On a Thanksgiving holiday weekend, a 15-year-old boy would travel with his family to his grandmother\u2019s home to get his heart crushed. \u00a0He watched as his Sooners were defeated by the Nebraska Cornhuskers. The game ended 35-31 in the greatest college football game ever played. Furthermore, that same 65-year-old man still remembers that game like it was yesterday.\u00a0 The game of the century was played on Thursday, November 25, 1971.\u00a0 With this, we begin to take a journey to 50 years ago and look at the original game of the century.<\/p>\n
The hype for this game was like no other, Sports Illustrated magazine termed it “Irresistible Oklahoma Meets Immovable Nebraska” on the cover of their issue leading up to the game.\u00a0 In reality, this couldn\u2019t be more accurate.<\/p>\n
The Nebraska defense had posted three shutouts and allowed an average of only 6.4 points per game, and the first defensive unit had only allowed five touchdowns all year.<\/p>\n
As the season progressed it became clear that no one had ever seen anything like Oklahoma’s version of the wishbone. \u00a0In early 1970, offensive coordinator\u00a0Barry Switzer<\/strong>\u00a0had copied Texas successful wishbone formation. \u00a0The Sooners were now the most feared offensive team in the country. Oklahoma ranked first nationally averaging 45 points, 563 total yards per game, and 481 rushing yards per game.<\/p>\n With this in mind, the stage was set for the game of the century.<\/p>\n The teams combined to have 17 of 22 first-team All-Big Eight players.\u00a0 Nebraska had seven defensive players named to the Big 8 all-conference first team.\u00a0 For one thing, the Cornhusker defense had four players who would earn consensus All-America honors during their careers.\u00a0 Not to mention two Outland Trophy winners in tackle Larry Jacobson<\/a>\u00a0and middle guard\u00a0Rich Glover<\/strong>. In like manner, Nebraska was led by quarterback Jerry Tagge<\/a>\u00a0and flanker Johnny Rodgers<\/a>. \u00a0Rodgers would eventually win the Heisman Trophy.<\/p>\n Be that as it may, Oklahoma was loaded on the offensive side of the ball.\u00a0 The Sooners’ record-setting offense was led by All-American quarterback Jack Mildren<\/a>.\u00a0 Mildren rushed for over 1,000 yards but was also an underrated passer. His weapons were Heisman candidate halfback Greg Pruitt<\/a> who averaged a stunning 9.5 yards per carry, as well as the sure-handed wide receiver Jon Harrison<\/strong>. All-America and future college football Hall of Famer Tom Brahaney<\/strong> was the anchor at center.<\/p>\n The first half was somewhat out of character for both teams. \u00a0The Cornhuskers power offense was held in check by an undermanned Sooner defense.\u00a0 \u00a0At the same time, the Sooners explosive wishbone offense was thwarted by the Nebraska defense. Another key point, the Sooners lost the ball on fumbles two times.\u00a0 The Sooner offense was continually frustrated by Husker middle guard\u00a0Glover, who ended up with twenty-two tackles on the day.<\/p>\n The Cornhuskers struck first, with Rodgers shocking the Sooners with a 72-yard punt return for a touchdown. \u00a0The punt return remains one of college football’s signature moments, due to the fact that at least two illegal clipping fouls were missed by the officials.<\/p>\n Oklahoma answered with a field goal. \u00a0This was followed by a long Nebraska drive culminated by tailback Jeff Kinney<\/a> diving into the endzone from the Sooner one-yard line. \u00a0To be noted, this gave Nebraska a 14\u20133 lead which was the largest of the day. In addition, it should be remembered that Kinney would figure prominently in the decisive game-winning drive.<\/p>\n Oklahoma retaliated with a Mildren three-yard run to make the score 14\u201310 Nebraska with 5:40 to play in the first half.<\/p>\n Relying almost entirely on Mildren’s arm and legs, the Sooners grabbed a 17\u201314 lead on two long passes from Mildren to Harrison with five seconds left before halftime. For the first time all season, the Cornhuskers trailed.<\/p>\n To begin the second half, the Cornhuskers relied heavily on a power running game.\u00a0 Nebraska scored two touchdowns, the first of which following another Sooner lost fumble.\u00a0 At this point, Nebraska had forged ahead 28\u201317 with 3:38 to play in the third quarter.<\/p>\n Mildren then led the Sooners back with a pair of touchdowns.\u00a0 First Mildren got into the Nebraska end zone with a three-yard run followed by a 16-yard pass to Harrison. \u00a0Oklahoma had forged ahead\u00a031\u201328\u00a0with 7:10 to play.<\/p>\n The Huskers got the ball back on their own 26-yard line.\u00a0 Nebraska methodically marched down the field on a Sooner defense that was getting exhausted. Cornhusker tailback Kinney, carried four consecutive times, the last resulting in his fourth touchdown of the game.\u00a0 Although this may be true, it should be noted that Kinney fumbled the ball inside the Sooner three-yard line on the third carry.\u00a0 But once again the officiating crew missed a second crucial call. The ball would stay with Nebraska. Regardless, Kinney would finish the game with 171 yards on 31 carries. Nebraska regained the lead at 35\u201331 with only 98 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n On the Sooners final drive, sacks of Mildren on third and fourth down in Sooner territory finished the game off as a Nebraska victory in the greatest college football game ever played.<\/p>\n In conclusion, this was undoubtedly the greatest college football game ever played. Despite the fact that the officials were responsible for two game-changing missed calls, this was the most memorable game in the life of that 15-year-old boy.\u00a0 With that being said, the now 65-year-old man still remembers with a bit of sadness how the Sooners lost that epic battle of college football bluebloods<\/a> in the greatest college football game ever played.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Oklahoma vs Nebraska 1971 Game of the Century On a Thanksgiving holiday weekend, a 15-year-old boy would travel with his family to his grandmother\u2019s home to get his heart crushed. \u00a0He watched as his Sooners were defeated by the Nebraska Cornhuskers. The game ended 35-31 in the greatest college football game ever played. Furthermore, that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3198,"featured_media":38691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[2365,3278,8107,511,37,6296],"class_list":["post-38678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-big12","tag-barry-switzer","tag-college-football-rivalries","tag-game-of-the-century","tag-nebraska-cornhuskers","tag-oklahoma-sooners","tag-tom-osborne"],"modified_by":"Jason Rhea","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u00a0The Players<\/h3>\n
First Half<\/h3>\n
Second Half<\/h3>\n
The Final Thought<\/h3>\n