When the Liberty Bowl played its inaugural game in 1959, ISU defensive coordinator Wally Burnham was being recruited by Alabama, one of the two teams playing in that first game.

Not long after the game Burnham chose to go play for coach Paul “Bear” Bryant at Alabama. From there, he would have other bowl experiences as a player and coach.

Do you remember watching the 1959 Liberty Bowl on TV?

Oh, yeah, I remember. I was being recruited by them, so I remember very well.

As a young kid back in those days, you were excited to know that you were being recruited by somebody that was going to bowls. It might have been the first bowl that Alabama went to after coach [Paul “Bear”] Bryant came back; I remember that part of it.

It was an exciting time for Alabama football. I didn’t know at that time for sure that I was going to be going there, but that made an impression on me because they were in a bowl game.

Is it cooler to go to a bowl with tradition than a recently created bowl? 

Yeah. The thing about the Liberty Bowl is it’s been around for years and it’s never changed it’s name. It’s got some history, there’ve been a lot of games played there.

That’s where coach Bryant coached his last game, in the Liberty Bowl. It’s got tradition, some great teams that have played there. So I think it’s an honor that we’re getting to go play there.

Playing Tulsa again, does that help or does it make it a little more difficult?

We’ll go back and we’ll evaluate all of their tapes since we’ve played them [on Sept. 1] and see what changes they have made in their offense and what they’re doing that might be different.

The only thing you would be concerned about, which you doubt if they do, is make big-scale changes. And I don’t think that’s going to happen. 

They’ll have some kind of new wrinkle for us, but you have that in any game. Everybody has one or two plays they’re going to put in.