Over the years I have noticed a certain breed of people that cannot be rationally explained. These are fans of the University of Oklahoma Sooners that live and die to scream “TEXAS SUCKS!” I think most people would agree that it is healthy to have a certain level of competition between schools and almost every university has this type of rivalry. Unfortunately the University of Oklahoma has more than their share of fans that have no life and are out of touch with reality. It is these people that could make anything in the world such as a breakfast burrito a “TEXAS SUCKS” mantra. You may remember on October 18th, 2008 I posted this blog post about how the below fan is doing the upside down longhorns symbol on national TV while playing the Kansas Jayhawks. This particular game had nothing to do with Texas, yet they were displaying this symbol. You can spot these people from a mile away and they have no shame.
I work with many people that came from San Antonio that were relocated here and they have also noticed these people. Those fans will purchase the longhorn symbol that ultimately goes to the University of Texas just so they can put it on their car upside down. This is not that big of deal though in their eyes Texas is single handedly the most evil organization on earth. It just seems contradictory that someone that is so passionate against Texas would purchase these longhorn emblems to put on their own car. These people are so out of touch with reality that they will paint the upside down longhorns on their curbs in front of their house. Think about this… They will dwell on this one game year round to a point that they buy 15 Sooner shirts, and all four of their cars say TEXAS SUCKS somewhere on them. It is like these people cannot get past the idea that it is just a game and nothing else. It is every bit as much a game as checkers. In the end, it does not matter whether we win or lose because people see these people on national TV and think we are morons.
I spent many years in the Air Force in other states and countries and I did not meet a single person that was not from Oklahoma that liked the Sooners. As a person that graduated from the University of Oklahoma, it pains me to say this because people see our team as dirty and cheats. It does not help that a Sooner by definition is a person that cheated in the land run. A Sooner is a person that went and picked out their land before it was authorized in the land run of 1889. If you have ever seen the 1992 movie Far and Away with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman it tells about this very thing. Nicole Kidman’s parents were Sooners and cheated to get their land before the land was opened.
I have been a Sooner fan since I was a young kid but my unbridled support began to fade when I became a student of the college. Every semester that I was a student, they raised tuition citing shortfalls in funding. Yet on more than one of these times I saw in the paper where the coaching staff would be getting $1 million+ salary raises. People are very quick to point out that this is because the athletic department is separate from the academics of the school so despite the multimillion dollars coming in annually from the sports department, not one penny of it is authorized to go to academics. These people will tell you this with a straight face as though they think it is supposed to be that way. I for one think it is outrageous that we have a public school that gets tax payer dollars, and then raises tuition semester after semester while the sports department is more profitable than some of the fortune 500 companies. I think this is just wrong and should not be allowed. Any time the school asks for a tuition hike, they should have to account for all sources of income including the sports department. If the sports department is making millions of dollars, then a school should not be allowed to hike tuition rates. I am so passionate about this that I think it should be a law. Both the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University should have to count their sports income into their overall budget and not be allowed to raise tuition. I think T. Boone Pickens donations should be figured into the over all budget before they are allowed raise tuition. Our universities are being run deceptively and these dunderheads are too stupid to see what is going on. They are so busy hating Texas to see that their tax dollars are being wasted.
Just look at the guy above and start paying attention. You will see guys like this on every single game the Sooners play whether it be the Washington Huskies or the Florida Gators. There will always be a Jethro Bodine standing up there doing the upside down longhorn symbol. People judge us by what they see on these games. It is no wonder they see us as hillbillies.