Dave Sittler: Callahan needs a clue about NU-OU
BY DAVE SITTLER
THE TULSA WORLD
• Editor's note: The author, Dave Sittler, covered Nebraska football for The World-Herald in the early 1980s.
Darren DeLone got off; now let's hope his coach gets it.
On second thought, let's demand Nebraska football coach Bill Callahan gets it through his hard head that there are some things in sports nobody messes with.
Nobody. Including a know-it-all who apparently figures he has all the answers because he coached in a Super Bowl.
Super Bowl, Stooper Bowl. When it comes to storied tradition, that overhyped NFL money trap couldn't hold the Oklahoma-Nebraska series' jock.
But for the OU-Nebraska rivalry to receive the justice DeLone was served in a Cleveland County courtroom, Callahan needs to educate himself on why it's considered one of the classiest in all of sports.
Callahan apparently still doesn't either grasp the deep pride both schools and their fans take in the 93-year-old series, or simply doesn't want to get what makes this game unique.
DeLone is the former Husker lineman acquitted last Wednesday of an aggravated assault and battery charge. The incident with an OU spirit squad member occurred before kickoff of last season's OU-Nebraska game in Norman.
It was after that Nov. 13 contest that Callahan applied a thick coat of vulgar tarnish to the heretofore shining series. His angry words delivered an ugly wound to the overwhelming goodwill generated and nurtured during the teams' 80 previous meetings.
Callahan started it with a crass postgame remark about OU fans. He continued his verbal assault two days later, and this spring kept aggravating the wound with a snide remark about OU.
As a proud Nebraska graduate who has covered the Husker and Sooner programs for a combined 30-plus years, I have one question: Where does this uneducated interloper get off with this type of ignorant behavior?
Callahan had been associated with Nebraska less than a year when he started spouting off last November on topics where he was clueless.
After OU thrashed the Huskers 30-3, a petulant Callahan called Sooner fans "(expletive) hillbillies."
On the following Monday's Big 12 teleconference, Callahan continued his harangue. He complained that OU fans had tossed oranges on the field and said "I've never seen anything like it before."
Puhleeeze. Callahan had never witnessed fans throwing objects to celebrate their team's upcoming bowl trip? Had he checked the OU-Nebraska series, he would have learned about a Husker fan instigating a throwing incident in the 1982 game.
When Nebraska scored, the Husker supporter fired a frozen orange from the stadium's south end zone. It struck a Nebraska security guard in the neck, leaving him partially and permanently paralyzed.
Fans shouldn't throw objects. But OU supporters aren't the only ones winging things out of the stadium.
After the 1982 game, OU coach Barry Switzer didn't curse and denigrate Husker fans. Switzer never, ever criticized Nebraska.
The same goes for former Husker coaches Bob Devaney, Tom Osborne and Frank Solich. It was several coaches at both schools who developed this long-standing mutual respect, which stood as an envied model as several rivalries descended into trash-talking and hatred.
Neither Callahan nor Nebraska's administration issued an apology for his actions after the game nor during the teleconference. That still bothers OU athletic director Joe Castiglione.
"One can understand somebody in the heat of the moment saying something they wished they wouldn't have said," Castiglione said. "But the comments that came the Monday after the game were totally inappropriate.
"Talking about it two days later and inflaming the situation was not representative of the classy relationship that the two universities celebrate."
After DeLone's acquittal, the Nebraska athletic department released a statement that said the school and its football program "are committed to enhancing the tradition, sportsmanship and passion displayed for nearly a century in the Nebraska-Oklahoma rivalry."
If Nebraska officials want to demonstrate that commitment, they should order Callahan to do his homework on the rivalry's rich heritage. Callahan has ample time to crack the OU-Nebraska history books before the teams meet Oct. 29 in Lincoln.
Even before DeLone's verdict, Castiglione said he planned to evaluate OU's game day operations. That includes where the Ruf/Neks spirit group will be located so the school can avoid another incident.
While OU has vowed to do its part in repairing any damage done to the series, Callahan's antagonistic attitude about the Sooners continues. That was apparent when he was asked during a spring practice press conference about the Huskers using the "Oklahoma drill," which was developed by legendary OU coach Bud Wilkinson.
Callahan said the Huskers would run the Oklahoma drill every day and noted that, after all, "it's named after my favorite school."
Sadly, he obviously still doesn't get it.
