Tulsa World: Sooners' Cooper gets attention

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Sooners' Cooper gets attention

By DAVE SITTLER
Published: 11/24/1990
Last Modified: 7/4/2008 7:48 AM

NORMAN - When Adrian Cooper swung a white towel over his
head Friday before 74,910 spectators at Memorial Stadium
and a national-television audience, the University of Oklahoma
tight end wasn't signaling a surrender.
Quite the contrary. Cooper's towel-waving act was an effort
to gain some respect.
The Sooner senior, who felt he had been snubbed when he
wasn't named to the Associated Press' All-Big Eight Conference
team, used the towel to get his message across to the voters.
The incident occurred moments after Cooper had hauled in
a 36-yard touchdown pass from Cale Gundy that gave Oklahoma
a 7-3 lead over Nebraska. OU coach Gary Gibbs said Cooper's
catch was a major factor in the Sooners' unexpected 45-10
romp over the 10th-ranked Cornhuskers.
Shortly after the scoring catch, Cooper jumped to his feet
and pulled the white towel out of his pants. After waving
it, he held it up so the television cameras could focus
in on the message he had written on the towel: "I'm the
best tight end in the Big Eight."
Cooper, who set up another score with a 40-yard reception
and ended up with three catches for 96 yards, said he decided
shortly before the game to throw the towel in the faces
of the AP voters who had selected Nebraska freshman Johnny
Mitchell as the league's top tight end.
"It was just something I wanted to express," Cooper said.
"I had never heard of (Mitchell) until a couple of weeks ago."
Cooper's personal search for some respect typified the approach
the entire Oklahoma team carried into the game against the
9-2 Cornhuskers.
Unranked, unable to go to a bowl game because of probation
and saddled with three consecutive losses earlier this year,
the Sooners wanted to take advantage of the national telecast
to demonstrate that they were better than their final 8-3
record might indicate.
OU coach Gary Gibbs said he hopes the people who vote in
the polls had a chance to view the Sooners' destruction
of a Nebraska team that is headed to a Florida Citrus Bowl
date Jan. 1 with Georgia Tech.
"Because it was on national television, hopefully people
will see that we have a good football team, and they can
rank us accordingly," Gibbs said.
OU fullback Mike McKinley, who scored three times against
the Huskers, said, "We've had a great team, and we just
didn't get the breaks this year."
The Sooners wouldn't get any arguments from a Nebraska team
that recognized that it had been dominated throughout the contest.
"For them, this was their bowl game," Nebraska tailback
Leodis Flowers said. "They wanted it more than we did,
and it showed today. They were a better team than us."
Cooper said the 35-point victory over OU's biggest rival
in the Big Eight was a fitting way for the 19 Sooner seniors
to end their careers.
"Personally, I couldn't ask to go out a better way," Cooper
said. "I had a rocky career here. Times were bad for me,
but it just showed today what can happen if you stick in there."
Gibbs said he was proud of all the seniors who had remained
a part of the Oklahoma program after the Sooners were hit
by NCAA probation two years ago.
"When we were placed on probation, they had a chance to
transfer and go anywhere they wanted, and they didn't," Gibbs said.
By DAVE SITTLER

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