The Bowl Game Experience – Issue 4

THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF

SEPTEMBER 2019 | ISSUE 4

Two States, Two Storied Programs Define The Red River Rivalry

BY TIM GRIFFIN

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CELEBRATING 150 YEARS OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL

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very year as summer wanes and the first streaks of autumn appear, a mixture of sound, smell, sights and excitement exists that can be found nowhere else in college football.

More than 92,000 fans pack the Cotton Bowl in Dallas for an early October Saturday afternoon. They battle traffic, poor parking conditions and sometimes the obnoxious Texas and OU have played 114 times since 1902. nature of fans of the other teams in a vividly dramatic sea of crimson and burnt orange when Texas and Others cool their heels at the Auto Show.

Oklahoma meet.

And of course, there’s the 52-foot talking Nearby, those attending the Texas State mannequin known as Big Tex who lords over Fair gorge themselves on Fletcher Corny it all. dogs and Fried Oreos. Bearded ladies and pig But as much fun as the nearby midway has races tempt others. Some fans spin around always been, it pales in comparison to the the Texas Star, the park’s giant Ferris Wheel. rivalry inside the stadium.

THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF

SEPTEMBER 2019 | ISSUE 4

Texas and Oklahoma have played 114 times in the Red River Rivalry that commenced in 1902.

Texas holds a 62-47 edge in a series that has featured five ties.

The Cotton Bowl has served as the scene of every battle in the series save one since 1929.

The Sooners travel 189 miles from Norman. The Longhorns are 196 miles from Austin.

For generations, Oklahoma fans have been seated in the southern half of the Cotton Bowl, heading from end zone to end zone. Texas fans are in the northern half. It’s made for a clear line of demarcation for the rival fandoms.

It means that on every play, one group of fans is cheering loudly. The other side is distraught and often booing.

And raucous bands are ready to do their part, blaring their school’s fight songs after first downs and not just touchdowns.

Some old-timers bemoan that the action around the game has become more civil over the years.

Arrests have dropped off dramatically through the years from a record 563 in 1968 to only a handful last year.

Back in the unruly days of yore, the old Dallas City Jail stenciled “Texas” or “Oklahoma” over cell doors to separate the partisan fans once they were incarcerated.

Dallas television stations no longer log the number of arrests every 30 minutes and couches

aren’t being dropped from upper-floor windows of the grand Dallas hotels like they once were.

And it has gotten almost impossible to find feuding alcohol-fueled fans scuffling on Commerce Street the night before the game.

The action on the field hasn’t changed for generations. Calling Texas and Oklahoma blood rivals really doesn’t do justice to the term.

Former Texas coach Mack Brown has a unique appreciation for the rivalry. He was OU’s offensive coordinator for the 1984 game which resulted in a memorably bitter 14-14 tie that was played out in monsoon-like conditions.

He came back to coach the Longhorns in 1998, coaching them in the shootout for 16 years.

Brown beat the Sooners seven times in a memorable rivalry against Bob Stoops for all but one of them. But he also lost four games by at least 38 points to the Sooners where OU hung 63, 55, 65 and 63 points on his teams. Brown knows the highs and lows of the Red River Rivalry.

As an assistant to Barry Switzer at Oklahoma, Brown once asked him: “What do you have to do to keep your job here, and what do you have to do to keep everybody happy?”

Switzer’s reply to him was brief: “You’ve got to beat Texas.”

The unique configuration of the field means that both teams arrive by the same route into the stadium through the same tunnel.

ALL-TIME BOWL APPEARANCES TEAM Alabama Georgia Texas USC Nebraska Oklahoma Tennessee LSU Ohio State

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GAMES 70 55 55

WINS 41 31 29

LOSSES 26 21 24

TIES 3 3 2

54 53 52 52 50 50

35 26 29 28 26 25

19 27 22 24 23 25

0 0 1 0 1 0

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Former Texas defensive back Keith Moreland played in three Texas-OU football games from 1972-74 before starting a 12-season big-league baseball career. Moreland’s Texas football teams were 26-8 during his time there, but they never could beat the Sooners.

Despite that disappointment, Moreland still has a vivid description of what it feels like to walk into the Cotton Bowl for the Red River Rivalry.

Q&A

“

I have never felt anything quite like it at any level of athletics … it's unique in all of sports.”

KEITH MORELAND

Tim Griffin was a longtime sportswriter for newspapers and websites during a four-decade career that included a stint as the president of the Football Writers Association of America in 2010. He now works as the executive digital producer for television stations KRIS and KZTV in Corpus Christi, Texas.

College football celebrates its 150th anniversary this season. Many events will take place throughout the year, and one of the main catalysts will be social media.

Kaylah Hughes, administrative manager for CFB150, is a 2013 graduate of the University of North Carolina and heads up the CFB150 social media efforts.

PLEASE DESCRIBE THE OVERALL SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY FOR CFB150.

"Our agency provided us with some great feedback regarding social strategy for CFB150. Knowing that our ability to produce unique content would be limited, we wanted our website and social platforms to serve as a centralized hub for the “best of” College Football 150th Anniversary celebration and stories. We utilize our platforms to share Anniversary-related content from our stakeholders, schools and media partners whether it be Anniversary-specific or content related to our three pillars of education, leadership and community."

CONTINUED

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CELEBRATING 150 YEARS OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL

“I have never felt anything quite like it at any level of athletics,” Moreland said. “It's unique in all of sports.

“You are standing there, right with the guys you are about to go to battle with...you get there at the same time, and you go down together. I have stood at home plate in the World Series and still have never felt anything like The Tunnel.”

The testosterone is ramped up among the players. Often it spills into the stadium as well.

Former Oklahoma wide receiver Kenny Stills still has a picture prominently displayed at his home of a memory that remains one of the most mesmerizing of his college playing career.

"One of the best is this shot that I have of when I caught a ball on their sideline when I was a freshman," Stills said. "Their coaches were holding their heads (in disbelief). And in the background, there are a bunch of Texas fans giving me the finger."

When it comes to Texas and Oklahoma, you wouldn’t expect any other kind of reaction from fans on either side of the rivalry.

KAYLAH HUGHES

ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER, CFB 150

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SEPTEMBER 2019 | ISSUE 4 4

REMEMBERING THE BIG EIGHT Conference Office Produced Several College Football Leaders

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BY DOUG KELLY

f the three homes for the Big Eight Conference, Foundation and onetime Orange Bowl executive the most memorable was the penthouse floor director. The list also included future athletic directors of an office building in downtown Kansas City.

DeLoss Dodds [Texas] and Dick Martin [West Virginia] Inside 600 East 8th Street was assembled a small plus bowl directors Mickey Holmes [Sugar] and Starr group of talented people, many of whom would later [Sun, Armed Forces, Dallas]. Hatchell and Holmes shape the face of college football. were also conference commissioners.

Back in the 1960s, “Chuck Neinas the Big Eight [which gave me the break married four schools of a lifetime when from the Southwest he invited me to join Conference to form the Big Eight staff in today’s Big 12], didn’t nineteen seventyhave the prestige eight,” says Hancock, that the Big Ten, SEC who went on to run and Pacific-10 had. the NCAA basketball At least not in the tournament prior eyes of conference to his current CFP commissioner Chuck assignment.

Neinas. “We weren’t “The Big Eight was as well known as the a family. The gifted others,” said Neinas, leaders among the now living in Boulder, university presidents, BIG EIGHT LEADERS — A REUNION BROUGHT TOGETHER [L-R]: Collegiate CO and still active athletic directors, sports consultant and former commissioner Chuck Neinas, current CFP as a collegiate sports faculty representatives executive director Bill Hancock, current NFF president/CEO Steve Hatchell, consultant. and coaches generally longtime collegiate administrator Tom Starr and retired Texas athletics “That changed in worked for the director DeLoss Dodds. nineteen seventycommon good. one.” Oklahoma and Nebraska faced off that year in “To be sure, there were the usual family what is remembered as ‘The Game of the Century’. squabbles,” Hancock continues. “Some thought The Huskers’ 35-31 victory lived up to all the hype, Nebraska and Oklahoma were too dominant. But and propelled them to the national championship. everyone agreed that those two marquee football “What was important for the Big Eight,” Neinas recalls, programs brought priceless national attention to the “is that three of our schools finished one-two-three conference.” in the final poll.” Right behind Nebraska came the Neinas points to his Big Eight tenure [1971-80] as a Sooners, and the Colorado Buffaloes finished third. blueprint for his future endeavor, the College Football All are iconic programs nearly 50 years later.

Association. “What we already had in the Big Eight “That put the Big Eight in the national collegiate was what I attempted to bring to the CFA. That was football discussion, and it’s been that way ever since.” establishing good communication between coaches and Longtime Big Eight administrator and later bowl administrators. There was a real effort among directors game director Tom Starr said of Neinas, “he was and faculty reps to work within the system so that a kingmaker.” Included in Neinas’s hires were Bill everyone had the best chance of achieving success.”

Hancock, now executive director of the College Neinas saw a cross-pollination in effect that Football Playoff; and Steve Hatchell, president and resulted in an at-times widely disparate group chief executive officer of the National Football reaching consensus. “All the ingredients worked

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Doug Kelly is Director of Communications for the Football Bowl Association. He has worked within the bowl industry since 2002.

Q&A

KAYLAH HUGHES, CONTINUED

MANY MILLENNIAL FANS MAY NOT KNOW A LOT ABOUT WHAT CFB150 IS ALL ABOUT. WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO CAPTURE THEIR ATTENTION? "Millennials want content that is visually appealing, accessible, authentic and easy to process. As a result, I try to be mindful about the length of posts, the location of posts and frequency of activity. For example, Millennials comprise over half of our audience on Instagram. I found that we were getting more views on posts to our Instagram story than likes/views on actual posts to our page. This also led to an increase in followers. Stories are a great way to capture millennials’ attention because they’re easily viewable, short in length and allow you to share posts from different pages all in one place."

NOW THAT THE '19 SEASON IS HERE, WHAT ARE YOUR ACTIVATION PLANS FOR CFB150 IN TERMS OF SOCIAL MEDIA? "We will continue to share Anniversaryrelated content across all platforms. We have encouraged usage of the hashtag #CFB150 as a way to organize Anniversary-related content and to promote the Anniversary. More people are aware of our platforms as the Anniversary season kicks off so we will continue to be as active as possible and engaging when necessary."

IS AN INSTAGRAM PHOTO MORE ALLURING THAT A FACEBOOK POST? “It depends on your audience and the preference of the user. For example, an Instagram photo would probably be more alluring to Millennials because photos tend to be more inspirational. A Facebook post might be more effective for Gen-X because those posts tend to be more informational.”

WHAT WILL BE THE MAIN SOCIAL MEDIA AVENUES THAT YOUNGER FANS SHOULD BE TURNING TO? "Gen Z, which is the next group after Millennials, seem to be most engaged with video content on Snapchat, YouTube and Instagram. As a Millennial, I continue to be a huge proponent of Twitter because you get the best of both worlds — new information and video content.”

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CELEBRATING 150 YEARS OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL

together for practical and workable solutions to any issue,” he said. “I think a lot of that is missing today in the NCAA. Coaches’ voices are on the outside and athletic director voices have been reduced.”

Both Hancock and Hatchell honed their skills in the public and media relations world, skills that have served each man well in their longtime athletic administration careers.

“There were so many experiences we all shared and had a part in,” Hatchell says. “It was a fantastic time in a multitude of ways. I have always been impressed with the people who worked for the Big Eight, and what their resumes became. It was a powerhouse.”

Starr recalls the camaraderie of what are now ‘the old days’.

“I was extremely fortunate that my first year on the Big Eight staff coincided with the initial coaching seasons of Barry Switzer at Oklahoma, Tom Osborne at Nebraska, Earle Bruce at Iowa State and Jim Stanley at Oklahoma State. So, I was able to ‘grow’ with them.

“When the football coaches, school presidents and faculty representatives would come to our Kansas City headquarters, we’d go to dinner and socialize with everyone. Stories and jokes would abound after the work of the day had been completed. We had a cozy, little eight-team league where everyone knew everyone else!”

Big Eight rivalries and events live on in the present day. And one that has been unfortunately dormant too long is soon to return.

“Nebraska-Oklahoma was one of the country’s top two or three football rivalries,” Hancock, a Hobart, OK native says, “and it’s inconceivable to me that college football fans no longer get to enjoy that game every November.

“But thanks to the diligence of [OU athletics director] Joe Castiglione and [retired Nebraska AD] Tom Osborne, we are looking forward to that homeand-home series resuming in two years.”

While the Big Eight flourished in the ‘70s, a popular song at the time was Al Stewart’s ‘Time Passages’.

That came to pass in 1994 when the Big Eight and Southwest Conference merged in time for the ’95 season. The eight Big Eight schools joined with SWC schools Texas, Baylor, Texas A&M and Texas Tech to form the Big 12. By a 7-5 vote, the new conference would move from Kansas City and be housed [as it is today] in Irving, TX, just outside Dallas.

One era ended and another had begun.

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THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF

SEPTEMBER 2019 | ISSUE 4

CELEBRATING

TEACHERS

College Football Legends and Broadcasters Honor Teachers through “It Only Takes One” Video Series

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he College Football Playoff (CFP) Foundation as part of its overall effort to honor and celebrate is releasing six new video features this teachers. Additional videos include Troy Aikman week from college football legends and (UCLA), Tim Brown (Notre Dame), Tony Dorsett broadcasters as part of the fifth annual Extra Yard (Pitt), “Mean” Joe Greene (North Texas), Daryl for Teachers (EYFT) Johnston (Syracuse), Week September Russell Maryland 14-21. The vignettes, (Miami), Herschel which are debuting Walker (Georgia) on EYFT social and Darren media channels Woodson (Arizona (@CFPExtraYard), State). feature former All told, the student-athletes entire lineup Kirk Herbstreit played in 24 bowl (Ohio State), Raghib games, including “Rocket” Ismail six appearances in (Notre Dame), Billy the Orange Bowl Sims (Oklahoma), and Sugar Bowl, Maria Taylor respectively, as well (Georgia), LaDainian as three Cotton Tomlinson (TCU), Bowls. The group and Keena Turner has combined for (Purdue). All tell seven National stories of the pivotal Championship role a teacher played titles as a result of in their development bowl victories. In as a student and a addition, Herbstreit person. has been an analyst cfpfoundation.org The CFP for a myriad of Foundation’s “It bowl games since Only Takes One” the mid-nineties, series enters its third year after garnering millions including 12 National Championship games (10 of views on social media since its 2017 debut. on television, two on radio). Taylor has been a The Foundation has also re-released its previous sideline reporter at multiple bowl games and CFP episodes this week alongside the 2019 vignettes National Championships since 2012.

IT ONLY TAKES ONE

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CELEBRATING 150 YEARS OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Heisman Trophies and 21 Super Bowl titles.

“We’re grateful these former studentathletes are willing to share stories about the one teacher who inspired them,” said CFP Foundation Executive Director Britton Banowsky.

“All of us can point to a teacher who made a significant, lasting impact on our lives. By sharing these stories on a IT ONLY TAKES ONE: Raghib ‘Rocket’ Ismail recalls how his high school national platform, teacher and counselor, Mr. Frosini, layed down a foundation that helped these football legends him be a better student. and broadcasters will help the CFP Foundation celebrate, The roster below combined to participate in the recognize and elevate teachers, a critical part of following bowl games: our mission.”

Supported by the CFP Foundation and its PLAYER SCHOOL BOWLS college football partners, EYFT Week was created in 2015 as a nationwide celebration of teachers.

Troy Aikman UCLA Aloha Bowl, Cotton Bowl The CFP Foundation works in close partnership with the 10 FBS conferences and their member Tim Brown Notre Dame Cotton Bowl institutions, as well as bowls, ESPN, and education Tony Dorsett Pitt Fiesta Bowl, Sugar supporters across the country to recognize and Bowl, Sugar Bowl elevate the meaningful work of teachers.

Kirk Herbstreit Ohio State Citrus Bowl The CFP Foundation is the largest sports entity Raghib ‘Rocket’ Ismail Notre Dame Fiesta Bowl, 2 Orange in America that is supporting education, and its Bowls Extra Yard for Teachers platform has collectively Daryl Johnston Syracuse Sugar Bowl invested approximately $30 million in support Russell Maryland Miami (FL) Cotton Bowl, Orange of education. Extra Yard for Teachers supports Bowl, Sugar Bowl and uplifts teachers by focusing on four major Billy Sims Oklahoma 3 Orange Bowls areas: Recognition, Resources, Professional LaDainian Tomlinson TCU 2 Mobile Alabama Development, Recruitment and Retention. In its Bowls, Sun Bowl first five years, the CFP Foundation has supported Keena Turner Purdue Peach Bowl more than 250,000 teachers nationwide, creating Herschel Walker Georgia 3 Sugar Bowls a positive impact for more than 5.5 million students.

Additionally, the “It Only Takes One” campaign All of the “It Only Takes One” videos can be features gridiron greats who have also won four seen at the CFP Foundation’s YouTube channel.

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