"It's 10:28 p.m. Texas time and OU still sucks." That is what ousucks.com read last night on the night before the eve of Saturday's football game between The University of Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma University Sooners.
Being lucky enough to call myself "a born-again Texan" (someone who saw the light and moved to Texas before it was too late), it has taken me only a short time to realize what every true Texan learns right after their mother gives birth to them " that OU sucks!
Sure, last year OU beat Texas 63-14 in what was a very lopsided game in OU's favor. OU went on to win the Orange Bowl and the national title, but barely made it past Oklahoma State, Nebraska, and Florida State along the way showing that their season was as much luck as it was talent.
Last year's game does nothing to disprove the fact that Texas is not only a better football team, but also a better school and a better state. It does nothing to change the all-time series standings or erase the fact that Texas dominates OU in basketball and baseball every year also. It does not explain the age-old question every Longhorn ponders of "what really is a Sooner?"
Okay, to be totally honest, I do think OU was the best team in the nation LAST YEAR and deserved the national championship LAST YEAR, but that was then.
Like I said, last year's game can do nothing to erase the all time series standings. Since 1900, when the series began, Texas has dominated the early-October classic 55-36-5.
Since 1929, when the games started being played in Dallas, Texas leads the series 43-32-4. Although the last seventeen games have been played to a near dead even 8-7-2 (in favor of Texas I might add), Texas has been beating Oklahoma since the first Horns' fan said "OU sucks!" way back in 1900.
The great thing about the rivalry, however, is the degree of play that both teams have always performed at. In 22 of the last 31 games, one of the teams has entered the game undefeated. In 49 of the games, the contest was decided by 10 points or less.
In 1984, in arguably the best game played between the two schools, Texas entered No. 1 in the nation and Oklahoma entered No. 2. The game ended in a 15-15 tie. This rivalry has history and lots of it.
Every year, Texans and Oklahomans flock to Dallas the weekend of the big game. Most arrive on Friday morning or afternoon and visit the Texas State Fair the rest of the day. The next morning, the fans wake up and head into the Cotton Bowl, the site of the game, before the usual mid-day kickoff.
Bo Schembechler, the great Michigan coach and pawn in the famous Michigan"Ohio State rivalry, said "this is the most intense rivalry I have ever seen," about the Texas-OU tradition. This guy witnessed hands-on one of the largest rivalries in college football and still realized the magnitude of the game played in the Cotton Bowl every year.
This year marks the 55th consecutive year the game has sold out and the first time since the 1984 classic that both teams enter the game ranked among the top five teams in the nation. Texas linebacker D.D. Lewis remembers last year's defeat to Oklahoma saying, "we've had all offseason, all spring, and all season long to think about it."
The Longhorns have been thinking about that defeat since last October. Texas went on to lose to Oregon 35-30 in the Holiday Bowl. OU went on to beat Florida State 13-2 in the Orange Bowl and win the national championship. The game sent the two teams in opposite directions. Texas is bitter.
Earlier I made a reference to myself as a "born again Texan." I moved to Austin as a sophomore in high school and as you can see, my blood bleeds orange. That is what the rivalry is all about anyway, the fans and the teams they love.
I think Texas great Ricky Williams said it best: "If you want to surf, move to Hawaii. If you want to shop, move to New York. If you like acting and Hollywood, move to California. But if you like college football, move to Texas."
Hook 'em Horns!
