Southern Fried Sooner
Buddy Leake | University of Oklahoma
Southern Fried Sooner
Buddy Leake | University of Oklahoma
After the 1950 High School Football Season at Christian Brothers' High School, we ended up with two losses, when we were predicted to get two wins for the whole year. One of the results was that I was named All City and All State of Tennessee for that season. The trips to Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Tulane started forthcoming over the Christmas Holidays.My father, John Leake, who played 5 years of college football, starting with Washington & Lee University in Virginia and then he transferred to the University of Tennessee Medical School to play on their "semi-pro" team that would be made up of undergraduates from Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt, who had come to the University of Tennessee Medical School to become dentists and physicians. One of the outstanding All Americans from the 1918 Oklahoma Team was Dr. Phil White of Oklahoma City.
When I began receiving recruiting invitations from other schools, my dad wrote Phil White a letter in Oklahoma City and asked him about O. U. We had not heard from O. U. and they were National Champions that season of 1950.
Dr. White passed the letter on to Coach Bill Jennings at Norman, who offered us a trip out there to see the school. My mother and I caught the train and went to Oklahoma for a visit.
When we pulled into the train station, it was quite an event that Coach Jennings was there to give us a ride to Norman. On the way, there were these two motley looking guys hitchhiking to Norman. Coach Jennings recognized them right away and stopped to give them a ride. They were Eddie Joseph and J. D. Roberts, hitchhiking back to school. J. D. and Eddie were Freshman from Dallas and as you know, J. D. later became the Outland Award Winner and a Consensus All American for the University of Oklahoma.
At the time, I really was not serious at looking at a school that I thought I would attend, because I wanted to play professional baseball. I took the trips with not complete conviction that I would be going to one of those schools, but it was a lot of fun to go and see these campuses and to receive the great hospitality and meet these famous coaches.
Turning the clock forward, when it came time in the Spring for me to decide what I wanted to do, I was not having the kind of baseball season that would cause a major league team to give me a bonus that would offset my college education. My dad, being an attorney and a very smart person in these type matters, thought I should decide where I wanted to play football and get my education and that I could play baseball later. I told him that, of all the places, I visited, the upbeat attitude and friendly players at Oklahoma made them different from any other place that I have visited. So I decided to cast my lot with Oklahoma, not having ever seen them having play a game, except the Sugar Bowl on television, when they got beat the previous January by the University of Kentucky and Dave Perolli.
Later, that summer of 1951, I was selected to play in the All American High School game, the East versus West, in Memphis, Tennessee. One of the coaches for the West was the Head Coach of the University of Nebraska, Mr. Bill Glassford. Somehow, during that week, he invited Carol Hardy and I to go back to Lincoln with him for a visit, since we had about two weeks before we had to report to Oklahoma and Carol was committed to go to the University of Colorado. Carol and I thought it would be fun to take that trip, so we did so, and while we were up in Lincoln, having played golf and eaten steak and shrimp cocktail for a couple of days, Coach Bill Glassford and his assistant got us in the office and asked us if we were coming to Nebraska and be roommates. We looked at each other and said "Yeah, I guess we are." Carol was going back to his home in Sturgeous, South Dakota and they asked me to stay up there to learn their offense, so that I could be ready to play quarterback for them. Never having played quarterback, I was a little skeptical of this plan and I told them that I would have to go back to Memphis for a week or 10 days and meet them in Chicago at the College All Star Game. Since I was dating Carolyn, at the time, I did not want to spend 10 days or two weeks in Lincoln, Nebraska, before the teams reported and not be able to see Carolyn for the rest of the fall. When I got back to Memphis, I never did hear from Oklahoma or Coach Bill Jennings.
The night before I was to leave to go to Chicago for the College All Star Game and to meet the Nebraska coaches, I stopped at a drug store across the street from East High School to call Coach Jennings to see why I had not heard from them and were they still interested in me coming to Oklahoma. When Coach Jennings answered the phone, I told him who I was and asked him if I could still come to Oklahoma. He asked me if I was sure that I wanted to. I told him that "yes, I am." He said, "well be here on August 28th, that is when we start practice." I asked him if they provided transportation for me to get there, because I was standing there with a plane ticket to Nebraska through Chicago and I didn't. He said it is against the rules to pay your way, but you can probably catch a ride with Joe Gainer and Hugh Ballard, as they will be coming out. Joe Gainer and Hugh Ballard were two fellows that I went to Fairview Junior High School with, that went to Tech High School, when I went to Christian Brothers and even though I had not been close to them, I had known them for a couple of years. I told Coach Jennings that I would be there. I had to make arrangements to catch a ride with Hugh and Joe.
With that same car, was Rex King and Allie Robards. These were two additional players that had gone to Tech High School with Joe and Hugh and were going to Oklahoma, as walk-ons.
At some point in Arkansas, we had a flat tire and we were on the side of the highway, looking it over, since we had so many guys to fix the flat, I told them to pick me up down the road that I was going to do some jogging, getting in better shape, so that when I got to Oklahoma, those big football players wouldn't tear me apart. I knew from having experienced my Senior year at Christian Brothers how important it was to be in your best physical condition.
My Freshman year at Oklahoma was the only year that Freshman were eligible because of the Korean War. Many of the students were being drafted and so they let the athletic teams use Freshman to fill the void.Since Oklahoma was a Land Grant College and had to provide ROTC training to the students because it was a school established by the State government and in order to be prepared to meets its military needs, the State required students to take at least two years of military training sponsored by the Army, Navy and Air Force, so that each student could make a choice as to which branch of the service he wanted to go in.
On the day of announcement by the University, in our class, that we had to take two years of ROTC training and then serve two years on active duty, upon graduation, in the U. S. Army, I immediately bolted the classroom after the bell rang and went down to the Navy Department to see if the Marines had any program available. Coach Bill Hoffer, my high school coach, who was responsible for me developing into a college player, was in the Marine Corp during World War II and was a two silver star medal winner and spent two years in the hospital recovering his wounds that he suffered in World War II. I was so brainwashed about the Marine Corp that I would not think of serving any place else. That is why I went straight out of class to the Navy Department and found that they had a Platoon Leaders Class available in the Marine Corp, where you went to summer camp two time, before you graduated and then, upon graduation, you became a 2nd Lt. in the Marine Corp.
Being a Platoon Leader in the Marine Corp, the average life expectancy was probably 10 minutes in battle, because you were leading your Platoon into battle. At any rate, this looked like what I wanted to do. I signed up to go to summer camp at Paris Island, S.C. after my Freshman year. When I went back to the dormitory that day and told the other guys about this Marine Program, about 10-12 of them also signed up for it. That summer, they went to San Diego, since they lived on the West side of the Mississippi River and I gave my address as Memphis, Tennessee, so I could go to Paris Island. Since I had heard so much about it, I preferred to do that. All the other guys on the team went to San Diego that summer and I went to Paris Island.
When I went home and started getting ready to go to camp, I had to decide how I was going to get there. I did not have a car and did not have a lot of money to fly, so I had my sister Betty drive me out to the airport to see if I could can a National Guard airplane going to South Carolina. When I got out there, there wasn't anything available and my mother had told me she did not want me to hitch, however, when there wasn't anything available, I had Betty take me to the city limits and I got on the highway and started hitchhiking. It took me 35 rides and three days to get to Paris Island. On both nights, when I was on the road, I had people offer to take me home to put me up overnight, since I was such a clean cut young 18 year old college Freshman.
