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1975: Kansas Upsets #1 Oklahoma

Bootlegger’s boy Barry Switzer took over as the Oklahoma Sooners’ head coach after Chuck Fairbanks left for the New England Patriots. Switzer’s first season at Oklahoma was in 1973 and when Oklahoma hosted the Kansas Jayhawks on November 8th, 1975 he had yet to lose his first game as a head coach.

The only blemish on his record was a 7-7 tie with top ranked USC in Oklahoma’s second game of that season. Switzer’s record was a startling 29-0-1.

In November of 1975, the 2nd ranked Oklahoma Sooners hosted the Kansas Jayhawks in what most thought would be just another blowout win for the 8-0 home team. Kansas came into the game unranked with a record of 5-3.

The Jayhawks lost their opening game against a really bad Washington State team. Then, after

improving their record with wins over lightweights Kentucky, Oregon State and Wisconsin, they lost  to 4th ranked Nebraska. It wasn’t a blowout with the Huskers winning, 0-16.

After beating a weak Iowa State team, the Jayhawks lost their third game to a good Oklahoma State team.

There was really nothing about Kansas that gave anyone any indication that the Jayhawks were capable of beating the 2nd ranked Sooners.

This Oklahoma Sooner squad was loaded, too. Star quarterback Steve Davis was backed up by Dean Blevins and Thomas Lott. Behind Davis were stars Joe Washington, Horace Ivory, Elvis Peacock and a young Billy Sims the future Heisman Trophy winner. They didn’t throw the ball a lot, but Tinker Owens and Billy Brooks were big play guys averaging well over 20 yards per reception.

Karl Baldischwiler and Greg Roberts were the biggest names up front, but it was the defense that was really loaded and talented.

Led by two out of the three Selmon brothers, LeeRoy and Dewey, the Sooners were a difficult team to move the ball against. Jimbo Elrod was an All Big 8 and All American defensive end and linebackers like Daryl Hunt, plus defensive backs like Zac Henderson and Scott Hill made this defense one of the best in the country, if not the very best.

Oklahoma ran the Wishbone offense and had taken it to another level. They were breaking records and opponents in alarming fashion and were in the middle of a 28 game winning streak.
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Like many teams in this era, Kansas had also gone to a Wishbone offense. They took talented and athletic defensive back Nolan Cromwell and moved him to quarterback.

Cromwell was no average Joe. As a high school athlete, Cromwell was All-State in football and basketball and a state champion three state years in track. He was the national junior champion in the decathlon. The Ransom, Kansas native was nicknamed the Ransom Rambler for his prowess on the field and the court. Cromwell went on to an 11 year NFL career and multiple All Pro seasons with the Los Angeles Rams. He was a special athlete and made the Jayhawks’ offense work.

Cromwell may have been a special athlete, but he did not throw a single pass in this game. The home town Sooners were surprised to be down 7-3 at half time. No problem, they thought, 4 points was nothing to make up on the lowly Jayhawks.

But, it became a problem when Oklahoma turned the ball over in 8 of their second half possessions.

They fumbled 4 times and threw 4 interceptions. It would be hard for the Sooners to beat Norman Middle School with 8 turnovers.

Oklahoma held Kansas to only 235 yards of total offense, but the Jayhawks managed to score 16

second half points to take a 23-3 upset win over the Sooners. Oklahoma had 338 yards of offense which was weak for them, and they could not score again due to the turnovers.

Kansas lost to 10th ranked Colorado next before recovering to beat their biggest rival, Missouri, 42-24. They lost to 20th ranked Pittsburgh in the Sun Bowl to finish with a 7-5 record further proving how huge this upset was. Pitt went on to win the national title in 1976 behind super star running back Tony Dorsett.

Oklahoma, in spite of losing this game, went on to beat Michigan in the Orange Bowl and won the national championship in 1975.

Kansas beating Oklahoma 23-3 in 1975 was not the biggest upset of all time, David beating Goliath was much bigger. But, considering the history of Oklahoma and Kansas in football, this was kind of a huge upset.