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10-11-63Moderators: PonyPride, SmooPower
17 posts
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10-11-63Was anyone else on this message board in the Cotton Bowl, as a player or fan, the night SMU played Navy in 1963?
We flew in from Georgia that day and knew we were going to a ball game. Had two main choices: the game at Fair Park or the HP - Garland game whose winner was a favorite to win the state 4A championship. I was always glad we picked the SMU game. Garland beat HP that night and if IIRC went on to win state two years in a row. SMU beat Roger staubach and Navy 32-28 in a game where Navy was favored. GO PONIES! BEAT NAVY!
Re: 10-11-63At three I do not remember.
I did read later that Roger was intercepted throwing to the end zone on the last play of the game. Go Mustang militia BEAT navy. Mustang Militia: Fight the good fight"
Re: 10-11-63Yes, I was there on the sideline as the Cotton Bowl scoreboard flashed the final score wildly. We did it that night! (Weren't they #1 at the time?). We can do it again. Beat Navy.
Re: 10-11-63We can give BUS a pass on account of his age, but he probably would have remembered another player besides Staubach in Navy uniform that night. I don't remember the man's name but he was abig lineman, probably right at the limit for a student at the Academy and they called him the "floating fortress." Just the kind [b]BUS[b] (and I agree) wants more of every recruiting cycle!
Re: 10-11-63I'm not sure if I was there or not- I was just about to turn 5. I know I've seen every home game since 1965 but it gets fuzzy before that.
"With a quarter of a tank of gas, we can get everything we need right here in DFW." -SMU Head Coach Chad Morris
When momentum starts rolling downhill in recruiting-WATCH OUT.
Re: 10-11-63I wasn't there, but as a young 6th grader who knew Hayden's sons, we were well aware of what a big deal that was for the relatively new SMU football coach at the time.
Re: 10-11-63No I was not in Dallas at the time. Did see Navy kill Rice in the 1958 Cotton Bowl when Rice had its All American QB King Hill. Supposedly the best Navy team ever.
Re: 10-11-63I was there in the stands having just gotten out of the Army the year before. It was a Friday night and there were around 36000 in the stands. It was one of the best games I have ever seen and that includes many. Some memories are Jon Roderick (sp?) running out of the tailback position, I seem to remember SMU getting a clipping penalty while we were on defense? At one point we had a third and long from the Navy twenty or so and Mac White, a soph, went into the game at QB. I turned to an old friend, who had played football at SMU and said "quarterback draw" and Mac promptly ran the QB draw for the TD. In the last minutes Stauback had the Navy close to the SMU end zone and the last play he threw a pass that was deflected by a guy whose name escapes me.
That weekend SMU defeated Navy on Friday night, TU bear OU on Saturday and the Dallas Cowgirls beat Detroit on Sunday, all in the Cotton Bowl. Ours was the biggest upset but of course we got third billing in the media.
Re: 10-11-63I was living in Virginia at the time and heard the broadcast on the radio. Very exciting! Navy played twice in the Cotton Bowl that season: against us in regular season play and against Texas in the Cotton Bowl as I recall. Navy lost both games.
Long live Inez Perez!
Re: 10-11-63I was there and the guy who deflected the pass was Ronnie Cauhran (SP?). Ronnie lived down the hall from me and was a defensive back. The morning of the game I saw him and he was psyched out by the prospects of playing Navy. I believe they were ranked number 2 in the nation. Our players were actually scared that they were going to get hurt. Everything changed when SMU went out on the field for pregame warm ups. Navy was already out there and they stopped and clapped for SMU and then one of them yelled that was the only applause they were going to hear. That pissed the guys off and they came out determined to beat Navy and did. On the last play Navy was inside our 20. Staubach was pressured but ran around for what seamed like hours before he passed to an open receiver. Ronnie had been beaten by his guy and was at least 8 to 10 feet away from the receiver who was in the end zone when Staubach released the ball. Ronnie who was not especially fast somehow flew to the ball and batted it down as time ran out. It was the most miraculous defensive play I have ever seen. It ended Navy's chance to win the national championship. They later came back to Dallas and won the Cotton Bowl. It was one of the greatest victories while I was at SMU.
Re: 10-11-63Thanks for the reminder. It was Ronnie Caughron who made the play and it was just in the nick of time. I believe that Navy was ranked fourth in the Nation. When Navy came out for their warmups they made a big circle, clapping all the time and seemed very arrogant.
However, Navy came back for the Cotton Bowl game and lost to TU. I believe that Roger Staubach said in a book written later that he really hated Dallas after that year because of the Kennedy Assasination, the loss to SMU and the loss in the Cotton Bowl. Ironically he was drafted by the Cowgirls and you know the rest of the story. He also said in the book that the SMU game was the dirtiest he ever played in. He should have had to play against Baylor.
Re: 10-11-63Thanks Rich for correcting the spelling. I knew I had it wrong. If Ronnie reads this I hope he forgives me on the spelling. That defensive play was the greatest example of somebody willing themselves to achieve above their normal abilities that I have ever witness. I don't want to be misunderstood. Ronnie was a very good defensive back, but he did not have the speed of the Navy receivers. He simply would not be denied.
Re: 10-11-63I wasn't born until 68, but my dad (SMU grad, class of 63) was on a Navy refueling ship in the Mediterranean. His job was to post the news reports from the wire on the ship. He took great pleasure in posting the SMU - Navy score as it came through.
Re: 10-11-63In retrospect, was it Tommy Caughron or Ronnie?
Re: 10-11-63It was Tommy Caughran who knocked down the pass and I see him at every home game these days. We also might remember halfback John Roderick who had a fabulous game that night.
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