statsman

Interesting bit of OU lore. They will tell you they integrated in the ‘50’s, with Prentice Gauntt, and that’s true. They won’t admit what Wilkinson told Time magazine in 1963- they stopped recruiting Black players in the early ‘60’s. He believed that being integrated was hurting OU in recruiting Texas (who is to say if that was true- Royal was kicking his ass with a bunch of spin-down athletes that OU really wasn’t that interested in, but he was losing to Texas and needed an excuse), so he stopped a couple of years. OU reintegrated in the ‘60’s.

I have to say that I am not enjoying the parade of past Sooner football stars on this thread. That’s why I wanted to post the list of shitty Sooner heroes.

BS, Chi-town. There’s nothing that would embarrass you.

In 2021, he was on the Olympic team with Dame, Devin, Tatum and Green. When things got dicey (they did a lot that year), those stars would look to him - “please win the game for us, KD!” And he would.

I’ve posted for years- KD is the FIBA GOAT. It’s like the rule makers asked him where he would like the 3 point arc to be placed.

I thought about Bud Wilkinson as the subject of one of these countdown posts. Yes, he lied (he lied a lot in 1963, denying he planned to run for the Senate), and cheated (a couple of serious NCAA penalties for buying players). Yes, he dumped his wife in his 60’s, and married a 28 year old. However, like John Blake, he was never arrested (key alone convicted), so he doesn’t make the list. Part IX is Barry Switzer. Switzer was arrested in 1984 for DWI (plea bargained down to a misdemeanor). He was arrested in 1996 for carrying a loaded gun to the airport. He actually spent time in Securities court for insider trading (he avoided jail by using the Okie tactic of “lying”, and counting on influential boosters). And, of course, he spent time in family court. He cheated on his wife, Kay, a lot. One of his flings was with Criss Lacewell, the wife of his DC, Larry Lacewell. Amazingly, the Lacewell marriage survived, but the Switzer marriage did not. The Lacewell employment by OU didn’t make it either (rumor is that Lacewell sabotaged Orange Bowl prep, leading to a huge upset by Arkansas). Who does these things? A real scumbag, that’s who. Switzer was a successful coach. He achieved his success by cheating. He said that the three components of his program were- 1. Run the wishbone (he neglects to ever mention that Fairbanks prevailed upon Sooner alum Royal to teach it to Switzer) 2. Recruit Texas (he happily engaged in bidding wars with other cheaters. OU was better than TAMU, SMU and UH at keeping it discreet) 3. Recruit African-Americans at every position (note- for all his self promotion, Barry Switzer never integrated dick. Meanwhile, the maligned Royal integrated the SWC in 1964). Switzer is trash. There is no friend, family member, employer, employee or player that he has not been willing to discard or betray when it suited his needs. As far as coaching ability- he has shown in college and the NFL that, given an overwhelming advantage in talent, he can win most of the time. Given merely a decided advantage in talent, he can win about half the time. They do say he is very charming in person.

Part VIII: Charles Thompson, Nigel Clay, Bernard Hall, Jerry Parks, Greg Roberts and Jimbo Elrod. Here is what you need to understand about OU football- when a player is arrested (and there are a lot of arrests- how so many intoxication related crimes happen in a 3.2 state, I’ll never know) in Oklahoma, the initial charge never sticks. Rape victims drop charges. Misdemeanor (bruises) assaults go away. Aggravated (broken bones) assaults become misdemeanors. Posssession goes away. Possession with the intent to distribute becomes possession. You get the picture. I don’t think it is quite as nefarious as Baylor, where victims are threatened. I think that top attorneys represent players and victims are offered enducements to drop charges. It’s still pretty shitty- “Look, you know nothing is going to happen to these guys. Why don’t you just take this (half the amount of cash given as walking around money to a 3 star recruit from Broken Arrow they are mildly interested in) and get on with your life” The players listed above are the OU players (and ex-players) that actually we’re convicted. Charles Thompson (starting QB) was selling dope. Clay and Hall raped a visitor the the athletic dorm. Parks shot a teammate. Roberts, after his pro career faltered, was trying to get a drug running business going (Roberts was also accused, along with David Overstreet, of raping a girl but the charges were dropped when the witness stopped cooperating). Elrod, another retired NFLer, was selling dope. If you play the game of googling about any OU player, and the word “arrest”, you get hits on roughly half of them. I only wanted to list the felony convictions here, and I’m sure I missed some. Also, of the three Sooners mentioned above, three of them are considered welcome onto the sidelines and practices when they wish, and three are pariahs. Can you guess the differentiator? Is it severity of crime? No- some rapists are welcome while others are persona non grata. Could it be native Okies vs. out of staters? No, again there is a mix. Answer- the three convicted felons that are still heroes of the program (Thompson, Roberts and Elrod) were all actual stars in college. The three pariahs were backups. And that tells you all you need to know about what OU values.

Part VII: Billy Sims, Adrian Peterson and Joe Mixon. All star running backs, all arrested. Sims was arrested for not paying child support (to get arrested for this, you have to be a whole lot worse than missing a couple of checks- after all, the primary goal is to get income for the child’s care, and that can’t happen from prison). Peterson was arrested for whipping his four year old son with a switch, leaving a couple of dozen bloody streaks of welts. Peterson is known for his size and power, and the thought of him hauling back and swinging that switch on that naked little boy (who loved and trusted him) two dozen times is sickening. Joe Mixon got a misdemeanor assault (should have been aggravated assault, as the arresting officer admitted) for knocking out a co-ed who defended a gay friend. She had several facial bones broken by the fist and by the table her face hit as she was collapsing from the knock out.

Part V - Brian Bosworth. Talented player, but even more talented at self promotion. He made outrageous statements, claiming to be candid, but when popped for anabolic steroids (muscle developing), claimed they were prescribed for injury (doctors don’t prescribe that kind or that much). He wrote a book where he claimed to sabotage cars on his summer job assembly line, as well as claiming to get paid by boosters. Later, he would deny those claims, and then later, take back his denials. He is a classic narcissist, every action focused on profiting him. Switzer had to boot Bosworth from the team, because he was inviting attention from the NCAA (40 years ago, crooked programs actually feared the NCAA). The OU sports website celebrates Bosworth’s achievements now, but at least he doesn’t have a statue. Yet. He was arrested in 2009, for DUI. Bo Jackson says that after he trucked him in the NFL, he told Bosworth, “Next time bring your bus fare”. Part VI- Joe Don Looney and Lance Rentzel (yes, the OU program is such garbage that we have to double up on some numbers). They were teammates and friends at OU. Looney was a freshman at UT, a top recruit from FW, who flunked out after one semester (four F’s and a D), and that pretty much tells you a lot about Royal and his program. Looney was Texas’ best punter when he arrived (and Royal loved him some punting), but nobody was going to clear the way for Looney (who never had trouble staying academically eligible anywhere else). Looney then starred in JC, enrolled in OU and made All-American in 1962, and was booted in 1963 after the Horns crushed the Sooners (rumor is he slugged a GA). He was drafted high (remarkable combo of strength and speed) but washed out at four NFL teams in three years for insubordination. He was drafted (sued the government), discharged, and washed out of the NFL again. He was arrested on a weapons charge, followed a swami, and died in a motorcycle wreck. There are two tellings of this story. The popular one is of a maverick, misplaced in the structure of big time football. That’s charitable. The second interpretation looks at his beatings administered to other, smaller guys in HS and college, his early-mover use of steroids, his arrest on gun charges, and his rep as the enforcer for the swami (who sexually assaulted his female followers), and you see a guy that was a narcissist at best, a sociopath at worst. Rentzel has a cleaner rep, until he was arrested for exposing himself to a little girl in Dallas, which then brought to light an earlier instance of the same from Minnesota. It was laughed at when it happened- I think now we know more about such acts, and that Rentzel was perhaps a monster. We can only pray that these instances were the only ones.

Part IV The amazing story of the Sooner football player that was arrested for pimping out a Sooner cheerleader. https://www.google.com/amp/s/collegefoo ... eader/amp/ You can google the pics of Micah Madison Parker- she’s cute. I don’t remember the story from two years ago, but you find amazing things when you google “Sooner arrest”

Part II- Dusty Dvoracek. Dvoracek was first arrested for being a drunk minor in Norman in 2002. He was riding around with Brent Rawls and Jake Hager (now known as Jack Swagger, a WWE “champ”). He made all B12 in 2003, but in 2004, he put an old HS friend in the hospital after brutally beating him in a drunken rage. This kept him from finishing the 2004 season. 2004 was his fifth year (he redshirted 2000), But OU applied for a medical redshirt. The medical condition? Dvoracek’s drinking problem. The NCAA granted it, and Dusty was eligible for 2005, when he made all B12 again. After a short NFL career, Dvoracek was arrested again, in 2010, for being drunk and disorderly. Consider this- the reason for the 2004 medical redshirt was to handle his drinking problem, his alcoholism. Now, he’s drinking (too much) again in 2010. Either he has relapsed, or he was never a clinical alcoholic. He started working in local broadcasts, and is now a color guy on ESPNU. He has done Texas games before and probably will again. One wonders why they could not hire someone without an arrest record, or without at least a multiple arrest record. At Texas, this is the track Acho’s career has taken. Again, OU is bizarro Texas- just add a crime al record. Part III- David Boren The most legendary OU President was George Cross, who famously said he wanted a “university the football team could be proud of”. Boren is second. Boren has been a US Senator, and was considered a conservative Democrat. Despite being twice married, and with two children, he couldn’t duck the rumors he was gay (NTTIAWWT). He left the Senate and was named OU president in the early ‘90s. His term was successful, as he improved th school’s reputation and increased the endowment from $300 million to $1.15 billion. I had posted on this board before that he had OU headed to AAU membership. Two late events tarnish his reputation (or, more precisely, revealed his character). One was his advocacy of Joe Mixon after he beat the shit out of that girl. He personally mentored Mixon, and pretty much ignored the victim (also an OU student). He said he believed in second chances. Given how he couldn’t expel SAE members fast enough after video of them singing a racist song got out, it’s clear that he primarily believes in second chances where they help OU Football and zero tolerance where that helps OU football. His second scandal was being revealed as a sexual predator of male OU employees of his office. There are other things- some accounting irregularities and lying about stats to get a higher USN&WR ranking- but that’s run of the mill chicanery for Oklahoma. I don’t think he was ever arrested and he does have a statue on campus. Fitting.

Oh, are we doing historical reminiscing? I was reflecting on how readily the OU program welcomes thugs, criminals and miscreants. They embrace them in every role. I thought it might be interesting to enumerate some of them. Part I- James Hale James Hale is a (the?) 247 correspondent for OU. He does OU sports radio. He has been their Garvin, their Ketchum, their Chip Brown. And he is a felon. https://oklahoman.com/article/2257752/c ... bezzlement When he was first starting out in the “insider” game, Hale’s wife embezzled mid six figures from her boss. Hale counseled and supported her. They both went to jail. Hale was welcomed back into the OU fold after jail. How? Why? It’s not like he offered any special talents or value. All I can think is he offered positives valued by the OU fanbase and program- lack of scruples, willingness to look the other way and not be a stoolie There is no shame in dishonesty for the Sooners.

Reading this, I wanted to laugh about the idea of TAMU’s “success”, but the guy you talked to was probably in school for the Aggie peak. I looked it up on the Stassen site- from 1985-1998, TAMU had the seventh best win % in the nation (Texas was 35th). That probably formed his worldview wrt college football. Now, the Ags never did anything with that. All the teams in the top 10 win% over that period, except them and the Buckeyes, won a MNC or two (or three, for the Hurricanes and Huskies). And, sure, the Ags did have about three major NCAA probations over that period. We laugh at the Ags and their quarter century without even playing for a conference championship, but there is a segment of their fans that think they’re right up there, just needing a few breaks.

Isn’t that how it is for Euro soccer prodigies? And MlB bonus babies?

Israel stated that they would view the closing of the strait as an act of war. Egypt massed its military on the border, and closed the strait. I am unpersuaded by your argument.

“Return to Dominance” UCLA last dominated in the ‘50s. They won a MNC while coached by Red Sandwrs, who they hired from Vanderbilt. A southerner, he created some controversy when he dropped the n-bomb during a booster talk (controversial in LA, wouldn’t have been controversial in Nashville). Sanders installed the single wing and made a winner. He died of a heart attack, in a cheap downtown LA hotel room, banging a hooker. They really ought to put a statue up.

Bolverk, Didn’t Israel get the West Bank and Gaza after fighting back an unprovoked invasion? Is that wrong? How is that an illegal occupation? Whose laws?

Roma, your analogies are not apt at all. Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, all of the Iranian clients, are waging a war where civilian deaths are a feature, not a bug. They don’t imbed in populated areas for lack of remote regions for garrisons. They do so because they want the populace to either be a human shield, or sacrificial victims to create global support. Yes, these are human tragedies. Yes, they are Hamas’, and Hezbollah’s and Houthis’s (and Iran’s) fault. On October 7, 2023, Hamas showed Israel what being their neighbor entailed. Claims that there is any other way to deal with them, of putting the mad dog down while avoiding civilian casualties, while Hamas’ strategy is to have lots of civilian casualties, are specious. Israel actually is trying to minimize civilian casualties, even though they will never get credit for it. Hamas is the side that sees civilian casualties as a feature, not a bug, of their strategy.

The drone strike in Tel Aviv last week, where an Iranian-supplied drone sneaked through Israeli air defense, is a good example why Israel cannot allow Iran to have nukes. Iran is the nation that seems to feel that its rason d’etre is to fire bombs at Israel, through proxies all around it. Israel has bombed Iranian nuclear facilities. With the U.S., they have cyber-attacked their research facilities. They have even targeted Iranian physicists (only the good ones) for assassination. Now, Iran’s ally, Russia, may be helping them get over the finish line in developing nukes. I don’t know what Israel’s next step is, but if you’re shocked by it, you haven’t been paying attention.

In DFW, you hear a local radio spot where Babe Laufenburg notes that the Dallas Cowboys have made the playoffs 37 times in their 64 years. He puts that out there as a mark of excellence. Problem is, it used to be 18 out of 26. It used to be ten conference championships out of 36 years. Now it’s ten out of 64. That commercial drives me crazy.

Why do FSU and Clemson want out of the ACC? To get more money, since modern college football programs require armies of analysts, scouts and staffers. Every year they are in the ACC, they fall further behind the programs they consider their peers. Would they join the B1G or SEC, upon leaving? Doesn’t look like it. Would they join the B12? It’s hard to see how they solve their media revenue problem (they want to be financial peers with SEC or B1G schools) and it’s hard to see why the B12 would want them, considering they would flee for the SEC or B1G whenever they had a chance. So, what is their plan? Could it be this is all about getting unequal revenue sharing in the ACC?

The show isn’t great art, not even close, but it’s great trash. Characters like the Deep being so pathetic and so monstrous. Sage is a great character. All the supes around her have no idea that she is the most dangerous, the hardest to trap. Does Firecracker have any powers, besides snapping her fingers like a cap gun?

I enjoyed the show. Of course,I enjoyed the comic series fifteen years ago. Part of it is due to being a comics nerd, and part due to being a longtime employee of the now defunct Vought (Aircraft). As the company was tanking, and the series was beginning, I asked the corporate lawyer why we weren’t getting paid for the use of the name. Did Amazon do their research and determine it was public domain. Was the rights to the name forfeited by not using it (the purchaser, Triumph Arospace, phased “Vought” out gradually)? Was it just a matter of Triumph Legal being lazy? We may never know. This is cool. Vought Retirees club restore old F-4s, F-8s and A-7’s. https://m.facebook.com/groups/1482266625152469/

Well, we would have. Here are the detailed stats from the game- https://stats.texassports.com/custompages/sports/m-footbl/2009-2010/ut14.html McElroy dropped back 17 times. He was picked once. He was sacked five times. He completed six for 58 yards. Alabama could not handle an offense like Texas had in 2008 and 2009. They almost couldn’t handle it with Gilbert in there. If Colt isn’t hurt, and a little pressure to score is put on Alabama, it would have got ugly.

Ha-ha! The Democratic Party is the one that wants to have student loans of working professionals paid for by taxes of blue collar workers, and the party that wants to increase tax deductions for wealthy people’s jumbo mortgages. It is amazing how things have flipped over 40 years. Reagan would never have had the balls to suggest these.