NMSooner'80
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I was at the OU-Alcorn State game the other night and heard the band razzing their players when they were at the foul line. It had a familiar ring to it, especially for those in my age group.
“It just doesn’t matter! It just doesn’t matter!” they chanted - which took me back to watching the movie “Meatballs.” That almost seemed appropriate, because the Alcorn State guys didn’t shoot well from the line, at least early on, much like how the campers shot it in the hilarious basketball game in the movie.
Obviously, the other night it really didn’t matter in terms of the other night’s outcome. I enjoyed the memory of the movie from my college days, along with the win the other night.
Speaking of "Meatballs," there was a main character in the movie who was called "Spaz," played by a guy named Jack Blum. Obviously, he couldn't play basketball very well, as was the case with the whole "Camp North Star" team. A few months after the movie came out, in 1979, OU played Midwestern State of Wichita Falls, which had a tough team in the NAIA, in Norman. One of their guards looked a bit like Spaz from a distance.
Anyway, the aforementioned MSU guard was fouled on a shot in the first half and got a big shock to his ears when he stepped up to the line. My senior-year roommate, who had a booming voice (and who also loved the movie "Meatballs") yelled out, "Hey SPAZ!" just before he got ready to shoot his first free throw. I know he had to have heard it. I could have also sworn that most in the student section heard it and laughed, knowing what the Spaz reference meant.
Footnote to those days, when the students were the ones who made all the noise - exactly 43 years ago on Dec. 23, OU hosted Cal State-Bakersfield right after finals week. Their team wore warmup tops with nicknames on the back, and this one guy had "E" on the back of his. This was when Elvin ("E") Hayes was still going strong in the NBA, and he was always serenaded by the Washington fans with "E.......E.....E" when he was getting ready to post someone up for his trademark shot. So the OU student section saw this guy with "E" on his top come out after halftime kind of early and started taking practice shots on his own, and they started doing the "E" chant whenever he'd take a dribble before shooting. Since OU was way ahead (this was the '78-79 league championship team), the students started chanting for "E" to shoot, and pretty much rooted for him to score with the game safely in hand.
"E" finally made a foul shot, and the students celebrated. When he came out of the game, the students booed his replacement and demanded that "E" come back into the game (he didn't).
I had a class with Al Beal that next semester. He was still laughing about that night, a couple of months later.
“It just doesn’t matter! It just doesn’t matter!” they chanted - which took me back to watching the movie “Meatballs.” That almost seemed appropriate, because the Alcorn State guys didn’t shoot well from the line, at least early on, much like how the campers shot it in the hilarious basketball game in the movie.
Obviously, the other night it really didn’t matter in terms of the other night’s outcome. I enjoyed the memory of the movie from my college days, along with the win the other night.
Speaking of "Meatballs," there was a main character in the movie who was called "Spaz," played by a guy named Jack Blum. Obviously, he couldn't play basketball very well, as was the case with the whole "Camp North Star" team. A few months after the movie came out, in 1979, OU played Midwestern State of Wichita Falls, which had a tough team in the NAIA, in Norman. One of their guards looked a bit like Spaz from a distance.
Anyway, the aforementioned MSU guard was fouled on a shot in the first half and got a big shock to his ears when he stepped up to the line. My senior-year roommate, who had a booming voice (and who also loved the movie "Meatballs") yelled out, "Hey SPAZ!" just before he got ready to shoot his first free throw. I know he had to have heard it. I could have also sworn that most in the student section heard it and laughed, knowing what the Spaz reference meant.
Footnote to those days, when the students were the ones who made all the noise - exactly 43 years ago on Dec. 23, OU hosted Cal State-Bakersfield right after finals week. Their team wore warmup tops with nicknames on the back, and this one guy had "E" on the back of his. This was when Elvin ("E") Hayes was still going strong in the NBA, and he was always serenaded by the Washington fans with "E.......E.....E" when he was getting ready to post someone up for his trademark shot. So the OU student section saw this guy with "E" on his top come out after halftime kind of early and started taking practice shots on his own, and they started doing the "E" chant whenever he'd take a dribble before shooting. Since OU was way ahead (this was the '78-79 league championship team), the students started chanting for "E" to shoot, and pretty much rooted for him to score with the game safely in hand.
"E" finally made a foul shot, and the students celebrated. When he came out of the game, the students booed his replacement and demanded that "E" come back into the game (he didn't).
I had a class with Al Beal that next semester. He was still laughing about that night, a couple of months later.