Oklahoma State University Athletics
Hanna Etches His Name In Cowboy Football Lore
November 16, 2010 | Cowboy Football
Nov. 16, 2010
Looking Back with Pat Quinn
Not all of the important football games in Cowboy history were won by highly recruited or by decorated players.
This thought brings to mind tight end Barry Hanna (1981-82-83-84), who captured all-state schoolboy honors in football and basketball at Winfield, KS.
Although he was a double all-state performer in high school Hanna wasn't at the top of any school's recruiting list. He had late offers from Kansas, Kansas State, Wichita State (before it dropped football) and finally OSU, after he had a bang-up performance in Kansas Shrine Game during the summer following high school graduation.
He was more than just a durable player for OSU but often his heroics seemed to escape the majority of sports pages until his senior year when he bailed out the Pokes in the 1984 Gator Bowl against South Carolina, 21-14.
There were several “firsts” that ended the '84 season, including Pat Jones' first campaign as head football coach. And the game winning Rusty Hilger to Hanna 25-yard pass was Barry's only touchdown reception of the entire season!
It was the 40th edition of the Gator Bowl and was played before a record crowd of 82,138 (the only overflow attendance at a postseason game that year) and the results of that contest remain indelibly etched in the minds of the Cowboy faithful.
OSU built a 13-0 lead in the first half on a razzle-dazzle play that saw Hilger pitch out to tailback Thurman Thomas from the Gamecock six-yard line. Thomas suddenly stopped his right end sweep and threw the ball back to a wide-open Hilger for OSU's second score.
The conversion attempt was wide and it was a play that would come back to haunt the Pokes until Hanna's heroics. Midway through the fourth quarter and trailing by a point, Hilger's plan was to get the Pokes in range of a game-winning field goal.
The drive was in danger only once when the Cowboys faced a fourth-down and six-yards, but Hilger came up with pass to the reliable Hanna, who chugged it down to the Gamecock 36-yard line.
Thomas got 11-yards on a beautifully executed draw-play and it appeared OSU's greatest enemy at that point was the rapidly evaporating time on the stadium clock.
Then came the pass-and-run play that brought the orange clad Cowpoke fans deliriously to their feet.
Hilger hit Hanna in the right flat but there were plenty of defenders between Barry and the goal line that prompted thoughts of a short gain.
The 6-2, 222-pound Hanna, not overly large for a tight end in those days, gathered in the pass and brutally drove it into the end zone.
The first two defenders were shrugged-off by the determined Cowboy senior and by the time Hanna hit the end-zone two more Gamecocks were hanging on hoping to derail the Cowboy hopes.
It was the first time in OSU history the Cowboys won 10 games in a single season. Jones not only mentored this O-State squad to 10 wins that year but he did it twice more, once in 1987 and again in 1988.
Jones went on to win 62 games in 11 years at the O-State grid helm. He exceeded the venerable Jim Lookabaugh, who also coached 11 years at OSU and posted a total of 58 wins.
This writer had the fortune the evening before the game to share supper with Hanna. If he was nervous it didn't show, in fact, he was somewhat more concerned about a final exam coming up in his industrial engineering studies.
Pat Quinn worked in the Oklahoma State Sports Information Office for 26 years, including serving as the director from 1969-1984.
