My father took me to an OU football game in Norman when I was eight or nine. I wasn’t much of a football fan at the time. I played shortstop and that was as far as my sports universe extended. But that day in Norman changed all that.

My parents belonged to the Sportsman Country Club in Oklahoma City. They had a package deal: tickets, charter bus and box lunch. One Saturday we got on the bus and headed off on an adventure.

I’m not sure who the Sooners played that day. It really isn’t important. I was enthralled by the excitement. Never before had I been in that large a screaming crowd, and it was great.

I clearly recall one play. It looked like the other team was going to score, their ball-carrier streaking down the sideline towards the end zone. But a Sooner defender reached out and punched the ball up and out of the arms of the other player, snatched it out of the air and ran the other way The crowd went wild, and I thought that was about the coolest thing I had ever seen.

It would be several years before I went to another game in Norman. Many of the games I would witness later would be more important, like The Game of the Century. But no game was more exciting that that first one with my dad.

What was your first experience of a home game in Norman?

In the early 70’s I was one of a group of Eagle Scouts which was invited to present the colors at the Oklahoma State Republican Convention. I was 15 or 16 years old at the time, as were the other Scouts with me on the Color Guard.

Of course political conventions seldom start on time and this one was no exception. It got later and later… and later and still no sign that the delegates would be seated and the convention would start anytime soon. Boys will be boys, and the later it got, the more bored we became.

It wasn’t long before we began to get a little unruly. We began to horse around and roughhouse. We got louder. Several adults nearby gave us the eye. Our Scout Masters asked us to settle down. We tried.. we really did… but we were teen boys bored to tears waiting for adults to get their act together. After more than two hours of waiting we were pretty much beyond hope.

That is when it happened.

A tall, distinguished looking gentleman walked towards us, saying, “Boys, come here a minute, I want to talk to you.” Each of us, I am sure, got that feeling in the stomach, the one you get when you KNOW you are in trouble now. We stopped horsing around and slowly walked towards him as he walked forward towards us.

“Boys, I just want to meet you and thank you for being here to do this tonight,” the man said, no hint of scolding in his voice. Then he said, “I’m Bud Wilkinson.”

There we were, at least a couple of decades before Wayne and Garth first bowed and proclaimed, “We’re noy worthy! We’re not worthy!” But I am sure that that is exactly what each of us said in our minds. I know I did. We stood there in awe with the great coaching legend not just in front of us.. but talking to us!

Mr. Wilkinson shook each of our hands, asked us each our name and then repeating our name thanked us each personally for being there that night. A great man taking time to talk to a group of kids. A real class act.

I don’t know how much longer we had to wait to present the flags after that. But I know we didn’t make another sound or disturb any one around us. We were speechless!

Have you had a close encounter with an OU coach? Met one of the Trinity (Wilkinson, Switzer and Stoops)? Share your story too!

I’m a Sooner Born and a Sooner Bred…

I wasn’t even there for my earliest Sooner memories.

Mom was always fond of saying that I was born in the middle of July and had to be weaned by the second weekend of October because they had tickets to the OU Texas game.

My parents held season tickets for some years before and after was born. I have memories my favorite babysitter, Mrs. Owens, coming to stay with me while Mom and Dad went to Norman for games. A few times, I remember, she stayed over night when my parents went to Dallas for the OU v Texas game. Because my mother absolutely hated to travel by car, she is the only person I know who could turn the drive from Oklahoma City to Dallas a two day trip by spending the night in Ardmore on the way down and back.  So, when they went to the Texas game, they were gone for three nights.

Like most small children I hated to be left at home with a babysitter for three (or four.. sometimes Mom liked to stay and shop in Dallas) nights. On the other hand, I remember Mrs. Owens liked to make the most wonderful chocolate meringue pie. She would do that if I got too fussy about my folks being gone.  I made sure I was fussy. To this day, eating chocolate meringue pie makes me think of OU football.

Mom and Dad always brought me back something when they went to games. I remember pennants, little stuffed footballs and one of my favorites, which was a soft stuffed football player in OU uniform dangling by a string from a stick. Why that was my favorite I don’t know, but I played with it for a long, long time.

With an early childhood like that, it was inevitable that I would grow up to be a Sooner fan!

What are your earliest memories of OU football? How did you become a fan?

Sooner Schooner

Welcome to Sooner Seasons, where we will tell the tales and relive the memories that make OU Sooner fandom the largest club in the world. Other fan sites discuss current Sooner sports news, but this web site will defy convention and actively “live in the past.”  The thing is, I have awesome memories that I want to share with you. And I know you have precious Sooner sports memories too! Let’s talk about them.