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Tragedy strikes former Tulsa football player
Published: 4/18/2012 6:27 PM
Last Modified: 4/18/2012 6:32 PM

During one of my tours of duty as the University of Tulsa’s football beat writer, maybe my favorite game to cover was one in which there was really nothing at stake.

On Halloween of 1998, TU went to Las Vegas to play a bad UNLV team.

I know what you’re thinking: Halloween? Las Vegas? Of course it was a great game to cover because it was, again, Halloween in Vegas.

That’s not the reason why the game is a favorite of mine. It was memorable because it was one of the most outstanding displays of resourcefulness that I’ve ever seen.

TU wasn’t struggling that season, too. and went to Las Vegas with its top two quarterbacks, top two receivers and leading rusher sidelined by injury.

TU coach Dave Rader threw a curveball that UNLV wasn’t expecting. He sneakily installed a version of the wishbone during practices in days leading up to the game.

First-time starter Robert Stephenson and wide receiver Jerrold Smith took turns directing the wishbone. TU caught the Rebels by surprise and both directed scoring drives on their first possessions.


The Golden Hurricane held on to win 20-16, getting an out-come sealing interception from Chris Miller with 54 seconds remaining.

On the Hurricane’s final series before Miller’s interception, the backfield featured a receiver (Smith) at quarterback, a linebacker (Allen Blackmon) at fullback, a safety (Adonis Peil) at halfback and a receiver (Donald Moten) at halfback.

“Talk about shuffling some players around,” Peil told me afterward. “But you know, whatever it takes to win. If anybody asks ‘Hey, move here, we need you,’ that’s fine. Nobody is going to gripe. They will say ‘Tell me what to do.’ That’s the attitude everybody took and it worked out.”

I told that story so I could tell this one:

Peil, who was TU’s special teams player of the year in 1998, recently lost his father.

Steve Peil died because of injuries sustained when a tornado hit Woodward last weekend. The funeral will be held 9 a.m. Thursday in Woodward.

Members of the TU family have rallied around Adonis Peil and offered words of encouragement on his Facebook page since the tragedy. You can find him on Facebook if you want to join in on the group hug.

I know the first rule of Las Vegas is “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”

But I can't forget what Adonis Peil and his buddies were able to do on Halloween, tricking the Rebels and treating themselves to an all-hands-on-deck victory in Vegas.


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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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