Sooners Beat the Tigers, Why Do I Care?
Last night the Oklahoma Sooners defeated the #1 Missouri Tigers to win the Big 12 championship. Tied at 14 at halftime, the Sooners finished the game 38-17. Why do I care?
I didn’t care enough to get myself in front of a TV but despite having lived in Missouri for over 17 years now I still rooted for the Oklahoma Sooners. Is it that I am from Oklahoma City? Or that I am an OU alumni? That Mizzou is located in Columbia, not in St. Louis? Probably a combination of all these.
There is something about that place where we are from, no matter what the place. We might trash talk it ourselves but we don’t like it when an outsider does. We might move but still feel a connection.
When I am back in Oklahoma I drive around my old hang outs and recall fond memories. Then I note the complete lack of sidewalks on major roads and think that despite my bitching about St. Louis we are certainly better off than other places. My older brother (17 years older) and I are very much alike — we know we’ll never live in Oklahoma again. Our middle brother, however, after stints in the LA and Houston areas couldn’t wait to return to Oklahoma City. With nieces and a great-niece and great-nephew there I will forever have a connection.
But St. Louis is my home. Sure, I’ll root for Oklahoma over any other football team but in the end sports really don’t matter. At least not to me.
I like to think that St. Louis has had a bad first half and it is time for a new game plan. I want St. Louis to have the kind of second half that Oklahoma had last night.
I’m surprised you even knew there was a game. BOOMER SOONERS! Even I, who couldn’t wait to finish my degree and get the hell out of Norman, had season tickets to the games … did you ever even go to one while a student? I like your sports metaphor at the end of the post but do get yourself to a game once in awhile so the metaphor doesn’t seem so tortured. I’m sure those Catholics at SLU have a good basketball team …
Mizzou vs Arkansas, another example of national media coastal bias and unless you’ve had your name in there for decades, you aren’t taken seriously.
Being a KSU Cats alum, I have to admit suffering through yet another year where the Sooners go unchallenged and add more perfunctory bling to their ever-expanding trophy case is distasteful to my palette, however the segueway into the rare, tasteful sports metaphor about our reeling urban scape is amusing. Hopefully the halftime adjustment will be what is needed. Go Cats.
What a weird little post. I just love it when people blog about things they don’t care about!
What is a “Sooner”?
hey, dude, what’s your point? it should be a good game–I hope so since I’m going! (woooo Pig!!)
Steve, I do think it’s a lot about where you’re from. So many of us–especially in the City–are not natives, and sports teams are about the only way to really express the feeling that most people will see as semi-rational.
Steve,
To add insult to your analogy- do you think its the Coach or the quarterback at fault? Is it that the fans are not cheering loud enough? Is the school to blame? maybe its just their practice facilities and if they had a descent home field they would perform better on the road (bad reference to new ball park, indoor arena, and football dome as practice facilities that have thus far failed to revitalize downtown when the coaches (STL administrators) thought that is all we needed to help it out.
Oh, I could go on and on… Thanks for the great post no matter what they say.
Jason
KSU fan 93-99 (the glory years)
LisaS- What “dude” is saying is that if you don’t have LSU or USC printed on your helmet, you get no love from the BCS…
Sincerely-
True college football fan
Clearly the Buckeyes are getting some love from the BCS. As a Penn State fan and former student, I’m just hoping the Buckeyes don’t embarrass the Big Ten two years in a row. What we really need is a play off system, but alas, all these bowl towns have used public dollars to build huge stadiums and they have to justify the expenditure somehow (to bring things somewhat back on topic).