The Curse That is Oral Roberts

by rockchalk on Feb 28, 2007 8:09 PM CST in Kansas Jayhawk Basketball

We should never schedule the Golden Eagles of Oral Roberts again. In any sport. 2 games might not be enough to really establish claims about a curse, but from now on around RCT there is a Oral Roberts Curse, or better known as the ORC. First, on November 15th Oral Roberts began the ORC by winning at AFH on a last second 7 point shot to squeak by 78-71. That was also the last time that we were ranked as high as #3, the ranking we currently hold. They were led by F Caleb Green's 20 points and 11 rebounds. Next the Golden Eagles continued the curse by dominating our baseball team 9-1 on Tuesday in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Besides those two heartbreaking losses, there are some other connections to the Oral Roberts program.

First off, Bill Self began his collegiate head coaching career as the leader of Oral Roberts:

Self began his head-coaching career at Oral Roberts, where he resurrected the Golden Eagles' program. Before Self took over the reins, ORU had compiled the worst record in the program's history with a 5-22 mark in 1992-93. Although Self 's first ORU team managed just six victories in 1993-94, the win total increased to 10 the following year. In his third season at the helm, Self guided the Golden Eagles to an 18-9 record. In 1996-97, ORU registered a 21-7 mark and made the school's first postseason tournament appearance since 1983-84, receiving an invitation to the NIT.

Maybe this is because Self treated them so poorly in leaving Oral Roberts, origins of curses are usually unknown. That is my theory though, that Bill Self's hatred towards everything dental when he left Oral Roberts (located in Tulsa, Oklahoma) foooooooor Tulsa University (as you may guess, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma).

They don't have a football program so don't worry about the football 'Hawks losing to the Golden Eagles. So with football out of the picture, who is the next victim of the ORC?

Women's basketball?

Tweet Comment 1 comment | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Oral Roberts, our hereditary enemy

I'm with you on this Oral Roberts thing. For a little school they have caused KU disproportionate pain over the last few months.

One more thing to add to the curse of Oral Roberts. When I was trying to look up their team statistics for the baseball game, my browser in my office kept spontaneously logging off. I had to go back to the ORU website several times before I could find the information without being kicked off. Then suddenly I realized what was going on. The "Oral" in the school name was making my computer think I was surfing porn sites and was knocking me off because I was logged on via a KU school connection.

Anyway, I tried to warn the Texans about ORU and got a take it somewhere else buddy response. Have to say, in the battle of Big-12 blog neighborliness Nebraska is ahead of Texas at this point.

Anyway, ORU visits Lawrence for a baseball game April 10th. I'll try to be there to watch the curse broken.

by James Quinn on Mar 1, 2007 8:24 AM CST reply actions