1971 Cotton bowl?

T

Texas Jack

1,000+ Posts
I have a question about the game. I know Texas lost and that one reason was the poor play of Steve Worster and our entire running game outside of the QB.

I wasn't born yet and I have heard from more than one person that Worster had a hangover and that was the reason. Has anyone ever heard this? I was under the impression that Royal was always a strict disciplinarian.

I also read that Worster had been injured and that Notre Dame was really keying on him and the other backs. I guess I just wanted to get another perspective. He was a great back but how did he fumble so many times?
 
Steve Worster was part of the nucleus of the greatest team in Texas football history. That team won 30 straight games together. They lost the Cotton Bowl together. **** happens, the Worster Bunch did more than anyone could have possibily asked to set a standard for The University's football program. It was a great ride for all students and fans!
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You knew I would have to post. First of all I didn't see the game, as I was on a damn ski trip in Colorado with a GF from hell, but that is another thread. I can only comment based on what post game clips I have seen, comments from others that went to the game or saw it on TV and what I have read over the years.

I agree with the previous posts about the Worster bunch and the 30 game winning streak. UT won a lot of games because of Steve Worster. From Bridge City, he was one of the most highly recruited RB's to ever come out of the state of Texas. Obviously All-American FB Steve Worster was my guy when I was a young lad playing Texas HS football back in the late '60's early 70's.

Re: the '71 CB:

- Worster was injured toward the end of the 1970 season - banged up shoulder and knee if I recall. That had to affect his play.
- DKR I believe stated he probably should not have played due to his injuries
- ND admitted after the game they keyed on Worster - they were not going to let him beat them again like he did in the '70 CB (he had 155 yds. in '70)
- ND post game said they worked up some kind of mirror defense to basically stop the Wishbone... it worked pretty well.
- Worster fumbled 4 or 5 times due to vicious tackling and perhaps some poor exchanges with QB Eddie Phillips
- UT played without All-American WR Cotton Spreyer who broke his arm vs. blow-u earlier in the season. Despite the great play of the late Danny Lester (a DB), without Spreyer the team was without a great weapon for half the season.
- There have been persistent rumors that Worster was out late the night before drinking with another player(s) but I have never seen or heard anything that substansiated that. If true it would greatly disappoint me.

ssr50 has some pretty good memories and observations on this game - maybe he will see your post and take pity on us all....
 
Woo did a great job for us but he wasn't himself in that game and it was obvious after the second fumble. He should have been used as a decoy because we were moving the ball on ND with quarterback options. Of course if Cotton had also been playing it would have helped our passing game and possibly punt returns.
 
Phillips had something like 363 yds offense that day--199 passing, 164 rushing. I also remember Bertelsen fumbling several times, at least once while fielding the ball on a punt return that led to an easy TD for ND.
 
there were rumors.
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but I never heard any substantiation. At the end of the day, it was only a football game and nothing to get worked up about.

Hook'em!!!
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'Hold you heads up. We've won games when people fumbled to us. You have nothing to be ashamed of." - DKR in locker room immediately after the game.

That ND team was the dirtiest team I've ever seen and I've seen OU, A&M, r-Kansas under Ken Hatfield, convicts under Howard "a recruit without scotch?" Schnellenberger, convicts under Erickson, BYU under Edwards, VT under Beamer, and Pelini's kicking spree in Memorial Stadium. ND coaches were as guilty as their players. I had never seen such behavior in organized sports. I have absolutely ZERO respect for Parseghian.
 
Yes, I remember that day sitting close to midfield and watching him drop a lateral from Phillips that hit him on the numbers and then helplessly trying to recover the fumble. The whole team looked sluggish!
 
Worster was injured against (I believe) TCU. He was incredibly hopped up on pain killers during the Cotton Bowl. There was speculation that he simply could not feel the ball as well.

I remember Phillips goung for about 60 yards on like the 2nd play down to inside the 10 and I thought "this is gonna be a romp like against Arky". But then we had to settle for a field goal and I thought "uh oh"

Course, I was just 10
 
People don't give Speyrer all the credit he deserves. He was a huge contributor to the Horns' success during '69 and '70. Speyrer being out hurt a lot.
 
Yeah, you know, when your team loses it's usually just one guy's fault.*



Please make sure you calibrated your sarcasm meter. Buy the extended warranty.
 
I was at the game as a 9 year old. I just remember the turnovers. Five fumbles and an INT. You're not going to win a game that big with that many turnovers.
 
Eddie P just about brought us back to win that game. But the Domers took him out with what some say was a dirty hit; I saw that game on TV, but cannot remember myself if the tackle or hit was suspect. Donnie Wiggington came in and actually threw a pass that could have been or led to a Texas TD...but the receiver dropped it (and it had hit him right in the hands....arrgghh!). That whole day the team had fumble-itis and dropped-ball-itis. Whether the rumors about our boys partying until the wee hours the night before were true or not, one thing is for sure: We looked, with the exception of Eddie Phillips, like we were playing in slow-motion.

How many of you remember that the snapping of the Texas win streak was such a big deal that ABC-TV later aired a special on it called "The Wishbone Incident", narrated by Burt Reynolds?
 
I do. I was at the game with a raging hangover myself(sr. at UT, ya know). I'd say at least half the team played like I felt! If they weren't hungover, it was a pretty damn good inpersonation of one!!!
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and later that night at the team party, everyone had a downpayment on a hangover, even if they hadn't had one during the game - not that there is anything wrong with that!

Hook'em!!!
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Horn69... I am beginning to suspect you were there or know more than your telling about the New Years Eve party 12/31/70?
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I was at that game. It was cold and rainy and just a difficult day to hold onto the ball. That said, ND seemed to do ok but maybe it was because they were used to playing in that kind of weather. Theisman and his receiver, Gatewood, I believe, were really tough and we couldn't seem to stop them on big plays. It was painful because of the weather and because such a great team lost. What a depressing drive back to Houston.
 
Sorry friend, but what in **** tard we're you thinking.....


"You knew I would have to post. First of all I didn't see the game, as I was on a damn ski trip in Colorado with a GF from hell, but that is another thread. I can only comment based on what post game clips I have seen, comments from others that went to the game or saw it on TV and what I have read over the years."

I don't know ya and I'm sure you got your reasons and I'm also sure there's a story behind this but, whoa....?

How do you miss a Horns game unless it's one of a few things...i.e. emergency, birth of a child, death in family-it better be a kid or parent...

I've always been amazed at how people, especially around
here, seem to schedule things like this around the Horns' football season...I here people planning weddings and frickin baby showers on Saturdays, and stupid **** like house work or minor surguries...WTF!

Sorry if I'm out of line but and I don't mean to be...I've just always wondered that....good thread by the way.
 
I saw every game of the 30 game win streak, and the 1971 Cotton Bowl game as well. There was a general malaise due to many factors, and the team did not play with the desire and determination they had shown over the previous three seasons.
The team dropped passes, pitches, and fumbled without hard contact several times, and Worster committed several of the offenses. It has been reported that Worster asked DKR to take him out of the game, and DKR refused.
Worster is a huge reason we won 30 games in a row and two NC's, but he was certainly one of the big reasons we lost the 1971 Cotton Bowl.
I know something about the night before, but it is not firsthand, so I won't repeat it publically. And who is to say if partying caused the problems, or rather injuries, lack of preparation, or just lack of desire?
The team had done it all for three years, and just did not have the same hunger to win that last game. Let's leave it at that, because this group accomplished more than any other class of football players ever at the University of Texas, and Worster and Street are still my all-time favorite players, OK, I have added VY to the short list.
 
Bo - believe me, it killed me to not see this game. I was in the CB 1/1/70 and I wanted to see another victory over the Irish & another unbeaten & untied NC. Since the late 60's I have scheduled my life around watching or attending Horn games. Other than missing this big game in '71 and some regular season games when I lived out of state, I have missed very few games in 40+ years. Believe me, I have moved some major events in my life to watch the Horns. When I couldn't, I still managed to watch games during some major events or I managed to sneak completely away from some things I was obligated to.

At the time of this game 1/1/71, I had a serious HS girlfriend and got talked into going on a school organization 3-4 day ski trip to Colo. by her and some of my other friends. At the time I signed up and put down a deposit, it looked like I could use part of a ski day to watch the game, so that worked. Later the schedule changed and 1/1/71 was the return bus ride back to Texas! I was so pissed because there was no alternative way home and no way to watch or listen to the game on the radio on that damn bus (I took a small radio but it wouldn't pick up in the mountains or I couldn't find the game). I had a large $ deposit down and a girlfriend that would have given me HELL for months to have blown off going on this trip. I did not find out the results of the game until we stopped in Amarillo and I asked someone
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What would you have done in my burnt orange shoes?
 
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