Today, in 1976, Houston ripped TCU 49-21 in the Astrodome. Danny Davis and Bubba McGallion combined for 443 passing yards, a new SWC record. Don Bass caught five passes for 188 yards and 4 touchdowns, another SWC record. A Homecoming crowd of 18,263 witnessed those records.
Houston amassed 578 yards on 80 plays. Bass, the 6’2” Fort Worth Poly receiver, caught five passes for 188 yards to go with his four scores. Bass’ feat set the league record but only tied the school record, held by Ken Hebert and Elmo Wright before UH entered the SWC.
“I worked extra hard this week, and it really paid off,” Bass said. “That was my best game ever.”
Despite the dominance on the scoreboard and the SWC records, UH was not crisp, fumbling 10 times and losing five. The Cougars also had 10 penalties for 105 yards.
“It was a very sloppy football game,” Yeoman said. “We’ll get it ironed out.”
All three TCU scores were short drives after UH fumbles. Emmett King fumbled the second-half kickoff at the 27, but it then took TCU nine plays and more than four minutes to score. “We came out all right, and the defense played well early.”
Some UH players admitted they were already looking ahead to their matchup with Texas in Austin the next week. DB coach Clarence Daniel knew his players were focused on Texas. “Now they can do it legitimately,” he said.
“We’ll have to play out of our skulls next weekend at Texas,” Yeoman said. They did.
The TCU game was the first of six straight wins to end the year, culminating in a Southwest Conference title and a Cotton Bowl win over previously undefeated Maryland.
TCU won the coin toss for the 7th straight game. They went 0-7 in that stretch.
