Sooner Report: River Runs Red

109th AT&T Red River Showdown

The AT&T Red River Showdown, one of the most storied and unique rivalries in all of sports, renews this weekend in Dallas at the famed Cotton Bowl. This year's edition will mark the 109th meeting between Oklahoma and Texas, with the first coming in 1900.

Several factors that make the AT&T Red River Showdown different from other perennial big-time rivalry games are location and atmosphere. 91 of the previous 108 matchups have been played in Dallas, a neutral location almost equidistant from both campuses. Saturday will mark the 86th consecutive game played in Dallas. The only other major college football rivalry played at a neutral site every year is unofficially dubbed “The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” between Florida and Georgia, which is held in Jacksonville, Fla.

The other unique aspect to the game is the setting. The AT&T Red River Showdown is held in the middle of the State Fair of Texas, leading to an atmosphere unlike any other in all of sports.

“You pull the bus through the state fair and that's a little different than most cases,” said Oklahoma Head Coach Bob Stoops. “You get on the field and it's always loud because half the stadium is OU, half is Texas – so that's a little different.”

OU starting cornerback Julian Wilson thinks the whole experience is something you have to experience to truly grasp.

“I really did not know what I was getting myself into,” said Wilson. “Walking down that tunnel and seeing how the fans were split exactly down the middle and the trash talk that goes on throughout the game. The fans and driving through the fair is not something you can put into words.”

Oklahoma-Texas by the Numbers

Despite trailing the Longhorns in the all-time series with a record of 43-60-5, Oklahoma has put up some impressive box scores against Texas throughout the rivalry, especially during the Stoops' era.

The Sooners have scored 55 or more points against the Longhorns on four occasions under Stoops, while Texas has never eclipsed the 50-point mark once in series history.
OU is 9-6 vs. Texas under Stoops, with seven of the nine victories being double-digit wins, including four by 30 or more points.
Oklahoma holds the top nine highest scoring performances in the series with Texas.
The Sooners record-high performance in the rivalry came in 2003, scoring 65 points.
The Longhorns' highest point total in the series is 45 points, which they have recorded twice.

Stoops

Stoops Trying for History

Bob Stoops has already earned a spot on the Mount Rushmore of great OU head football coaches, joining Barry Switzer, Bud Wilkinson and Bennie Owen, a foursome that all registered 100 wins during their OU tenures. With a national title and 173 wins and counting, the most in Sooner history, there few OU records that Stoops doesn't yet own. But Saturday's game with Texas presents an opportunity to attain another first in OU lore.

With a win over Texas, Stoops would become the first coach at Oklahoma to reach double digits in the win column against the Longhorns. As it stands now, Stoops has a record of 9-6 against OU's rival, matching the win totals of Switzer (9-5-2) and Wilkinson (9-8) and one ahead of Owen (8-8).

Golden Hat

The Golden Hat

College football is known for its nostalgia, which includes game day traditions, pageantry and tailgates. Traveling trophies tied to rivalries add to the folklore of the game. The AT&T Red River Showdown has a number of trophies tied to the game, none of which are more recognized than the Golden Hat.

What many people do not know is the Golden Hat actually started out as bronze. In 1941 the State Fair of Texas wanted to show its appreciation to both schools for holding the game at its location each year so it created the Bronze Hat in 1941, with the winner receiving the trophy each year. In the 1970s the hat was getting reworked and the final product came out gold, thus switching to the Golden Hat.

The Golden Hat joins the Little Brown Jug (Michigan vs. Minnesota), Floyd of Rosedale (Minnesota vs. Iowa), the Golden Egg (Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State), the Old Oaken Bucket (Indiana vs. Purdue) and Paul Bunyan's Axe (Minnesota vs. Wisconsin) as some of the game's most iconic traveling trophies.

Follow the Game Ball

Each year, members of the University of Oklahoma Navy Reserve Officers' Training Corps (NROTC) run the AT&T Red River Showdown game ball from Norman to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. This year, thanks to US Fleet Tracking, fans can track the Midshipmen's progress with the ball using a Live GPS Tracking.

The unit left the Norman campus early Wednesday morning and began the trek to the Cotton Bowl. Coach Stoops was present for the departure, as he handed the ball off to a member of the NROTC to get the process started. Texas also has an NROTC unit that is running a game ball from its Austin Campus. Once the two units arrive in Dallas they will play a football scrimmage against each other, with the winner receiving the NROTC trophy.

Sooners in the National Spotlight

CBSSports.com recently produced a short feature video on quarterback Trevor Knight's relationship with his father while he fought cancer right before he came to Oklahoma. That feature can be found here.

ESPN.com published an article on the Texas-OU game where it interviewed a number of the two program's legends who have played pivotal roles in the rivalry over the years. The article can be read here.

109th AT&T Red River Showdown

Oklahoma-Texas by the Numbers

Stoops Trying for History

The Golden Hat

Follow the Game Ball

Sooners in the National Spotlight

Players Mentioned

Trevor Knight

Julian Wilson

Sponsors

University of Oklahoma Athletics