Bullmoose:

So you've never heard of the Bullmoose Club?

Hey, they sounded like a great team. Not dissing them.

All I am saying is many claim this team was a whisker away from MNC.

Not too close at all IMHO.

I have read about their defense and I agree they were the first in what became a great line of Aggie defenses from 70's through late 90's with ony la few exceptions.

Again, also totally dig the uniforms! I wish you guys would wear those in a throwback game.

Does anyone sell those? Obviously, as a Texas fan, I would not buy one, but if I were and Aggie fan, I sure would.

OT:
- never saw them play (doesn't understand the intensity of the game with #5 tu that year),
- does not understand the psychology of playing in Little Rock days after defeating #5 tu for the first time in eight years,
- has no knowledge of how the Ags were playing mid-season, when the UA game was originally scheduled,
- does not understand the psychology of being relegated to the Liberty Bowl two games after being 10-0 and ranked #2 with a convincing victory over #5,

He seems to be pretty good at looking at numbers. That's about it.

You can't judge this book by its cover.

MA

OT:

Based on your criteria of losing a close game and just missing you are correct it wasn't as close as say tu this year, but based on playing up to potential and what should have happened, it was close.

Speaking more in particular about that TCU game too, that was 14-6, it sounds close but it wasn't. TCU finished with negative yards for the game and never mounted a real threat. I know I was disappointed with our only scoring 14 points as it was my first date ever with my wife, four kisses were not enough!

BQ78:

Fair enough.

OT,

Of course a 25 point loss implies what you are saying. Let's just say if (big if) the Aggies would have beaten Arkansas, then they would have played for number 1 in the Cotton Bowl since tOSU lost the Rose Bowl. They wouldn't have known they were playing for #1 since the Cotton Bowl was played before the Rose Bowl that day, but the point still stands. OU wound up #1 after beating Michigan in the Orange Bowl that nighht.

As far as not being worthy because of the Liberty Bowl loss to USC, then I disagree on that count. Huge letdown to be playing in Memphis instead of Dallas. Someone else already said it, but think KSU in the '98 Alamo Bowl losing to a lowly Purdue squad.

Now, I still say the opponent would more likely have been Michigan instead of Georgia, unless I am wrong and Georgia had already been invited to play the winner of the A&M/Arkansas game. My recollection, and I was only 11 years old at the time, was the earlier and earlier bowl game invitations hadn't started yet really (more of an 80s phenomenon). I just don't think you can automatically assume a weak UGa team as the opponent. Arkie thrashed them pretty good alright. Michigan barely lost to an OU team that was probably better than A&M or OSU. Michigan would have been a much tougher opponent.

Hey, I am not saying you guys were not a top team in 1975. Honestly, with the SWC in the 60's and 70's being so good, it sounds like you guys were pretty amazing.

However to get whipped in the last game shows that you were not a fluke away from the NC.

Calling yourselves that is like calling Pewnn State this year a whisker away. They only lost one regular season game on a late FG. Did anyone look back and say, "WOW, PSU was really a hair away?"

No.

All that said, the 1975 Aggie team was one of your best from all accounts.

Man, the SWC was so good in the 60's and 70's. Too bad we all ate our own young and could not sustain it.

Honestly, (since we are playing "IF" games), 2 things led to the SWC demise (you guys will go ape-s on me for this one):
1-Texas running its program into the ground 1984-1992 - terrible leadership and simply getting outhustled by OU and TAMU. I know you guys will accuse me of Texas arrogance and I am sure that is true to some extent. However, the SWC needed us a bellweather program. The drek we fielded in the mid to late 80's really helped kill the SWC. Why pay big TV money when Texas is so shEEty?

2-SMU, TAMU, TCU et al had not gone over the top cheating. BTW, it is my opinion, that OU obviously fit into this category too. Of course, they never suffer long term pain for their crimes. Things got so out of hand, that we all started turning erach other in and/or escalating our own dirty deeds.

IF somehow we all kept things together, imagine if the SWC could have cherry picked the Big 8 and not the reverse. Say what you will about the private schools, I miss playing in-state most of the year.

The new SWC could have been the SWC 9 + OU + NU + OSU or CU.

Would be pretty awesome IMHO.

is it possible to have a discussion on this board without sips coming in and taking a crap on it?

Yes, it IS impossible.

After all they're "Texas." It's impossible for them to grasp the concept that we were capable of being very good at all, let alone close to a national championship.

It makes them feel good to say: "We're robbed just about every year. We are ALWAYS the best in the county. The polls are wrong. Sure, we may lose five or six games, but they're close losses. Why should a team with a single 10 point loss be ranked higher than us when our six losses are by 3 points or less? We're Texas."

Face it. Our guys choked because, as reported at the time, they goofed off too much at practice, having beaten the sips for the first time since '67. They were not ready to play the game. In those days, our goal was not a MNC, it was to beat t.u. So, having done that, they felt their season was compelete. The point is that they could have done it, and should have done it. That's what people are saying. Just as you can say the same thing this year. You could have done it, and should have done it. You just didn't do it. Neither did we.

The SWC died for 2 reasons:

1. TV - Once college football telecasts were deregulated, it was over as as all-Texas conference can't get a decent TV contract.

2. Since so few pollsters on a national level paid attention to SWC games, it was virtually impossible for a SWC team to get a decent national ranking. Even if UT had fielded quality teams dring the 1984-92 era, not that many people on a national level would have noticed.

The SWC died for one reason: SMU getting the death penalty.

quote:

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In those days, our goal was not a MNC, it was to beat t.u

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It sadly hasn't changed.

FYI...the starting WR on that Kansas State team we shut out in 1975 (Steve Grogan was QB) was a guy named G. P. "Bud" Peterson. Bud went on to get a Ph.D. in M.E. at A&M and was Associate Chancellor at A&M before moving on to be the Provost at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He's now the Chancellor of the University of Colorado in Boulder. Got in a bit of hot water there because he wanted to establish a Chair for Conservative Studies or something of the sort. He is an amazing guy.

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Anyone else get turned back on I 30, trying to get to the game, but too late due to closings for weather?
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Because of my job (I was not a player or coach)I was at that game. BTW that hog smells bad when it is cold and rainy.

Weather was horrible that day and got worse. After the game the team was told to quickly dress and head to the bus for the airport. Ice and snow was almost at Little Rock and we could be stranded there. Some players didn't even get to shower. Halfway into the flight the Trans Texas Airlines pilot told everyone that cloud cover at Easterwood had caused limited visability and we may need to divert to Houston and bus to College Station. Right before his approach he said weather at Easterwood had slightly improved and "he thought" he could land. (in those days the runway was a lot shorter). I said to myself "he thinks he can land?" I had visions of Marshall running through my mind. He aborted his first approach and we landed safely on the second try. The 727 used up all of the runway. I was guessing he had only a few hundred feet left.

The few people at the airport were mostly silent. I was happy to be home, safe in one piece.

I and buds from Crocker Hall rented an RV for a road trip.
Great time going up. Treated like foreigners in Little Rock.
Gloomy day for the game.

More thoughts on the game, some of which others have mentioned and some not:

1. Mike Jay our starting QB was injured in the tu game and was unable to go against Arkie.

2. Arkansas had some key injuries in mid-season that would have kept those guys out of the A&M game had it not been moved for ABC-TV. By the first week in December they were back and playing.

3. Coach Broyles was brought by ABC to the tu game the week before they played us to be the color guy for the Thanksgiving Broadcast. No doubt it helped him in his preparation for the Aggies.

Hmmm, did ABC cost us a National Championship? I wouldn't go that far but they certainly didn't help us.