That was basically the National Championship game that year. It was No. 1 vs No. 2. They played in the last game of the season.
As many of you know, Richard Nixon helicoptered in for the game, and was interviewed by Chris Schenkel at halftime, and Nixon presented Texas head coach Darrell Royal with some sort of championship plaque in the locker room after the game.
Some observations:
* As many of you old-timers know, offensive linemen were not allowed to extend their hands to pass block. They had to keep their hands near their chest and their elbows out. Some of them deviated from it a bit, but basically they had to pass block like they run blocked. They had to lunge forward. They coudn't punch and retreat. Their were caught weight-forward way too often and off-balance. QBs had very, very little time to throw. You had to be able to run the ball. And if you couldn't run the ball and had to try to throw behind poor pass protection, well that's how MSU's defenses of the mid-60s held so many teams to negative total yardage.
* Color commentator Bud Wilkinson wasn't very good or insightful. I know he had a great record and is regarded as an intelligent renaissance man of sorts. Maybe he was trying to dumb it down. But he wasn't worth a flip.
* Schenkel basically told Nixon at halftime that he voted for him. That was humorous.
* They didn't have a word for quarterback sack back then. There were a few sacks in the game, but no terminology for it.
* Texas ran the wishbone, but I didn't see the QB making reads on the belly give. The QB would run speed option and occasionally decide to pitch it, but not very often. And they never left it in the belly of the fullback while making a read. So it was wishbone, but it wasn't true triple option.
* Texas' QB threw a couple of INTs but he was a better passer in this game than Texas' much-ballyhooed James Street.
* Have a book entitled "Horns vs Hawgs and Nixon's Coming."
I have read some of it but didn't finish it for some reason. I need to pick it back up. Some of the book deals with the fact that both teams were 100 pct white.
* The telecast (on Longhorn Network) didn't show every single play, but I estimate that 70 pct of the plays and 70 pct of the telecast was shown. And not once did they show Darrell Royal on the sideline, and only once did they show Frank Broyles (and that was during a time out and fourth-down measurement).
Roone Arledge was the executive producer and he is credited with changing the way the nation viewed college football, and contributing greatly to the explosion in interest in college football. Arledge directed that cameramen show fans and cheerleaders and members of the band between plays. And there was a lot of that in this telecast but zero - and I mean zero - shots of the coaches.
* The linemen were quick. Much is made about how much bigger the players are today. True, the o-linemen might have been about 225 to 240 pounds back then, and they moved like it too. They were quick.
As many of you know, Richard Nixon helicoptered in for the game, and was interviewed by Chris Schenkel at halftime, and Nixon presented Texas head coach Darrell Royal with some sort of championship plaque in the locker room after the game.
Some observations:
* As many of you old-timers know, offensive linemen were not allowed to extend their hands to pass block. They had to keep their hands near their chest and their elbows out. Some of them deviated from it a bit, but basically they had to pass block like they run blocked. They had to lunge forward. They coudn't punch and retreat. Their were caught weight-forward way too often and off-balance. QBs had very, very little time to throw. You had to be able to run the ball. And if you couldn't run the ball and had to try to throw behind poor pass protection, well that's how MSU's defenses of the mid-60s held so many teams to negative total yardage.
* Color commentator Bud Wilkinson wasn't very good or insightful. I know he had a great record and is regarded as an intelligent renaissance man of sorts. Maybe he was trying to dumb it down. But he wasn't worth a flip.
* Schenkel basically told Nixon at halftime that he voted for him. That was humorous.
* They didn't have a word for quarterback sack back then. There were a few sacks in the game, but no terminology for it.
* Texas ran the wishbone, but I didn't see the QB making reads on the belly give. The QB would run speed option and occasionally decide to pitch it, but not very often. And they never left it in the belly of the fullback while making a read. So it was wishbone, but it wasn't true triple option.
* Texas' QB threw a couple of INTs but he was a better passer in this game than Texas' much-ballyhooed James Street.
* Have a book entitled "Horns vs Hawgs and Nixon's Coming."
I have read some of it but didn't finish it for some reason. I need to pick it back up. Some of the book deals with the fact that both teams were 100 pct white.
* The telecast (on Longhorn Network) didn't show every single play, but I estimate that 70 pct of the plays and 70 pct of the telecast was shown. And not once did they show Darrell Royal on the sideline, and only once did they show Frank Broyles (and that was during a time out and fourth-down measurement).
Roone Arledge was the executive producer and he is credited with changing the way the nation viewed college football, and contributing greatly to the explosion in interest in college football. Arledge directed that cameramen show fans and cheerleaders and members of the band between plays. And there was a lot of that in this telecast but zero - and I mean zero - shots of the coaches.
* The linemen were quick. Much is made about how much bigger the players are today. True, the o-linemen might have been about 225 to 240 pounds back then, and they moved like it too. They were quick.
