MSN Flashback: 1978
December 12, 2007 06:59 PM | General
December 13, 2007
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Rich Duggan remembers the intense heat that rolled into the airplane once the doors were opened in Oklahoma City a day before West Virginia played Oklahoma in Norman on Sept. 16, 1978.
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| Oklahoma had no problem with West Virginia in a 52-10 victory over the Mountaineers in Norman on Sept. 16, 1978.
WVU Sports Communications photo |
Joe Jelich recalls burning his hand on the Memorial Stadium turf waiting in his stance for the Sooners to snap the football. West Virginia band members were treated for heat prostration. Even sunburned Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer was hot under the collar despite his team’s leisurely 52-10 victory over West Virginia.
“I think the heat was worse than any game we’ve ever had here. It was something else,” Switzer said.
West Virginia’s game plan went up in flames by the end of the first quarter when Oklahoma already had 17 points on the scoreboard. At halftime the No. 3-rated Sooners were leading 31-3. Early in the third quarter star players Billy Sims, Thomas Lott, Kenny King, Reggie Kinlaw and Greg Roberts were lounging on the sidelines with their shoulder pads off, signing autographs and trying to stay cool.
On the West Virginia side of the field it was pure hell.
“I got my nose broken and my front teeth knocked out on a punt,” said Morgantown lawyer Rocky Gianola. “Back then you could line up overtop the center. The guy overtop me just used the palm of his hand and it came right up under my facemask and hit me in the mouth, broke my teeth, and broke my nose.”
“The air temperature was like 100 and about 18 inches above the turf it was about 130 degrees,” said middle guard Joe Jelich.
The West Virginia players got a heavy dose of reality a week earlier in the ‘78 opener when it took four quarters to put away Richmond, 14-12, in Morgantown. Gianola says the Mountaineers were already looking ahead to the Oklahoma game. The team spent the entire summer being reminded of what was in store for them in Oklahoma if they didn’t get their act together.
“The coaches were telling us during the off-season if we weren’t working hard we were going to get our asses kicked by Oklahoma. It was that kind of stuff,” Gianola said.
West Virginia had endured back-to-back losing seasons under Coach Frank Cignetti in 1976 and 1977, and was heading for a third straight losing year in 1978. Youth and inexperience, a lack of depth, and key injuries led to a 2-9 record. Several guys were KO’d in the Oklahoma game.
“I had a couple of concussions that year and the worst one was against Oklahoma,” Duggan said.
Jelich marveled at the speed Oklahoma had in the backfield.
“They were so fast that their linemen didn’t have to block you – all they had to do was get in your way for a split second,” Jelich said. “It was the fastest team I ever played against.”
Duggan swears the crown on Oklahoma’s field was higher than normal to help their runners get down hill. Sooner quarterbacks rarely threw the ball back then anyway.
“I would come off to the sidelines and I looked over to the Oklahoma side and it looked like there was such a rise that you could hardly see the knees of the players on the other side,” Duggan said. “They would pitch Sims the ball and it was like he was running down one of those mountains in Morgantown.”
Jelich said he did manage to get one good hit on Sims before Switzer got his Heisman Trophy winner out of the game after getting 114 yards on only eight carries.
“They didn’t run that hard. If you got a hold of them they went right to the ground,” Jelich said. “Sims bounced off of someone and kind of turned back in the middle and I was there and got a pretty good shot on him. The problem was he just didn’t give you very many chances (to hit him).”
Gianola also managed to take out some frustration once he got back on the field after having some sideline dental work done.
“We were at about midfield or so and we had to punt,” Gianola recalled. “We punted the ball and I forget who their return man was but the only thing I know is he is about 10 yards away from me when he catches the ball and the next thing I knew he was already 15 yards past me heading up the sideline.
“I take off down the field as hard as I can run and not only am I losing ground but I’m thinking this is fruitless,” Gianola said. “All of the sudden he stops and starts to reverse his field and he runs right into me. I lowered the boom on him – helmets flew and he fumbled the ball.
“It was purely by accident because I was so slow.”
Even though West Virginia was trailing 42-3 at the time, Gianola couldn’t resist saying something to the guy he accidentally nailed.
“Yeah, I said something to him,” Gianola laughed.
“You look at Oklahoma that year and they probably had 10 or 12 pro guys off that team,” said Jelich. “Their whole backfield played in the pros.”
“We played hard but we were just out-talented, out-manned and out-everything,” Gianola said.
One of Jelich’s buddies from Ravenswood drove all the way out to Norman in a Winnebago to watch the game. On Friday night before the game he went down to the stadium and got onto the field before security arrested him for trespassing.
“He went all the way out there and he didn’t even get to see the game,” Jelich laughed. “They had to bail him out of jail afterward. I think it cost him 300 bucks.”
There were some positives that came out of the game. The defense held Oklahoma to less than 500 yards of offense. And the two horses pulling the famed “Schooner Sooner” survived the heat, although they did take preventive measures and sat them out for all of the third and fourth quarter scores.
“We about killed those horses,” Gianola laughed. “We couldn’t play football very well that year but let me tell you we could run. Frank used to run us to death in practice ... we could've chased those Oklahoma guys for miles.”
