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John Blake’s first season in 1996 was absolutely abysmal. The Sooners went 3-8 and didn’t win a game at Owen Field. They’d stumble into the State Fair of Texas with an 0-4 record, having suffered losses to TCU, San Diego State, Tulsa and Kansas. OU was in the gutter and would stay there until Stoops arrived, but on Oct. 12 of 1996 there was a brief moment of sunshine.

This is the first OU football game that I vividly remember watching attentively on TV (it was around the time that doctors started prescribing Ritalin to seemingly every child in America), so I’m glad it turned out well. As you may recall, OU had taken a 24-0 lead in Dallas a year before only to watch the game end in a 24-24 tie, so you can imagine how pumped the players were after this win.

James Allen had a pretty solid career in Norman and ended up with the Chicago Bears after going undrafted in 1997. He actually ran for over 100 yards in a Sunday Night Football win over the Vikings and also caught a Hail Mary pass to send a the bears to overtime against the Browns. I’d provide you with a video of the Hail Mary, but you all know how the NFL is with their video rights.