Did you quit following the Sooners during the late Gibbs\Blake years?

[K2C Sooner]

I followed them during the dark ages. I really believe Gary Gibbs had no chance. The Blake years were an abomination. We couldn't even name a starting Q-B and our special teams were a joke.

Guess what, I still went to some of the games and watched or listened to all of the games. I cursed a lot in those days, but I never gave up it wouldn't improve.

Bob Stoops was such a breath of fresh air. I remember watching the Independence Bowl (even though we lost) and knew we were back on track. We had Notre Dame on the ropes that year before we lost. Players were making plays on special teams I hadn't seen in a few years. Stoops was a gambler in those days. We had some great plays that year. I loved the "Ninga". How could you not?

I never bought into the theory that Bob won an NC with Blake's recruits, except to say, yes he did , but he moved multiple players to different positions and added several key players.

Oh well, I'm rambling....I'm just trying to get some activity on the board, so reply if you have an opinion.

If you don't, I'll post another gif thread...........

 

[barkingwater2000]

Thankfully some of those seasons coincided with my college years so I really wasn't able to watch any college football. I didn't miss much

 

[Plainosooner]

Before the OU/Georgia suit against the NCAA, it was hard to follow the Sooners if you weren't in Oklahoma. There was no internet. The team could only be on tv twice a year, plus maybe a bowl game. So there weren't many televised games. I personally didn't get "cable tv" until less than a decade ago.

And I was raising kids and my Saturdays in the fall were taken up with other things. I could occasionally listen to a game, on scratchy AM radio from Durant.

I paid as much attention as I could. But right after I graduated, there was the no tv probation. News in Dallas was pretty limited. OU was in the Big 8 with no Texas schools, so there was very little coverage. It's very different now. I paid attention during the Gibbs years, because he was a year behind me at OU, and I was the manager of the Boomers his freshman year. I didn't know him well, but I knew him a little.

I genuinely thought Schnellenberger was a good hire. But without any real inside info, I just knew that they faded at the end of his season, and Howard got himself fired. I didn't know why for a while. I thought at the time that Blake's hire was a bad one. Didn't have a clue about how bad, but I strongly disagreed with Barry's view that A. it was all about recruiting and B. that Blake would be a good recruiter.

In sound bites, he seemed like a decent guy, but you could just tell that he didn't understand the task. I cared still. But Blake made OU football an embarrassment. You could tell from how Bob handled things that it was going to be different. He got it. You looked at the game plans against Texas and ND that first year, and they were outmanned, but well prepared.

The Gibbs years and then the Schnelly and Blake years, there was a player a year behind me at OU that was a friend and customer. We talked about OU football in the 90s like there might not be a chance to be good again. I thought that the beginning of the XII might not be good for us. I was wrong about that. Bob changed it in so many ways.

In 2000, before the NC season, I went to the caravan stop in Dallas. I'd discovered this site and was excited about OU football more than I had been even in the NC seasons under Barry. I remember following that 2000 recruiting class. Most of those guys redshirted, but it was just a terrific class. I never stopped caring. But Bob made it worthwhile to be passionate again.

 

[CTOkie]

I followed them during the dark ages. I really believe Gary Gibbs had no chance. The Blake years were an abomination. We couldn't even name a starting Q-B and our special teams were a joke.

Guess what, I still went to some of the games and watched or listened to all of the games. I cursed a lot in those days, but I never gave up it wouldn't improve.

Bob Stoops was such a breath of fresh air. I remember watching the Independence Bowl (even though we lost) and knew we were back on track. We had Notre Dame on the ropes that year before we lost. Players were making plays on special teams I hadn't seen in a few years. Stoops was a gambler in those days. We had some great plays that year. I loved the "Ninga". How could you not?

I never bought into the theory that Bob won an NC with Blake's recruits, except to say, yes he did , but he moved multiple players to different positions and added several key players.

Oh well, I'm rambling....I'm just trying to get some activity on the board, so reply if you have an opinion.

If you don't, I'll post another gif thread...........

I followed each OU game during the 1990's and even purchased VHS video season tickets, some of which I had no desire to watch. At one point during the Blake regime, I wondered if OU would ever contend for a national championship again and would become a program like Arkansas.
I have endured three droughts by OU....1959-61, 1964-66 and the decade of the 90's....and never did I consider ending my allegiance. That's not what a true fan does.
I also endured the 1-12 record against Texas from 1958-70, which was really hard to take. It always seemed that OU played not to lose and Texas always played to win.
My late brother decided he had enough of losing sometime around 1995 and started following ATM. I told him then that as bad as OU was, I thought that OU would be more championship-worthy sooner than ATM. (Thank you, Bob Stoops).
My favorite MLB team is the Yankees and I endured the dark decade after 1964 and the 1982-1993 seasons of futility, but I never wavered in my loyalty and my overall interest in the game of baseball remained strong. My second favorite team is the Astros...and they have broken my heart many times, even including last year. Their decline due to poor ownership after appearing in the 2005 Series was hard to accept.
IMO, a person who follows sports intelligently can't bail on his favorite team during times of decline and must realize that there is a cycle always prevalent that never allows even the best teams to stay on top forever. The bad times I have endured with my two favorite teams only make the good times better.
It's funny how whenever I have posted a criticism or concern of the football team here I have sometimes had my loyalty questioned.....having been an OU fan for 58 years even through some very bad times.

 

[MiccoMacey]

Before the OU/Georgia suit against the NCAA, it was hard to follow the Sooners if you weren't in Oklahoma. There was no internet. The team could only be on tv twice a year, plus maybe a bowl game. So there weren't many televised games.

This was me for much of that period. I tried to follow here and there, but too many other things were happening in my life, and I lived in 295 different states during that period (give or take a few).

True story - I lived in Gainesville, Florida in 1998-99, and moved to Norman in June of 1999. Guess who followed me from Gainesville, FL to Norman OK around the same time? Coach Stoops moved here a little earlier than I did, presumably to avoid suspicion. But I've always thought he just wanted to be near ol' Micco. He even hired a guy as his co-DC who lived right across the hall from me in the dorms at Garden City CC named Brent Venables. I don't know how much more proof you want that he's basically stalking me, but I'm cool with it. Coach Stoops, if you're reading this board and you want to invite me for lunch, just call. I'll be there.

 

[PryorFan]

Absolutely not. True Sooner fan would never give up. Watched every game expecting that game to be the one to get us back to the top.

 

[runningback43]

I stayed with the Sooners through the 90's. Like somebody else said, it was really tough because they weren't on TV very often, especially in Nebraska. I remember having a subscription to Sooners Illustrated in the 80's and 90's. Caught a lot of crap from my mail carrier over that subscription.

 

[humblesooner]

It was very difficult, but I can say that I was truly dedicated. We had season tickets and never missed a game until moving to Houston in January 1993.
At that point, the internet was fairly new and costly ("long-distance phone call" expensive). The Houston market always broadcast the games on the radio.
In the afternoons, the signal was plain as day. But the station(s) that carried the games here cut their power dramatically after about 6PM or 7PM.
At that point, most games weren't televised here because they sucked.
I spent many a night listening to a scratchy, barely audible radio broadcast of OU losing to lowly TCU or struggling against a lowly Baylor team.
Hated that time, but never gave up.
If the same were to happen today, I would not give up, but I would not do everything in my power to see/listen to the games.
The one thing I remember about the 1999 season (Bob's first) is - The only game we did not have a chance to win was the Texas Tech game.
Were had both Texas and Notre Dame on the ropes. The team just didn't know how to finish. They weren't used to being able to play with upper-echelon teams.
After the Independence Bowl, looking back on the season, I knew we wouldn't be the laughing stock of the B12 any longer.
I didn't know how good Bob's teams would be, but I knew they would not suck again.

 

[Dastardly Deed]

I watched during the Blake years kinda like people in Syria watch the skies. You knew that at any moment incoming was on the way ... in the form of some disastrous screwup or mishap.

The kids liked him but it was hard to get excited about our chances given the disorganization and apparent lack of solid coaching. However, the guy did beat Texas one year, which made up for some of the snafu.

 

[Schoonerman]

Although it was difficult to watch, I was a die-hard Sooner during the Dark Ages. I was living out of state and had to go to sports bars and over to an obnoxious neighbor's house to catch a few games each year on his satellite dish. Years later, I bought a car from the guy who was the KU running back who broke off a 99-yard run for a TD againts OU in Norman during the Blake years. Although I was happy for him, I told him that those were the years that many Sooner fans would like to forget.

 

[BillyRay]

I never stopped wearing my OU gear, though it was a rough time for sure. Towards the end of the Gibbs era was when I went into the military. Living outside of Oklahomas borders were tough days. I generally got a lot of flak for how much OU sucked when I was seen wearing something with OU on it. I found out real quick how much OU sucking was celebrated outside of Oklahomas borders.
I got to catch some games here and there since OU wasn't on TV much outside of Oklahoma. Usually when I came home on leave was when I could watch some football. In those days since the internet wasn't what it was today, I kept up with OU football by having a subscription to Sooners Illustrated. Wow, looking back that magazine was cover to cover sunshine pumping. What I read in that magazine was generally like night and day from how the football seasons played out.
I was stationed in Germany when Bob Stoops was hired. AFN aired a couple of OUs football games in 1999 and it was absolutely obvious great times were ahead. I watched the Nebraska and A&M games in 2000 around some German friends and I was jumping around and screaming they couldn't understand how someone could get so amped up over something like football. Lol

 

[BawlzDeep]

I have first hand knowledge of how bad it was. My freshman year at OU was 1992. In November, the day after turkey day, OU played Nebraska. We lost that game. It was freezing during the game below 32 degrees with a slow wind that chilled your bones. Obviously, because of the holiday lots of empty seats. But a few of my friends and I stood and cheered until the final whistle. In the fourth quarter when the game was already decided, most people had left to go get warm. I couldn't leave. In my mind, I was there for the team winning or losing. I have never been able to accept turning my back on the team when times are tough, that's when they need us the most. That season wasn't great. And the following years were continually worse. But I never missed a game and I stayed. And when I make games now, I stay. The team will always need our support. I'll never fault the players. I'll bleed Crimson forever.

 

[glmays11]

I followed them during the dark ages. I really believe Gary Gibbs had no chance. The Blake years were an abomination. We couldn't even name a starting Q-B and our special teams were a joke.

Guess what, I still went to some of the games and watched or listened to all of the games. I cursed a lot in those days, but I never gave up it wouldn't improve.

Bob Stoops was such a breath of fresh air. I remember watching the Independence Bowl (even though we lost) and knew we were back on track. We had Notre Dame on the ropes that year before we lost. Players were making plays on special teams I hadn't seen in a few years. Stoops was a gambler in those days. We had some great plays that year. I loved the "Ninga". How could you not?

I never bought into the theory that Bob won an NC with Blake's recruits, except to say, yes he did , but he moved multiple players to different positions and added several key players.

Oh well, I'm rambling....I'm just trying to get some activity on the board, so reply if you have an opinion.

If you don't, I'll post another gif thread...........

I got so upset with Blake, I cancelled my four season tickets. I remember going to a game and there was less than 60,000 in the stands. I couldn't give them away for free.

Then when they hired Coach Stoops, I told my wife or buy four season tickets.

What a rocket scientist I was.

 

[CTOkie]

One belief I had during the decade of the 1990's and especially during the Blake years was that the talent level on the team was not nearly as bad as the won-lost record showed. I still maintain that opinion, especially after what Stoops was able to do with so much of that talent and what he said when introduced as head coach. Blake was just flat out awful and was in way over his head.
I even called the Trabor show one time and asked what other team with a losing record had as good a recruiting haul as OU.

 

[PtLavacaSooner]

I even followed the schmelly burger year.

 

[trademarcs]

I followed every miserable step through all the coaches after Switzer. Some of those losses were just unbelievable. I thank GOD for BOB STOOPS every season