Do You Remember The 1982 Game...

[smiteedawgwv]

....against Oklahoma?


I do. I was just a few weeks from leaving for basic training and my buddy and I were playing tennis and was listening to the game on the radio. Oklahoma jumped out to a 14-0 lead and we were cussing. We finished playing and I jumped in the car to head back to the house, which was about a 15 minute drive, and by the time I got home we were ahead. I remember it well. It was a great day to be a Mountaineer!!!!

[mountaineerinpa]

I re member the game as well. I was a sophmore in high school back then.

[wvumaryjane]

Will ya all kick me out of the club house If I admit I wasn't a WVU fan until when I was searching for a college in high school? I was a HUGE nfl fan but didn't pay attention to college until about 1986

[mountaineerinpa]

Thats it your out of here MJ LOL.,kidding where would we be without you.

[rainman]

better late than never mj

kelly was all dale and nascar when we 1st met and now, almost 10 years later, she is a die hard mountaineer and steeler fan. her love of football grew by watching dayton play from age 6-13

[rainman]

1982 win over OU put stamp on WVU football program
By John Raby
Associated Press
Sunday, December 23, 2007


CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- With West Virginia and Oklahoma set to play in the Fiesta Bowl in their first meeting in 25 years, some ex-Mountaineers are looking back with pride on one of the program's benchmark wins.

Jeff Hostetler made his West Virginia debut a success in the 1982 season opener, throwing for 321 yards and four touchdowns in leading the Mountaineers to a 41-27 win over the ninth-ranked Sooners in Norman, Okla., in a game featuring future Hall of Fame coaches.

"That game pretty much put West Virginia on the map as a major college football team as far as I'm concerned," former Mountaineers coach Don Nehlen said. "That was a big, big, big victory, especially when it was out there. Nobody gave us any kind of a chance."

An independent at the time, West Virginia was a decade from joining the Big East and was looking for any measure of national respect.

The Mountaineers were coming off a 9-3 season in 1981 that included a Peach Bowl win over Florida and were two years into Nehlen's arrival from Michigan, where he was an assistant under Bo Schembechler.

Nehlen had plenty of talent on his team, among them the Penn State transfer Hostetler, who would go on to win a Super Bowl with the New York Giants; linebacker Darryl Talley, a future standout with the Buffalo Bills; and wide receiver Willie Drewrey, who would go on to play for the Houston Oilers.

Going to Oklahoma had West Virginia at a distinct disadvantage. The Mountaineers were unaccustomed to playing in the heat, especially that early in the season. Four years earlier West Virginia was pounded 52-10 by the Sooners and that loss was still fresh in the Mountaineers' memory.

It was so hot on the field that players could see the steam rising in a four-foot wave off the turf. Fans cracked jokes at the players as they were ready to run out for warmups.

"These two old guys were up in the stands and they were like, 'Boy, it sure is hot. I'm glad I've got some water here,"' WVU running back Curlin Beck said.

Nehlen had used to study the Sooners and concluded he needed to retool his defense to stop Oklahoma's wishbone attack.

"That was a very difficult formation for us to emulate in practice," Nehlen said. "They had two great tailbacks and a fullback who weighed 240. We didn't have those kind of kids on the scout team."

He also buttered up the media by saying he didn't think his team could hold up in the Oklahoma heat.

"There wasn't any question we were nervous. Oklahoma just had so much more speed and we had to go out there in September," Nehlen said.

He told his team to ignore the newspapers. He was confident of his players' stamina and his staff preached in the months leading up to the game that if the Mountaineers were within 10 points at halftime, they would win.

Hostetler was making his first start in place of the departed Oliver Luck. West Virginia quickly fell behind 14-0 but scored the next 20 points, including 10 in the final 13 seconds of the first half.

"Our kids were so jacked at halftime, we couldn't even talk to them," Nehlen said.

Oklahoma came back to tie the game at 27-27 after Darrell Songy blocked a punt and Keith Stanberry recovered the ball in the end zone.

But it was all West Virginia in the fourth quarter.

Hostetler threw his fourth scoring pass of the day, a 9-yarder to Wayne Brown, and Beck ran 43 yards untouched on a draw play near the end of the game.

"They were very good that day and deserved to win," former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer said recently. "Obviously, anybody that beats Oklahoma is usually pretty good at the time. We were kind of down for Oklahoma, but we were still a pretty good football team."

A state police escort brought the West Virginia team buses back to campus, where they were greeted by thousands of fans.

"I was afraid to get out," Nehlen said. "The students were rocking the buses. It was a wild party coming into Morgantown."

The Switzer-led Sooners would get shut out by Southern Cal at home a few weeks later and finished the season 8-4, including a loss to Arizona State in the Fiesta Bowl.

West Virginia had gone to eight bowls in its history before Nehlen's arrival, and he took the Mountaineers to an unprecedented four straight from 1981 to 1984. West Virginia earned a Gator Bowl berth after the 1982 season against Florida State, losing 31-12.

In 1988, Nehlen brought West Virginia its first 11-0 regular season and a trip to the Fiesta Bowl to play top-ranked Notre Dame. The Irish won 34-21.

Both Nehlen and Switzer still live near their former schools. Nehlen stepped down in 2000 and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006, four years after Switzer.

Hostetler would marry Nehlen's daughter, Vicky, and become neighbors with his father-in-law near Morgantown.

[WVUfanPHILLY]

mountaineerinpa said:

I re member the game as well. I was a sophmore in high school back then.

Are you sure? I was a freshmen at Pot State and you're only a year younger than me!

[WVUfanPHILLY]

Yes, I was a freshmen at Potomac State and had gone to the mall in Cumberland. The drive back to Keyser was fun as I was screqaming and honking the horn all the way!!!

[mountaineerinpa]

Yes Im sure i graduated high school in 84 minus 2 years is 82 and that wouldve put me in the 10th grade.

[WVUfanPHILLY]

OK, I thought you had graduated in 83...

[mountaineerinpa]

Well I shouldve if I went to school on time. My parents didnt think I was ready for school at the time I was suppose to start cause of a head injury as an infant. To put the smartass comments to rest I will tell you, when I was 3 months old I hit a car windshield with my head in a car accident and spent the next few months in morgantown hospital.

[smurph]

If you graduated in '84, the '82 game (September) would have been the first semester of your Junior year.

Anyway, I absolutely remember that game. It was the first time an away game was to be televised on the Big screen at the Coliseum. My buddy and I went there to watch the game. My buddy was #1. A pessimist & #2. Always late. So when I picked him up, I told him to hurry so we didn't miss the start of the game. He said "We'll just miss the first 2 Oklahoma touchdowns" As we pulled into the lot, he was proven right, as the Okies scored their second TD. We made it inside in time to see the Hoss put on a show. I remember us tying it up before halftime and then calling timeouts so we could get the ball back and the Hoss lfting a 70-yd TD to give us the lead. Then we held on to win.

[dehayes35]

I was 2.

[mountaineerinpa]

dehayes35 said:

I was 2.

I feel very OLD thanks Doug