In a 35-31 OU defeat, against a great Husker defense, Mildren accounted for four touchdowns (two rushing, two passing).

This week, in tribute to Mildren, the statewide Sports Animal radio network presented a special broadcast — the audio of ABC’s 1971 Nebraska-OU telecast, featuring Chris Schenkel on play-by-play and Bud Wilkinson on analysis.

While nearly 37 years have passed since the “Game of the Century,” that Thanksgiving Day spectacle in Norman remains fresh in the memories of those who were there.

Randy Duncan
(Plano, Texas)

Today, Duncan owns a pest-control company in the Dallas area. In 1971, he was a student-manager for the Sooner football team. During slow evenings, Duncan and Jack Mildren would play cards in Mildren’s dorm room.

“I loved Jack Mildren,” Duncan said this week. “He was a stud, but he always treated everybody with great dignity. He had such class.”

Duncan, 57, learned of Mildren’s death by reading about it on an Internet message board.

Reflecting on the “Game of the Century,” Duncan said, “Older OU guys would say that the 1957 loss to Notre Dame (the defeat that ended OU’s 47-game win streak) was a bigger disappointment.

I just know that the ’71 Nebraska game really hurt.

If there’s one thing I could have changed in my life, it would have been the result of that game.”

Bob Selman
(Tallahassee, Fla.)

While studying architecture at OU, Selman resided in a duplex one block from Owen Field. In 1970, he graduated and was married to his girlfriend, Ellen, who had been a Sooner cheerleader.

They moved to Tulsa and remained regulars at Sooner home games.

For the “Game of the Century,” the Selmans took to the stadium what then was a high-tech toy — a battery-operated, six-inch black-and-white television that had been a wedding gift. Days later, Bob Selman was shipped to California to begin training as an Army infantryman.

After 38 years, the Selmans are still together. In 1990, they moved from Tulsa to Tallahassee, Fla. They return for one OU home game each year.

Michael Horton
(Wagoner)

After completing his service in the Air Force, Horton enrolled at OU. In 1971, he was a 25-year-old sophomore who drove a metallic-blue 1969 Chevy Malibu.

Now a business consultant, he listened to this week’s “Game of the Century” radio special.

“I got depressed all over again,” Horton said. “No game has ever left me feeling so empty.”

“I remember the 1971 Nebraska game day being a gray, cloudy day — a perfect fall football day,” he said. “When the game ended, it was dead silence. After a day or two, it sunk in that we had seen something very special and that the game would live on forever.”

Two years ago, Horton said, “at one of the OU Club meetings in Tulsa, Jack Mildren signed a football for my grandson.We have it proudly displayed.”

Bob Berry (Tulsa)

A 1961 OU graduate and a season-ticket holder for nearly 40 years, Berry drove his gold Dodge sedan from Tulsa to Norman on Thanksgiving morning of 1971.

“I remember that game so vividly,” he said. “I thought at the time that it was the best game I ever saw, and I have seen nothing since to change my opinion.”

Berry on Jack Mildren: “He was one of my first real OU heroes. He was the man. He made OU football what it is today. It was a real shock to learn of his death. He must have been a pretty classy guy.”

Berry watched “The Game of the Century” from a seat above the north end zone. “During Nebraska’s last touchdown drive, they were coming right at me,” he recalled. “I knew they were going to score, and there was nothing we could do about it.”

Today, the 69-year-old Berry resides in Tulsa but works in Dallas for a merger acquisition company.

Jim Johnson (Chickasha)

A Sooner basketball player and a high-jumper for the track team, Johnson completed his eligibility in 1967.

He was drafted into the Army. Four years later, he was back at OU to work toward an accounting degree.

During the “Game of the Century,” he and his wife were in the east-side student section at Memorial Stadium.

“There was no school that week because of Thanksgiving, but there were plenty of people on campus. People were tailgating everywhere,” says Johnson, who now is an accountant in Chickasha.

“The game itself was incredible. I felt a reverence for that game immediately.

I knew it would be remembered forever.”

Jake Johnson (Ardmore)

Having studied finance at OU, Johnson has been a season- ticket holder since the early ’60s. During the ’70s, he did radio play-by-play for the Ardmore High School football team.

For the “Game of the Century,” he remembers his exact position – east side of the stadium, 47-yard line, 30 rows up.

“I remember watching Jack Mildren put on a show,” says Johnson, now a financial planner. “And I remember wishing that we were tougher defensively.”

Mike Bartel (Tulsa)

“I had a couple of business classes with Jack Mildren and had the highest admiration for him,” says Bartel, who works in the investment business. “His death makes us all very sad and brings back a flood of memories.

You think something like this happens when you’re 80 or 90 — not when you’re in your 50s.”

Of the ’71 Nebraska-OU showdown, Bartel said, “I remember that day as if it were yesterday. The sun never came out. I still remember the clip against Joe Wylie that wasn’t called. It is a fond memory, and it doesn’t eat at me as much as losing to LSU in the (January 2004) national championship game.”

Footnotes

During the 1971 regular season, the “Game of the Century” was the Sooners’ only nationally televised contest.

The 1971 OU-Nebraska game originally was scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 20.

The OU-OSU Bedlam game in Stillwater was set for Saturday, Nov. 27. At midseason, ABC Sports expressed an interest in moving Nebraska-OU to Thanksgiving Thursday. OSU o8cials complied by agreeing to move Bedlam to Dec. 4.

In his column published on the morning of the “Game of the Century,” then-Tulsa World sports editor Bill Connors wrote this: “Ever since seeing Nebraska against Oklahoma State, the opinion here has been that if OU took away Johnny Rodgers’ kick returns, the Sooners would win.” The biggest play in the Huskers’ 35-31 victory turned out to be a 72-yard Rodgers punt return for a touchdown.

In the Nov. 25, 1971, edition of the Tulsa World, Borders Cafeteria advertised a complete Thanksgiving lunch for $1.09. Sears advertised an 8-track car stereo, with two speakers, for $49.

Movie buffs could sample “The French Connection” at the Southroads Mall Cinema or “2001: A Space Odyssey” at the 11th Street Drive-In. Pictured on the front page of the Thanksgiving Tulsa World were the smiling faces of OU’s Jack Mildren and Greg Pruitt.