Red River Rivalry - My Story
In my opinion, the Red River Rivalry between Texas and Oklahoma is the greatest rivalry in all of college football. The setting is unbeatable. Right in the middle of the State Fair of Texas. The smell of corndogs, funnel cake, fried Oreo’s, and wax cup beer run through the Cotton Bowl. OU fans talking trash throwing horns down, Longhorn fans talking back with horns up. The Cotton Bowl is divided 50/50 split right down the 50 yard line on each side. The west side is home to Sooner fans and the tunnel where the players from both teams will run out onto the field. Texas fans always on the east side. Its perfection, nothing beats it.
I grew up with this rivalry, it’s always been special to me for as long as I can remember. My dad played football for the Longhorns in 1977 & 1978. My mom grew up in Southern Oklahoma; her and the rest of her family are diehard Sooners. The Saturday of the Red River Rivalry gets just a little intense around the Carter Farm, which is appropriately located right on the Red River. Our family has got together every year for this game for as long as I can remember. With family members supporting their respective sides, some went to UT, others went to OU, with all f us being passionate about our team. Most year’s the Texas side out numbers the Sooner side, which usually results in my Mom getting mad at something someone said and watching the 2nd half in a different room. But if the Sooners come out on top, we’re sure to hear from her again singing Boomer Sooner when it’s all over with.
My first true memory of this game that I can remember, came in 1995 when I was 9 years old. Some family friends had a son that played for Texas and they got myself and my parent’s tickets to the game. Luckily the tickets were on the 50 yard line so my mom could sit on the edge with her fellow Okies. The game was remarkable and I was hooked as a college football junkie ever since. The band, the cheerleaders, the fight songs, the passion from the fans, the teams in their uniforms, the extremely loud roars from the crowd after every play, the sun beating down on my face for 3 hours and I loved every bit of it because I was watching Texas play Oklahoma live and in person. Ironically, that year’s game ended in a tie 24-24. Before next season, the NCAA adopted overtime so that 1995 game was likely the last tie in the series history.
I have not been back to the game since. Instead, as mentioned above, we usually have family together out at my parent’s farm located on the Texas side of the Red River. My parents bought the farm back in 1999 and the first time I can remember watching the game out there was 2003. All of my dad’s side of the family watched the game inside in the living room on the biggest TV we had. We made my mom’s side of the family watch the game sitting outside under the carport while we had a 12” TV sitting in the window for them to view it on. The game turned out to be the most lopsided game in the Red River Rivalry history as the Sooners beat my Longhorns 65-13, it was a very long afternoon. What was worse than the game, was every time that OU scored that afternoon, my mom and aunt and her friend would come running through the house whooping and hollering screaming “Boomer” “Sooner”. My aunt in particular, had a round white button with the “OU logo” on the top in red and when you pushed it, it played the OU fight song. While running through the house, she would hit that button and that damn song would play over and over and over again. I heard that stupid song 65 times that day but I guess that’s what we deserve for making them watch the game from an open window. We’ve since allowed them to watch the game with us inside on the big screen.
Last year’s triumphant 49-0 victory for Texas over Oklahoma was in a sense therapeutic for myself and Texas fans much like the 2005 win was. In 2005, Texas had a terrific team, with a top 5 win on the road over Ohio State in week 2. Most people at that time thought Texas could win the national championship but they had to get over Oklahoma who had won 5 games in a row in the series from 2000-2004. Oklahoma was not as good that year as they had been but still many Texas fans had nightmares from the previous 5 years. The game was close early until the last two possessions of the half when freshman running back Jamaal Charles broke a long touchdown run and then right before half Vince Young connected on a long touchdown pass to Billy Pittman and the horns never looked back winning 45-12. That year’s victory put to bed many demons Longhorn fans had dealt with when it came to the annual game against OU. Of course, Texas would go on to win the national championship that year and win 4 of the next 5 meetings against Oklahoma (2005, 2006, 2008, and 2009). Then in 2010 the dark decade of Texas football began. Starting with the 2010 game, Texas was the underdog in the next 13 matchups with Oklahoma through the 2021 game. Texas record against Oklahoma over that 13 game stretch was a measly 3-10. Then last year Texas was finally favored and even though Oklahoma was without their starting quarterback in Dillon Gabriel, Texas fans still had the fear of losing too many times over the last decade plus to Oklahoma. But Texas would prevail in a 49-0 blowout of Oklahoma, it was glorious. I’m not going to lie, in the last 365 days since that game, I’ve watched the replay or the highlights at least 30 times and I’ve had a smile on my face every time.
This year’s game feels like the beginning of a new era in the Red River Rivalry. Even though it might be the last time the two teams meet as members of the Big XII (there is always the strong possibility that they meet again this year in the Big XII championship) it’s a sign that things are changing for both schools. Both teams are moving to the SEC next year, both schools have relatively new head coaches in the series with Sarkisian in his 3rd year and Venables in his 2nd, and both schools have very good starting quarterbacks who are probably off to the NFL next year but both schools also have the top 2 rated freshman quarterbacks that will potentially match up against one another next year and for the next couple of years. Texas is clawing its way out of the dark decade and appear to be on the cusp of competing for conference championships and national titles again and Oklahoma is on its way from recovering from the abrupt exit of Lincoln Riley to USC. Both teams appear to be trending up as they head into the SEC and both teams come in undefeated and ranked inside the top 12 in the AP Poll. To me it just feels like this could be the first year in an era where both teams are back to being annual national powers.
This Saturday is my favorite single day of the year, every year. There is nothing like the Red River Rivalry. Hook’em