Oct. 12, 1963 - Texas laid claim to the No. 1 ranking among the nation’s college football teams today by toppling Oklahoma, king of the hill the last two weeks, with a decisive 28-7 upset victory at the Cotton Bowl. (Pictured below, Longhorn coach Darrell Royal addresses the team before today’s game.) Texas was in the No. 2 spot behind the Sooners prior to the game. The Sooners had moved from third to first by whipping Southern California, then the front-runner. The annual classic, which sends Longhorn and Sooner fans into a New Year’s Eve spirit, was played before a capacity crowd of 75,504. The sellout was the 18th in a row in the rivalry. The ground power of Coach Royal’s Texans nearly drove Oklahoma off the field at the start. Texas showed no mercy in rolling up 102 yards on the ground in the first period. With Duke Carlisle, Tommy Ford, Phil Harris, Tony King, and others carrying the ball, Texas totaled 239 yards over land in the game. Texas’s terrific defensive duo of Scott Appleton and Timmy Doerr saw to it personally that the Oklahoma offensive gears seldom meshed. Oklahoma didn’t even cross midfield until midway in the third quarter after Carlisle and halfbacks Ford and Harris had erected a 21-0 lead. Oklahoma, which dominated the top spot in the early 1950’s, bowed to the Longhorns for the sixth straight time. Royal, once an assistant to Coach Bud Wilkinson of Oklahoma, has lost only once to his former boss since taking over at Texas. That occurred during his first season at Texas, in 1957. Today’s was the Cotton Bowl’s second major upset in less than 24 hours. Southern Methodist beat sixth-ranked Navy on the same sod, 32-28, last night.
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