A story in the sports section today erroneously stated that the Coogs’ highest finish in the polls has been 5th in 1979. However, for any youngsters out there, our '76 squad finished 4th in both the Associated Press and Coaches Polls at the conclusion of the 1976 season - our initial season in the Southwest Conference. The story was correct, however, in not including our '76 Cougar football team in its list of Cougar teams ranked in Top 20 preseason polls, as we’d received no preseason Top 20 votes after coming off a 2 - 8 season in '75. Thus, not being ranked going into the season made winning the SWC title over AP preseason ranked #7 Texas, #13 Arkansas, and #14 Texas A&M (as well as final AP poll ranked #13 Texas Tech) that much sweeter. What a memorable season that was!
That’s correct
Send the chronicle this
My youngest son, a poster on here, was born in Jan. '76 so it was a memorable year. Our Cotton Bowl victory made it even sweeter.
You are RIGHT Mister W! We got that 4th in USA ranking after we beat undefeated and 4th ranked ACC champ Maryland in Cotton bowl. What a great team and a great year that was!!
I was there!
The Maryland game was exciting!
It was cold but no Ice Bowl.
On we roll to the cotton bowl!
Cotton Pickin’ Coogs!
See Longhoes… We can beat Maryland… Suck it!
And Cotton Mouth Coogs!
What !!! The HC made an error in UH coverage …….blasphemy !
Actually, the article is about the preseason ranking.
I watched that game in TV. It was before the 30 second delay in TV. Some twelve year-old kept yelling, “f## Maryland! F### Maryland!” It echoed all over my grandparents’ house.
1976 was the year I graduated from UH. I had two things to celebrate!
We woke up to nearly an inch of ice covering the entire car. After chipping it all off I white knuckle drove to the Cotton Bowl. Our tickets sucked but we were determined. Two guys were standing outside and offered us 4 tickets on the 50 yard line. I told them we didn’t need to buy any tickets as we had ours. One of the guys said “No, you don’t understand. We are going home to watch the game on TV. You can have these tickets”
I remember two things about that game. #1 the victory. #2 the cute waitress from “Chili’s” sitting just behind me. She was not my wife’s best friend that day . . . . .
“Our tickets sucked but we were determined.” We were sitting in the end zone, almost between the goal posts . . . . . not the best seats, but once upon a time, I discovered (at an Oilers game while seated in the purple seats) that you could see and understand holes in the O-line, routes being run by receivers and what the defense was trying to do. Later in life, I sat in the Hof just about the goal and was amazed at how very interesting the game was from that location.
Awesome story.
I suppose you are correct and I stand corrected, there are no bad seats at a UH Coogs game.
Without looking it up on the internet can you name the #1-3 AP UPI that year our COOGS were #4 in the ‘76 season!