StoopTroup
9/6/2009, 08:36 AM
After living through the Switzer and Gibbs era and attending many an OU game I finally got hold of my season tickets...which I sit in to this very day. They are precious to me. They aren't Donor Seats nor private boxes. They are located in the EZ. They are amongst my Family and other people who bleed Crimson. They bleed it not only on Gameday...they bleed it in life. They live for the day they can make the Journey to watch their beloved Crimson and Cream take the field.
Yesterday our Team took yet again another defeat. Something we aren't used to since Bob Stoops came to Norman.
In 1999 I can tell you this...I was damned tired of watching our Team lose. Man did we lose. Under Howard the Duck that year...it seemed like an eternity...we watched as he stumbled through the Season. It was embarrassing to say the least. I still went to every Home Game. I didn't give up on them. The next opponent was going to fall...I just knew it Soon we'd see our Team turn it around. Those were tough times as a Sooner.
Then Barry Switzer was again Coaching. He was at the Dallas Cowboys and having success doing what many said he had nothing to do with. Sooners didn't believe that. They saw what he did as Coach of the Oklahoma Sooners. He is a beloved Coach that brought us 3 National Championships. He gave Texas and Nebraska a run for their money every year and Sooners flocked to Norman every time he fielded the Team. He didn't win them all....but he was considered a winner. And that he is. Our King.
We were looking for a new King. Barry recommended a former Sooner...John Blake. Suddenly the Sooner Hopeful were alive again. That was soon a balloon that lost it's air. Sooners quickly tired of giving John the 2 extra years to turn it around. He left. It wasn't a pretty exit either. I felt bad for a guy that had played his heart out on that field and now was being run out of town. Later he turned it ugly by trying to take credit for Bob Stoops winning a National Championship in 2000. Sooner fans would hear nothing of it. Which leads me to Bob.
After an ugly transition a new Athletic Director by the name of Joe Castiglione was hired. He'd had some success in Columbia Missouri and was considered a hot prospect. That he was. Oklahoma grabbed him up and supported him and he made a shocking decision in bringing this guy Bob Stoops to Norman. He wasn't even a former Head Coach! He hadn't ever run the show anywhere! But run the show he did. He turned to a Juco transfer by the name of Josh Heupel who was from a small School and made him his starting QB. Unheard of. Who was this kid? What the heck were they running on Offense? I heard it all. I went to the Cotton Bowl that 1st year for the RRSO. Ricky Williams was the texas running back and Demond Parker was our best. It was a heck of a game. We lost. It was one of the hardest walks out of a Stadium I think I've ever made. Tougher than last year in Miami. Watching Tim Tebow and the Gators steal another crystal ball away from our Team. That wasn't easy.
Bob went on to take us to Shreveport Louisiana to play Ole Miss in the Independence Bowl. Y2K was upon us and the end of the World was to happen right after we beat beat Ole Miss. Another tough walk to a dirt parking lot.
The next year I was in my seat rooting our Team on. About the fourth game, My Brother and I decided that we were going to go to every game Home and Away. There was just something about this Stoops guy. He was different but Football was fun again. We kept winning and my Brother and I kept going. Game after game. We wound up in Miami...a day I will never forget. It led to me not wanting to walk out of the Stadium. We wanted to celebrate forever! We had just witnessed the rise of Sooner Football to levels that had been promised by others since 1985. 15 years. Of waiting. It was finally over. I went crazy collecting every autograph I could get. Collectibles were everywhere. The next Red and White game players were there showing off their rings. We were living the good life.
Yesterday. We watched our Team fall apart. It's happened before. It could very well happen again. A Heisman Trophy winner hit the turf and suffered an injury. Our hearts stopped. We quit breathing. And then...our Team went on. We lost a game that was supposed to be a walk in the park. It was another road game. Another highly featured...highly touted game before a National Audience. I didn't have to walk out of this one but I suspect it was just as hard a walk as I took leaving Pro Player Stadium this year.
Bob Stoops is still our Coach. He has a group of capable Coaches and a bunch of great players. I'm betting they will be ready to go again next week in Norman. I'll be there in my Crimson and Cream...screaming my rear off, waiting to start yet again another string of wins.
To those who are hurting...what you saw last night was real. If you are hurting...you realize that this is more than just a game. It's our Team. Our Sooners. Our Crimson and Cream.
See you in Norman
ST
BOOMER ! ! !
Yesterday our Team took yet again another defeat. Something we aren't used to since Bob Stoops came to Norman.
In 1999 I can tell you this...I was damned tired of watching our Team lose. Man did we lose. Under Howard the Duck that year...it seemed like an eternity...we watched as he stumbled through the Season. It was embarrassing to say the least. I still went to every Home Game. I didn't give up on them. The next opponent was going to fall...I just knew it Soon we'd see our Team turn it around. Those were tough times as a Sooner.
Then Barry Switzer was again Coaching. He was at the Dallas Cowboys and having success doing what many said he had nothing to do with. Sooners didn't believe that. They saw what he did as Coach of the Oklahoma Sooners. He is a beloved Coach that brought us 3 National Championships. He gave Texas and Nebraska a run for their money every year and Sooners flocked to Norman every time he fielded the Team. He didn't win them all....but he was considered a winner. And that he is. Our King.
We were looking for a new King. Barry recommended a former Sooner...John Blake. Suddenly the Sooner Hopeful were alive again. That was soon a balloon that lost it's air. Sooners quickly tired of giving John the 2 extra years to turn it around. He left. It wasn't a pretty exit either. I felt bad for a guy that had played his heart out on that field and now was being run out of town. Later he turned it ugly by trying to take credit for Bob Stoops winning a National Championship in 2000. Sooner fans would hear nothing of it. Which leads me to Bob.
After an ugly transition a new Athletic Director by the name of Joe Castiglione was hired. He'd had some success in Columbia Missouri and was considered a hot prospect. That he was. Oklahoma grabbed him up and supported him and he made a shocking decision in bringing this guy Bob Stoops to Norman. He wasn't even a former Head Coach! He hadn't ever run the show anywhere! But run the show he did. He turned to a Juco transfer by the name of Josh Heupel who was from a small School and made him his starting QB. Unheard of. Who was this kid? What the heck were they running on Offense? I heard it all. I went to the Cotton Bowl that 1st year for the RRSO. Ricky Williams was the texas running back and Demond Parker was our best. It was a heck of a game. We lost. It was one of the hardest walks out of a Stadium I think I've ever made. Tougher than last year in Miami. Watching Tim Tebow and the Gators steal another crystal ball away from our Team. That wasn't easy.
Bob went on to take us to Shreveport Louisiana to play Ole Miss in the Independence Bowl. Y2K was upon us and the end of the World was to happen right after we beat beat Ole Miss. Another tough walk to a dirt parking lot.
The next year I was in my seat rooting our Team on. About the fourth game, My Brother and I decided that we were going to go to every game Home and Away. There was just something about this Stoops guy. He was different but Football was fun again. We kept winning and my Brother and I kept going. Game after game. We wound up in Miami...a day I will never forget. It led to me not wanting to walk out of the Stadium. We wanted to celebrate forever! We had just witnessed the rise of Sooner Football to levels that had been promised by others since 1985. 15 years. Of waiting. It was finally over. I went crazy collecting every autograph I could get. Collectibles were everywhere. The next Red and White game players were there showing off their rings. We were living the good life.
Yesterday. We watched our Team fall apart. It's happened before. It could very well happen again. A Heisman Trophy winner hit the turf and suffered an injury. Our hearts stopped. We quit breathing. And then...our Team went on. We lost a game that was supposed to be a walk in the park. It was another road game. Another highly featured...highly touted game before a National Audience. I didn't have to walk out of this one but I suspect it was just as hard a walk as I took leaving Pro Player Stadium this year.
Bob Stoops is still our Coach. He has a group of capable Coaches and a bunch of great players. I'm betting they will be ready to go again next week in Norman. I'll be there in my Crimson and Cream...screaming my rear off, waiting to start yet again another string of wins.
To those who are hurting...what you saw last night was real. If you are hurting...you realize that this is more than just a game. It's our Team. Our Sooners. Our Crimson and Cream.
See you in Norman
ST
BOOMER ! ! !