STILLWATER – The annual Cowboy Football Reunion will be held the weekend of September 19, and the 1976 Tangerine Bowl team will be honored as the team of special recognition as part of Oklahoma State's matchup with Murray State.
Full details will be sent to former players closer to the event, and players from any era canprovide contact information here so they can be the first to know details about the reunion this fall.
This season marks the 50-year anniversary for a 1976 squad that began the year unranked before a historic 31-24 Bedlam win in Norman over undefeated and fifth-ranked Oklahoma catapulted them into the national picture and paved the way for a share of the Big Eight Conference championship and OSU’s first nine-win season in 31 years.
The victory was part of three AP top 10 wins that season that still stand alone as a school single-season record. The others were a 21-14 win over No. 8 Kansas and a 20-19 Homecoming win over No. 10 Missouri.
Those were just half of the ranked opponents the Cowboys faced in a brutal schedule that also included a 42-21 win over No. 14 Iowa State and road trips to No. 12 Arkansas and No. 9 Nebraska that saw the Pokes fall by less than a touchdown. The six AP-ranked opponents faced by OSU established a school record that has only been matched twice since then in 2014 and 2021, and the four wins over AP-ranked teams rank only behind the five of 2011 and 2021.
Those six contests were part of a regular season that gave OSU its first conference title since 1953 and sent the Cowboys to the Tangerine Bowl, where they defeated a nine-win BYU team, 49-21.
Individually, the Cowboys were led by College Football Hall of Fame running back Terry Miller, who finished fourth in the voting for the Heisman Trophy while rushing for more than 1,500 yards and more than 20 touchdowns.
Other standouts included All-America center Derrel Gofourth, All-America defensive tackle Phillip Dokes, All-Big Eight defensive end Daria Butler, All-Big Eight kicker Abby Daigle, All-Big Eight punter Cliff Parsley, quarterback Charlie Weatherbie, linebacker John Weimer, linebacker John Corker and many more.
Butler and Corker and went on to earn All-America honors in following seasons, as did freshman walk-on Rick Antle.
Players on that team who went on to be selected in the NFL Draft included Miller, Gofourth, Dokes, Parsley, Butler, Corker, Robert Turner, Ron Baker, Buddy Hardaway, Scott Burk, Steve Stephens, Harold Bailey and Roger Taylor.
The offense totaled 39 rushing touchdowns on the year, which ranks second in school history only to 1988, as well as 3,085 rushing yards, which still ranks sixth in school history.
The defense held opponents to just 3,430 total yards on the season to rank as the seventh-best mark in program history and just 1,406 passing yards, which ranks third. It also set school records that still stand today with 30 fumbles forced and 31 fumbles recovered, and its 41 total turnovers forced are the seventh-most in program history.
