Fullerton Officer Patrolled Defense in ‘Game of Century’ : College football: Police veteran called signals for Nebraska in the Cornhuskers’ victory over Oklahoma 20 years ago.

The chilly gray skies above Norman, Okla., that Thanksgiving Day in 1971 failed to dampen the excitement and tension building for the football confrontation that was about to take place.

While 63,385 filed into Owen Field and a national television audience estimated at 55 million were tuning in, undefeated and top-ranked Nebraska got ready to take on undefeated and second-ranked Oklahoma for the national championship.

Officer Bob Terrio, a 17-year veteran with the Fullerton Police Department, vividly remembers his feelings that day 20 years ago.

“I was real, real nervous,” recalled Terrio, who had played at Buena Park High School and Fullerton College.

Terrio, who still looks fit enough to play, had good reason to be jittery that day.

As a starting linebacker for Nebraska, he was charged with calling the defensive signals against the Oklahoma wishbone offense that had been unstoppable in nine lopsided victories that season. It was definitely a tight spot for Terrio, who had once described himself as “the worst defensive player in the Freeway League.”

With quarterback Jack Mildren operating the option and Greg Pruitt, Joe Wylie and Leon Crosswhite coming out of the backfield, the Sooner offense came into the showdown averaging 491 yards rushing and 45 points.

“It was a tremendous, tremendous game,” Terrio said. “My main responsibility was the quarterback, Mildren. I always lined up opposite the tight end except when they were in the slot formation.”

Fortunately for Terrio, who stood 6 feet 2 and weighed 205 pounds, he had plenty of help that day. The Cornhusker defense boasted such outstanding players as All-American Rich Glover at middle guard, Willie Harper at defensive end, Larry Jacobson at tackle and Bill Kosch at strong safety.

“Our coaching staff had a great game plan that day and did a tremendous job of getting us ready to mentally peak at the right time,” Terrio said. “And (Heisman Trophy winner) Johnny Rodgers gave us a tremendous lift when he returned that punt 72 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter.”

Terrio explained the defensive strategy that day.

“The way to defense the wishbone was to assign a guy to the fullback, another to the quarterback and another to the pitch man and bring a defensive person up into the alley,” he said. “In my assignment, if they blocked the guy in the alley, I had to take the quarterback.

“I had no problem with the guard, but I had a problem with the tight end (Albert Chandler) who would come across and crack back on me. He had a clear shot at me every time.”

Although the 1971 Oklahoma-Nebraska game featured hard hitting and many big defensive plays, it is remembered as a dramatic, high-scoring game that saw the lead change hands five times.

After Oklahoma took a 31-28 fourth-quarter lead, Cornhusker quarterback Jerry Tagge directed Nebraska on an 11-play, 74-yard drive that ended with Jeff Kinney’s two-yard touchdown run with 1 minute 38 seconds to play. Nebraska held on to win, 35-31, and advanced to the Orange Bowl, where it beat Alabama, 38-6, to finish 13-0 and win its second consecutive national championship.

Terrio finished second to Glover in tackles that day for Nebraska with four solos and 13 assists. Nebraska held the Sooner rushing attack to 279 yards, but Mildren had a big day passing by completing five of 10 pass attempts for 137 yards and two touchdowns.

“I think the biggest thing we had going was that (the) seniors had gone through the national championship the previous season,” Terrio reflected. “We took the underclassmen under our wings. We had a job to do and we just went out and did it. We had a tremendous senior class that year.”

When Terrio’s college career ended, he had played on three national championship teams--the 1967 Fullerton College team and the 1970 and ’71 Nebraska teams. The Fullerton and Nebraska teams he played on had a combined record of 44-1-1.

“I was very lucky to get into very good organizations at Fullerton and Nebraska,” Terrio said. “Hal Sherbeck had a very good organization going at Fullerton. I turned down a scholarship from the University of Arizona to go to Fullerton. It was easy to go play for Coach (Bob) Devaney at Nebraska (after) Fullerton because they both ran a similar offense.”

Terrio was recruited by Tom Osborne, Nebraska’s offensive coordinator at the time and now the Cornhuskers’ head coach, on the basis of his offensive prowess as a tailback at Buena Park and a fullback at Fullerton, where he rushed for 1,053 yards in two seasons. Terrio never expected to be turned into a linebacker.

“I thought I was the worst defensive player in the Freeway League,” he said at the time. “I played safety and I had a hard time tackling people in the open field.”

But after sitting out a year as a redshirt, Terrio moved to the other side of the line. “At Nebraska, they decided I wasn’t the blocker they needed at fullback, so I was changed to defense,” Terrio recalled. “At practice, they wanted to look at me at linebacker for 10 days and tight end for 10 days. The coaches were so impressed with me at linebacker that they never looked at me at tight end.”

After graduation in 1972, Terrio, who by then was married to his wife, Diane, and had an infant son, became an assistant coach of the freshman team that fall and then took a job as a vice principal of a junior high school in Sidney, Neb.

“We spent a year in Sidney and decided to come back to Southern California in June of 1974,” Terrio said.

It was then that his career made an unexpected turn into law enforcement.

“I knew Capt. Fred King of the Fullerton Police Department because I had gone to school with his son, Scott,” Terrio said. “They were having a big recruiting drive. In fact, three of my former Fullerton teammates--Mike Vice, Jeff Roop and Rich Hogbin--had joined the force. So I applied at the police department, but I also looked into coaching in Fullerton.”

With a son and a daughter by then, economics made Terrio’s decision easy.

“Coaching at Buena Park or Sunny Hills would have paid $900 a month at the time and the police department paid $1,020 a month,” said Terrio who now works as a motorcycle patrolman. “I don’t regret my decision one bit. I find my work very satisfying. Every day is different. There’s no routine. You meet different people and do different things all the time.”

But Terrio, who now has three children, does admit he misses the color and excitement of his playing days.

“I went to the USC-UCLA game at the Coliseum last weekend, and I realized I had totally forgotten what it’s like at big rivalry games,” he said. “It was fun to watch and realize how much the fans despise the people on the other side of the stadium. I miss it. It brought back a lot of memories.”

When Oklahoma and Nebraska play today, you won’t find Terrio very far from his TV set.

“I never miss a televised Nebraska game,” he said. But his mind is bound to wander to that day 20 years ago in Norman.

When The Sporting News polled past and present football coaches recently on what major college confrontation was the best of the century, the 1971 Oklahoma-Nebraska game made the top of the list. If ever there was a Game of the Century, that was it.

Glen Garson, who teaches and coaches track at Savanna High School, was a Nebraska sophomore who played sparingly behind Rodgers that season.

“It’s very hard to put into words, the emotion we felt that day,” he recalled. “I remember Devaney saying, ‘It might be overcast now, but the sun will shine at the end.’ At the end of the game, the sun came out for only about five minutes, but I can remember very vividly the sun shining on Devaney’s face when we won the game.

“I still have my national championship ring and I wear it every day,” Garson said. “I’m still proud of it. It’s something I’ll savor the rest of my life.”