There we were—in the stands for the TU-OU game.
The first thing a random fan in blue told us as we casually walked by was, “I brought this towel so I could wipe the tears off of OU fans’ faces.”
There was really no reason to expect Tulsa to win on Saturday; OU basically had the game in hand the entire time. TU’s main goal was to give the 80,000 plus people in red just a little scare.
My seats were in the north end zone and if you looked around, you could maybe see four or five TU fans at most. We weren’t in the TU section. It’s interesting to see how people cheer when they expect to win; it always has a hint of nervousness and relief rather than actual excitement.
On to the game and some observations. TU tied the game at three early on with a field goal into our section. The ball missed the net and ended up in someone’s hands right by us. Everyone then started yelling, “throw it out!”
They proceeded to make sure the ball made it to the top of the stadium and out over the side. That’s TU’s ball. Does anyone go get it? Does it hit anyone? I’m still confused by this.
OU fans can sometimes be known to be a little bit more arrogant than normal. Our section actually proved to be very knowledgeable and friendly during the game. There was only one idiot who fit this stereotype, demonstrated when OU receiver Sterling Shepard caught a pass over the middle and got lit up by a TU defender.
Sterling was down for a second but then stood up and started flexing and kept flexing until a flag was thrown. It was an iffy call, I admit, but this OU fan went crazy. His best line was, “I don’t care if kids are around, that was f*cking ridiculous.”
Obviously the most exciting part of the game was the final moments of the first half, where TU scored two touchdowns in the last seconds to cut the OU lead to seven. OU was still leading but when the two teams went into the tunnel but it certainly didn’t feel like it.
The TU section was going nuts while the other fans in the stadium were silent.
During the halftime break, multiple fans came up to us in our TU clothes and were almost congratulating us for TU’s performance. That is all that TU could have wanted out of this game: to put some shock into Oklahoma about the new identity of this team.
