Tulsa World: Ex-Sooners, ' Horns honor hero

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Ex-Sooners, ' Horns honor hero

By JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer
Published: 10/7/2008 2:04 AM
Last Modified: 10/7/2008 2:15 AM

BIXBY — Former football coaches and players from Texas and Oklahoma shared a stage — and pleasantries and barbs — during a 2008 Legends in Sports Rivalry Dinner, held Monday at the SpiritBank Event Center.

But the Tulsa Sports Charities-sponsored event turned somber when a posthumous award was given to a former OU player who died a hero.

Jerry Anderson, a former Sooner defensive back, died five months shy of his 36th birthday in 1989, when he drowned while saving the life of a child who had fallen into the swollen Stones River in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Anderson also rescued two people during Tulsa's Memorial Day flood of 1984.

Anderson's widow, Darlene, accepted the 2008 Larry W. Brummett Courage Award on Anderson's behalf at the dinner, which also was attended by other Anderson family members.

"He gave his life for strangers," former OU coach Barry Switzer said. "He dove in and saved their lives and gave his life in doing so. It's quite fitting that an award is being given to him."

Switzer said Anderson was one of the toughest players ever to wear an OU uniform.

"I don't know if we ever had one more physical defensive back that has ever played at Oklahoma," Switzer said. "He probably won the 1975 national championship for us when we played Michigan (in the Orange Bowl) because he knocked the quarterback out. He scrambled and he knocked him up under the bleachers and he never returned to the ballgame, so that was definitely an advantage for us, with their starter

out of the ballgame."

Dan Roberts was presented the J.V. Haney Community Spirit Award and scholarships were given to OU, Oklahoma State, Tulsa and UT in the names of Wayman Tisdale, Bill and Nita Connors, Dr. George Mauerman and Bob Parker, respectively.

More than a dozen former UT players and coaches (including Peter Gardere, James Street and Fred Akers) and more than 30 former OU players and coaches (including Switzer, Joe Washington and Clendon Thomas) attended the dinner. The Sooners and Longhorns renew their football rivalry Saturday in Dallas.

jimmie tramel 581-8389
jimmie.tramel@tulsaworld.com By JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer

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