UT vs. OU, a Red Raider in the middle of the Red River Shoot Out.
What a nice day!
First of all, I need to say a big thank you to Aubrey McClendon and Chesapeake energy for the fantastic tickets to the game! Gram, Uncle Bro, Richard (Brodie’s friend) and I were fortunate enough to get 50 yard line tickets to the OU vs. Texas rivalry game at the Cotton Bowl. We headed down to the game early so we could enjoy some of the State Fare of Texas before the game. We went to the car show and a few other exhibits before going in search of Fair food (yum!). I got a burger and beer at Jacks (hoped to see Jack, my old skydiving friend, but ran into his daughter and Dennis, another skydiver as they were working one of the stands). We also got Fletchers Corny Dogs, which is a tradition that has to be almost as old as the 100 year long rivalry between UT and OU. The seats were fantastic. We sat under the 2nd deck (read- in the shade!!!), on the 50 yard line.
My family is split. My Grandmother and most of her family are OU alum. My Dad and all of his brothers, including Bro(who was also a Silver Spur), are all from UT. So there I sat, the lone Red Raider in the middle, getting to enjoy one of the great college football traditions and rivalries of all time.
If you want to read a blog post about the game itself, you are in the wrong place. There are 9 million other blogs out there where you can read about all of the stats, and how OU fell apart in the 4th quarter. I plan on having a little more fun. I’m going to give a scorecard to both teams based on everything BUT the actual game.
Girls: Ok, I have to admit I was a little surprised. I’m sure there were plenty of really good looking Longhorn girls at the game, but I didn’t notice many. All of the super beautiful ladies that day seemed to be dressed in red, hailing from Soonerville. Apparently they also like to party since the young Sooner Theta that my grandmother (a Theta from the 40’s) introduced herself to, had her head buried in her lap hiding her head from the painful and dizzying light by the 3rd quarter. Boomer Sooner! Made me proud.
A+ for beautiful girls for OU, and B+ for party skills.
Band: Before the game both bands played on the field. The UT band was HUGE, loud and awesome. When the OU band took the field my first thought was…. Is that it? Not only were they small, they were hard to hear. In fact, I didn’t realize that they were playing the national anthem until about a third of the way into the song because I just couldn’t hear it. If the UT band would have been playing, all 80,000 people in the crowd would have known it. A+ to the UT band.
Crowd: I’m a little bit torn on this one. The Sooners were much louder than the Longhorns were for most of the game. The Longhorns didn’t really seem to get into it until the beginning of the second half. So for outright school spirit and crowd participation, I have to give the Sooners the better grade.
On the other hand I think the Sooners need to work on their heckling skills. All of their anti UT stuff is pretty rudimentary. There is the UT sucks campaign. Basically they add “SUCKS!!!” onto the end of any of the chants that the Horns are doing. So Longhorns! Fight!” Becomes “ Longhorns!” followed by the Sooners screaming “SUCKS!”. They also have the “Horns Down” hand sign. They don’t really have their own hand sign that I can think of, and you have to admit that the Hookum! Sign is pretty cool. So not having your own sign and just turning UT’s sign upside down leave something to be desired. On the other hand the Longhorns alter their own fight song to slam their opponent. The official, unofficial version of Fight Texas Fight when playing OU includes: Give um Hell, Give um hell, OU SUCKS!!! So the two schools are in different leagues when it comes to hand signs, chants, and taunts. To this end, the horns make the grade, where the Sooners fall short.
The last award I want to give is the hillbilly award. This one has to go to the Sooners. The guy sitting in the row in front of us brought in a 20 year old, black and white portable TV. Now, I don’t mean he brought a little Watchman, or hand held TV. He brought one of the 20 lb. monsters that was cutting edge in the early to mid 1980’s requiring 10 D cell batteries to operate. First of all, he had 50 yard line tickets….why would you want to bring at TV? Second of all this thing was big and heavy! The seats at the Cotton Bowl are not what you would call spacious, and thus he had to hold this thing in his arms like a baby for the whole game (which most of the time everyone was standing). It cracked me up to see this guy with this big TV in his arms, messing with the antenna to try to make the ghosts and static in his black and white picture to get better…when 100 feet in front of him the actual game was right there!!!! So the Sooners get the best grade for Hillbilly fans.
It was a great game and a great way to spend time with my grandmother and uncle.
