Tulsa Wins as Write-In Candidate for the Freedom Bowl

Here is one reason why the fightin’, writin’ Golden Hurricane of Tulsa University will be making an appearance in Freedom Bowl VIII next month:

“At their home game Saturday, they handed out 5,000 miniature American flags, which is our logo, and when the team came on the field, the band played, ‘California, Here We Come,’ ” reports an eyewitness, Don Andersen, executive director of the Freedom Bowl.

“Tulsa’s coach told the band director not to play it again until the outcome of the game was sure. So, they didn’t play it until it was 26-0 midway through the third quarter. After that, they played it 27 times in a row.”

Here is one reason why the University of North Carolina won’t:

“I got a call (Sunday) morning from the commissioner of the ACC, Gene Corrigan, who’s a pretty big name in college sports,” Andersen says. “He said, ‘We’d like you to take North Carolina’ and he started giving me reasons why.”

Andersen listened.

Andersen said he hadn’t made a decision yet.

Then Corrigan told Andersen, “Your game--that’s the one in San Diego, isn’t it?”

Uh, Gene, that North Carolina team of yours--that’s the one still lacking a bowl invitation, isn’t it?

After a hot-and-cold week, after the ecstasy of the Great Red Prize (Stanford: We’re Coming) and the agony of the Great Red Lie (Stanford: To Honolulu, We Meant), Andersen was sick to the gills with lukewarm. Recounting his conversation with Corrigan, Andersen spoke with a reporter Sunday. “You tell me,” he posited, “does that sound like a conference that would be excited having a team play in our game?”

Tulsa knows the way to Anaheim Stadium. Orange Countians may forget on Dec. 30--Tulsa and San Diego State? Weren’t those back-to-back games on Cal State Fullerton’s schedule?--but Tulsa has the map memorized.

Andersen is ready for the jokes. He’s prepared for the empty seats. “We had Florida State and that didn’t do anything,” Andersen says, referring to last August’s Florida State-BYU Pigskin Classic at the Big A, which featured a not-quite-classic crowd of 38,000. And the August before that, Pigskin I, Colorado vs. Tennessee, eventual national co-champion versus perennial New Years’ Day contender, drew 33,000.

“What can I tell you?” Andersen says.

Rent-a-following has become the mode for the Freedom Bowl, which extended 1990 bids to nondescripts Oregon and Colorado State--largely because Oregon would bring 18,000 fans and Colorado State 12,000 to Anaheim. Locally, the game drew only 15,000, but count the imports and Freedom VII played to 45,000 in house--enough, for once, for the game to break even.

Tulsa has agreed to buy 11,800 tickets (one-sixth of the stadium’s capacity) and has promised to send 10,000 Oklahomans to the coast. On Thursday, a sign-up sheet was posted at Tulsa’s Rockwell plant, fingers crossed, and by Friday afternoon, 700 names were down for tickets. Eleven thousand Tulsans work for American Airlines, making it the city’s leading source of employment, and employees are being offered free air fare if they want to see the game.

“If I could get a free trip from Tulsa to Anaheim now,” Andersen notes, reasoning well, “I think I’d do it.”

The Golden Hurricane has a decent football team, but more than wins and losses earned this invitation.

On the field, Tulsa is 7-2, with probable victories against Ohio U. and SMU remaining.

But on the fax machine, Tulsa is 200-0. Call the Hurricane the write-in candidate. Last week, when Tulsa first heard of the forearm shiver Stanford gave the Freedom Bowl, the school enlisted students, fans and alums to bombard Andersen’s fax number with the same message: Take Tulsa.

By the end of the week, to compensate for the wear and tear, Tulsa express-mailed a new roll of fax paper to the Freedom Bowl’s office inside Anaheim Stadium.

Tulsa’s opponent will be the runner-up in the Western Athletic Conference, which is still to be decided, regardless of whatever anyone thought at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium at a quarter to midnight Saturday night. After throwing 93 passes, after passing for 1,148 yards, San Diego State and BYU were tied--52-52, in a late defensive stand--and that, initially, meant BYU was bound for the Holiday Bowl. A tie was supposed to give BYU the championship, which is why Cougar Coach LaVell Edwards went for the tie instead of the two-point conversion with 30 seconds to play.

However, upon further review. . . .

According to a somehow-neglected provision in the WAC’s tiebreaker formula, San Diego State can still qualify for the Holiday Bowl if Saturday (a) BYU loses to Utah and (b) Air Force loses to Hawaii. Should that happen, San Diego and BYU would be tied in the first three tiers of the formula--record against the rest of the conference, record head-to-head, record against the third-place team--and the Aztecs would advance by way of the fourth provision: Team to appear in the Holiday Bowl most recently must defer.

BYU played in the 1990 Holiday Bowl.

Realistically, San Diego State can book that trip up the 5 Freeway today, and Andersen claims that suits him fine, no Ty Detmer and all.

“BYU has been here before (three times, including Pigskin II), so having them won’t mean any extra tickets,” Andersen says. “I think San Diego State will sell more locally. They have 6,000 students from Orange County and they’ll be off that week.”

So Tulsa-San Diego State doesn’t put a bounce in your walk, doesn’t give you a reason to get out of the bed in the morning, doesn’t instill any cravings to open the wallet for a seat on the 35-yard line?

“Tell that to Tulsa,” Andersen says.

At Tulsa Sunday, after the invitation was gleefully accepted, school officials set up a television press conference in the campus gymnasium and tapped in Andersen from Anaheim on the speaker phone. The entire Golden Hurricane football team was in attendance. When the announcement was made, Andersen says, “the whole gym erupted.”

Andersen suspects the Freedom Bowl can live with Tulsa.

In Tulsa, Andersen has a team that has been living for the Freedom Bowl. And that’s the fax.