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Oklahoma-Texas

Mike: This Red River Rivalry was a mess on and off the field

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Maybe the only performance worse than Oklahoma’s anemic scoring offense in the 34-3 loss to Texas was the local production of the game, which ran out of water in the stadium, offered something resembling candied stale pop corn, and had masses of liquored-up pedestrian football fans walking on active railroad tracks while Dallas police were screaming “follow instructions!”

I won’t say the 2024 Red River Rivalry was a shit show because the toilets in the Cotton Bowl were working just fine.

That may have been the most important thing for Sooner fans who were hit with an upsetting dose of second-quarter dysentery when a R. Spears-Jennings hit knocked the ball from Texas RB Quintrevion Wisner into the end zone and Texas WR Silas Bolden fell on it for a touchdown, ending what had theretofore been a tight game (Texas 7, Oklahoma 3) and beginning a Texas rout.

I know some Oklahoma fans weren’t too happy with offensive coordinator Seth Littrell’s play calling (and some in attendance wondered if Dallas city officials had put him in charge of concession stands at the Cotton Bowl.)

After an Oklahoma loss, I am always interested in how living-room-couch Sooners — the fans who watch the game on television — have a somewhat different perspective of the game from those of us suffering the heat from the blistering Dallas sun and the verbal abuse from people who worship a cow.

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Here we go across the Red River by the thousands once again — Beat Texas!

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In 1931 the Oklahoma governor called out the Oklahoma National Guard and declared martial law over the Red River bridge between the two states when Texas barricaded a new free bridge and forced traffic to take an older toll bridge.

The Oklahoma guardsmen took control of the south end of the bridge held by armed Texas Rangers and allowed traffic to pass without forking over any toll money.

It was Texas’ third defeat in its history. The first being to the Mexicans at the Alamo, then to the U.S. Army during the Civil War, and then to the Oklahoma National Guard.

The Oklahoma-Texas game had been played 25 times before the Red River Bridge War was declared in 1931. Oklahoma had won only eight of them and tied one. Most of the games were close.  All were well attended.  But only six of the games had been played in Oklahoma.

The Red River Bridge War really stung those Texans.  After that the Longhorns refused to cross the bridge. It was too embarrassing of a reminder that their beloved Texas Rangers had been losers yet again. And this time to a bunch of Okies.

And so, the Oklahoma-Texas game has been played in Dallas ever since. It’s the only way the Sooners could get the poor Texans to play ball with them.

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OU-Texas: My apology to Sooners everywhere

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I apologize to all my fellow Sooners.

Last weekend I didn’t follow my OU-Texas traditions.

I didn’t eat Bevo burgers in Marietta. mikesblog

I didn’t play putt-putt on Friday afternoon like I had done every Friday afternoon before the Red River Rivalry in the last decade.

I didn’t have lunch and play paper football at the Humperdinks sports bar.

Heck, I didn’t even travel the same road to Dallas. I got cute and did an end run around that Denton traffic jam by taking I-35 West for a ways before sneaking back into Dallas from the west. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Never again.

I don’t know exactly how my poor choices generated enough bad karma to cause the Sooners to lose 36-20 to those steers from Austin, but I have no doubt in my mind they had something to do with it.

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