As domestic spy scandals of the 1970s go, it wasn't quite Watergate. The presidency remained unaffected. No one went to jail. Not a single book has ever been devoted exclusively to the subject.

For college football fans on both sides of the Red River in 1976, however, it was the ultimate story on the eve of the annual Texas-Oklahoma game. After all, it wasn't every day that Longhorns coach Darrell Royal publicly accused his archrival, Sooners coach Barry Switzer, of spying on closed practices.

Not surprisingly, subsequent finger pointing and denials overshadowed the game attended by President Gerald Ford, awkwardly escorted to the midfield coin flip in seething silence by the rival coaches.

Three decades have done little to soften the adversarial mood that surrounded the game. On the 30th anniversary of the incident, emotions on both sides run high at the mere mention of "The Spy Game."

Switzer remains defiant. Larry Lacewell, the OU assistant charged with masterminding the operation, is repentant. The spy, Lonnie Williams, an oil and gas executive who lived in Rockwall at the time, is currently in the employ of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and remains silent.

Also choosing to remain silent is Royal, who issued an 11-word statement on the affair that many believe helped lead to his premature retirement at age 52 at the season's end. David McWilliams, the UT assistant who helped sniff out the spy, is proud of his involvement but reluctant to discuss it. Tony Herry, the Longhorns booster who fingered the spy, is happy to talk of his role.

"I was just telling my wife the 30-year anniversary of the spy stuff is coming up ... I know somebody will be calling wanting to talk. " he said last week. "It was a helluva time."

The game itself was an anticlimactic defensive affair that offered little solace to either side. It ended 6-6. It was decided not by Earl Campbell's powerful Longhorn legs or the Sooners' vaunted Wishbone, but rather a late Texas fumble and a botched OU extra-point attempt in the waning minutes.

Loyalists on both sides remember it as a game their team should have won.

If only Longhorns running back Ivy Suber hadn't lost a fumble on the Texas 37-yard line with his team leading, 6-0, and 5:31 remaining. The Sooners needed 10 plays to reach the end zone for the game's lone touchdown, which equaled two Russell Erxleben field goals on the scoreboard.

If only the snap on the extra-point attempt didn't sail over the holder's hands. OU kicker Uwe von Schamann never missed an extra point when he got his toe on the ball.

When it was over, the opposing coaches made no attempts to shake hands. Royal, who had been quoted before the game calling the Sooners coaches "sorry bastards," threw up on the way to the locker room.

"My staff did not spy on Texas, and I say that emphatically," Switzer said in an interview last month.

That contradicts his recollection of events in his autobiography, Bootlegger's Boy, published in 1990. Switzer wrote, "It did happen. As it turned out, although I didn't know it at first, Darrell was right to accuse us of that. It was my fault because I was the head coach, it happened..."

Switzer was unflappable when the paragraph from the book was read back to him. He said he was simply trying to make Royal happy.

"I was trying to admit in the book that Darrell was really right to make him feel better," said Switzer, who turned 69 on Thursday. "I really didn't care."

Fact is, Switzer said, OU did spy on Texas. But not on his watch, which began in 1973. The Sooners last spied in 1972, he said, when he was merely the offensive coordinator.

"It just took three or four years of our people mouthing off for the word to trickle back to Texas," Switzer said.

Royal, 82, refused to bite when the subject was broached. "There's no sense picking old scabs," he said through a UT spokesperson, "or digging up old bones."

Said Chuck Fairbanks, Switzer's predecessor: "Barry must know something I don't know. There wasn't any such thing going on when I was there."

Oklahoma was riding high going into the 1976 game against Texas. The undefeated Sooners owned back-to-back national championships, opened the season with four consecutive victories and were ranked third in the nation.

DMN Staff

Texas coach Darrell Royal and Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer were in the middle of a media frenzy in the mid '70s. President Ford stands between them.

UT had slowed down some in the wake of its own consecutive national championships in 1969 and 1970. The overall record since was a healthy 44-13. Five of the losses, however, were to OU. Switzer was unbeaten against Royal.

Texas' season opened with an upset loss to Boston College followed by victories over North Texas State and Rice.

For several years, Royal had suspected that OU had gained an unfair advantage by spying on Texas' closed practices inside Memorial Stadium. Of particular concern was the Sooners' reaction to a play that he called in the 1972 game.

Trailing 3-0 late in the third quarter with the wind at his team's back, Royal called for a surprise quick kick on third down from the Longhorns' 25-yard line. The only hint that the play was coming was a substitution that sent in a more proficient center to deliver the ball beyond the quarterback to the stealth kicker.

That simple switch should have drawn little attention, but it set off alarms to the suddenly chatty Sooner defenders. Almost in unison, they yelled, "Quick kick!" as the Longhorns approached the line of scrimmage. For whatever reason, Texas proceeded with the play called in the huddle.

The snap was followed by a blocked punt. The ball was recovered in the end zone for an OU touchdown. Final score: 27-0.

Royal hadn't employed the call in four seasons. How could the Sooners defenders have been so certain that a quick kick was coming? Unless, he concluded, someone had spied on UT practices and reported back to Sooners headquarters in Norman.

Royal's unreported suspicions might have remained late-night fodder among the Texas faithful if not for a booster's chance encounter.

Herry, in the fall of 1975, met Sooners booster Lonnie Williams through a mutual friend – who happened to be an OU assistant coach – at a Houston bar.

As the hour grew late and the drinks kept flowing, the talk turned to football spying. Herry began to believe he had found the man who had spied on Texas back in 1972.

"I decided to bait him," Herry said. Try as Herry might, though, Williams wouldn't bite.

But when the two met up again under similar circumstances the following fall, Herry said Williams made a startling admission.

"Finally, he said he was in Memorial Stadium back in 1972, pretending to be a painter," Herry said. "I know a lot of people said it was just damn bar talk. Call it what you want, but it was the truth."

Herry said he reported his conversation to McWilliams, a former UT classmate whose weekly alumni breakfasts Herry attended in Houston.

McWilliams remains fuzzy on the details.

"Tony Herry may have called me," he said. "I don't recollect. Maybe I called someone to tell them what Tony told me. It wouldn't have been Coach Royal. I was too low to call him directly. I might have called Mike Campbell [a long-time UT assistant]. Whatever, I'll be glad to take credit" for bringing the incident to Royal's attention.

Herry is certain he received a phone call in Houston one afternoon before the 1976 Texas-OU game. He recognized McWilliams' voice.

"Coach wants to talk to you," McWilliams said.

Herry told Royal everything he learned, including the name of the spy.

Soon after, Royal was recounting the tale to media members, including the name of the spy. He told reporters he would offer rewards to Switzer, Lacewell and the spy if they could pass lie detector tests.

Headlines and news reports on the eve of the game repeated Royal's allegations. Although the spy was identified as "a former coaching associate of Lacewell's who lives in Rockwall," he went unidentified before the game.

It wasn't long after, however, that the name Lonnie Williams was being reported everywhere. The Dallas Times Herald reported that Williams had attended closed workouts that the University of California held at Texas Stadium earlier in the season. (The Sooners beat the Golden Bears Bears, 28-17.) The Dallas Morning News quoted an acquaintance recounting Williams' tale of severely cramping once while spying on Nebraska by propping himself on a urinal to reach a bathroom window and peek out at practice.

Switzer said last month that the spreading of the spy story was simply Royal's way "to vent his frustration of being dominated by Oklahoma."

"We didn't win those games because we were cheating," he said. "We won because we had good coaches who recruited good athletes."

Switzer predicted that Williams, whom he identified in his book as Lacewell's "friend" who "slipped in and watched a practice and reported to Larry what he saw," never would publicly discuss his involvement.

Cowboys public relations director Rich Dalrymple contacted Williams, who declined to discuss his exploits.

"He considers this ancient history," Dalrymple said in reporting Williams' reluctance to talk.

Switzer also predicted that Lacewell, who went on to spend 13 seasons in the Cowboys' front office, "might run his mouth off."

Reached at his home in Arkansas, Lacewell immediately admitted his involvement.

"We were young and ignorant and foolish," he said. "This is a great case of some overzealous young guys doing things they shouldn't have done. If I had to do it again today, I wouldn't do it, particularly against Coach Royal ... I don't think any one of us would.

"Oklahoma-Texas is too great a rivalry to mess with."

E-mail bhorn@dallasnews.com

No. 7 Texas (4-1, 1-0) vs. No. 14 Oklahoma (3-1, 0-0), 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Cotton Bowl (Ch. 8)