The Sooner Schooner has made its way back north to Norman. Big Bertha, the Longhorns’ Texas-sized bass drum, has been hauled back to Austin. And you, my friend, have missed another chance to witness in person the greatest neutral-site rivalry — not to mention revelry — in college football.
Each October in Dallas, Texas-OU (or OUTexas, depending on your preferred side of the Red River Rivalry) perfectly splits the Cotton Bowl, roughly 76,000 too-narrow seats, along burnt orange and crimson lines. Choose your tickets wisely (and not because they were going for up to $2,200 a pop online last week).
For 78 years, this is where college football has shown its personality with both teams’ fans acting as if they own the place. Florida-Georgia in Jacksonville comes close. Army-Navy stirs the soul. But with summer’s heat retreating and the State Fair of Texas as the backdrop, there is no better place to witness the spectacle that makes the college game what it is, which is to say better than the pro game by multiples of 10.
True, the Cotton Bowl has seen its better days, but once a year in October it sees no better day. Look past the cramped, outdated restrooms and look around the 20 upper-deck support pillars that obstruct your view. You want lux boxes and fat-cat alums or you want history — made by the likes of Jerry Tubbs and Billy Sims, Earl Campbell and Tommy Nobis — oozing from every rusty rivet?
This is where college football fans belong. Arrive early, grab a corny dog (mustard only, please) and devour it along with the sights and sounds of Fair Park, where fresh-faced Future Farmers and well-lubed frat boys rub elbows. This is a game, an event that is larger than life; hell, it’s larger than Big Tex, who greets visitors to the State Fair with his booming, “Howdy, folks!”
Come to Dallas like thousands of Sooners fans and prowl downtown, recalling the good old days, like three years ago, when Oklahoma was riding a five-game winning streak. The jewel of that run was a 65-13 blowout that will forevermore be the Sooners’ high point in the series. In fact, after successive losses in 2005 and 2006, Oklahoma put its spin on the series in this year’s media guide: “OU has won five of the last seven by a combined score of 211-127.” A 4H-er over in the Swine Barn couldn’t groom a two-game losing streak better.
Texas-OU/OU-Texas, you see, is all in perspective from which you view it. If you’re north, looking south, the world is infested with Texas Exes. Looking north, from down south, there’s a simple reason the wind blows in Texas, and it has to do with Oklahoma.
Final score: Oklahoma 28, Texas 21. Final analysis: If you’re a college football fan, you’ve got to get to Big D to see what the big deal is.
Source: www.sportingnews.com
