100 to 6

Tonight's televised college football game on ESPN is a matchup between the The University of Houston and the University of Tulsa, the game is at 8:00pm Eastern Time.

Fifty years ago, this year the two teams also played, in Houston at the Astrodome, which was three years old at this time.

                                                         
                                                             

It was Saturday evening, November 23, 1968, and the site was the Astrodome. The 11th ranked UH Cougars were scheduled to play an average game against the Golden Hurricane of Tulsa University, but nobody really gave the Oklahomans much of a chance that season against the highly regarded Cougars from Houston.

Tulsa had a good excuse for what was about to unfold that night in Houston. The Tulsa team had been hit with a flu epidemic during the week leading up to the UH game. Some players were too ill to make the trip to Houston and others who did travel may have been either still too ill to play or just coming down with the bug on game day.

With the score Houston 88, Tulsa 6. Houston inserted a reserve Cornerback to the Offense to help play out the clock. The Receiver was named Larry Gatlin, who along with his brothers later gained fame as the Gatlin Brothers Band. Gatlin was inserted into the game as a wide receiver with the ball on the Tulsa 25 yard line. They were supposed to just grind it out to "kill the clock", but the rare chance for Gatlin was apparently too fat to miss. He and back up QB Rusty Clark teamed up for an easy 25 yard TD pass, which I think may have been the only TD of Gatlin’s college career. The score was then Houston 93 and the Tulsa Golden Hurricane 6.

                                                                 

Larry Gatlin

With about a minute left to go in the game Tulsa has to punt again and a reserve player for Houston named Simpson receives the punt and ignores the "palms down" signals from the Houston sideline to "take a knee" and down the ball, instead returns it through theTulsa defense to score one more touchdown creating a score of 99-6, with this score and the ongoing rivalry between Tulsa and Houston Oilmen. Houston successfully kicked for the extra point and an unbelievable 100-6 win.

By the way, Houston's Larry Gatlin was not the only player in the Astrodome that day to later gain some fame and notoriety, Phillip McGraw, now famous as TV Psychologist "Dr. Phil" was on the roster  as a Lineman for Tulsa, 

                                                          

Dr. Phil

Hopefully tonight's game will be a little more competitive.