AGGIE FLASHBACK: The 1997 Big 12 Championship Game, Dec. 6, 1997

This isn’t meant to make you feel bad. This is just a recollection of that time we played one of the best football dynasties in history, took a beating, and actually were made better for it.

The 1997 Big 12 Championship Game:

• Turning thousands of Nebraskans loose on the Riverwalk in December is like giving long-haul workers at an Antarctic research station a 48-hour pass in Rio.
• The influx of these two fanbases made San Antonio 700% Classier for a day.
• This remains the first and only conference championship game I’ve attended. It was the longest day: I drove with friends from College Station to my parents house in the Hill Country, then to the Alamodome, then back to College Station that night thoroughly broken and defeated.
• Nebraska was bigger, faster, stronger, and just better at football than anyone else that year, and possibly the years before and after as well.
• Yes, that’s UCF head coach Scott Frost playing QB for the Huskers, then fiddling with his junk on the sidelines after they’ve built a 40 point lead.
• Aggie QB Branndon Stewart was sacked six times.
• Texas A&M’s best offensive weapon was something called a “tight end”
• Let’s establish this: Texas A&M was the cream of the Big 12 South in 1997-1998. The Ags had just reeled off back-to-back wins over OU and Texas in the back half of November, winning by a combined score of 78-23.
• The Aggies had a very good offensive line and run game. Nebraska held them to 13 yards rushing.
• The Wrecking Crew forced 5 fumbles, recovered 4, including one for a touchdown. And still this happened.
• The Wrecking Crew also gave up 536 yards of offense. This was unheard-of in the nineties.
• The Huskers ran the ball 67 times for 335 yards.
• It was over by halftime, 37-3, and still we stayed for all four bloody quarters because you don’t get to witness this kind of perfect killing machine in person very many times in your life.
• The Aggies would get revenge on Nebraska the following season. But this was a healthy dose of humility, and it’s still a reminder of how unstoppable Nebraska could be in the ‘90s.

Do you have memories from this game, suppressed or otherwise? Share with us, please.