Texas Football: Most Embarrassing Loss/Biggest Win?

[Lord Vader]

Thoughts?

From an embarrassing standpoint, I actually think the BYU loss last year was far more shameful than any of the beatings OU issued Mack. That was a total evisceration of one of college footballs most storied programs live for all the world to see. 

From a Biggest Win standpoint, I wont go the BCS Title game. Ill go Texas 15, Texas A&M 13, in College Station on November 28, 1963, the game which locked up the first national championship, and started a long, winding road which one day led to Texas becoming the biggest brand in all of college athletics. Lose that game there is no title, and who knows how history might have played out. 

 

[Sirhornsalot]

Route 66 still stings as the worst for me. It happened. It happened in Austin. And we quit.

2nd place would be any of the five blow outs we've suffered to OU. However, the second was the most devastating to me. I didn't think it could happen again.

Biggest win would be the win over Arkie in the hills of the retarded that gave us another national title.

runner up is easily the win over USC where we beat the best team of all time. You could actually flip these two and I wouldn't object.

 

[Hiwood]

most embarrassing loss....getting run out of the Cotton Bowl by Convict U (Miami) or having UCLA hang the 66 at DKR- Memorial

Most heartbreaking :losing to Lydell Mitchell and Penn St in the Cotton Bowl or losing to Buck Belue and Georgia in the Cotton Bowl

Most pissed off loss: losing to Notre Dame...to this day I still pull for ND to get beat in every sport, every game...Yes I hold a grudge to the Domers

 

[Matt Cotcher]

I'd have to say that any "worst" loss is one that you sit through at the stadium. With that in mind....

1. I'll agree with the others above the the UCLA loss in Austin was miserable/incomprehensible/mind-blowingly bad.

2. The 2000 OU game (63-14) - which was compounded by having the best seats I've ever had at a football game.

3. Lesser known, but still painful - CU beat Texas in Austin. It wasn't the tipped pass for a TD at the end of the game that made it bad...it was Rashaan Salaam rushing for 317 yards.

 

[streettopeschel]

mercifully, i was away on business for rout 66. the miami cotton bowl was pretty dismal. 50-7 at home to baylor and 66-15 to cougar high back in the late 80s sucked pretty good. the freedom bowl vs iowa was another dandy.

 

[echeese]

There are some ugly losses . .. not sure which is "worse" . .. you could list 10 and make a case for any but one not mentioned, the 1984 Cotton Bowl that would cost us a Natty (though no one suspected it at the time) . . .. worse in that a very winnable game. . .we play the dawgs 10 times, we win 9. . . 

I'll agree with SHA,

Big Shootout. . .since it was the 1st football game I EVER watched, live or on TV. . . up till then. . .football was something you played.

2006 Rose Bowl. . . .best title game in CFB history .. . 

 

[harpethhorn]

Most embarrasing was the Miami Cotton Bowl in '91. We were ranked #3, Canes at #4.

They ran up over 200 yards in penalties, physically dominated from literally the opening kick and 46-3 seemed merciful. And it was a cold, wet miserable day.

Biggest win IMO is still 15-14 over Arkansas in the hills. Biggest play Street to Peschel.

 

[Juan]

To me, the bowl games sting the worst.

And I have personally witnessed some of our biggest flops ever.

The worst two I saw in person were --

1978 Cotton Bowl v. Notre Dame

1991 Cotton Bowl v. Miami

Both were very bad for us -- Notre Dame mattered more since a MNC was on the line, but the Miami game was more embarrassing.  If you have never watched the 30 for 30 film -- "The U" -- they do cover that game.  Or, just avoid for your own sanity.  I am not sure how many times we would have to pound both of them before the emotional baggage from those two bowl games could be exorcised.

I also attended the 1995 Sugar Bowl v. Virg Tech, which was also bad.  We laid another bowl game egg then too, but the worst part was what happened to my group in New Orleans later that New Years eve (long story).  I was so disgusted at the time that I cut off my support to the program.

 

[Lukus Alderman]

Most embarrassing loss has to come in plural.

Going to college in Dallas in the early 2000s surrounded by a bunch of OU fans was awful. Those losses to OU were brutal and brought out all of the bandwagon fans and cries of "Boomer" every Saturday.

Second worse was the Big 12 Championship disaster in which we lost to CU (after beating them by 30+ earlier in the season) in a game which would have put us in the NC game. That was brutal, especially considering the fact that I was surrounded by those okie fans in college.

Best win, VY for the title.

 

[texasdobbs]

That damm UCLA game in Austin. .. still passes me of today. ... the best 27-25 win against the sheep dwellers. ..

 

[DukeHorn]

For games I've attended:

Worst:  I brought down 8 Michigan State friends from Dallas for Rout 66.  Not only did we get blown out but two of my friends got heatstroke.

Best:  Texas/A&M 98 was amazing.  When Ricky ripped off that 60 yard run for the record, wow!!  The Rose Bowl win over Michigan is up there as well.  There was an elderly Austinite next to me who started crying when we won.

 

[MikeV73]

I'd have to say that any "worst" loss is one that you sit through at the stadium. With that in mind....

1. I'll agree with the others above the the UCLA loss in Austin was miserable/incomprehensible/mind-blowingly bad.

2. The 2000 OU game (63-14) - which was compounded by having the best seats I've ever had at a football game.

3. Lesser known, but still painful - CU beat Texas in Austin. It wasn't the tipped pass for a TD at the end of the game that made it bad...it was Rashaan Salaam rushing for 317 yards.

I was at that game as well, I remember the third ranked CU fans taunting us after they scraped out a win against our unranked Horns. Salaam ran for over 300 with a concussion mind you!

 

[Lord Vader]

Route 66 was absolutely awful. I was young then, but still worried when the TV folks said UCLA was the best 0-2 team in the country. I didnt know then what I know now, but I remember them putting Humphrey at LB and thinking  wth........ Didnt think it was the best move.

And who could forget good ole wine and cheese Mackovic. 

 

[Duke C #11]

One that hasn't been mentioned yet - Three (or was it four?) blocked punts in 98 against NC State.

 

[Matt Cotcher]

One that hasn't been mentioned yet - Three (or was it four?) blocked punts in 98 against NC State.

ugh!  "good" one!

 

[Hiwood]

one other game that makes me hate OU to the core is one year(early 80's) while I lived in Lake Dallas just north of Lewisville right off IH 35N....not only did I have to watch the procession of Red clad OU vehicles on both Thurs/Fri south on the way to work...but after they walloped us at the Cotton Bowl I had to put up with their BS smack that night at work while bartending at a club on Greenville avenue..and to top it off the Sooner fans left signs along the highway starting in Farmers Branch all the way to the Oklahoma border...the one that they left near my exit, mysteriously fell...to my axe..would have set it on fire except everyone knew me in that small town

 

[Sirhornsalot]

Hiwood, that happens every year. I live a half mile from 35E in Lewisville and every year it's the same procession of mobile homes passing by all painted up red and white with idiots hanging out the windows. It's like a real life version of Wacky Racers.

 

[Etex Horn]

This is indeed a painful thread to read through, regarding the bad losses. Too, too many!

No one has mentioned UH 30 UT 0 in Austin in 1976.  To me, that was an embarrassing loss. It was upstart UH's first season in the SWC. UH was coming off a crappy season in '75...because Yeoman redshirted around 30 of his best players in '75, saving them for "76 debut against the "big boys" in the SWC. Yeoman's strategy paid off well, they won the SWC Title and beat Maryland in the Cotton Bowl. Nobody expected UH to come in and dominate the SWC. But 30-0 at home was a long, painful day and was indeed embarrassing. Ranks high with me because I was there. The 66-3 loss to UCLA was probably the worst embarrassment ever, but I was watching at home and simply turned off the tv after halftime.

Best ever win? Hard to top the win against USC in 2006 for the NC (tears in my eyes at the end), but my personal fave is UT 15 Arkie 14 in '69 in "The Big Shootout". I was young and impressionable then and that really made me want to go to UT for college. My college choice was made easier later when my father declared "If I'm paying your way through college, you're going to the University of Texas or you're not going anywhere!"  My father fought in WW2, attended UT on the GI Bill and graduated from UT Law School. He was orange-blooded all the way!    

Most disappointing? 38-10 loss to Notre Dame in Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1978. UT had earned the #1 ranking with tough wins over OU and Arkansas (on the road). Campbell had won the Heisman. What momentum UT had, to be crushed in the Cotton Bowl.

Next most disappointing? 10-9 loss to Georgia in Jan. 1, 1984 Cotton Bowl. A game we should have won, being the better team. Cost us a NC. Those opportunities don't come around often, to win the NC. 

 

[doc longhorn]

Best win in my lifetime?  The Bobby Lackey led 15-14 win over OU in 1958.  It was the first time we had beaten OU in 400 years, it caused Bud Wilkinson to start his retirement plans and it set the table for DKR's greatness and DOMINATION over OU.

Good times.

Worst loss?  TCU 7-6, when we were one win from the National championship and had one of the greatest UT teams in history.