Sooners could get dirty for the first time since '96
Published: 9/18/2009 8:52 AM
Last Modified: 9/18/2009 8:52 AM
Watching Miami wear out Georgia Tech tonight gave me reason to think. (Hey, it's been known to happen.)
When was the last time the Oklahoma Sooners played football on a dirt baseball infield?
OU plays at Miami in Land Shark Stadium on Oct. 3, and the Florida Marlins' last home game is Sept. 27.
The Marlins finish 2009 with six games on the road, but, as of now, they're still in the hunt for a wild card spot in the National League playoffs. If the Marlins still are chasing a postseason berth when they close the home schedule — they're five games back of Colorado right now for the wild card spot — it would seem unlikely the stadium grounds crew would start sodding over the infield before the Hurricanes and Sooners hook up. If the Marlins are out of it by then, the Sooners and 'Canes will be playing on new sod.
The last time OU played in a football/baseball facility was — well, not that long ago — last year's national championship game, same place The U and, uh, The OU play in two weeks. (Now it's called Land Shark Stadium; way back in the day — like last January — it was called Dolphin Stadium. Whatever.)
But that loss to Florida was played on all grass. Same thing in 2005, when OU played there and lost to USC, and 2001, when OU played there and beat Florida State: all grass.
(Remember the old days, when the SAME EXACT stadium had such quaint little monikers like Joe Robbie Stadium and Pro Player Stadium? Ah, nostaglia.)
Same with the 2005 Holiday Bowl, when OU beat Oregon in the San Diego Padres' home, Qualcomm Stadium. (Which, as of this writing, is still named Qualcomm Stadium. I think.) That memorable night (OU's last bowl win, now that I think about it) was played on all grass.
So when was the last time Sooner tailbacks were slipping around on the infield, or OU coaches were calling plays just to set up field goal attempts from off the dirt?
It last happened in 1996, in San Diego's Jack Murphy Stadium (which in 1997 was renamed Qualcomm Stadium), John Blake's second game, a 51-31 loss to the San Diego State Aztecs. (You know, it's possible all that slipping and stumbling by Blake's Sooners that night wasn't because of the infield dirt after all.)
Before that, OU's last time on the baseball dirt was 1985, in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, a 13-7 win over the Minnesota Gophers — Troy Aikman's debut as Barry Switzer's starting quarterback.
The Metrodome — the Internet tells me it's still called that — now seems ancient, but the home of the Minnesota Twins was but four years old then. The Sooners' season-opener (one of the first college football games televised by TBS) went off on Sept. 28 because OU's original opener, SMU, was moved to December (also for TV), making Oklahoma the last of 105 Division I-A teams to play that year.
Get this: In both San Diego and Minneapolis, the night-time college football kickoff was preceded by an afternoon baseball game. In '96, the Padres lost to the Dodgers 9-2, and in '85, the Twins beat the Royals 5-3. That's a great day for sports fans.
Before '85, OU played on baseball fields only a few times before the '50s. It was kind of hard to make out the baseball diamond on television back then — well, because television wasn't exactly invented yet.
OU played Army at Yankee Stadium in 1961, but that game was in November, well after the infield had been resodded and Mantle and Maris had completed their dance with history.
Ah, Yankee Stadium. A name so awe-inspiring, they leave it untouched, even after knocking it down and moving across the street.
It is still Yankee Stadium, isn't it?
— John E. Hoover
Written by
Jason Collington
Web Editor
