C.R. Roberts, USC RB 1956

The 1956 Texas football team went 1-9 and was possibly the worst team in Texas Football History. I found honoring a kicker from that team to be bizarre.

The 1956 USC Trojans went 8-2 and finished ranked #15.

The article makes out like USC overcame and beat a good Texas team to build up the drama, when in reality, a top 20 USC just undramatically and easily beat a terrible, terrible Texas team.

“That night,” he says, “I didn’t give a damn who we played. We were going to beat them. Everybody had a chip on their shoulder. We played our best game. The other games were … anticlimactic.”
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They probably had their best game because we were a terrible 1-9 team. This was not Ernie Davis and Syracuse against a great Texas team in the Cotton Bowl. It is terrible the USC player had to endure 1950s discrimination, but his performance was not really noteworthy given that just about every running back that Texas team faced, black, white or otherwise, ran over them.
 
Interesting read... had never heard or read anything of that USC player or the game. Nice that UT honored him during the game on Sat.

I'm also reminded of what an awful team HC Ed Price had in 1956. Thank goodness DKR came the next year and started to turn things around. Think the team went from 1-9 in 1956 to 6-4-1 in 1957 under DKR.
 
Got me thinking about that time frame of Price to DKR.

Thinking this was the high point of OU's record setting undefeated streak.

OU beat Texas from 1952-1956 with Texas under Price, OU winning 45-0 in 1956, still with its No. 1 ranking. aggy also beat Texas in 1956.

But, in DKR's first year coaching Texas, 1957, the OU loss margin was cut to 7-21 to No. 1 OU, but Texas did beat No.5 aggy 9-7.

But get this, the next year, DKR's 2nd, Texas beat No.2 OU 15-14 in 1958, as well as beating aggy --- bigger trivia: Texas beat both OU and aggy each year then on from 1958 through 1965, finally losing to OU in 1966, still beating aggy.

That's 8 straight years of wins over BOTH OU and aggy (Bud Wilkinson was still coaching OU through 1963, though Bear Bryant left aggy after 1957), with those wins over OU coming right on the tail of OU setting the 47-game win streak record.

It can be done.

P.S., wonder how OU fans were c.1965, coming off a dynasty, national record setting win streak program over 5 years, only to then lose 8 years in a row to Texas?
 
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