Oklahoma entered the new decade of the 1980s riding the high that was their run of the 1970s.
Barry Switzer had carved out a new dynasty for the Sooner football machine, winning two national championships and being dangerously close to winning three more since he was named head coach in 1973.
1980 was much of the same — OU won the Big 8 Conference crown, earned a trip to the Orange Bowl where they defeated Florida State with some late-game heroics.
Then 1981 saw the program fall down to earth.
Oklahoma, who has waved goodbye to Sooner greats from previous years, dealt with talent losses and defenses becoming better adept at stopping the wishbone. OU went 7-4-1 and capped off their season with a 40-14 win over Houston in the Sun Bowl.
1982 was supposed to be a return to form. The evidence for that return was the signing of the most highly-recruited player of that era — Marcus Dupree. The super running back was billed as the next-in-line from Greg Pruitt, to Joe Washington and to Billy Sims.
The Sooners fell flat on their face to open the season. West Virginia came into Norman and crushed Oklahoma. Quickly, reality set in that 1982 may not be the return to glory that OU fans had envisioned during the offseason.
The next opportunity to course correct was the program's first and only road trip to Lexington, KY to take on the Kentucky Wildcats. This would be the third matchup of the two schools and the return game following OU's 29-7 victory in Norman during the 1980 season.
In fact, Oklahoma's trip to Kentucky in 1982 was only the second time in school history that the Sooners traveled to play a current SEC school on their home turf. The first was a 24-3 win over Vanderbilt in 1976.
OU had only played SEC schools in bowl games or in one-off games in Norman up to that point.
While the Sooners needed some late-game heroics to beat the Wildcats in the 1980 edition, the Schooner would roll in 1982 game from start to finish.
Quarterback Kelly Phelps started the game and helped lead the Sooners to their first score — a 23-yard scamper by back Steve Sewell in the second drive of the game for OU.
The Sooners followed up their first score with an interception a few plays later when cornerback Darrell Songy picked off Kentucky quarterback Randy Jenkins. OU capped off their drive with a field goal.
From there it wasn't close. The Sooners ran away from the Wildcats 29-8 in a game that included the emergence of quarterback Danny Bradley (after Phelps went down with an injury in the first quarter) and even saw Dupree get some action — he only managed 15 yards on six carries.
The first of three meetings between OU and Kentucky was in the 1951 Sugar Bowl. UK defeated the Sooners 13-7 to end Oklahoma's first national championship season. Back then, bowl games were exhibition rewards for players and fans. OU had been named champion prior to the game between coaching legends Bud Wilkinson and Bear Bryant.
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