By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributig Editor
(MIZ)—Both teams headed to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas December 29 have something to prove. The Missouri Tigers have to prove they can beat a top-ten rated team. The Ohio State Buckeyes want to show they should have been in the national championship playoffs.
Ohio State has won twn of the 12 games the two teams have played against each other. One game ended in a tie. Missouri’s only win was in 1976 at Columbus.
Missouri went 6-5, a year of incredible highs and deeply disappointing lows. The story of the only Missouri victory over Ohio State was part of a season that has been described as “weird.” Rock M Nation calls it the “craziest season in Mizzou history” and lists the top three wins in Missouri history as having occurred that year. Missouri played the toughest schedule in the nation that year. Let’s go through it.
Missouri started the season with a nationally-televised night game against Southern Cal, in Los Angeles. USC was ranked 8th in the AP poll when unranked Missouri pounded the Trojans 46-25. Missouri was ranked sixth the next week when it lost to unranked Illinois 31-6. The third game was against Ohio State, then ranked second by the AP, and Missouri beat the Buckeyes 22-21. Missouri was 12th when he beat North Carolina 24-3 and 9th when they beat Kansas State 28-21, seventh when they lost to Iowa State 21-17. They had dropped to 17th when they upset #3 Nebraska 34-24 in a game that saw quarterback Pete Woods complete the longest toughdown pass in Missouri and Big Eight Conference history—98 yards to Joe Stewart. The Tigers rose to 10th but lost to 16th ranked Oklahoma State 20-19. They were 16th when they beat #14 Colorado 16-7. They finished out the season losing to #14 Oklahoma 27-20 while ranked 11th, and then, ranked 19th, losing to Kansas 41-14.
Al Onofrio was the coach of this team that lost three games by 1,4, and 7 points, but also lost two games by 25 and 27. It was a team that won by 1,7,10,and 9 points as well as two wins by 21. Missouri was the best 6-5 team in college football that year, and maybe one of the best 6-5 teams in NCAA football history.
Ohio State was emblematic of that cardiac season. The Tigers had dropped out of the top 20 when they went to Columbus that weekend and Woody Hayes’ Buckeyes had taken a 21-7 lead at the half. But Missouri held Ohio State scoreless in the second half. Quarterback Pete Woods found Leo Lewis III at the back of the end zone on a third-and-goal from the eight yard line with 12 seconds left to pull Missouri to 21-20. There were no overtimes in those days and the Tigers weren’t interested in a tie.
Woods missed on a pass to the win to Curtis Brown. But Ohio State was flagged for holding, giving Missouri a second chance from the 1½ yard line. Woods called his own number, off tackle, was hit but dived into the end zone. Missouri 22 Ohio State 21.
Want to see it? (3) MU v. Ohio State 1976-3 – YouTube
Onofrio was fired the next year and is remembered for his teams sometimes stunning victories during a coaching career that finished 38-41.
Woods, who engineered the big upsets that year, is the only quarterback in Mizzou history with two wins over top-three opponents. He and Phil Bradley are the only two Tiger signal-callers with two wins over top-five opponents. He played parts of four seasons in the NFL with the Chiefs, Broncos, Bengals, and Dolphins. He became a lawyer and now is a commercial litigator for Harr & Woods law firm in St. Louis. He was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.
Curtis Brown, who led the team in rushing that year and was a key figure in the win over Southern Cal, played for six years with the Buffalo Bills and finished his career with the Houston Oilers. He is one of almost 350 NFL players to be diagnosed with dementia caused by repeated hits to the head. He died in 2015.
Leo Lewis III, who caught that last touchdown pass remains the only player in Tiger history to lead the team in punt returns for four straight years. He still holds the team record for punt returns in one game (7) and added two more kick returns for a total of nine, also a team record. He played for the Minnesota Vikings for eleven years and was the team’s director of player development for 14 more years. He went on to get a master’s degree from Tennessee and a doctorate from the University of Minnesota. He now runs a sports foundation. His father, Leo Sr., was known in his time as the “Lincoln Locomotive” while playing at Lincoln University, where he rushed for 4,457 yards and twice was an All-American. He is in the College Football Hall of Fame. Although drafted by the Baltimore Colts in 1955, he opted to play for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Canadian Football League, an eleven year career that included four Grey Cup Championships (under Bud Grant, who later coached the Minnesota Vikings) and 32 years of coaching and teaching. He died in 2013. He and his son are the only father-son combination in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, both admitted in 2019.
(MIZZHONORS)—The Associated Press has named eight Tigers to its All-SEC team. Only Georgia and Alabama have more.
And Coach Drinkwitz is the Coach of the year, the first Missouri coach named by the AP as SEC Coach of the Year. Gary Pinkel was voted the honor by his fellow coaches in 2013 but the AP bypassed him.
Cody Schrader is one of only four players named unanimously to the first team. Other Tigers on the firt team offense is Luther Burden Iii, the first 1,000 yard Tiger receiver since J’Mon Moore six years ago. Burden’s 1,197 yards is ten in thenation. Left tackle Javon Foster also is on the first team with him. Defensive end Darius Robinson, who led the team with 7.5 sacks and 12 tackles for a loss and a forced fumble, is first team on defense as is Kris Abrams-Draine, who had four interceptions and 12 passes defended.
On the second team is Cam’Ron Johnson, the team’s right guard, joined by receiver Theo Wease Jr.
The last all-conference player is place-kicker Harrison Mevis, who is on the second team, beaten out by Alabama’s Will Reichard despite going 24-30 on field goals including the epic 61-yard walkoff kick against Kansas State and his game winner against Florida. He was 43-44 on PATs.
(SCHRADER)—Cody Schrader is the winner of the Burlsworth Trophy, awarded last night to the outstanding player who started his career as a walk-on. The trophy presentation was made at the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The trophy honors the memory of Brandon Burlsworth, a walk-on with the Arkansas Razorbacks who became an All=American. He was drafted in the third round of the 1999 NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts but was killed in a car crash eleven days later.
The other two finalists were James Madison defensive tackle James Carpenter and Oklahoma wide receiver Drake Stoops. In concluding his acceptance remarks, Schrader said:
My journey from high school to Truman State Division II to the University of Missouri wasn’t easy. It definitely had a lot of lonely nights. A lot of just the unknown of what was going to happen with my career. But the only thing I stayed true to was the work. The only thing that follows work is results and I truly believe that anything you want in this life you can achieve, it just takes dedication, discipline and you just have to love this game. I just know from meeting James and Drake that you guys truly love this game and embody what Brandon and this foundation mean. No matter the outcome tonight, we’ve already won just because nobody believed we’d be here. So I appreciate getting to know you guys.
My biggest thing that I hope to inspire in youth and kids who look at our stories, is the relentless consistency that it takes to be successful: never let nobody tell you no. I think Brandon was the epitome of that. He would never take no for an answer no matter the case was. Just watching the movie (Greater) and then getting to experience his family, you really got to know who he was as a person and what weight this trophy holds. This is something I’m eternally grateful for and I’m just really thankful for this event and all the support. M-I-Z.
The four finalists for the Heisman Trophy were announced last night. Schrader is not one of them.
(MIZZOU BASKETBALL)—-Missouri’s basketball team showed composure and control in handing Wichita State its first road loss of the year, 82-72. The Tigers started the game on a 10-0 run and every time the Shockers pulled close, Missouri pulled away. Missouri’s physical game led to 25 trips to the free throw line and 23 points. They also scored 20 points off of 18 Wichita State turnovers.
A major test awaits next Saturday when the Tigers play Kansas, with Seton Hall, Illinois and Central Arkansas ahead before the end of the year and the start of conference play. (ZOU)
(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs offense returned to form Sunday night against the Green Bay Packers after a convincing win against the Raiders. They were held to two field goals in the first half again, and their rally attempts fizzled in the second half. The defense, the strong point for the Chiefs all year, couldn’t stop the resurgent Packers in a 27-19 loss.
Chiefs fans might think their team was robbed by two terrible calls by the zebras. But the Chiefs from Andy Reid on down admit the team lost the game on plenty of other well-called plays. In the locker room afterward, Travis Kelce was asked, “What went wrong?” He diplomatically, and correctly, answered, “That’s a good football team and they executed better than us and that’s the bottom line…I ain’t gonna blame anybody but ourselves.”
The Chiefs are now fourth in the AFC playoff standings and many fans are doubting they will play football in February.
(BATTLEHAWKS)—The XFL and the United States Football league have merged and the St. Louis Battlehawks are one of the surviving eight teams in the new league. They’ll start play in March.
Each league had eight teams and will keep four from each league. The Battlehawks will be joined by the Arlington Renegades, DC Defenders, and the San Antonio Brahmas. The Seattle Sea Dragons, Vegas Vipers, Houston Roughnecks and Orlando Guardians will go away. The USFL teams surviving are the Birmingham Stallions, Houston Gamblers, Memphis Showboats, and Michgan Panthers. Not making the cut are the Pittsburgh Maulers, New Orleans Breakers, Philadelphia Stars and the New Jersey Generals.
St. Louis is the XFL’s best market.
The Battlehawks bring several strengths to the league. They play home games in the domed stadium originally built for the Rams. The XFL had rented the stadium for $800,000 a year. In exchange the league gets all ticket sales income while the city convention and visitors bureau gets all concession and parkig revenue. Earlier this year the XFL signed a here year lease with similar terms. Some stadium space was not opened but city officials decided to open other areas because of two sellouts. The home opener last March 11 drew 38,310 fans, the largest crowd for and XFL game, including games in the earlier iteration of the league dating to 2001. The Battlehawks have played seven games at home and all of them rank in the top eight attendance in XFL history, with the Battlehawks holding the top six crowds.
(CARDINALS/ROYALS)—Baseball’s winter meetings are underway in Nashville at press time. Neither the Cardinals nor the Royals has made any waves.
Don Faurot would schedule powerhouse football opponents to reap a big payday to payoff the debt on Memorial Stadium. The result was losses on the field but a financially sound program.