The greatest Oklahoma-Texas rivalry game nobody talks about any more

This year will be the fifth time the Texas Longhorns have entered their annual rivalry game with Oklahoma as the nation's top-ranked team. It has been nearly 20 years since the last time that happened, in 1984.

Oklahoma began the 1984 season with four straight wins and was ranked No. 3 in the Associated Press rankings heading into the Red River Rivalry contest with No. 1 Texas, which had climbed into the top spot following wins over No. 11 Auburn and No. 4 Penn State after beginning the season at No. 6

The Sooners had started the season in the No. 16 spot nationally and were coming off of four consecutive four-loss seasons, something extremely rare for an Oklahoma football team in the previous 35 years or since the Bud Wilkinson era.

A crowd of over 75,000 fans had filled the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on a cold, rainy afternoon in October to see two of the best teams in the country battle it out in this historic rivalry.

Oklahoma punter Mike Winchester mishandled a snap in the opening quarter, setting up the Longhorns on the Sooners' 20-yard line. Texas quarterback Todd Dodge waisted no time in finding wide receiver Bill Boy Bryant in the end zone for a 25-yard touchdown strike. Just like that, the Longhorns were up 7-0. A 40-yard field goal by Texas kicker Jeff Ward in the second quarter stretched the Longhorn advantage to 10-0 at halftime.

At halftime, Oklahoma offensive coordinator Mack Brown, who later would become head coach at Texas in the early 2000s, made some adjustments and decided to get more physical and run straight ahead instead of attacking laterally. With it raining harder in the second half and the footing becoming more precarious, that seemed like the best strategy to take advantage of the Sooners' explosive run game.

Early in the second half, with weather conditions worsening, Brian Bosworth jarred the ball lose from Texas tailback Terry Orr and the Sooners' recovered on the Longhorn six-yard line. OU running back Steve Sewell quickly found pay dirt on a five-yard touchdown run, cutting the Texas lead to three points at 10-7.

On the very next series, the Oklahoma defense, ranked as the second-best nationally coming into the game, backed Texas up in the shadow of its own end zone. Forced to punt from its own end zone, the Longhorn long-snapper hiked the ball over punter John Teltchik's head and out of the end zone for a safety, and now the score had narrowed to a one-point game, 10-9.

OU senior quarterback Danny Bradley marched the Sooners downfield on the ensuing Oklahoma possession with Sewell getting most of the touches. With first-and-10 from the Texas 12-yard line, Sewell took it around left end and into the end zone to give the Sooners' their first lead, 15-10, with three minutes remaining in the third quarter. Head coach Barry Switzer elected to go for a two-point conversion to make it a touchdown advantage but the attempt failed.

Both offenses sputtered as the two defenses were in shutdown mode for the first nine minutes of final quarter. With about six minutes to go in the game and Oklahoma still holding on to a 15-10 lead, Dodge threw a screen pass that gained 20 yards, and on the very next play from scrimmage, Texas freshman tailback Kevin Nelson broke off a 58-yard run before being caught from behind at the OU two-yard line.

At that point, things did not look good for the Sooners, despite having one of the top defensive units in college football. Three straight run plays by Orr were stopped cold through the bone-crushing efforts of the Oklahoma defensive interior led by a pair of All-Americans, defensive tackle Tony Casillas and Brian Bosworth. On fourth down, Texas tried a different approach and the QB Dodge pitched the ball to Nelson on a sweep, but Nelson lost his footing and was taken down for a one-yard loss at the three-yard line.

Now it was Oklahoma's turn to try to move the ball backed up against its own end zone. The Sooners weren't able to do much better than the Texas offense from the same spot. Realizing that OU had already muffed a punt attempt early in the game when conditions weren't quite as bad, head coach Barry Switzer chose to take a safety and entrust his outstanding defense with stopping Texas and closing out the victory.

That's when things got extremely interesting, eventually ending in a controversy that to this day still haunts the 87-year old former Oklahoma head coach.

With the Sooners' clinging to a 15-12 lead and after OU's free kick following the safety, Texas took possession at their own 44-yard line with 2:04 remaining in the game. The Longhorns failed to move the chains on first down. On second-and-10, Dodge's pass attempt fell incomplete; however, Sooner defensive back Keith Stanberry was called for pass interference, despite arguing that the pass was uncatchable.

Awarded a fresh set of down and helped along further by an offsides penalty on Oklahoma, Dodge calmly and efficiently directed the offense downfield. After a couple of pass completions, Texas had the ball 15 yards away from the OU end zone with just 10 seconds left in the game. That's when Dodge dropped back to pass and rifled a throw intended for Bryant (who was on the receiving end of Texas' opening touchdown) in the end zone, but the ball was tipped and landed in the arms of OU's Stanberry.

Game over, right? It certainly appeared that way, but an official in the end zone ruled that Stanberry did not have complete control of the ball as he stepped out of bounds. The interception was overturned, and that gave Texas one final chance to avoid the loss and keep its season record and No. 1 ranking intact.

The Sooners argued the call vehemently but to no avail. Texas kicker Ward split the uprights as time expired, ending the game in a 15-15 tie, just the fourth tie in the history of the rivalry.