and I know how it hurts. Thank you for letting me have my say. -JTG

Ahem: Nebraska 69 OU 7, November 1st, 1997. Not trying to be trollish, just saying...(and this Sooner fan sure didn't whine about it at the time; I wasn't babyish enough to think Nebraska's offense was obligated to stop itself).

You guys are such babys. You have been rubbing peoples noses with all of this Husker BS for 40 years and now you are getting a dose of your own medicine and can't take it. Just think what it would be like if you were an Iowa State fan or a Missouri fan and have had your ass handed to you most of these past 30 years by the Cornhuskers. That would be something to cry about or want to forfeit. You so called great fans have a few bad seasons and you can't handle it. Grow up and start spreading your interests a little more. There are more important things in life rather than obsessing over what some 20-21 year olds do on a football field on a Saturday. Idiots!!! I wouldn't use the same language, and I probably would have nixed the "Idiots!!!" that was thrown in there, but I've got to generally agree with what this guy said. For being "the best fans in college football", I have been anything but impressed by the way you guys have been acting and the things you guys have been saying over the past 3 weeks. Welcome to reality, folks. Your program will certainly find its way back to national relevance, and probably sooner rather than later, but you're never again going to be as good as you were in the 90's. That level of play isn't possible anymore, so I'd suggest you get used to losing back to back games every now and again. It happens. Sticking with your team through losses is part of what being a fan is all about. I'm not a Husker fan, I'm a Sooner, but allow me to take a crack at a response to both you and "Huskerhater" above. You see, Colorado, Missouri, Iowa State, Baylor and the rest of the traditional Big 12 bottom dwellers have never had a tradition of excellence as long and as storied as either OU or Nebraska. It's simply not the same thing when a Colorado or an Oklahoma State has a long dry spell like this, because no one really expects much from them in the first place. Nor should they. Face it, teams like Nebraska, Oklahoma, USC, etc., have a tradition that stretches back generations, and that's why people care so much when one of these traditional football giants stumbles for a few seasons. No one really gives a rip when a CU or Oklahoma State or some similar East Popcorn State type football program goes through years of losing seasons. Sorry, but it's just that simple.

As another life-long Sooner fan, I echo everything SoonerFan46 has had to say in this thread, including most of all the respect I have always had for Nebraska. We down here in Sooner Nation went through the same thing you good folks are going through now back in the nineties, including, at the end, a version of what happened up your way today. Here's hoping that the events that occurred today are just the start of good things to come for your team on the way back to national prominence, and that one day the nationwide College Football rankings will again look like they truly should in any given year: Oklahoma #1 Nebraska #2 Sincerely, -JTG

Oh shut up. What, exactly, does "giving up on the team" mean? WAhusker, Sooner fan here. Back in the nineties, when my team was going 3-8, 4-8, 5-6, etc., the "give Blake forever" folks were constantly saying to those of us who were calling for a change, "you're giving up on the team! you're not true OU fans! you never have been!", just like that fellow you're replying to in this post. And what they really meant was: "you're telling us unpleasant facts we don't want to hear." And that's the case here, I think: you're telling the truth about a tough situation with Nebraska football, and some folks don't want to hear it.

Sooner fan here, and I must say as an outside observer that the situation is eerily similar. There are some differences, of course, but lots more similarities. Gary Gibbs, who replaced Switzer, was a quiet, solid type of guy. I think his last year we went 8-3 or 8-4, and there were outcries that Oklahoma had sunk into some sort of--day I say it?--"mediocrity." So they canned Gibbs and brought in Schnellenburger. "They will write books and make movies about my time here" I remember him saying just before he took over, and that year we went 5-5-1. Exit Schnellenberger, enter Blake. That's when the real fun began. Three back-to-back losing seasons ensued, with Blake's defenders screeching for "more time, more time!" and "give him a chance two-three-ten-twenty chances!" the whole way. Now, we didn't really have internet web forums back then, although they were coming along. But we did have dial-up message boards and AOL chat. Here's what a typical "debate" over keeping Blake at least till the year 2025 ("giving him a chance") looked like: Me - "With two minutes left, down one score, 3rd and 17, why did they go right up the gut when the defense had the box loaded with 11?" Blake Defender - "the coach saw something you didn't" Me - "he 'saw' another loss, in an already losing season." Blake Defender - "it added to our rushing stats." Me - "Jeeze Louise, we LOST THE GAME! Don't you realize, 'rushing stats' mean squat unless you WIN THE GAME." Blake Defender - "you're just a racist. you're not a real Sooner fan. you were rooting for us to lose. the fairy godmother is going to click her heels three times and say 'there's no coach like Blake, there's no coach like Blake, there's no coach like Blake' and four Heisman trophy candidates are going to parachute into our backfield, and then the mighty magic pixie dust is going to give us all new linebackers, and then blah, blah, blah, blah..." Sound familiar? Now, to be fair, Blake was a good recruiter and I think a very decent man, but just not a very effective head coach. It was all very frustrating for Sooner fans, at least those of us without blinders on, and what saved us was not Stoops per se, but rather the arrival of an AD smart enough to hire Stoops. Joe Castiglione brought in Stoops, and our revival began. There have been bumps in the road, but we've experienced no more embarrassing seasons, have picked up a NC and several Big 12 titles, and are overall once again contenders on the national scene. Well, that's just my recollection of what kind of shape my team was in during the nineties. It wasn't pretty. I'm not presumptuous enough to think I should be telling Nebraska fans that their team should do this or that, but the similarities between our situation then and yours now is striking. I will say that I think, with your great tradition, you will one day be back on top. I say that in all sincerity. And, believe me, I understand just how a lot of you are feeling right now; we Sooner fans were in the same boat just a scant ten years ago. Thank you for letting me chime in here and have my say.

Okay, I'm a Sooner fan here in Oklahoma and I do know the background of this situation. First, though, I want to say that as a Sooner fan I've always respected Nebraska and your program. I know some of the seasons haven't gone as well as you'd like lately, but don't worry we were in the same slump in the nineties and came back. You have great tradition and will get back on top soon enough. Now, about this rant of Gundy's: It's really a dishonest sort of thing by him on several levels. First, sports radio down here as well as the football forums have been abuzz for MONTHS about this situation when it comes to the Cowpokes. So it's not like the column exactly had any new info, this stuff had been rumored and gossiped about by OSU fans themselves for weeks. And the word was that Gundy's own coaching staff was leaking some of this material to the media. Second, this was about much, much more than Gundy "standing up" for one of his players. Give me a break! To believe that you'd have to believe that this was the first time in the history of Oklahoma journalism that a sports writer down here wrote something mean about a college football player. Please. No, it's more about frustration that OSU, despite sugar daddy Boone Pickens new stadium and all that jazz, just can't seem to coach up to its talent. Except for my time in the service, I've lived in Oklahoma all my life. There has not been a year go by that the Cowpokes weren't going to show us Sooners how it was done this time. And when they haven't, it's always somehow been everyone else's fault, not the Cowpoke's themselves. What Gundy was doing, IMHO, was "changing the subject": by going off on that reporter it made him the story, instead of the woeful state of Cowpoke football. Third, I'm given to understand that Nebraska fans don't have much use for Colorado. Trust me, however bad Colorado fans and program are OSU fans are much worse. When they beat us, which they sometimes do, you've never heard so much arrogance and smack talk. When they lose, which they usually do, it's never that they got outplayed, it's that they got bad calls, the media was against them, it wasn't fair, blah, blah, blah. They also have no class. After the Oregon debacle when just about everyone in the country admitted OU got not one but two bad calls, I attended a charity event. A bunch of OSU fans showed up wearing Oregon ducks hats and turned it into a "hah! hah!" sort of thing. This is par for the course by Cowpoke fans. Finally, I know that Coach Stoops has expressed some sympathy for Gundy's position, and a lot of Cowpokes are saying "your own coach backs our guy!!!" Well, fine. I'm not defending the column, anyway, and I think Coach Stoops, who I respect quite a bit, is wrong on this one. But what I am saying is that Gundy's rant, in context, was way off base. The situation the reporter wrote about that "set him off" was, by and large, a situation of Gundy's OWN making, and that of his coaching staff. It's not as simple as a coach "standing up" for one of his players. Thank you for letting me have my say, and good luck to your team in the future (except when you're playing OU )