The Ice Bowl was an instant classic for the shear absurdity of the field.It seems like yesterday and it definitely was one of the weirdest OU games I ever remember.Like RA Sooner said the best part was we won.
Perhaps an instant classic to those who watched in the comfort of their homes, all comfy up to the fire like my parents claimed they were "thinking about me" they said. Nostagia runs pretty deep in those folks. The players probably have memories, like you said, of the sheer absurdity of that field. Linemen and ball carriers before the ball being snapped scrapping at that surface for a little traction. Ball carriers sliding ten feet before stopping, often sliding into the feet of opposing players, knocking them flying all over the place like a bowling bowl hitting pins proving a kind of morbid experiment about how objects in motion staying in motion and kinetic force. Ice flying like glass whenever one was slammed into that surface. Sometimes those guys out there on the field were laughing at the absurdity of it. I swore I saw Jamelle Holieway trying to yuck it up with Coach Switzer on the sideline. Now Coach can laugh about that game, but then he was not very happy about it, and had said so to the press that very day, accusing Okie St administration of being money hungry agreeing to a night game in November in Oklahoma with all of its unpredictability.
At least the players were running around on adrenaline with the thought of possibly keeping warm. Not me. Forced to come early to stand in line and get in the stadium, I was a frozen icicle of which no amount of rubbing or layers seemed to alleviate one iota. I had blankets under me between that icy bench, I had three layers on, and a couple of blankets on top all to watch a expletive deleted football game. As I said the only positive memory of it was OU won (and watching the great Barry Sanders ice skate was also pretty cool - no pun intended) but that was pretty much it. And I might add the ride home to Tulsa down Highway 51 was as harrowing as sitting in that stadium that night.
RAS