Where Are They Now?
November 12, 2008 11:01 AM | General
November 12, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Oscar “Big O” Patrick is probably down on the list of great football players fans recall playing for the Mountaineers in the late 1960s. But the Big Creek High School product was an immense talent who combined rare size, speed, hands and athletic ability to lead West Virginia in receiving in 1967 and 1968 before a serious knee injury ruined his career in 1969.
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| Oscar Patrick caught 50 passes for 770 yards and five touchdowns for the Mountaineers as a junior in 1968.
WVU Sports Communications photo |
Patrick, now 60 and living in San Diego, is reminded daily of the injury that has now left him disabled with arthritis.
“I have what they called the ‘Wishbone.’ I was cut on both sides of the knee and the scar looks like a wishbone,” Patrick said recently via telephone.
The injury happened midway through the 1969 season against Tulane when Patrick was running down field to cover a punt.
“I was wearing my long cleats because I felt like I could grip the ground better,” he recalled. “I was covering a punt and the guy came up to me. I pushed him off with my elbow and I had my ankles taped and the next joint to give was my knee. I turned and it slipped right out. My whole career flashed right in front of me.”
And what a career Patrick was destined to have.
The two-sport star at Big Creek High school was a part of Jim Carlen’s first recruiting class in 1966. Patrick starred at all-black Excelsior High School for three years before integration eventually made its way to the southern part of the state. The move to Big Creek High School in 1965 dramatically raised his profile.
“In 1955 the first school they integrated in West Virginia was Dunbar High School in Weirton,” Patrick explained. “Over a 10-year period they came down to the southern part of the state and McDowell, Mercer and Mingo counties were the last three counties they integrated.”
Patrick played with Bob Gresham and Randy Flinchum at Big Creek for former WVU standout player Joel Hicks and the 6-foot-4-inch, 215-pound Patrick soon drew the attention of college recruiters in both football and basketball.
“The University of Kentucky – this is near the time when Texas Western beat them in basketball for the national championship – they came and asked me if I wanted to be the first black player there in both basketball and football. Kentucky was closer to me than West Virginia but I told them they were crazy,” Patrick said. “I’m going to a school that I like.”
At the time Patrick was being recruited at West Virginia by Gene Corum, who resigned under pressure following the 1965 season.
“(Corum) was still there when I went home after my visit and they said, ‘West Virginia got a new coaching staff.’ I said, ‘What?’ They asked me if I really wanted to go there with the new coaching staff coming from Georgia Tech. I said, ‘I’m going to West Virginia. I don’t care what you say.’”
Patrick and Carl Crennel were the first two black players Jim Carlen and Bobby Bowden ever recruited.
“They were very receptive to me,” Patrick said. “I never had any problems.”
Patrick cracked the lineup as a sophomore in 1967 when promising flanker Roy Stanley permanently injured his knee before the season dancing to the “Tighten Up” by Archie Bell and the Drells. Patrick led the Mountaineers in receiving that year with 19 catches for 326 yards and a pair of touchdowns. In 1968 when sophomore Mike Sherwood took over as the team’s starting quarterback, Patrick really blossomed.
He caught a school-record 50 passes for 770 yards and five touchdowns. His reception total was 15 more than Paul Bischoff’s school record of 35 established in 1950 and his 50-catch figure ranked Patrick 18th in the country. Patrick had four games of 100 yards or more and he figures he could have had even more catches if he could have just kept his mouth shut.
“I made a statement in the paper. One of the reporters in town asked me how I was doing,” Patrick recalled. “I said, ‘Well at the rate I’m going I should catch about 70 passes this year and gain 1,000 yards because it was in reach. Then the coaches saw me and said, ‘You shouldn’t have made that statement. You’re going to give away our game plan.’”
Patrick said he was just answering a question honestly.
“I said, ‘Coach I didn’t know. I just went off of what we had been doing. From now on I will keep my mouth shut.’ We cut back on the passes and we also had (Jim) Braxton and (Bob) Gresham,” Patrick said. “We did pretty well with them.”
If there was one team on West Virginia’s schedule that Patrick particularly enjoyed playing it was Penn State. In 1966 an injured Patrick kicked the game-winning extra point with his left leg to defeat the Nittany Lion freshmen team, 7-6.
As a sophomore in 1967, Patrick caught five passes for 113 yards and a touchdown in the Mountaineers’ close, 21-14 loss to the Lions at Beaver Stadium. During his junior year in 1968, Patrick had one of the great individual performances in school history, catching 10 passes for 190 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-20 loss to the Lions in Morgantown.
“He scares you to death every time he goes out there,” said Penn State coach Joe Paterno after the game.
Penn State, however, was to be Patrick’s Alamo in 1969. Two weeks after injuring his knee against Tulane, Oscar gamely tried to play in West Virginia’s critical midseason game against the No. 5-ranked Lions. Both teams were undefeated and an Orange Bowl bid was on the line.
West Virginia had become more of a running team that year with an abundance of running backs, but Jim Carlen and his offensive coordinator Bobby Bowden planned to use Patrick in the passing game against Penn State’s tough, nationally ranked defense.
“All week I practiced and I felt pretty good,” Patrick said. “Then we got there and I was trying to make a cut during warm-ups and my cartilage tore. I told (Penn State’s) Charlie Pittman on their sidelines that I was coming back. I said, ‘I’m going to play against you guys.’
“They shot me up with cortisone and they put me in. I tried to run down the field and I told Coach Carlen that I couldn’t go,” Patrick recalled. “There was just no sense in me being out there.”
Two days later, the pain in his knee so intense, Patrick walked into the coaches’ office and told them he couldn’t stand it any longer: he needed to have an operation.
Patrick never played another down of football. In 1970, the Washington Redskins told him that he was No. 3 on their draft list before his injury and signed him to a free agent contract. Patrick couldn’t pass the team physical.
“After that I was working for the Board of Regents and then the next year Cincinnati gave me a tryout but because of my knee they waived me,” Patrick said. “That’s when I decided to come out to California.”
Patrick was tempted to give pro football another try when Redskins assistant coach Harland Svare got the San Diego Chargers job in 1971. “I was down in the dressing room talking to Bryant Salter who played at Pitt. He said, ‘Hey Patrick how are you doing?’ I said, ‘I’m fine. I’m in the insurance business.’ He said, ‘Do you want to play again?’ I said, ‘No sir. I’m out of football. I really don’t want to try again.’”
The WVU graduate refereed football for 15 years before his knees could no longer hold up.
“I worked with Mike Carey who did the Super Bowl,” Patrick said. “We both started at the same time. We were doing Pop Warner, freshman games, high school games, college games and also semi-pro games. My legs got so bad that I just couldn’t go any further.”
Patrick’s ex-wife still lives in the area as do his two children Michael and Andina, who have presented him with three grandchildren.
Patrick says he has no regrets about what could have been a very lucrative professional football career.
“I called it the million dollar operation,” he sighed. “I’m 60 and to be able to say that I still have a sound mind, a sound body more or less and the only thing are my knees. Whether I would have had this operation or not the arthritis still would have got me. I’ve been vice-president of different companies that I’ve worked for. Hey, I’ve enjoyed life. My kids are grown. They’ve got kids. My mother got a chance to see that. I’m proud of that.”
