Plaino, Gary Gibbs lost to Texas on a recovered fumble by Texas just after the rule change was made. Check it out. I can't remember the game.
Wilkinson lost to Texas by a point just after the 2 point conversion rule came.
Jack Mildren was left handed but always threw right. Watch his awkward throws on film. He got the ball there. Mildren was in the day when teachers and parents told lefties to do everything right. A la Ronald Reagan.
Jack ate and wrote left handed, but he was a stud passer in high school. The stories I heard about him was that when he arrived at OU, his natural throwing motion was farther to the side than they wanted, so they tried to chance it. I remember his first pass was for over 70 yards to Joe Killingsworth for a touchdown in Madison in September of 1969. In his three varsity years at OU, he only played without a full house backfield of some kind in three games. The third was against Oregon State on a very windy day in Norman and his against the wind throwing futility was supposedly part of the decision to change to the wishbone.
I lot of us, and especially Jack, thought that if we'd had different personnel on offense, that his throwing might have been a little more acceptable in the veer. The linemen in the '69 freshmen class were better than those in Jack's class. It wasn't until Greg Pruitt moved to running back, and Tom Brahaney and Dean Unruh became starters, that the offense took off. Jack told me personally that he felt that if we'd stayed in the veer, that we'd have made it work as well as we eventually made the wishbone work. I don't know if that's true or not, but I know he believed it. And he was stung by the criticism of his passing skills.
I'm pretty sure that when he hit Jon Harrison for back to back long throws just before halftime in the GOTC, that they were plays he called. The offensive staff was coming down from the press box for halftime and Jack was told to run the ball and be safe. And he told his high school buddy to screw that, they were throwing it deep. And both were very good throws, with the north wind.
I've even heard Barry say that if we'd have thrown in more that day, that we'd likely have won. I personally thought after what I read 30 years later, that Nebraska knew OUr play calling sideline signals and was sitting on OUr stuff. It was the passing game that kept us alive that day, including a couple of clutch fourth down throws on OUr last touchdown drive.
Jack could throw it as well as Billy Kilmer, and the latter played ahead of Sonny Jergensen in Washington because George Allen thought he was a better leader, and lived with his lame duck, fluttering passes. The fact that Jack could throw it right handed and left, made him a great option quarterback. His pitches to Pruitt were always with his left hand. They were seldom off target, especially his senior year. But his right hand pitches were as accurate, to Bell and Wylie.
If Barry and the staff hadn't thought so highly of speedster Everett Marshall, we might never have changed to the bone. Barry loved speed, but Everett just wasn't much of a running back. Pruitt was playing wide receiver when we were in the veer, and Wylie was a back up.
I think we were lucky. We'd have never accomplished what happened in the next 17 years if we'd have not switched to the bone. But it wasn't a way for Jack to look like much of a passer, with one wide receiver on virtually every offensive snap.
