TULSA, OKLA. ? No one who saw Nolan Cromwell ramble for 294 yards against Oregon State on that late September Saturday afternoon in 1975 will ever forget it.

Moreover, no one who witnessed Mike Norseth throw for 509 yards against Vanderbilt 10 years later will forget that afternoon, either.

Those were, respectively, the best rushing and passing performances ever by a Kansas University quarterback. Best of all, Cromwell and Norseth accomplished those feats in front of the home fans at Memorial Stadium.

Too bad the KU fans didn’t get to see the best running and passing performance combined by a KU signal-caller. It happened Saturday night. But Bill Whittemore’s 218-yard passing and 177-yard rushing extravaganza wasn’t televised and was seen by only about 18,000 people at Tulsa’s Skelly Stadium.

At the same time, it’s also too bad few will remember that Whittemore, a first-year junior college transfer playing in only his fifth major-college game, compiled his 395 yards  the fifth-highest single-game total in school history  in just three quarters.

In the press box, we kept wondering if head coach Mark Mangino would send Whittemore back into the game after the Jayhawks’ 43-19 cushion after three quarters began to evaporate in the last 15 minutes.

But, no, Mangino stuck with back-up Zach Dyer as Whittemore, who needed only two yards to surpass Tony Sands and climb into the fourth spot on the KU chart, didn’t return.

Thus the most prolific balanced offensive performance by a quarterback in more than a century of Kansas University football will stand as is  unseen by most, but nevertheless a Top Five record-book performance.

Looking at Saturday’s 43-33 KU win, how many times has Kansas fallen behind by two touchdowns, particularly on the road, and roared back to win? Rarely, that’s for sure.

Granted Tulsa, still owner of the nation’s longest NCAA Div. I-A losing streak  it’s now 15, has a defense that could hardly be called the “Eleven Blocks of Granite.” But when the Golden Hurricane bolted to a 13-0 lead after the first quarter, you had a feeling perhaps the worm had turned.

“I thought we’d dominate that team,” Tulsa wide receiver Montiese Culton said, “and we let them get back out of it.”

The Golden Hurricane was quickly downgraded to a gilt-edged tropical depression when the Jayhawks dropped a 28-point second quarter salvo on the Tulsans.

“That second quarter,” Tulsa coach Keith Burns said, looking downcast, “was as bad as I’ve been around. We got off to a 13-0 lead and gave ourselves a chance, and it didn’t go down like we wanted it to.”

Actually, it did go down  down the drain.

What’s scary, though, is how Tulsa scored 33 points and gained 452 yards against the Jayhawks. After KU’s lead grew to 43-19 and Mangino lifted Whittemore, the Jayhawks’ defense turned into a sieve.

Thank goodness Kansas didn’t cough it up. No telling what the outcome would have been if Kansas had been in a Christmas spirit. Give Whittemore a gold star in that department. Shoot, he would have had even more yards if four or five of his passes hadn’t been flat-out dropped.

When push comes to shove, however, a road win is a road win is a road win, and you take those  especially if you’re Kansas  anyway you can get them.

If you want to label this one, call it The Bill Whittemore Game. It’s just a shame more people didn’t see it.