Oklahoma State’s ‘88 Barry Sanders throwback uniforms are outstanding

Oklahoma State’s wearing these absolute beauties against Texas in Week 9:

They’re gorgeous, and harken back to one of the most ridiculous seasons in college football history. That’d be Barry Sanders’ 1988 campaign.

Seriously, it was truly absurd.

Despite all that, Sanders shined basically in anonymity until not long before he won the Heisman. His high school highlight tape was never seen by the likes of Oklahoma and Nebraska, per ESPN, and there wasn’t much of anyone paying attention to the OSU program while Sanders was starring.

“He won the Heisman with zero preseason hype,” [now head coach Mike Gundy, who quarterbacked the team] said. “Who wins the Heisman, where going into the year nobody knows about you? He was at Oklahoma State. Nobody in the country paid attention to Oklahoma State. So, it was a phenomenal deal.”

This is the 30-year anniversary of that team, and the Cowboys are celebrating them on homecoming Saturday against the Longhorns. The school and Sanders say:

To commemorate the occasion, the OSU Alumni Association has named Sanders and his offensive line, known as the “War Pigs,” as grand marshals of Homecoming 2018. ”Cowboy fans have very fond memories of watching Barry play,” said Blaire Atkinson, interim president of the OSU Alumni Association.

“Given the anniversary, we couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate Homecoming than with the addition of our Heisman award winner and his teammates.”

“1988 was such a special year for OSU football,” Sanders said. “The fact that I get to celebrate the 30th anniversary at Homecoming with my coaches, teammates, and of course our fans, is very special to me.

OSU’s leaned way into black for uniforms in recent years — just like the rest of the sport has, primarily because The Youths like it — but their orange minimalist roots are pretty good-looking.

And they’re gonna be great as the Cowboys throw back to the successful season.