We traveled to Norman, Oklahoma this past weekend for the Texas A&M v. OU college football game. After a dull first half, OU got its groove on and rolled over A&M 41-25. But the visiting Aggies weren't the only folks who got rocked that night.
Oklahoma endured the most violent earthquake in its barely relevant and negligible quake history on Saturday evening. Blame it on all the recent "fracking" going on under the great Dust Bowl landscape. A 5.6 shaker on the Richter scale. Earthquakes in Oklahoma? Are you kidding me? Not. What's next, heat waves in November on the North Pole??
Head scratching earthquakes in Oklahoma aside, we were delighted to be in Oklahoma, home of the Sooners and Cowboys of Oklahoma State University. As you may know, each fall we travel to one of the tradition-blessed college football states and universities in our country to attend a game. Last year, we were in Louisiana, year before Ohio and so on.
This year we chose Oklahoma because at the time of our choosing, OU was #1 in the country and A&M was in the top 10. The match-up appeared to be a great contest...on paper. However, when we arrived in Oklahoma on Friday the college football landscape had changed dramatically in the country in a matter of weeks. In fact, it had changed so much that OU would not only slip to #10 in the country but that OU was ranked lower than their neighbor to the north in Stillwater, Oklahoma State, ranked #3. We weren't even going to see the best collegiate team in the state of Oklahoma. Now tell me, what other state in the country has two teams within 100 plus miles of each other, ranked after Saturday's games, in the top 6 teams in the country? No other state has that distinction. Talk about Oklahoma rising from its dusty past. OK rules college football...and maybe high school football as well.
We got a taste of how crazy football is to Okies on Friday when we arrived. The first three pages of the sports pages were dedicated to football. High school football, that is. There was another main section of the paper on OU and OSU. I can imagine only Ohio, Texas and Louisiana even being in the same conversation to this kind of rabid fan following.
Game day in Norman was like a religious revival. Bands playing. Fans tailgating. Tents everywhere. "Boomer...Sooner" chants bouncing off the brick buildings. Crimson and cream coloring the landscape. Young, old, women, men representing OU pride with decency and respect. Speaking of pride, there was a special pregame ceremony honoring The King of Red, Coach Barry Switzer, winner of three national championships at OU in the '70s and '80s. They unveiled a statue of Coach Switzer to the glee of thousands of fans chanting his name. Little Sooners soon climbed up on the statue (see above) signaling to the world that the pipeline of Sooner Nation is full and ready to take on all comers, especially those Texans from the south.
What a tradition of excellence OU has enjoyed since WWII, the modern era of sports. In college football in the modern era, no team in the country has won more than OU. 567 victories. .763 winning percentage. 7 National Championships. 43 Conference Championships. 26 Bowl Championships. 5 Heisman Trophy winners. 152 All Americans. More than Penn State, Texas, Nebraska, Ohio State, USC, Michigan and Alabama. OU's football record of consistent winning spanning decades is truly remarkable.
And what about the future of this great college football powerhouse? Suffice it to say, OU is in good capable hands with Coach Bob Stoops, coach of the 2000 National Championship, at the helm. His pipeline of Oklahoma and Texas talent year after year is second to none. He is a winner just like those coaches who proceeded him, notably, Bennie Owen, Bud Wilkinson, Chuck Fairbanks and Coach Switzer. I suspect some day, 25 plus years from now, OU will be honoring Coach Stoops with his own statue in the plaza.
As we close the book on another sports adventure to a faraway land, we'll remember Oklahoma for many reasons: great football tradition, nicest people on earth, stiff winds, the boomer-sooner wagon circling every time the team scored, the 6 muskets firing throughout the game, funny hats, babe cheerleaders, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway musical tune "Oklahoma" echoing from the bell tower, Gaylord Family Stadium, Shiner Bock beer and, yes, that earthquake which made us Californians feel right at home.
So, it's on to Tuscaloosa or Eugene or Austin or Lincoln or Oxford or Starksville or Morgantown or Madison or Gainsville or...next year! So many places to see, people to meet and games to witness.
In closing, it's great to share these adventures with other fans of college football, namely, my family. There's nothing quite like it in sports or in life itself. Special moments are to be shared as this one was.
In the meantime, "BOOMER...SOONER!"
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