Where I Come From: My All-Time Favorite Oklahoma Football Team

Than watching the 2008 squad. The raw explosiveness and efficiency of that offense made each of the many touchdowns more exciting than the previous. That being said, the 2000 squad were world beaters. They could have found a way to beat any cfb team in history.

The 74 team was one as a kid I fell in love with. Joe Washington (shoulda won the Heisman), Tinker Owens, Steve Davis, and a defense with names like Rod Shoote, LeRoy Selmon, Dewey Selmon. They were so strong, so fast.

The 78 team that lost to Nebraska with Billy Sim’s fumbled 3 times inside NU’s 10 yard line. But they got the rematch in the Orange Bowl. Not a national Championship year, but it should have been.

2000. The excitement of the run at the end of the season. That catch on 4th down in the Nebraska game. That might be the biggest game in all the big games OU’s ever played. I was offered $200 to buy my one ticket (it was on the 40 but really for one?!?!?!?). The option to Q get first down at the Big 12 championship game.

My favorite though is “my team” the 1985 year. That was when I was in school. I knew most of those guys. I was at every home game of course. I still consider Keith Jackson a friend. Too many special memories to list them all.

damn this series is really going to get me all misty about football season.

My father and I were able to get season tickets on ebay for what I considered an absolute steal and had we known the kind of season that team was about to have I would hesitate to have called it the greatest deal of all time. Obviously the team had an all time season offensively and my dad and I were fortunate enough to see every home game, the RRSO, the Big 12 championship game, and we even made it down to the game in Miami.

The whole thing was just one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my entire life and getting to experience it all with my dad made it even better. I’m not gonna lie, the season could have ended a little better for us but aside from that I have absolutely zero complaints.

While there are other OU teams that are tempting, the 2000 team was different than nearly any other. Like CC says, they were a team, and they had swagger. But they also were a team with all of us. I remember them going over to the student section and celebrating with their fellow students after their victories, because they really were all in it together. The team’s entire philosophy just made you proud, and even more so to see them actually execute.

Then, for me, there was also the magic aspect. The entire 2000 season and team were just…magical. Not just with Sooner Magic, but to come from nowhere, with no real expectations, after years of horrible seasons and lots of losses. To pull the entire team together and always keep fighting. To believe so strongly. THAT was magic. I remember talking with my dad about the big October stretch, and we both agreed that if we won just one of those three big games, it would be a tremendous success for us, a HUGE year. Little did we know, that they had something even greater in mind, something to treat us all with, to show that Oklahoma really WAS back. Even after going down two quick TDs to Nebraska, the team never gave up, and that magic just kept rolling all season long.

Honorable mention goes to the 2003 team, because it was great to watch Jason White roll up the numbers after all his hardships, and his supporting cast enabled him to be truly great and win that Heisman. That was a team that was excellent to watch, every game, that just dominated from start to finish. What can you say when your toughest game, against Texas, you STILL win 65-13? I would argue that if Mike Stoops had not bailed right before the Big 12 Championship game, we’d probably all be talking about our seven NCs and remembering THAT team as one of our all-time greatest. (They were OU’s highest-scoring team, until 2008, of course.)

But I still loved watching OU in the orange bowl. I knew little about cfb back then (I was 12 or so), so seeing OU go undefeated and smother Texas gave me the impression that OU was the best and Texas’ football program was actually pretty pathetic. I only knew a few people who supported UT (I grew up closer to Norman than Austin) and felt kind of sorry for them.

Since I’ve become an OU fan my favorite team has been 2008, but I loved watching the 2006 squad persevere. I actually liked all the Fiesta Bowl drama, and Adrian Peterson is probably my favorite athlete of all time.

So there are bits & pieces from every team that I love. Memories that make them special.

85 I was in jr high & fairly impressionable, so you love the swagger, the OB & beating Penn State. But in 87 or 88 (when Barry Sanders won the Heisman) beating OSU was priceless. 2 guys from my very small hometown had gone & played at OSU & people were pretty partial to OSU. So that made it even sweeter. 91 was my first OU/UT weekend, how do you not think that is the best?

2000 put OU back on the radar, composed of a lot of Oklahoma kids. It was a special run, who saw it coming? I mean I HAD to MOVE the time of my wedding to acccomodate Bedlam (because FOX changed the time). How many times do you say that? Especially with the play that day of Derrick Strait? Who knew that bachelor party weekend in Dallas for the game was going to be SOOOOO amazing? Really, 63-14? I never tire of saying that score? That OB that I had been saying since I was in the 6th grade… “next time they go, I am going”….that season was MAGIC! Really, Red October, November at College Station? That is the stuff movies are made of! IF ONLY…..the heisman….

2003 – Fun from the first day…. Bama, fake punt? The stuff legends are made of. Seeing Jason White rewarded for all he had been through. Mark Clayton & Colorado. 65-13. We went to every game that year & came up so close so close in New Orleans.