Sentimental Reasons for the OU vs. Texas Rivalry Continuing Are Outweighed by Reality: Life Changes

Bob Stoops, coach of the Oklahoma Sooner football team, was asked by a reporter today if the Oklahoma and Texas Red River Rivalry Game would continue if the two schools wound up in different conferences. Stoops responded, "I don't think it's necessary. Life changes, and you've got to change with it, to whatever degree. If it works, great. I love the game, but if it doesn't, sometimes that's the way it goes."   Stoops is right. Life does change. Were the Oklahoma Sooners vs. Texas Longhorn football series come to an end next year because of Big 12 conference changes, over 110 years of intense football rivalry would be over.  Were the series to end, it would also bring to a close playing football at one of the most incredible venues in competitive sports--the Cotton Bowl.

The Cotton Bowl (initially called "Fair Park Stadium") was built in 1930. The first college football game played in the new stadium was between the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns. My maternal grandfather, Fred Cherry, (pictured here) was a sophomore tight end for Oklahoma University in 1930. Back then players played on both offense and defense, and my grandfather started for Oklahoma and played the entire game. Both teams were held scoreless during the first half. The first touchdown of the game, and for that matter the first touchdown ever scored in the Cotton Bowl, occurred in the middle of the third quarter.  According to the Oklahoma Encyclopedia of Football, Oklahoma halfback Bus Mills threw a 55 yard 'bomb' to my grandfather who took the ball into the end zone and gave Oklahoma a 7 to 0 lead over Texas. Though Texas would eventually win the game 17 to 7, my grandfather holds the distinction of being the first player to ever score in the Cotton Bowl. He would go on to play against Texas in 1931 and 1932 before he graduated with a petroleum engineering degree.  My grandfather was a personal friend of Kappa Alpha fraternity brother and 1931 Oklahoma graduate Carl Albert, future United States Speaker of the House. However, Fred Cherry would himself leave his job in the oil fields and later quit his job at the state capital in order to fulfill his calling as a Christian evangelist. 

I was born thirty years after my grandfather played for Oklahoma University, but I can distinctly remember watching OU football games at his house while growing up, particularly at Thanksgiving. My grandfather died suddenly of a heart attack in 1970 at the age of 58, but my love for OU football continued. In the early 1970's my father and I crash landed upon returning by private plane from watching the annual OU/Texas Cotton Bowl game. We were caught in a powerful thunderstorm and landed in a convention center parking lot where U.S. Senator John Tower was holding a fund raiser. The kind Senator loaned us his personal vehicle to finish our trip home. Over the years I have many, many memories revolving around the Oklahoma vs. Texas rivalry. Yet, as Coach Stoops says, "Life changes." I look at the picture to the left (taken in 1929 at the OU practice field), and notice my grandfather, playing 'left end' that day (to the far right in his three point stance), and then I flash back to last Saturday night as I watched OU's defensive ends Frank Alexander and Ronnell Lewis play on Owen Field in Norman. Just noticing the physical differences in the size and athleticism of the players makes it easy to realize that things have indeed changed at the University of Oklahoma since the 1930's.

Stoops is right. Life changes.

Bring on the Pac-12.


With, or without, the University of Texas.

God's Hall of Fame: A Tribute to Clendon Thomas

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending a tribute luncheon for Clendon Thomas, the 1957 Oklahoma All-American football player who will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame this December. The Petroleum Club in downtown Oklahoma City was packed with people who came to honor Clendon's accomplishments, but more importantly, to honor his character and humility. The Daily Oklahoman did a great job this morning reporting on the event.  I knew Clendon and his lovely wife before the luncheon, even attending OU football games with them courtesy of my friend Jakie Sandefer. However, I was deeply impressed by an event that closed out the luncheon You could tell Clendon was unconfortable throughout the tribute with all the attention. Clendon was so popular during his playing days that some Oklahoma fans even named their sons after him, and he remains unaffected by such attention, even to this day. However, the only time Clendon became emotional was at the end. I sat where I had an unobstructed view of Clendon as Chuck Bowman, Director of Oklahoma's Fellowship of Christian Athletes and former roommate of Clendon at OU, read a poem. I saw on Clendon's face his heartfelt belief this poem represented his beliefs.

Clendon Thomas

A little background on the poem is warranted. Mickey Mantle came to faith in Jesus Christ two weeks prior to his death in 1995. His longtime friend, Yankee second baseman Bobby Richardson, had long prayed for Mickey Mantle's conversion to Christianity. At Mantle's euology, Bobby Richardson read the poem that Chuck Bowman read at the Clendon's tribute yesterday. For two of Oklahoma's greatest athletes, one of whom has served Christ all his life (Clendon Thomas), and the other who came to know Christ just two weeks before his death (Mickey Mantle), this poem has proved very meaningful. For me, it is a creative reminder that real  and lasting meaning in life comes from our relationship with God through faith in His Son.



GOD’S HALL OF FAME

Your name may not appear down here,
In this world’s hall of fame,
In fact you may be so unknown,
That no-one knows your name!

Our Halls of fame are only good
As long as time shall be;
But keep in mind, God’s Hall of fame,
Lasts for eternity!

To have your name inscribed up there
Is greater yes by far,
Than all the Halls of Fame down here
And every man made star.

Man on earth will soon forget
The heroes of the past;
They cheer you on until you fall;
How long will your fame last?

But God, He never does forget,
And in His Hall of Fame,
By just believing in his Son,
Proud, you’ll find your name.

Accepting His Son died for me
Was all it really took,
For God to take His pen,
And write me in His book.

For every famous name on earth
Or glory that we share;
I’d rather be unknown down here,
And have my name up there.

I tell you friend, I wouldn’t trade
My name, however small,
In His book, beyond the stars
…In His celestial Hall.

One of My Members Believes God May Very Well Be an Oklahoma Sooner Fan

I was sent the following prophecy for today's game from one of the members of our church. It is from Psalm 75:4-6 (KJV). I will reserve my judgment on the prophecy until Saturday at 6:00 p.m. central time.


“I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn (Texas?): Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck. For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south [so it seems it comes from the north? Oklahoma?]. But God is the judge: he putteth down one (Texas), and setteth up another (Oklahoma).”

Go Sooners!