This game so often referred to as "The Game of the Century" was on November 25, Thanksgiving Day, exactly 50 years ago, last game of the regular season for both. For my money it is still the most dramatic sporting event in US history. Everything was perfect: The promise, the match up (#1 versus #2, both undefeated, one, Nebraska, undefeated defending national champ from the previous year), perfect setting, perfect weather, perfect rivalry, game itself perfect (back and forth, underdog twice rallying from two scores down to take the lead), perfect opening (punt return for TD by the next year's Heisman winner). The announcers Schenkel and Wilkinson, just classic. Who remembers them? This event, and Secretariat in the Belmont, were the two events in which it seemed like a window opened to another dimension, and the purest thing imaginable took form on the playing field.
I reminisce about this game a lot and rewatch it, the punt return a hundred times. By memory I was sure the game was played on the Friday after Thanksgiving, but it was actually Thanksgiving Day. Maybe it was Auburn and Alabama, both also undefeated and #3 and #4, was on Friday. What a year! I remember we were playing a neighborhood football game that day, and I missed a little bit of it ... a sin. TV sports being a thing, a big deal, was just getting started ... about 1969 or so basically. A few huge events that year really got it rolling. The flavor of this game remains unmatched, for me.
After all the topsy turvy of the game, Nebraska leading 35-31 having just scored with a minute or two left, OU took the ball deep in their end. The Wishbone Sooners threw a bomb on the first play and the guy was open and behind everybody. Sick. Overthrown a yard or two, wide open. Sickest game of them all for me.
Both blew away SEC teams in their bowls, finishing landslide #1 and #2.
Other Thanksgiving Classics?????? Post them. Can't think of any but sure there has been a bunch.
https://www.espn.com.sg/video/clip?id=24404769
Last edited by FellaGaga-52; 11-25-2021 at 05:32 AM.
