Sampson’s first year at Oklahoma and OU was picked to finish near the bottom of the Big Eight. In February, the Sooners played at No. 2 Kansas and as Sampson bluntly put it, the Jayhawks “effed us. The final score (93-76) did not indicate how that game went.”
Bob Hersom, a veteran sportswriter in Oklahoma, approached Sampson after the game and showed him a list of OU’s remaining games – at Colorado, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma State in Norman, at Iowa State and at Missouri. Every team but Colorado was ranked.
“Kelvin, I don’t think you guys will win another game,” Hersom bluntly pronounced.
For the road trip to Colorado, Sampson was at home and scurrying to find a clean white shirt. His only option was a blue denim shirt with double pockets. “It looked like something you’d wear to a cowboy bar,” he said. “I said, ‘What the hell.’ I threw it in my bag.”
Dear reader, you know what’s coming, right?