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State's football teams on brink of history

 
By DAVE SITTLER World Sports Columnist
Published: 9/27/2008  2:05 AM
Last Modified: 9/27/2008  3:30 AM

 A September to remember.

That is what the state's three Division I-A football teams can give their fans and the rest of us with wins on this final Saturday in the year's ninth month.

The University of Tulsa, Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma all enter 6 p.m. home games with 3-0 records. If all three win, it would mark the first time since 1947 that the trio has been undefeated and untied through September.

World War II was still a fresh, painful memory; Harry S. Truman was president, and Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play in a major league baseball game the last year the Golden Hurricane, Cowboys and Sooners all headed into October with spotless records.

Shoot, in 1947, Oklahoma A&M was still 10 years away from changing its name to State and calling its athletes Cowboys and Cowgirls, not Aggies.

This already has been a memorable month for all three schools.

TU and OSU opened their home schedules in renovated stadiums, while OU has whipsawed its three opponents so convincingly that it is ranked No. 2 in the national polls.

The Hurricane and Cowboys also are knocking on the Top 25 door. It is not out of the question that all three could be ranked within a week or two, which would send historians on a frantic search through the records books to find out if that has ever happened.

Going unbeaten and untied through the first month obviously is rare enough. Since 1947, the closest the three schools came before this weekend was in 1967, when OU was 2-0, TU 1-0 and OSU 1-0-1.

Those were the days when teams played only 10 regular-season games and didn't even open until the third or fourth Saturday of the month. That late-September start makes it all the more remarkable that it's taken 61 years to reach this point.

It is even more impressive when you consider that all three universities started this season on Aug. 30, are guaranteed to play 12 regular-season games and will have four contests under their helmets instead of only the one or two that teams were playing in September until the early 1970s.

OU had a new coach when it opened the 1947 season on Sept. 27 with a 24-20 win at the University of Detroit. The Sooners finished 7-2-1, and Bud Wilkinson went on to post a 145-29-4 record in his legendary career at the school.

Jim Lookabaugh was in his ninth season at Oklahoma A&M, when the Aggies started 1947 with September road wins at Kansas State and Texas Christian. A&M won only one more game, finishing 3-7.

Like OU, TU only played one game in September 1947. In his second season, J.O. "Buddy" Brothers coached the Hurricane to a 26-13 home win over West Texas State, en route to a 5-5 finish.

Fast forward to tonight's matchups and the odds suggest the Sooners, Cowboys and Hurricane will break that six-decade-long September drought. But it is far from a sure bet.

TU's high-powered offense should propel the Hurricane to a 4-0 start for the first time since 1978. But Central Arkansas, which is undefeated (4-0) and ranked No. 12 by The Sports Network and No. 15 in the FCS coaches poll, could provide a stiffer test than any of TU's first three foes.

Gunning for their best start since opening 5-0 in 2004, the Cowboys are favored by 17 points against Troy University (2-1) in expanded Boone Pickens Stadium. But the Trojans return several veterans for a team that dominated OSU a year ago in a 41-23 win.

Under coach Bob Stoops, OU has opened 4-0 six times and has gone a staggering 56-2 at Memorial Stadium. No. 24 TCU (4-0), which visits Norman tonight, gave Stoops one of those two home losses with a 17-10 win in 2005.

Stoops, OSU's Mike Gundy and TU's Todd Graham all belong to that coaching fraternity that believes you must give your fans a "November to remember" in the offseason. That will extend into December if anyone can advance and win a conference title Dec. 6.

But when all three teams combine to play at a high level at the same time, it's also fun remembering September.
By DAVE SITTLER World Sports Columnist

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2 comments have been made for this team so far. Tell us what you think below!
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old sooner, (9/27/2008 10:56:05 AM)
1947 and 2008 September football records aren't comparable. Seasons started later in 1947. While all three of OU, A&M and Tulsa were undefeated in September 1947, they had just played two games by the end of September and only Tulsa won its first three games (actually, they won their first four). OU lost its third game to Texas in this, Bud Wilkinson's first year as head coach, and A&M lost its third game to Denver U. So when was the last time all three won their first three games?
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gus, (9/27/2008 11:31:29 AM)
Too bad OSU is afraid to schedule TU on a yearly, home and home basis. All that accomplishes is cheating the fans. They put their self-serving desires ahead of taking more than a probable chance of getting spanked. They win over a hapless somewhere Mo team and think they are in the running for a national championship. Ark and OSU should play in a bowl game called the "chicken bowl".
 

 
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