OU College Sports

OU College Sports (October 2007)

I thought I'd take a bit of time & try to put into words, some kind of description, give some sense of understanding of the CRAZINESS of college sports in America. With such a huge number of long-standing college institutions around the country, divided into conferences and divisions, some events even eclipse the pro league and every other show on TV. Living in the college town of Norman where the presence of the University of Oklahoma (OU) is everywhere, you can't help but get into the hype.

So now I'm an official OU fan with a t-shirt and everything, I've been to a few college games. One weekend Todd & I were out on Campus Corner at the 747 club/bar and met two girls from the OU volleyball team who live a couple streets away from us. So we were invited to their game against Nebraska that weekend & put us on 'the list' to get us in free. I'd never seen a proper volleyball game before, and I was blown away. Walking through the doors and around the polished wooden court, squinting against the bright lights, I guessed 5 or 6 hundred people were in the four spectator stands. The #1 ranked Nebraska team were out practicing, music was pumping, cheerleaders were walking about with their pom-poms, students, parents and kids had come to watch the game.

After warm up the visiting team lined up across the court, facing off as the OU girls came running out underneath the archway shaped like the carriage of the Schooner. For those reading who aren't familiar with local history, back in the late 1800's the US government sponsored several land rushes on the Great Plains, and settlers would claim a piece of land by simply parking on a spot they liked and saying it was theirs. Oklahoma's reputation as the 'Sooner State' was due to those settlers who cheated on the land runs and claimed land before the starting deadline of the land rushes. Those people arrived 'sooner' and the term has stuck until present day, weird hey? So the sporting teams of OU run out underneath the white canopy of the carriages used by the settlers in the land rushes to the shouts of the crowd that call "Boomer!" "Sooner!" over and over.

Someone always sings the US national anthem (I need to learn the lyrics coz the anthem is awesome at these live events), the girls get introduced one by one by the commentator to roaring applause and then it's game on. From the first serve I was shocked, these girls are hard core, hammering the ball down, diving and rolling on the ground and leaping into the air, it was way beyond my expectations. There's so many tactics, rules and game dynamics, the sport of volleyball has a depth I never knew about. Some girls had strapped fingers, some took a running jump at their serves, most of them are 6ft tall or taller, it's the real deal. Unfortunately OU lost to Nebraska in 3 straight games (they play best of 5, first to 35 points each game), but to be fair, Nebraska is ranked #1 while Oklahoma is ranked in the 20's.

Recently also I met an Aussie girl from Melbourne, Stephanie, & she's into gymnastics in her senior year at OU. It was over 6 months since I'd spoken to an Australian in the flesh, and talking to her is like a breath of fresh air. Todd & I also went & watched a practice session of theirs and again, I was completely blown away. Watching the vault, uneven bars and beam on TV is one thing, but watching it live you see the strength & concentration, their technique and their mistakes. I only ever thought of gymnasts as elite athletes and it's cool to meet some who are just normal girls who can do crazy things.

But the epitome of college sports is the football. That's what draws the crowds, on game day the population of Norman doubles and it's an all-day party. Before the game people set up parties in the backs of their trucks & tents, called 'tailgating.' The roads are blocked off and everyone's walking around drinking (one of the few days when public drinking is allowed), BBQs are going non-stop and many people have TVs & loudspeakers set up for people to gather around. Some people invest serious $ in their tailgating rigs, they could enter them in shows. And everywhere, everyone and everything is crimson & cream. There's a plethora of merchandise, OU flags flying from passing cars, OU dog vests, everyone has OU t-shirts like 'I bleed crimson & cream', 'Texas sucks'...

...which leads me to the annual Red River Rivalry match between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and the University of Texas Longhorns. It's one of the biggest college football games in the nation (see Wikipedia's article on the event). With patriotism and pride reminding me of QLD vs NSW State Of Origin Rugby League, the stakes are huge; both teams are highly ranked, win or loss has huge significance to the team and to the conference, and there's only one match. The Cotton Bowl stadium in Dallas is exactly halfway between the Longhorns campus in Austin and the OU campus in Norman, and both states converge on Dallas for the weekend of the state fair and the big game.

My mates and I made plans to head to Dallas and watch the game in a bar. When I drove down the friday afternoon before my mini-holiday to New Mexico, I was part of a fleet of cars headed south on I-35 showing their colours. Red trucks, crimson OU flags & wind socks, bumper stickers with the longhorns turned upside down (the classic insult) and other Texas libel, like "Tuck Fexas!". Likewise, Texas supporters were driving around with Longhorns merchandise, orange window paint with "OU Sucks" and stuff. The night before the game is the big night out, & our crew of about 10 friends, all of us in OU colours, hit the town in Greensville. The streets were a sea of red & orange, as mobs of fans cheered & greeted friendly fans like old friends while shouting insults and trash talk to the enemy whenever they passed. We went to the Zephyrs bar, paid a ridiculous $20 cover charge, and got a black marker 'Z' scribbled on our wrists by the door girl. Somehow our half-spastic group managed to stay together for the whole night, we all caught a limo (a first for me) back to the hotel. While I struggled to keep my eyes open for my first limo ride, Cristen, Nate & Todd were fast asleep, Ray collected money off those who were still awake, and for some reason Cassie was taking all the clean limo glasses out of the racks and sitting them on the table while we were driving along. Back at the hotel Todd defeated Monty and I in a high-stakes paper-scissors-rock battle for the single bed, and we ended up in the double. Meanwhile in the other room Nate had a grand plan to sleep between Cristen and Cassie on the huge king double. When I woke the next morning, I was VERY disturbed to find weird marks around my right nipple that looked like bruising! Well I copped plenty over breakfast from my mates, Monty did too, and Nate told us his grand plan went astray when the girls jumped into bed first, Cassie stuffing half the blankets between her legs (something to do with back posture), leaving him on the edge of the bed shivering under a sheet. He woke up curled in the fetal position, arms crossed over his chest, where he found a black letter 'Z' imprinted from his cover charge mark. As if that wasn't bad enough, when he sat up he looked over and saw Adam was also in the bed asleep with an arm over Cassie (you need to see Adam to know just how funny that is. #3 clippers haircut, nice manly beer belly, basically a total bogan). Nate's quote of the day - "He definitely wasn't part of the plan". But after brekky I grabbed a shower and then noticed that my marks were gone! I thought how retarded I was to a) not have realised myself that it was my own Z-marked wrist to blame, and b) still not have realised when Nate told his story! Haha I wasn't exactly firing on all cylinders that morning.

Game day of the OU vs Texas match is a phenomenon, the crowd spectacle is one of the greatest in the world. The Cotton Bowl is split right down the middle with OU fans covering one half of the stadium red, and Texas fans turning the other half orange, filled to capacity at over 68 000. This is despite ticket prices range from a couple hundred to over a thousand dollars. Nate's been to the match, he says the noise is incredible, never a dull moment in the crowd, moving from one chant to another, I found a good online video of a guy filming from within the Texas crowd as they shout "Texas! / Fight!" while a lone OU supporter shouts "Texas! / Sucks!".
Have a look here (the audio is sometimes delayed though).
Other videos :
Texas band playing
Oklahoma highlights, touchdowns and quarterback sacks from the 2007 game
Funny Texas crowd reactions by an OU fan

We headed to Humperdinks, an OU stronghold with about 95% of people supporting the Sooners, and we watched it on a big plasma TV, OU was in great form and it was close all the way. The atmosphere was awesome in the bar, I wished I could drink but I had to drive back to Norman after the match, still it was easily worth the drive down for my first visit to Dallas.

But a week later, Nate said he had a spare ticket to an OU home game, against Missouri in the mid afternoon, and there was no way I was gonna miss it. So I went to my first college football match, the stadium was packed to capacity with 80 050 in attendance. And then the crowd started up the Boomer/Sooner chant, the noise was unbelievable especially hearing the opposite half of the stadium shouting Boomer, I shot a video of it which is linked below (sorry for the poor picture).

Boomer/Sooner Chant:

Ooooo U call:


I also broke ranks from putting my hand on my heart during the anthem to take a photo, gotta give it to the yanks for their patriotism, the crowd shouting over the singer at the end of the anthem to change the lyrics to "o'er the land of the free, and the home of the SOONERS!" As the players lined up for every kickoff, every OU supporter in the crowd would stand and point a finger into the air and take up a call of 'OOOOOO' raising to a crescendo as the team runs forward and shouting 'U!' when the kick is made, and the Ruff/Neks fire shotguns for added emphasis. It's seriously nuts and awesome fun, people of all ages are in the crowd, a kid in front of me would pull his hat off and throw his arms in the air on every dodgy call made by the ref against us. When OU scores their first touchdown, fireworks are shot from the stadium, the college band launches into song and the A-squad cheerleaders line up along the in-zone and each do a full back somersault one by one for every point OU has on the board, both guys and girls!

So overall, my opinion of American Football / GridIron has lifted considerably, I used to think they were wusses for wearing so much protection it's a wonder they can walk, and couldn't understand the strategy of everyone charging down everyone at once. As with almost every US sport, the timeouts & other rules that drag the game on drive me crazy. But, the hits are harder because the players are always interchanging & fresh, and the sport can produce some pretty awesome moments when the QB throws a 50 yard pass to the outstretched hands of a receiver in full sprint. I'm certainly a converted OU fan even though I never studied here, and my old Bond University looks tiny and dull in comparison.

OU College Sports (October 2007)