Everybody surrounding these two programs has a Bedlam memory or two that sticks out in their minds. Mostly for the Cowboys they're of the, "I should get a medal for coming back after what happened last year" variety. Lord knows I've heard my dad tell me about that freakin' onside kick in 1983 a million times. For some guys I work with, it's the dropped game-winner in 1988. I've had a couple of Bedlam memories through the years worth holding onto. Crammed sideways in the back seat of Marc Shook's Trans Am (maybe a Firebird) from Stillwater to Norman our freshman year, stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic all the way from Moore with a full bladder, only to end the day rushing Owen Field after a 30-7 victory would be my second best.
My best memory came in 2001.
I was a senior in architecture school, and college had just about finished beating me down. Oh, and I remember trying to present a design crit at about 1:00pm on 9/11/01. The only good thing I had going for me was my girlfriend at the time, now my wife, helping me to hold onto my sanity. Barely. If you've never heard about OSU Architecture, suffice it to say that we've seen more sunrises after through-the-night charrette sessions than all the other undergrads on campus...combined! I didn't get to see many football games that year. I'd like to say it was because I was working hard on my senior design project, which is mostly true, but it really came down to what I thought was going to be the last live game I would ever stomach the heartache of living through. That year we lost to Missouri 41-38 in triple overtime (we lost to them 51-50 in double overtime my freshman year). At that point a said to heck with it, I'm never subjecting myself to that again. Well, something like that anyway.
The senior design project schedule is always broken into three sections. The second section ends the week of Thanksgiving. That's a miserable story for another time, but with the help of my girlfriend/wife, I managed to be present for a 10:00pm, Sunday plot time after a three-day all-nighter (there's really not a good term to describe staying up for multiple days in a row) so I could pull one more all-nighter before my Monday jury. That behind me I kind of coasted the rest of the week and went to see family for Thanksgiving. But, since we had that third phase to finish, I was back in the studio Friday evening. I slept in Saturday morning because the weather was miserable, and I wasn't really looking forward to hanging out at the studio alone. I made it in about mid-morning. Many hours and one near-catastrophic computer crash later Tristan, a good friend of mine who had also stayed in town over the break, came up and nearly drug me out of my chair to go get some lunch at about 3:00pm. I'm pretty sure he had only stayed in town for fear of being made to do some terrible farm labor at his grandpa's place in Woodward. Anyway, the miserable weather had begun to drizzle as we were driving back to the Architecture building when he suggested, as we were passing Joe's on Elm Street, to turn on the radio to see how badly we were getting killed. You see the Sooners were ranked No. 3 and we were 3-7 with a new coach. Sitting at the stop sign at Elm and Knoblock the radio announcer exclaimed the the Cowboys were only down 10-6 with a couple minutes until half time! Instead of making the right and driving 200 yards back to the Architecture building, Tristan turned left and drove 200 feet passed the buildings which house the Art, English, Music, and Theater departments to our favorite hangout, the Stonewall Tavern. Based upon those five little houses of academia that were all literally within crawling distance of the 'Wall, you can imagine that it was/is not your 'normal' college tavern.
Nobody was there. Well the bartender was there, but nobody else was there. It was after all Thanksgiving holiday...and 3:00 o'clock in the afternoon. Tristan and I remembered that there was a TV, back in the corner of the back room, against the front windows facing the street (the front door of the 'Wall is in the back) that neither of us could recall ever having been on. But $3.00 pitchers enticed us to give it a try. Lo and behold, it worked. The second half started, and we had the freshman backup in at quarterback. Great, our QB is either hurt or he was yet again having a terrible game. Regardless, time passed and we stayed in the game. With three minutes to go, we were down by 4 with the ball! A few moments later, and I had forgotten about this in light of what happened on the next play, our freshman quarterback threw an ill advised prayer to the best defensive back on the field (who is still having an all-pro NFL career). The OSU receiver came out of nowhere to cut in front of the sure interception to drag down a contested catch for a 31-yard first down...14-yards and 120 seconds to a miracle. I remember at that point looking at Tristan, and by some telepathic connection, we both had the same thought, "If we pull this off, Thanksgiving break and all, the ENTIRE student body would be back in less than two hours!"
The very next play, freshman Josh Fields hit sophomore Rashaun Woods on the left boundary of the endzone.
(T.D. Bryant was the miracle receiver on the previous play)
That's the day the OSU finally, let me say that again, finally turned the corner!
