Nice tough by the Bedlam bands
Bedlam football provided something I’d never seen before. A combined performance by the OU and OSU marching bands, doing a tribute to the Centennial. The field was arrayed with crimson and orange musicians, and while they stood with their backs to each other — except for the OSU percussion section, which mingled with the Pride of Oklahoma — that was for volume purposes, not a political statement.
It was a nice gesture and maybe took a little of the rancor out of the series, which has become more and more bitter in this Internet age. My brother-in-law, an OSU season ticket holder, turned down a ticket to the game Saturday because of the way he was treated by the Owen Field crowd when he went to the 2005 Bedlam game. Ex-OU quarterback Nate Hybl told me he was treated worse on the sidelines in Stillwater than anywhere else he played.
There is plenty of blame to go around. Maybe the bands can remind us that we’re all in this together. Oklahomans and Americans.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Berry- totally agree with you on the sportsmanship issue. As a Sooner season ticket holder living in Overland Park, KS, its embarrassing to hear the crowd boo the visiting team when President Boren is attempting to show class to the visiting university. I’ve got to tell you that I’ve stopped attending Chiefs games because of the ridiculous behavior of over-zealous and often-drunk fans at Arrowhead. However, I’ve witnessed far too many examples of morons in action at Owen Field as well. We sit near the Sooner Schooner, where the opposing team players often kneel to pray in the endzone prior to the game. I can’t tell you how many times the same morons scream at these young men when they are praying.
It just seems as though fans lose self-control when they get in a crowd… lets hope they don’t treat their families the same way at home.