Before there was a Joe Pa at Penn State there was a St. Bud at the University of Oklahoma.
Bud Wilkinson, the blond, debonair Minnesotan, father of the split-T offense and holder of a master's degree in English, reigned with gentlemanly grace as the Sooner coach 1947-1963. I watched his teams on Owen Field as a boy from a 40-yard line perch with my father, who had two season tickets as a graduate student from 1957-60.
Like Proust's bite of the madeleine cake, recalling the aroma of hot dog mustard and cigar smoke as we entered the stadium, shafts of light shooting through the ramps that led to the seats above, summons a whole world, as alive as if it were yesterday. We would buy a program and two cardboard visors to keep the powerful early autumn sunshine at bay. Hey, I still see the lonesome end offense of Army's Red Blaik in 1959.
Bud was many things -- a Pericles of the Athens of the Plains, innovative offensive football mind (the split-T presaged today's spread formations with its wider than normal splits on the offensive line), a scratch golfer and an astute appraiser of young men. Bud stood up against the Jim Crow pressure of the 1950s' South to recruit the first black schoolboy to play for OU -- the bruising academic All-American halfback Prentice Gautt.
The point of this stroll back to childhood is that Bud was convinced that free substitution had made the game less noble. He felt a crucial criterion in recruiting in the era of two-way players was character, found in fellows like Darrell Royal (OU quarterback and defensive back before he settled under the eyes of Texas as legendary coach) who had the discipline and steel to play 60 minutes on both sides of the ball with equal determination.
Yes, I think Bud would probably contend that two-platoon football has led directly to me-firsters like Terrell Owens (could you imagine his pout as a cornerback getting burned?) and hangers-on like Bret Favre (a hard-hitting safety in Wrangler jeans?). I think he would be right.
But enough of the churlish curmudgeon I've become. Happy days lie ahead for bulls, I believe. Miss Market is winking at us.
Given the coming stimulus plan and the Fed printing press, reflation, the gift that keeps on giving to debtors and commodity investors, is around the corner.
When times are beyond tough, as they are now, there seems to be a silly glee among the survivalist set. They think they'll finally get to eat all those cans of pork 'n beans in their basements, but they're going to be truly irked when they get through the first course and realize all those above are digging into filet mignon. Reflation is coming. If you're long pork 'n beans futures, liquidate and buy oil, copper and real estate if you have the dough.
Christmas message to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment