At any rate, football is a very important part of Sooner society. There is no pro team - but most here root for the Dallas Cowboys. Oklahoma and Nebraska both share this situation, but Nebraska only has one major university team. You would barely know Oklahoma has two, however. Just look at the Sunday special college football wrap-up supplement:
OMG! OU lost to Baylor - the Bears. Unbearable? Get it? Page one.
Page 2. More OU coverage.
Page 3. Yep, more OU coverage. Must be the only game in the state, eh?
Page 4 - well, other teams did play around the country Friday and Saturday. Gotta cover them.
And OU is in the Big 12 (kinda iffy there long term, but for now.....), so we have some league coverage on page 5.
Page 6 - oh, hai, we duz haz 'nother team hyar in Oklahoma! Damn near fergot, dern it! Those Cowboys at OSU up the road at Stillwater lost, too!
In fairness, the Cowboys played on Friday, so any coverage on Sunday would be supplemental. But, the whole university is recovering from the unexpected deaths of their girls' basketball coach and one of his assistants in a plane crash earlier this week. And the paper had already covered the emotional human interest side of that tragedy. But I guarantee ya, it wouldn't have mattered if OSU played on Friday or Saturday, they'd have had only the back page!
This just blows me away, because in Kansas there are two division one universities with two mens' football and three division one mens' basketball teams. Of course the main rivalry is between KU and KSU - lately KSU has the football side sewed up and KU has had the basketball end pretty well covered for years. But, if ya look around Kansas, you'll see all kinds of "house divided" bumper tags and stickers with both the Jayhawk and the Power Cat on them. As you'd expect, the rural areas support the ag college and the dazzled urbanites follow KU. Nebraska? The Huskers get all the coverage, but they're really the only game in the state. In Oklahoma, in the furthest reaches of farm country you'll find farmers with outbuildings painted in orange and white with the OSU logo for support. That's about it! It's red country everywhere else.
I expect I'd better quit now, because I'm still in OKC at my sister's house, and the OU fans might wanna kick my hiney for dissing 'em.
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Consider this, though: before the games (usually, therefore, a Friday) there is a Pregame Wraparound to the sports section, and the last three or four weeks, the Cowboys have gotten the front of it, the Sooners the back.
What, nobody follows ballet troupes? In whole wide state? Or at least on page 20?
Shocking, isn't it Tatyana? Especially considering the cross-state rivalry between the OKC Ballet and the Tulsa Danse Majestque, which has been downright bloody at times in the last few years.
I can hardly wait for their regular annual showdown next month -- it's going to be bruising.
It's jungle out there...in the Prairie
I've *never* understood the fascination with scholastic sports. I've known (and tutored!) a lot of jocks in high-school and college, and the adulation they received always mystified me.
Not sour grapes or anything, I just don't understand it. Part of being a geek, I guess....
Lest you think McGehee is giving you the old chain-pull, allow me to point out that there is in fact a serious rivalry between OKC and Tulsa Ballets. (A lot of this going on. Used to be, OKC had the ballet, Tulsa had the opera; Tulsa's since built up a ballet company. We still do better musicals in OKC.)
Ahhh. Them sound like fightin' words! Has it come to duels at sunrise yet?
Hasn't gotten to that point yet, but anything can happen in this part of the world.
yep.
sometimes a wish "break a leg" is taken literally...
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