Monday, October 19, 2009

Sad, Sad Saturday

It isn't just a football game to me. I am in way to deep with the whole rivalry between OU and "that team" from the wrong side of the Red River. I have been for years. I remember...

Packing up and heading out with my parents down I-35 to watch the game as a child. That was back in the day. Back when Barry Switzer was the coach and the wishbone reigned supreme. We'd leave on Friday morning and make a week-end of it. Those days are gone, long gone.

I miss the ground game. The whole passing game is so boring. I want to see the action of ducking and dodging and running around. Watching the ball fly through the air isn't the same thing to me. Not that I am such a big football fan. I just love my Sooners.

I never got into football, except for my Sooners. I'm a "Crimson and Cream" gal. I love to watch them play. I always have. There is something about my team. I don't understand the game. In fact, it was just a few weeks ago I learned what "holding" was. I'm such a girl; they all seemed to "holding each other."

I think I regret not graduating from the University of Oklahoma. It was my dream to go there. I got a sweet deal from Smith my junior year in high school and that is where I ended up. Not exactly the college life most people dream of. No football Saturdays. No giant campus to get lost in, both literally and figuratively. I opted for the quiet campus without boys far from home and beloved Sooners. is amamazing what a great scholarship will entice one to do.

I did manage to pick up a few extra hours at OU after I graduated. It wasn't the same, but I was Sooner for 15 hours. I was a little too old for the "college life" by then, but I did have an active imagination. I lived that life in my mind as I sat in the OU library, watching the "youngsters" doing whatever they were doing.

Saturday wasn't the greatest day for me. The loss hit home, but not as close as the memories I have as well as the ones I don't have that I want. I thought about Barry Switzer on thfield, , leading the Sooners to anher vicictory. I thought about the homecomings I missed. I remembered sitting in the stands, screaming at the top of my lungs. I thought about that little garage apartment I lived in during college, in a state that didn't broadcast OU games. I dreamed of living in a crowded dorm with a bunch of girls.

There is next year. I may make that drive down I-35. I'll have to get to some more home games. Of course, I could always go back to get my Master's degree. Yeah right. I am done with school. Then again, my daughter will be looking for a college in about a dozen years or so.

Happy Oklahoma traveling,

Emma Riley Sutton