What are the 10 most memorable moments in the football rivalry between Texas and Oklahoma?
This season may mark a farewell tour for Texas in the Big 12, but the latest chapter of the Red River Rivalry won’t be one of the stops. Texas and Oklahoma first played in 1900, and Saturday’s contest in Dallas will mark the 119th meeting in a rivalry that will continue into the SEC next season. Let’s take a look at the 10 most memorable moments in a series that almost always has national significance.
1963: Put up your Duke
It took the Longhorns a decade to catch up to Oklahoma on the national stage, but it only took Texas quarterback Duke Carlisle less than seven minutes to give his team a lead it would never relinquish in a landmark 28-7 win. Carlisle muscled across a 1-yard scoring run in the first quarter during the victory that allowed Texas to supplant the Sooners atop the national polls. Texas would go on to win its first national title while Oklahoma, which won three championships in the 1950s, fell into a nearly decade-long doldrum.
More: Quarterback Quinn Ewers, Texas football in a rush to play Oklahoma this weekend
1976: Royal, Switzer could give a flip
You could cut the tension with a knife during the pregame flip, even with President Gerald Ford – himself a former collegiate star at Michigan – trying to mediate between Texas coach Darrell Royal and Oklahoma’s Barry Switzer. Ford would have had better luck negotiating peace in the Middle East. Royal had accused Switzer of spying on Texas practices over the previous several seasons and even challenged the Sooners’ coach to take a lie-detector test. Switzer responded by mocking the beloved Texas icon Royal, a native Oklahoman who played for the Sooners. Fittingly, the game ended with neither coach happy after a 6-6 tie.
1984: Fit to be tied
Rain drenched the field all game, but it couldn’t cool off the fiery Switzer after the game between No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Oklahoma ended in a 15-15 tie. Up by three points in the waning moments of the game, the Sooners appeared to hold on for the win after an apparent interception in the Oklahoma end zone snuffed a late Longhorn drive. Much to Switzer’s consternation, the officials ruled the pass incomplete, which set up a 32-yard field goal by Jeff Ward that tied the game. “They took the game from us,” fumed Switzer after. Todd Dodge, the Texas quarterback who went on to a legendary career as a high-school coach, shrugged it off years later: “It was pass interference anyway.”
More: Texas takes on Oklahoma for the 119th Red River Rivalry: See photos over the years
1989: Peter the Great’s reign begins
Peter Gardere, the only Texas quarterback to beat Oklahoma four times, threw his way into college football lore in just his second start as a freshman. Gardere hit Johnny Walker with a 25-yard touchdown pass with 1 minute, 33 seconds left to play to secure a 28-24 win. His other wins over the Sooners may have lacked such drama, but Oklahoma fans still see crimson when Gardere enters the conversation.
Texas defensive tackle Stonie Clark's big hit stops Oklahoma in '94 https://t.co/1pDJ0EkD0b via @YouTube
— Thomas Jones (@ThomasJonesAAS) October 4, 2023
1994: Stone cold stop
With 43 seconds left in the game and Oklahoma just three yards away from tying the game, Texas nose guard Stonie Clark stonewalled Oklahoma running back James Allen at the goal line to preserve the win. The stop made the 345-pound, poetry-spouting, quick-witted Clark into a campus folk hero and remains arguably the most famous Texas tackle in series history.
More: Bohls: To some, Texas' Jonathon Brooks is encroaching into Bijan Robinson territory
1996: Allen works overtime for redemption
Two years after his collision with Clark just before the goal line, Allen garnered some redemption by scoring the first overtime touchdown in OU's 30-27 win. His 2-yard run capped a game that signaled a new era; not only had college football implemented overtime in 1996, but the game in the Big 12’s inaugural season marked the first meeting between the rivals as conference foes.
Roy Williams' superman dive against Chris Simms seals OU's win in 2001. https://t.co/YsPPtMFhI2 via @YouTube
— Thomas Jones (@ThomasJonesAAS) October 4, 2023
2001: Not all superheroes wear capes
A resurgent Texas program craved a win in a series that had swung north of the Red River, but All-American safety Roy Williams wouldn’t let it happen on his watch. In one of the iconic plays in college football history, Williams soared over the Texas line and knocked a pass attempt by quarterback Chris Simms’ into the air before Sooners linebacker Teddy Lehman grabbed the loose ball and stepped into the end zone for the game-sealing touchdown in a 14-3 victory. Oklahoma would soon give way to Texas in the 2000s, but not yet.
Jordan Rules: Texas' Jordan Shipley returns a kickoff 96 yards to flip the momentum in a 45-35 win for the Longhorns in 2008. https://t.co/862ckf9r1d via @YouTube
— Thomas Jones (@ThomasJonesAAS) October 4, 2023
2008: Jordan rules
Texas’ dramatic 45-35 win over top-ranked Oklahoma on a picture-perfect fall day remains a favorite memory for any Longhorn fan, but the comeback victory wouldn’t have happened without Shipley’s special-teams heroics. The Sooners leaped out to a 14-3 lead early in the second quarter and appeared poised to blow Texas out. Shipley, the Longhorns’ all-time leader in receptions, changed the momentum of the game with an electrifying 96-yard kickoff return.
2017: Baker Mayfield, home-groan talent.
A native of the Austin area who graduated from Lake Travis High School, Baker Mayfield still takes gleeful pleasure in tormenting Texas fans. Nothing proved more torturous to the locals than a 59-yard touchdown pass to tight end Mark Andrews, which provided the final swing of momentum in a wild 29-24 win by the Sooners.
Cameron Dicker with a smile and a head nod before his game-winning field goal in 2018. https://t.co/xDS33g3nVM
— Thomas Jones (@ThomasJonesAAS) October 4, 2023
2018: No nodding off for Dicker the Kicker
It had been six years since both teams entered the Cotton Bowl in the polls, but a duel between quarterbacks Kyler Murray of Oklahoma and Texas’ San Ehlinger came down to a kicker, specifically Cameron Dicker. Then a true freshman from Lake Travis High School, Dicker the Kicker delivered a nod and a smile to a national audience before calmly booting a 40-yard field goal with 14 second left in the game to lift Texas to a 48-45 win.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: 10 unforgettable moments in the rivalry between Texas and Oklahoma