I went old school Saturday.
And by old school, I mean I listened to the OU-Texas game on the radio.
That’s right. The radio. By choice.
Took me back to the 1960s, when my dad and I would work around the house on Saturdays and have the OU game playing on the radio in his ‘62 Chevy pickup.
Bob Barry and Jack Ogle were behind the microphones and my mind imagined the scenes at the stadium on those sunny autumn afternoons.
My memory of OU football goes back to 1960, when the Sooners bottomed out after dominating the 1950s under Bud Wilkinson. They lost nine of 10 games spanning the ’60 and ‘61seasons and didn’t regain national prominence for a decade.
OU beat Texas only once in the decade of the 1960s, so I grew up with a bit of an inferiority complex when it came to the annual game.
Then Chuck Fairbanks and Barry Switzer arrived on the scene and the worm began turning.
There was the John Blake Era, which produced some really bad football and led to the Bob Stoops Era.
Beginning with 2000, when the Stoopscoached Sooners beat Bevo 63-14, OU has won 16 out of 24 from Texas.
The OU-Texas game is one of the greatest events in sports. Played in a rickety old stadium split down the middle and halfway between the two campuses, it is unique.
I covered OU-Texas twice back in my days as a sports writer. Once was in the press box and once on the sideline.
The press box was an ok experience, but the being on the sideline was an absolute gas.
It wasn’t cool like being on the sidelines at a Chandler or Stroud game, where you can mingle with the players, overhear the coaches talking into their headsets and chat with the officials during stoppages, but it was cool.
Except for the time I forgot about the Civil War replica canon that Texas shoots when they score.
I was on the south end of the stadium when the Longhorns scored and the canon fired behind me and I jumped almost to the 30-yardline.
Scared the bejeebers out of me and my ears rang for three days.
Never made that mistake again. A few months ago, Kindra and I cancelled our cable service. We almost never watch television and hadn’t missed it.
Until Saturday. I fiddled with the tv, trying to get a station over the air that would have the game, but the controls were too complicated and I gave up.
Instead, I listened to the game on my pickup radio and had a wonderful nostaglic experience.