Editor’s Note: The history books claim Route 66, but for many of us Baby Boomer Okies the real “Mother Road” is Oklahoma Highway 9 — the path to the promised land of national championships, Heisman trophy winners and our memories of Sooner football, as told here by a veteran traveler of that ribbon of black top.
You can roll into the OU campus several ways. From I-35, you can battle semis from the north or Texans from the south. For me, the most memorable way into Norman was, and hopefully still is, State Highway 9.
It’s all Okie. Coming in from the east, I knew every yard of it.
For Okies, it was our highway into OU, untouched by out-of-staters.
Affectionately known as Number Nine, that ribbon of blacktop rolled through towns and hamlets that barely changed over the decades. From the rolling hills of Eufaula to the red dirt in Pink, you kept an eye out for greasy burger stops and speed traps.
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