Texas vs Oklahoma.

Terry O'Keefe · Oct 6, 2007

A guy over on InsideTexas wrote this for those who don't know the history. But really all you guys need to know is what I taught Stu last year in Austin.

OU SUCKS

The Texas-Oklahoma rivalry is one of the most intense in all of college football - right up there with (I would say even a notch or two above) Ohio State-Michigan, Alabama-Auburn, Army-Navy. Since the late '30s, the game has been played in Dallas, midway between Austin and Norman (Oklahoma), in the Cotton Bowl, during the State Fair of Texas. At one time, the State Fair was the biggest state fair in the country, Texas being Texas. I don't know whether that is the case now or not. The stadium is evenly divided, right down the 50-yard line. Half of the crowd is Burnt Orange, the other half is Crimson. Someone is always screaming. I have personally stood through almost the entire game on two occasions. There is nothing quite like it, although old-timers like me liked it better when the two schools weren't even in the same conference and the game was strictly for "bragging rights and a brass hat". Times being what they are, everything just must have corporate sponsorship and a cutesy-cutesy nickname, so the t.v. folks call it the "Red River Rivalry". Rubbish! It always has been and always will be just "the OU Game" (although I suppose the Dirt Burglars - more about Texas' feelings about Oklahoma below - call it "the Texas Game").

Texas' coach Mack Brown, in his customarily somewhat burbly manner, once gushed about how much the teams respect each other and that the bitterness is all among the fans. ********! We hate them. They hate us. And maybe the fact that Mack doesn't seem to understand that explains why he's on the short end of the w/l stats and looking to slip another one behind tomorrow. The rivalry between Texas and its other rival, Texas A&M is sort of like a fight between brothers - bitter, but everyone makes up after. We sort of joke about them, they think we're stuck-up and arrogant ("T-Sips" is what they call Texas). But Texas-OU - nothing brotherly, familial, or cordial about it. Folks who want bonhomie with their football rivalries are welcome to follow Harvard and Yale. The Texas-OU rivalry is a good, old-fashioned hate-a-thon that is something elemental like the eternal struggle between cats and dogs or, in Texas, the one against Johnson grass. Aside from the fact that Oklahoma was basically stolen from the Indians to begin with and then stolen by the "sooners" (their nickname for themselves) who wouldn't even wait their turn to race for a parcel of the land once it had been stolen the first time, Texans think (correctly) there just isn't much there unless you like grass, wind, and wire fences that blow down every winter. On a clear day, you can see the North Pole, there being so little between Oklahoma and it. Oklahomans, well, they're just envious as hell of Texas and envy does bad things to folks. Trailerhoma, we call it - that or worse.

To make things worse, after WWII, the Okies went out and hired themselves a coach who could read, write, and cipher some - Bud Wilkinson. Say what you will about Bud, he was smart and he figured out right away that a state which had a total population less than that of the Dallas-Ft. Worth area (still true!) needed to go somewhere to steal football players, so he settled on Texas. He stole them with great alacrity for years, with the result that OU won all the games but one between about 1947 and 1958. In 1957, Texas took its revenge, though, by hiring a young head coach, Darrell Royal. Royal had actually played QB for OU in the late '40s. The first thing Royal did was turn off the player-spigot and Texas won all the games but one between 1958 and 1971. Bitter about our turning Royal into a traitor in their eyes, the land bandits hired a coach who was a really accomplished thief of players and Lord only knows what else - Barry Switzer. Royal never won another OU game and retired after the '76 season. But the sheer hatred which fuels this rivalry continued and continues today. OU's current coach, Bob Stoops, got under Mack Brown's hide worse that the worst kind of tick. We've won the last two, the first one in a runaway, the one last year in a runaway in the second half. This year, things don't look so good, but win or lose, there's another OU game next year and the year after, on and on, for as long as the grass grows and the rivers flow. Hook Em Horns!
Click to expand...

Gonzo · Oct 6, 2007

GO SOONERS

Gator Bill · Oct 6, 2007

Gonzo, I would say go Tar Heels, but it's a bit late for that as they just handed Miami a whipping.

Thanks for the article Terry.

Terry O'Keefe · Oct 6, 2007

14-14 at half;

It had one of the oddest non-calls I've ever seen. MCG would have put his cast through the TV. Texas was whistled for movement before the snap, and as usual that whistle is very quick, and Colt McCoy stopped playing was had his back turned to the Sooner DE, who proceeded to deck him. Refs didn't call him for it, no explanation. Even if he didn't hear the whistle I don't know how you don't call that and it wasn't a love tap, he decked him.

Texas playing much better than I expected. I'm sorry I picked OU in the contest! :cry:

HoustonLarry · Oct 7, 2007

OU..

<t>With only five seniors should be something next year. It was a good football game and well played. D. Murry is a stud in the making as is Bradford and looking at all the commits OU has the rivalry will continue.</t>

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