Sooner Football Exhibit To Open Aug. 25

Aug. 23, 2001

NORMAN, Okla. - "Sooner Football: The Championship Years," a special exhibition highlighting the Sooners' winning football tradition, will open Saturday, Aug. 25, at the University of Oklahoma Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. The exhibit, which was planned in partnership with the OU Athletic Department, will be on view at the museum through Feb. 17.

The public will be offered an opportunity to take a "sneak peek" at the exhibition from 2 to 6 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 24. Radio station WWLS, "The Sports Animal," will broadcast live from the museum during this time, and the museum will be open an extra hour, closing at 6 p.m. U.S. Congressman and former OU quarterback J.C. Watts will be at the museum from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. to greet museum visitors, sign autographs and give an on-air interview with WWLS.

Exhibit guest curator Bob Barry Sr., former sports director for KFOR-TV and the voice of OU football for 24 years, will make a special appearance at 2 p.m. Saturday. A 1993 recipient of the Pioneer Award from the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters, Barry was named to the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.

At 3 p.m. on Saturday, Berry Tramel, sports editor for The Daily Oklahoman and award-winning sports writer and columnist, will be at the museum to talk with visitors. Tramel was one of the honorary chairs of the advisory committee who assisted the museum staff in organizing the Sooner Football exhibition.

The Sooner Football exhibit focuses primarily on OU's national championship years: 1950, 1955, 1956, 1974, 1975, 1985 and 2000. Objects on view include items from the museum's collection such as the silver shoes of "Little Joe" Washington, outstanding All-American halfback in 1974-75, as well as team trophies, helmets and other memorabilia from the Athletic Department's permanent collections.

The main body of the exhibition is made up of objects on loan from the private collections of avid OU football fans around the country. Loaned objects on display range from the famous Model T of Cecil Samara, OU's most visible and well-known fan, to Championship trophies, signature glasses and signed footballs, a playbook from the 1985 Championship game, uniforms of OU cheerleaders, Ruf/Neks and Pride members and even the backboard of the original Sooner Schooner.

Museum visitors will enter the exhibit under a set of simulated goal posts to take a walk through 50 years of OU championship victories, beginning with the Bud Wilkinson era and ending with the Sooners' triumphant comeback in 2000 under the direction of coach Bob Stoops. The gallery also features a small theater designed to have the look and feel of a football stadium, with an Astro Turf floor and wall-sized mural reproduction of the scoreboard at OU's Owen Field, where visitors can view video highlight clips from all seven championship games.

The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, located at Timberdell Road and Chautauqua Avenue, is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. For more information about the museum, or about the Sooner Football exhibit, call (405) 325-4712, or visit the museum's Web site: www.snomnh.ou.edu.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Sooner Football Exhibit To Open Aug. 25

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