Nearly all pre-season guessers think so from the AP to the popular magazines, but a few things stand in the road : Among the obstacles, Notre Dame and nine other football teams.

HE AIR had a bite to it. North winds Many would say that a tradition cannot football games in which the Sooners have pushed the lingering heat before it, be founded in the brief span of nine years; scored . Oklahoma's modern times record smotheringT the steaming plains . All at that the football tradition at O .U. dates of 31 straight football wins established in once, it was cool. All at once, football back to Bennie Owen and his arrival on the 1948-49-50, is being threatened again this weather returned . O.U. campus in 1906. Few would argue the year by Oklahoma . With 30 straight wins In the dressing room of ()wen Stadium, point. But the tradition has been whetted leading to the season opener, Oklahoma can tanned, muscled bodies, whip-cord shape to a fine edge by the antics of teams coached break its own record with a will over North from summer diets, slipped into practice by . Consider his O.U. rec- Carolina and Kansas State. pads. The pop of leather, involuntary ord of the past nine years : Oklahoma has also played 53 consecutive grunts, shouts of encouragement, broke the His teams have won 80, lost 7, tied 3 for Big Six and Big Seven conference games September air. The Sooners, defending na- a winning percentage of .919. His bowl without defeat. In the nine years Bud Wil- tional champions, were hard at work pre- record stands 4-1 . He has coached two na- kinson has coached at O.U., the Sooners paring for the title defense. tional champions, 1950 and 1955, and has have rated 23 All-American selections. Of Few football teams have been as unan- seen his teams ranked in the AP top ten such material, traditions are shaped. imously selected by the pre-season dopesters the last eight years. Oklahoma has placed Speed, long emphasized by Bud, will be for a national championship as the Sooners. in the AP's top five teams in seven of the available in abundance this year. Long What made the seers seem safe was a com- last eight seasons. No other team can ap- noted for light, but fast, linemen, and bination of factors: Oklahoma's speed, ex- proach that record. Oklahoma is working breakaway backs, Wilkinson employed the perience and tradition. on a national record of 106 consecutive overall team speed to devastating advantage

PACE 1 2 SOONER MAGAZINE

Oklahoma city, will be starting his first Tommy McDonald, flashy halfback from Alhiignerque, already an All- Clendon Thmnas, halfback from, hustler, year as a member of tire, varsity, but as a potent member of second string American, will be back at left half . A fiery performer and a last year he established himself as possible great. His soph record : 487 he'll be trying to improve on his '55 figures : lie completed 17 of 24 yards rushed for a 6.9 average per try ; punted 16 times for 37.8 average ; passes, for a total of 265 yards ; he was one of Bi g Seven's rushing led squad in punt runbacks with 199 yards in 10 carries . lie's big, 195 . leaders ; lie averaged 18 .8 net yards per punt runback in the '55 season . The All-American Candidates

.Jimmy Harris, the Torn-11, epiaiterback, will continue leading 0. U . team . lie should have confidence of team : lie has never quarterbacked a losing game . A fine runner, he has averaged 1 .8 yards per carry on keepers .

Ed Gray, tackle, and , center, are team co-captains -giving Oklahoma two Texas leaders . Gray is from Odessa and Tubbs is from Breckenridge, Texas. Gray has started in every Oklahoma gaine since his sophomore year . Tubbs is a fierce and pass defemler . Tubbs looks like an excellent bet for line-man-of-the-year this season .

SEPTEMBER, 1956 PACs ; 1 3

against Maryland in the . The man on the squad who has been a starter in eluding Carl Dodd, who played right half speed with which the team ran off plays, every game, as a sophomore to the present. a year ago. delighting the spectators and confusing the A fine blocker, Gray is remembered for the Moving up from the freshman team of opposition, has been hailed as a new football play he made last year against Colorado. '55 are several outstanding prospects. tactic. Oklahoma will again use the fast The Buffaloes quick-kicked . The ball was Among the best looking in pre-season prac- break to upset the defense, although the rolling dead . Suddenly, Tonuny McDonald tice are halfbacks Jakie Sandefer, Keith more deliberate style of offensive play will grabbed it up and began to run down the Lewallen, Dick Carpenter and John Pel- also be employed. sideline . Gray took two Buff tacklers out low; Lonnie Holland; ends To go with the tradition and speed, Ok- of the play on a single block and McDon- Steve Jennings and Joe Rector; center Bob lahoma has experience . Although five start- ald went 37 yards to set up another Sooner Harrison. Sandefer and Harrison are ex- ers were lost from the 1955 squad, the Soon- touchdown. pected to move into the second team lineup, ers return 281ettermen-none of whom has Gray, 6-3, 205, is from Odessa, Texas. and others may snake it before the season played in a losing game for O .U. Among He's co-captain with Tubbs. opens. this number are five All-American possi- Harris, senior from Terrell, Texas, is one The O.U. Picture is a rosy one. The team bilities. of the finest running to play has depth, experience and desire. And for Wilkinson. His career rushing record The five and the order in which their what is the scene in the opponents' camps? hung up in 1954 and 1955 is 825 net yards chances are rated in a pre-season guess are Here is a capsule preview: with an average of 4.8 yards per carry- Jerry Tubbs, center; Tommy McDonald, North Carolina at Norman, Sept. 29- not outstanding for a halfback but sensa- halfback ; Ed Gray, tackle; Jimmy Harris, The Tar Heels have a new coach, Jim Ta- tional for a Split-T quarterback. He's a quarterback, and , half- tuin, and much the same team that held capable field general and an excellent de- back . Oklahoina last year 13-6. Twenty lettermen fensive man. He's 21 years old, weighs 170, returned, causing Tatum to be optimistic McDonald, the fleet pitching halfback stands 6-1 . has been called the during spring practice . This is the game from Albuquerque, Clendon Thomas, the second-string that drew the comment from Bud, "I don't most complete halfback in halfback of 1955, moves up to the starting last year. Here's why : mean to discount Notre Dame and Texas, eleven where he will add tremendous pres- but our opener with North Carolina . . . 1) He is the only back Oklahoma has boy, about 195 sure to the defense. A big will be as hard a game as we play all ever had who rushed for at least one touch- and 6-2, Thomas is unusually big for a year . . . down in every game on the schedule, in- Sooner halfback . Fast and a picture runner, Kansas State at Norman, October 6- cluding the Orange Bowl battle . Thomas was responsible for the early season Wildcats are not expected to be stronger 2) He completed an astounding 70.6 per punch of last year's second team. As a sec- than in '55 when Oklahoma won 40-7. cent of his running halfback forward passes ond stringer, Thomas rushed 487 yards for Light on lettermen, the Kansans will be last year without yielding a single inter- an average of 6.9 per carry, punted 16 times green when they come to Norman. ception. He hit 17 of 24 passes for 265 net for 37.8 average and led the squad in punt at , October 13-If there is yards. runbacks with 199 yards in 10 carries. He Texas one game on the schedule that doesn't fol- 3) He had a fine year as a defensive back. scored time touchdowns. He's from Okla- low form it is the annual Longhorn en- 4) He averaged 18.8 net yards per punt homa City. counter. On paper Texas looks inexperi- runback . Other standout performers who will be enced with 15 lettermen returning. By time Jerry Tubbs, a man who describes him- playing on the first team include John Bell of game, however, some experience will self as "lazy," plays in the great tradition of and , ends ; Tom Emerson, have been added. Texas plays Southern his two predecessors, Kurt Burris and Tom tackle; and Ken Northcutt or Cal, Tulane and West Virginia before Ok- Catlin. Last year he won the AP Lineman- Joe Oujesky, guards. lahoma . Texas, tired of losing four straight of-the-Week Award for his play in the The second unit will have many experi- games to the Sooners, will be tough . Texas game. Wilkinson, who usually re- enced hands available to make it even a Kansas at Lawrence, October 20-One of frains from comment about individual more formidable force than a year ago. Jay the Big Seven's most improved teams last players, commented after the game, "Jerry O'Neal, aggressive quarterback, will again year, Kansas scored first on Oklahoma be- played a great game. He was very alert on lead the team. He can count on Dennit fore losing 44-6. Sportswriters and coaches pass defense. You win or lose games today Morris at fullback and a half-dozen half- expect continued improvement under on pass defense . . . And that's the first backs who are still trying for the team, in- Coach Chuck Mather . Twenty lettermen time this year I've said any man on our back and reserves are deeper this time team looked good . . . 'round. Kansas is expected to move up in Bud could afford to be expansive. Tubbs Big Seven standings. had just succeeded in intercepting three at South Bend, October 27 Texas passes and tackling Texas backs all Notre Dame -Pre-season outlook for Notre Dame indi- over the field. Tubbs was switched to full- lack of experience . Only 14 letter- back in his sophomore year from his usual cates a men return, headed by All-American Paul center position and played the position so Hornung at quarterback. However, green- well he averaged 6.1 yards per rush. He not expected to help Oklahoma . By was switched back to center last year and ness is Notre Dame will have will operate from that position this year. time game is played, met Southern Methodist, Indiana, Purdue, He's co-captain and is from Breckenridge, Michigan State-all sure cures for inexperi- Texas. ence. The TV game-of-the-day, the nation- Ed Gray holds an impressive distinction BUD WILKINSON on a distinguished roster . He is the only . . . '56 Il-lay Be Finest Season Contiuueil Page 22

PACE 14 SMNLR MAGAZINE

Miss Marilyn Ann Christy, '55ed, Oklahoma Say I Taught Thee . . . erly enough emphasized in high schools. City, and Carl Austin Smelser, '536us, Roosevelt, But it depends a great deal on the student, were married June 22 in Oklahoma City . Smelser Continued from Page 8 received his discharge from the Army, in which too. A lot of girls and boys don't read the newspapers . he served as a lieutenant, in the spring. The couple lowed Tompkins to enter the archives. An interest in current news live in Roosevelt. would help." Miss Mary Martha Harreld, '55ed, Oklahoma In 1940 Tompkins' book Russia Through Current events, incidentally, claim a por- City, and Howard Ward Olinger, '56eng, Wichita the Ages was published. Two later works, tion of each of Doran's days. Falls, Texas, were married in early June in Okla- Alaska: Promyshlennik and Sourdough Visitors to homa City . They now live in Midland, Texas. his office remember high stacks of newspa- and The Russian Mind were published by Miss Laura Yvonne Jones, '55journ, Lawton, pers and journals in the corners, and the Kenneth E. Holmes, Rockledge, Georgia, the Press. and head of the department used to joke with were married June 28 in Altus. They live in A careful, patient man, he keeps one eye Doran about his reading matter constitut- Lawton . cocked toward the sky ("Yes, I'm a bird Miss Frances Edens, '55ed, Oklahoma City, ing a hazard to the passerby. watcher"), but just try and get him to talk and Lieut. Warren Summers, '55eng, Norman, Today Doran and his four retiring col- 27 in the Division Artillery about his hobby : he'd rather talk about his- were married June leagues have more time for Chapel, Fort Polk, Louisiana. He has been with tory. In fact, retirement from O. U. simply the newspapers. couple lives in More birds will be watched, more trains the Army since June 1955 . The means more discussion of history for him, De Ridder, Louisiana. boarded, more long-overdue books written. for he's returned to the University of To- BIRTH: Keith Kashwer and Mrs. Kashwer They have reached, it seems, what Bertrand Frances Fish, '55ba), Oklahoma City, ronto as a Special Lecturer . (the former Russell called "the last product of civiliza- have chosen the name Cinda Kay for their daugh- The fifth man, Lowry Doran, had rather City . tion": the filling of leisure intelligently. ter born June 22 in Oklahoma use his retirement for writing about govern- DEATH: Lieut. Scott D. Nickson, '55bus, Shawnee, was killed July 30 when his Air Force ment. Political parties and state govern- plane crashed in an Arizona desert . He was mak- ment constitute his preferred field, but 40 ing a solo mission from Marana Air Base when years ago he was planning something dif- Colt-Action Sooners . . . accident occurred . Survivors include his moth- the ferent. Continued from Page 14 er, Mrs. Grace Nickson, Redwood City, Califor- nia, and his wife of a few weeks, Magdelena. "I started into law, he said, "but after one year I switched to political science. I con- al championship will probably be settled 1956 cluded that my mind was better adapted to with this one. MARRIAGES : Miss Eugenia Marie Ware, '56 it than to the technicalities of the other Colorado at Boulder, November 3- Milton Jones, '55bus, both of ba, and Kenneth field." Twenty lettermen return from a squad that Oklahoma City, were married July 14 in Okla- homa City. Jones reported in August to Indianapo- Doran taught high school in his home won 6 and lost 4 in '55. Coach Dal Ward lis, Indiana, as a second lieutenant in the Army . town of Springfield, Missouri, before push- has added the multiple offense to what was Their home was established in Lafayette, Louisi- ing on to the University of Chicago for his once a straight single wing offense. Two ana. factors keep this game from being put in Miss Sameera Adeeba Hamra, '56h .ec, Law- doctorate. For two years, then, he taught ton, and Mr . Joy N. Massad, '53, Tyler, Texas, at the University of Maine, and for another the safe column for the Sooners : 1) Okla- were married June 24 in Lawton . They live in at State Teachers College in Tennessee. homa has never beaten Colorado at Boul- Austin, Texas, where he is following a pre- Along about this time he decided to take der by more than one touchdown, and medical curriculum at the University of Texas. 2) game comes on heels of tough Notre and H. a year off "for cultural purposes and fun. Miss Kay Ann Fentem, '56, Ada, Za- Dame battle . nier Hickman, Jr ., '56eng, Healdton, were mar- I'd taught courses in history for a while," he This game has the possibility ried July 20 in Ada. They live in San Francisco, explained, "and I wanted to see the places of ambush written all over it. California, where he is an officer of the Public I'd been talking about." Iowa State at Ames, November 10- Health Service. Team returns 14 lettermen but is described Miss Marilyn Jane Swift, '56ed, Marietta, Geor- All in all he saw about 40 countries in by gia, and Donald Wesley Irby, '55, Oklahoma City, Europe, North Africa and Southwestern Coach DiFrancesca in these terms, "We were married July 28 in Oklahoma City . They have hopes this will Asia. Particularly catching his fancy were be the best team we've live in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he is a had in our three-year stay." student in the School of Medicine at Tulane Uni- the cities of Istanbul, Rome, Jerusalem and versity. Athens. However, the celebrated spots soon Missouri at Norman, November 17- Miss Victoria Jane Yarberry, '56h.ec, and Jack were just as far away as previously they had Missouri is being touted as the best prospect Paul Clayton, '56, both of Mangum, were mar- been, and Doran came to O. U., an Assist- for an Orange Bowl berth in Big Seven ried August 14 in Mangum . He is now a junior . 26 Conference . Eight starters from last year's at O.U ., majoring in geology. They are living in ant Professor of Government In the Chickasha. years which followed, he taught an esti- team are back, headed by brilliant quarter- Miss Wynona Rae White and Jerry Bart mated 8,000 students, and he watched the back Jim Hunter. Coach Don Faurot also Donaghey, '56ed, both of Ada, were married Au- collegiate type change with the calendar . will have help from an undefeated fresh- gust 17 in Ada, where they make their home . "For example," he said, "years ago stu- man team. This game will be doubly tough Mrs. Donaghey is a graduate of Oklahoma A&M if Missouri is still College. dents would sometimes have fights right in in the running for the Miss Paula Kathrina Hargraves, '56journ, the classroom; it doesn't happen today. Or Orange Bowl trip. Tulsa, and David Stewart Love, Cushing, were a cow would mysteriously turn up in a pro- Nebraska at Norman, November 24- married July 15 in Cushing. Mr. and Mrs. Love fessor's room, or a buggy on top of a build- Nebraska, with new coach , is are living in Cushing. Miss Anita Marie Howard, '56ed, Waurika, ing. Today there's not quite so much horse- opening the season with a mystery team. and Van Norvel Nichols, '56, Houston, Texas, play. Extra-curricular activities are a little Fifteen lettermen are back but entire team were married June 23 in Waurika. She is a for- more refined." will need time to adjust to new coach's sys- mer O.U. Independent Students Association queen. Has the teaching of government become tem. Speed and experience are lacking as The couple is living in Dallas, Texas. easier through the years? season opens . Still, Miss Nancy Hawkins, '566a, Bartlesville, and Nebraska figures to be Robert Chalmer Shank, Idaho Falls, Idaho, were "No," said Doran. "In Oklahoma the in Big Seven battle for Orange Bowl behind married June 9 in Bartlesville . teaching of government hasn't been prop- Missouri and possibly Kansas.

PAGE 22 SOONER MAGAZINE

Oklahoma A&M at Stillwater, December her from walking." Sonnet 37, however, drama: she probably saw more plays than 1-Outlook is for more speed, more depth may refer to a more lamentable lameness . any person in her time. She fought the and less experience than any Oklahoma Ben Jonson's story to a tavern friend that Puritans to keep open the theatres . Eliza- A&M club since 1948. the Queen ". . . had a membrana on her, beth liked what the people liked and what These are the teams Oklahoma will meet. which made her uncapable of man, . . . Shake-speare liked. John Middleton Murry If the Sooners are to continue their impres- finds a striking parallel in Sonnet 37, which explains how she made possible Elizabethan sive string of wins and other records, they strongly suggests sexual lameness . drama: will have to perform at top form through- out the season . A let-down against any op- "So I, made lame by fortune's dearest spite, "In so far as Shakespeare had to please the ponent could provide an upset. Teams rated Take all my comfort of thy worth and Court-which he had to do-it resolved into truth." the best chance of doing it are Notre Dame, pleasing the Queen. Not because of the money-reward earned by Court perform- Texas . North Carolina, and Missouri Lytton Strachey in his Elizabeth and Es- ances, but because the very existence of the This season could be Coach Wilkinson's players directly depended upon the royal au- sex informed the public that Elizabeth and finest coaching hour. If his Sooners fulfill thority. It was the royal countenance which Essex contended "like school children" in enabled their potentialities, he could have his third them to establish themselves in the the realm of learning and literature . The outskirts of London in spite of the bitter op- national championship. sonnets were Elizabeth's part of that con- position of the puritan authorities of the tention, which was echoed centuries later City. The queen liked to be amused, but she did not like to pay for her when another poetess wrote amusement. It Sonnets from was a blessed conjuncture for the Eliza- Shake-speare . . . the Portuguese to her younger love, Robert bethan drama. The Privy Council issued warrants for the Continued from Page 11 Browning. The writer of the sonnets was players during the plague also the writer of the thirty-seven plays and on the ground that 'they may be in the bet- ter readiness hereafter for her Majesty's ser- of an anniversary. We have already learned the two long poems. There is too much from Leslie Hotson that Sonnets 104, 107, vice whensoever they shall thereupon be parallelism of thought, word, and style be- called .' 123, and 124 were composed late in the tween the sonnets, Venus and Adonis, The "To please the people, to please the Essex was on Queen, year 1589. The birthday of Rape of Lucrece, Love's Labour's Lost, The and to please himself-these were the driving motives of the period of November 19; cold weather had no doubt Comedy of Errors, The Two Gentlemen of Shake- set in by November 19, 1589, which would speare's career which culminated in Hamlet . Verona, Romeo and Juliet, King Henry VI, And he was the kind of man to be have fulfilled all the requirements of Son- able to A Midsummer Night's Dream, King John, do all at once : and the Queen was the kind composition of net 104 and would place the and other plays for there to be any doubt Queen to make it easy for him, because of Sonnet 1 in April 1587. The expressions on this point. she had fundamentally the same tastes as the in Sonnet 104 "Since first your eye I eyed" people. She liked the plays they liked ; and Somerset Maugham points out that in- they liked the plays she liked-at bottom ." and "Since first I saw you fresh" mean volved expressions in letter writing do not since the day I discovered my love for you. predicate involved play composition : We see in Shake-speare Elizabeth had known Essex as a child, but Elizabeth's twin. ". . . English prose is elaborate rather Their April 1587 was the first time she had met myriad intellects neither clashed nor than simple . It was not always so. Nothing diverged ; they always saw eye the man Essex, the warrior returning from to eye. The could be more racy, straightforward and political propaganda in the Lowlands campaign . the plays never alive than the prose of Shakespeare; but came in for any Elizabeth and Essex were parted on sev- it act of censorship because it must be remembered that this was dialogue was written °xactly as Elizabeth eral occasions during the three-year inter- would written to be spoken. We do not know how write it. Their philosophy val 1587-89. Sonnets 26-32, Sonnets 43-52, was the same, he would have written if like Corneille their religion Sonnets 56-61, and Sonnets 97-99 were writ- he was the same, their intense had composed prefaces to his plays. It may patriotic devotion to England was the ten during periods of absence. Late in the wine, be that they would have been as euphuistic their desire to instruct while year 1590, the Earl of Essex secretly mar- amusing was as the letters of Queen Elizabeth." the same. Tucker ried the widow of Sir Philip Sidney. When Brooke writes of Eliza- beth: "With whom are we to match her? Queen Elizabeth found out about the mar- With whom but with the man of Stratford, riage she was exceedingly angry, but was HEN WOULD a busy queen have time the greatest of all her subjects, her mightiest somewhat mollified when Essex consented to write plays? We might well ask: colleague in building the age we know al- that his wife should live "very retired in her WhenW would a busy actor, memorizing ternately by both their names? . . . And mother's house." E. K. Chambers suggest- play after play, have time to write? It is a at the end there are no better words to apply ed that Shake-speare wrote Romeo and well-known maxim that you go to a busy to Elizabeth than those Arnold addressed Juliet because of a perturbing love experi- person to get things done. The very fact to her poet: ence through which he had just passed . that there are no plays with Elizabeth as From the London earthquake reference we authoress creates the suspicion there must "'Others abide our question . Thou art free . can fix the date of the composition of Ro- be hidden plays of hers. A born competi- We ask and ask: thou smilest and art still, meo and Juliet as 1591, the next year after tor, she was bound to experiment with ev- Out-topping knowledge.' " Essex's marriage. ery type of writing, and she surely would The reference to Shake-speare's lameness not completely neglect the most popular J. E. Neale writes, "Elizabeth had no in- in Sonnets 37 and 39 may be explained as narrative medium of her age, namely, the tention of surrendering her powers, or ac- meaning the sore on Elizabeth's leg that drama. She was keenly interested in the de- quiescing in men's views of women. She bothered her for a number of years. On velopment of the play medium from the had a great longing, she said, `to do some July 1, 1570, De Spes, the Spanish Am- moralities through the blank verse of Gor- act that would make her fame spread bassador, in a letter to Madrid reported that buduc and up through the finished product abroad in her lifetime, and, after, occasion "The illness of the Queen is caused by an of the University Wits. She witnessed the memorial for ever.'" We are on firm open ulcer above the ankle, which prevents beginnings and gradual development of the ground when we assume that Elizabeth, in

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