BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — I found myself very much feeling out of my element. 

I was invited to a V.I.P., well-to-do party for folks who paid handsomely to play a round of golf in the Tulsa Celebrity Golf Classic. This event benefited the YMCA of Greater Tulsa—in addition to my personal disposition. I vigorously shook hands, anxiously snapped selfies. I took a gander at the most impressive personal collection of memorabilia I’ve ever seen, all because a fella named Randy Allison thought to use his connection to a few college football legends to benefit his community.

Folks did their best not to gawk at a Jackie Shipp, who still looked like he could play. Tried not to stare too long at a Marcus Dupree, who was a jovial as he is big. Tried not to get carried away with what former Oklahoma quarterback Thomas Lott meant to the sport. But after long it became clear to me, at least, that those men didn’t much care that we who didn’t play the game were looking at them like I expect most folks do—like children in front of superheroes.

I giggled allowed when former Oklahoma linebacker Mike Berry called signing an autograph “light work.” I felt inspired when Randy’s son, Tyler, told me how he is battling a rare illness and each of these enormous former college football players turned away from glad-handing for a moment to tell Tyler how strong he was.

My gawking moment came when a foursome of George Cumby, Tommie Frazier, Guy Rozier and Kenny King were talking about the best rub to put on a slab of ribs—four Super Bowl rings, five All-American honors and one College Football Hall of Fame inductee between them. But once I got past all the honors. I could see they were four guys who cared more for each other than anybody watching them talk.

And it was that way throughout the shindig. All the players made a point of chatting each other up, of telling each other’s stories. And when they got tired of that? They’d go fishing.

Frazier had a fishing pole in his hand and a towel over his shoulder when I asked him what he thought about the coming return of the OU-Nebraska rivalry in 2021.

“I think it’s great for college football,” Frazier said. I asked him what he meant by that. “That rivalry meant something to this sport. I think it’d be great if it meant something again.”

When Frazier played college football, he was one of the sport’s best. He was a quarterback who carried the ball 97 times for 604 yards in the final season of the Big 8 (1995). That’s a 6.2 yard-per-carry average. 

For perspective, Oklahoma running back Rodney Anderson averaged 6.2 yards per carry in 2017.

While Anderson carried the ball significantly more often, Frazier completed 56 percent of his passes for more than 1,300 yards and accounted for 31 touchdowns in Huskers coach Tom Osborne’s option offense. 

He also beat Oklahoma 37-0—Schnellenberger is a curse word in Oklahoma—and won the Huskers a national title after leading Nebraska to a 12-0 record and a second place in the Heisman finish.

If you skipped the part about the stats, get this: Frazier was very, very good. I told him as much, too. When the OU-Nebraska rivalry rekindles in a few years, I told him I hoped Huskers coach Scott Frost hadn’t recruited any more talent like him.

“I hope they’re all as good as me,” Frazier said.

If they were all as good him, and Oklahoma continues to remain one of the top four teams in the country, there wouldn’t be a better game in the country on a fall Saturday. 

Oklahoma would get back the only foe the Sooner have ever missed playing and another college football sorely needs.

RJ Young is a former Oklahoma Sooners football and basketball beat writer, investigative journalist, essayist, novelist, and Ph.D student. His memoir "LET IT BANG" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) hits shelves and earbuds in October. His YouTube channel is fire if you're into storytelling and topics ranging from Baker Mayfield to The Rock's early wrestling career to this one time when a guy got a little too interested in RJ's "Black Panther" cup at a urinal inside of a movie theater.