1967 Texas V Arkansas

[Samuel Hain]

As you know the Texas-Arkansas shoot out in 1967 was a classic. Not
only was Texas number one, and Arkansas number two, but President Nixon
flew in to see the game. A few years ago they rebroadcast the game in
Arkansas. People were shocked and got a good hard dose of racial
reality as regards how far whites have slipped. You see the 1967 teams
for both the Texas Longhorns and the Arkansas Razorbacks were all
white! Now look at them! Not even 40 years have passed and we have
faded to black.

 

[sport historian]

That game took place in 1969, not 1967.

 

[Bronk]

The Big Shootout of 1969 was indeed a classic.

The 1970 Texas Longhorns were the last all-white national championship team in NCAA Div-I history.

 

[Don Wassall]

That was the game where Richard Nixon went into Texas' locker room afterwards and proclaimed the Longhorns number one in the nation before the final poll came out, even though #2 Penn State was also undefeated. In fact, Penn State had gone undefeated in '68 and finished ranked #2, and still ended up ranked behind Texas in '69 after a second straight unbeaten, untied season. That move by Nixon was bitterly resented by Penn State fans at the time.

 

[Bronk]

Yes, and the Cotton Bowl invited Penn State to come to Dallas and settle the issue with Texas and the Nittany Lions passed on the invite to go to the Orange Bowl.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

The 1969 Longhorns were the last all white National Champs. In 1970, they didn't win the title.

 

[SteveB]

In 1970, Texas was declared national champions by the UPI after defeating #4 Arkansas and Texas A&M at the end of the season. They then lost the Cotton Bowl to Notre Dame and dropped to #3 in the AP poll and Nebraska won the AP title. Longhorn fans considered themselves national champs anyways since they were #1 in the UPI poll.

 

[Don Wassall]

Yes, and the Cotton Bowl invited Penn State to come to Dallas and settle the issue with Texas and the Nittany Lions passed on the invite to go to the Orange Bowl.

I don't remember that part of it.

 

[Bronk]

Being from Texas, I do.

Read both of Paterno's books. In one he claims that the black Penn State players didn't want to go to Dallas because of the JFK assassination (!) This was 1969, not 1964. Fact is, they all just wanted to go to Miami.

In 1959, Syracuse had the chance to play Texas in the Cotton for the national title or go to Miami and play a lesser team. The Orangemen voted to go to Miami. Coach Ben Schwartzwalder said, "Boys, I think we need to vote again."

Too bad Mizzou couldn't come up with a win over the Nittany Lions in the 1970 Orange Bowl.

 

[sport historian]

In 1959, Syracuse top-ranked team went to the Cotton Bowl and beat Texas 23-14 on New Years Day 1960. The year before Syracuse lost to Oklahoma 21-6 in the Orange Bowl.


Penn State wasn't invited to the Cotton Bowl in 1969. The Nittany Lions weren't ranked that high most of the season. In mid-November, the top three were Texas, Ohio State, and Tennessee. Tennessee was routed by Ole Miss 38-0, and Ohio State lost to Michigan. That raised Arkansas to No.2, and their early December game with Texas was for the top spot. After Texas won that game, Penn State was the only other team with a perfect record.


There is one thing you have to realize about the bowl picture in 1969. Notre Dame hadn't played in a bowl since the 1924 Irish with the Four Horsemen went to the Rose Bowl. Notre Dame considered themselves above playing in bowl games. In 1969, they said they would play in a bowl, but only if their opponent was the No 1 team. I remember Parseghian on TV declaring that Notre Dame would go to a bowl if they could play for the National Championship.


The Cotton Bowl had the winner of Texas-Arkansas. They invited Notre Dame when they realized they could get them. No one else was considered for the visitors slot in the Cotton Bowl when ND became available.


Tennessee was going to get an Orange Bowl bid, but lost it after the Ole Miss debacle. They would have been Penn State's opponent. Missouri got the bid and lost.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

That UPI title by Texas in 1970 is about as respected as the titles Ole Miss won in 1959 and 1962. They won a few of the polls national champ spot, but aren't recognized nationally as the winner anymore. The only "legit" title Ole Miss won was 1960. What is funny is that Jeff Sagarin rated the 1959 Rebels as the 3'rd best college team of all time, and they aren't mentioned as champs from 59 anymore, even though they won a few polls.

 

[Bronk]

Hold on, hold on!

Colonel Reb: Say what you will about the 1970 Texas Longhorns, but do not tell me that their national title isn't respected. Texas was unbeaten that season and rode a 30-game win streak going into the Cotton Bowl and demolished a good Arkansas team.

Criticize the NCAA for not having an official national champ, criticize the UPI for not waiting until after the bowls, but don't say the Horns' title lacks respect.

Historian, right and wrong. The 1969 Penn State team WAS invited to play in the 1970 Cotton Bowl. I do not know if it was official or a feeler not but they were indeed invited. Check it.

 

[sport historian]

Bronk, I'm in the public library and have a copy of Joe Paterno's 1989 book in front of me. He discusses the 1969 bowl situation on pages 144-45. He never says that Penn State was invited to the Cotton Bowl that year. He complains that Bud Wilkinson (then an ABC announcer) had anointed the Texas-Arkansas game as for the National Championship.


Paterno does say that he asked his black players what Southern city they would deign to play in. Paterno says: "They didn't want to go to the Cotton Bowl. More specifically, they didn't want to go to Dallas, where John F. Kennedyhad beenshot. Six years after that terrible shock, Dallas still stirred horror in many Americans. The revulsion seemed particularly strong among young black people who linked gun-loving Dallas with the lingering racism that had once been taken for granted throughout the South."


You can take the above for an example of Paterno playing the "White Martyr," a term Don used several months ago. Still, Penn State wasn't invited to the Cotton Bowl that year. The Penn State players wanted the Orange Bowl anyway, according to Paterno.


Actually, LSU was going to get the Cotton Bowl bid. They lost it when Notre Dame made themselves available. LSU ended up not going to any bowl that year.

 

[Bronk]

Historian: Yes, you are correct in everything you have posted, except when you say that Penn State was not invited to play in the Cotton Bowl. By neglecting to tell the readers of his book that Cotton Bowl officials tenured a tentative invitation to the Nittany Lions just a few days prior to the Ohio State loss (Nov. 22), Joe Paterno has committed the sin of omission. The fact is, Field Scovell offered a Cotton Bowl bid to Penn State the week of the Buckeye loss.

From Terry Frei's book, Horns, Hogs and Nixon Coming:

"The possible Cotton Bowl matchup between the Southwest Conference winner and Penn State had been derailed before the Ohio State loss. Penn State ... had rebuffed tentative overtures from Cotton Bowl officials and accepted an Orange Bowl bid."

Long Live the Longhorns by John Maher and Kirk Bohls:

"(Beano) Cook adds that Penn State Coach Joe Paterno didn't care for it (the Texas-Arkansas game) but the Lions blew it by snubbing the Cotton Bowl for the Orange Bowl against Missouri. 'Penn State should have played Texas,' Cook says. 'They bitch about not being No. 1, but they went to the Orange.'"

"We could never figure out why they didn't choose to settle it on the grass in Dallas, rather than from a soapbox in Pennsylvania."
-- Longhorn Freddie Steinmark on the protestations of Penn State and Joe Paterno that they deserved the national championship in 1969, after they refused the invitation to play the Texas in the Cotton Bowl.

"Field (Scovell) saw a lot of teams. We should have taken his advice. We should have gone to the Cotton Bowl."
-- Joe Paterno, quoted inCollege Football's 25 Greatest Teams.

Granted, The Nittany Lions didn't figure on the Buckeyes losing to Michigan and they preferred Miami to Dallas, they were quoted as saying so. But in jumping the gun they cost themselves a shot at the national title.

The key question is this: How locked into the Orange Bowl was Penn State after the Ohio State loss? At the very least, Penn State should have waited a bit before taking the Orange Bowl offer. Even if they hadn't had a shot at the national championship, the Lions were passing up a chance to meet a higher ranked team (either Texas or Arkansas) to play a lower ranked #7 Missouri team.

 

[sport historian]

Bronk, thanks for the information. Paterno deliberately misled his readers in his 1989 book, and in his public statements at the time. He has always played the injured party in this affair by claiming he wasn't allowed to play Texas for the National Championship. Incidentally, Penn State was and is very much desired by the bowls, and have usually been able to choose the bowl they wanted when they had an undefeated season. The reason is that Penn State draws a high TV audience in the East.


By the way, Tennessee was "locked in" the Orange Bowl in 1969 before the Ole Miss game. Even after losing 38-0, the Orange Bowl was still willing to take Tennessee. However, the Tennessee people backed out feeling that we didn't deserve to go to Miami. Tennessee went to the Gator Bowl instead and lost to Florida 14-13. We were inside the Florida 20 on four occasions without scoring. Coach Doug Dickey was leaving Tennessee for Florida after the game, and for whatever reason the Vols were flat for the game.

 

[Don Wassall]

From a Penn State perspective, having back to back undefeated seasons but no national title to show for it was tough to take, especially after the Nittany Lions knocked off highly ranked teams in major bowls both years.


Penn State went undefeated again in '73, the year John Cappelletti won the Heisman Trophy,and again failed to winthe national title. It took a long time for Joe Paterno's programto erase the stigma that Eastern football was inferior to that played in the South, Midwest and West.

 

[sport historian]

I remember Paterno being known as a "booster of Eastern football" around 1970. In the late 60's and early 70's, Pitt was way down and Syracuse wasn't doing well. Penn State was the only Eastern team consistently high in the rankings. Pittsburgh went up when Johnny Majors coached there from 1973-76, winning a National Title in 1976. Unfortunately, Majors never contended for a National Championship at Tennessee from 1977-92. I sat in Neyland Stadium year after year as Majors lost the big games, Alabama especially.

 

[Bronk]

Yes, it is startling to think that Penn State, coming off an unbeaten 1968 season and with an Orange Bowl victory over Kansas, could go into 1969 ranked only in the middle of the top 10 pack.

The Nittany Lions did go to the 1972 Cotton Bowl and beat Texas soundly (the Horns were definately flat for that one) that was also the year that Tennessee whipped them in the last game of the season putting the only loss on Penn State's otherwise spotless record.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Bronk: So you give credit to Ole Miss for winning 3 National Championships instead of 1? I never said I didn't respect Texas for their 1970 run. According to your logic, every team who won a championship poll should be recognized as such. I don't disagree with that. I was just making the case for Ole Miss having won 3 instead of 1, as history tells it.

 

[Bronk]

Sure; one, three, let Ole Miss lay claim to any national title that some poll or power rating bestowed upon them. Texas offically claims only three (1963, 69 and 70) but, if you use the Official NCAA Record Book as your guide, Texas can lay claim to as many as FIVE national championships dating back to 1941.

Afterall, who won the 1964 national championship, Michigan, Notre Dame, Alabama or Arkansas? They all claim it.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

That's what my point is, unless a team got all of the polls to vote them number one, any other team has some, and I emphasize some, credibility in calling themselves national champs. It's just that the media doesn't look at it that way. I've heard those guys make jokes about the Dunkel System that crowned Ole Miss champs one year. I think unless one of the old pre-BCS teams got all the polls calling them number one, then any other team should be able to claim the title.