Earl Campbell Carries Rice Player into Endzone Revisited

Doing a completely unrelated search today, I found this neat article on ESPN's Page 2 about the 1977 video of Earl Campbell carrying Rice's Strong Safety Michael Downs into the Endzone. I was amused that the author located the involved players to discuss their thoughts on the memorable play.

To the right of the article was a little sidebar about how hard it was to figure out who was in the video. I was thinking, oh shoot - my dad would have known instantly! Wait..... this is sounding a little familiar. Then I see MY NAME as a critical resource and remember we had this discussion on Uni Watch quite some time ago. How cool is that?

Turns out the author asked for Uni Watch's assistance and (with the help of dad) we concluded who got the free ride! Although we had concluded it was Michael Downs by the end of the thread, the author had to give some credit to the UT historian that confirmed it! ;)

Check out "The Story Behind the Story" on the right side of the article!

The research started by dad's "all knowing of all things SWC", lots of legwork by me, and finished by dad and his SWC Record Books... which are now mine! Check out comments 101, 155, 186, 193, 195, 197, 212, 216, 226, 238, 242, 243, 245, 247, 248 at Uni Watch for the full process!

Classic SWC Matchup Today

I can only imagine the cartoon DIrk West would have come up with for today's game regarding last year's upset.

Love all the replays on College Game Day of last year's upset! No surprise with Corso's donning of the Bevo Mascot head. Actually I prefer, as a Red Raider, to be the underdog. Bad things happen when we are favored! Thought the signs were rather weak though... even the best one about not freestyling Texas Fight failed by omitting "big boy." Weeeeeeak...

We don't freestyle Texas Fight, big boy!



More Cartoons from Dirk West - each one with a very cool set up for the week. The LAJ has moved them to the Lubbock Centennial page - which is a very cool page, by the way.

The Power and The GloryHarold V. Ratliff

What is it with this book that it is so expensive? Published in 1957 by the Texas Tech Press, Harold Ratliff was a veteran Texas sports writer. But, I have never seen a copy with its dust jacket for less than $100. A signed copy I saw once at the Half Price Books in Dallas was either $150 or $300 - I was so stunned, I just purged it from mind. The next time I went, it was gone!

And how in the world can this book be so wonderful when my dad did not have it...? He had every book written about the SWC! Guess it might have been a tad early for him - even though he did travel to his first UT game by train from Houston alone with his best friend at the age of eight (1949).

Reported to have one at the Houston Public Library, I may go try to find it before I put down half a Franklin for a non-dust jacketed copy. Published in 1957 I need to make sure I want it. My interest of the SWC is more 60s and 70s.

Oregon of the Big 12

Baylor's unis WERE perfect...

Old school - up the middle, up the middle to the left, up the middle to the right... Okay, so their offense style has changed a bit - but it's not like Tech who have an entirely modern game and completely fill those Under Armour shoes. While those "Old Baylor Line" stripes are gone from the pants, at least Nike did not remove them from the helmet. Not to be outdone though - in the wake of those awful green helmets in 2005-2007 which were actually called "Oregon Green" we now have white helmets... Wait, what???

Let's be clear... Baylor wears gold in case you didn't know! They even f*cked up the mascot... :/ Thank you Nike, you suck!

Thanksgiving Throwbacks

Texas announced they will be wearing 60's era throwbacks for this year's annual Thanksgiving match-up. Now my giddiness withstanding and complete appreciation with this move in the wake of my dad's passing (how fitting for the first A&M-Texas game without him), there are still a couple of problems.

First and foremost... A&M has yet to make a similar announcement completing this beauty of a Thanksgiving Day.

Secondly, with no specific year represented by the unis, they are a mismatch of old school and Nike Nausea. They will have the numbers above the Longhorn on the helmets (although, those hideous new helmets) as they wore from 1963-1966. As for the rest of the uni... not so vintage. The TEXAS wordmark is way too small for that time period (although I believe the wordmark was only on practice jerseys). And there is all kinds of jikky Nike crap going on with the We Are Texas collar trim, apex shield, and DKR Texas patch on the pants.

A similar homage was done in 2005 for the home opener in 2005 was executed much better with the 1963 unis.

Examples of the real deal below.
1962 Cotton Bowl Uni
1963 Cotton Bowl Uni

1964 Cotton Bowl Uni

1965 Orange Bowl Uni1969 Cotton Bowl Uni