How do OU football, Oklahoma State fans feel about Bedlam series ending? It's complicated
Oklahoma and Oklahoma State first met on the football field in 1904, three years before statehood.
Since then, the two schools have played 117 times. OU leads the Bedlam series 91-19-7.
On Saturday afternoon in Stillwater, OU and OSU will play what likely will be the final Bedlam game for a long time as the Sooners will join the Southeastern Conference next season. There are no future football games currently scheduled between the two schools.
Who is to blame for that? Fans on each side point fingers at the other school.
“The Sooners decided to take their ball and go to the SEC,” said Bruce Cox, a 1982 graduate of OSU.
OU fans believe the Sooners are willing to play, but the Cowboys are not because they are upset that OU is leaving the Big 12 with Texas.
“I think personal feelings got involved in that decision, at least on one side,” said avid OU fan Bill Kauffman, of Glenpool. “They feel like we slighted them, I guess. I don’t know. I only know what I have read.”
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What most OU and OSU fans do agree on is the desire to continue the rivalry even as a non-conference game in the future. But not all fans are unhappy that the Sooners and Cowboys will not be future opponents in football.
Regina Bell, of Norman, and her family bleed crimson and cream. As a freshman at OU, she was a member of the university’s Pride of Oklahoma marching band during the famous 1985 Ice Bowl game in Stillwater.
“I have never been so cold in my life,” Bell said. “We literally skated at halftime. We had to. It was so slick. We were slipping and sliding all over the place. We wore these uniforms that had capes on them and the capes froze. They were stiff. That is by far my most memorable Bedlam game.”
Even so, Bell is not upset that OU and OSU will not be playing Bedlam football games in the near future. She is excited that the Sooners are going to the SEC.
Boone Pickens Stadium is not a friendly place for OU fans, and it is the only stadium where she has had things thrown at her, she said.
“I’m not sad about it ending,” Bell said. “It’s not like Texas. Texas to me is a true rivalry in competition. OSU, they get that nickname little brother, and there is a reason for that. They’ve only won 19 times.
“It’s not Texas. It’s not Nebraska. It’s not our biggest game, but for OSU it is their biggest game.”
But the few times OSU has won, Bell admits “it’s a real hard year to get through.”
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OU alum Kent Taylor, of Owasso, also doesn’t think OSU has been much of a rival for the Sooners over the years, but said the Cowboys have been more competitive in the Mike Gundy era. Losing the annual Nebraska series hurts more than losing OSU as an opponent, he said.
“Our rivalries were Texas and Nebraska,” he said. “You hated Texas and respected Nebraska.”
OSU super fan Lee Redick, of Edmond, is Mr. Orange Power. He is not sad about the Bedlam football rivalry ending either.
“I am real happy about it,” Redick said. “Too much of the media focuses so much of the attention on OU and for us OSU people, who actually went to the college, there is so many good things going on at the college that nobody ever hears about.”
Maybe now that the schools are splitting up, OSU sports will get more of the attention that it deserves, he said.
“I am excited to see them go,” Redick said of OU. “I wish them nothing but the best. I am excited for OSU to be on their own and showcase what we can do. All I care about is OSU. To me, OU could be Kansas or Texas, it doesn’t matter. They are just another team. My focus is OSU. That’s all I care about.
“What happens to OU I don’t care. I could really care less.”
Many Oklahoma families, though, live in a “house divided” with both Sooner and Cowboy fans. The Sooner super fan who calls himself Mr. OU, Antonio Record of Norman, has a brother who is a graduate of OSU.
“It’s just bragging rights,” Record said of winning Bedlam.
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If the Sooners win, then for 364 days until the next contest, Record gets to needle his brother and OSU friends.
“That’s what I like about it,” Record said. “You are losing that great tradition of houses divided. I am going to miss everything about it. I am going to miss going up to Eskimo Joe’s and hanging out with the OSU fans. I am going to miss them bothering me. I am going to miss all of it.”
Amy Hayes, of Ada, is an OSU fan. Her husband is a big OU supporter. Their daughter is an OSU graduate.
Hayes said the Bedlam football game has always been a must watch matchup in her home. She is disheartened that the annual home and home series will cease after Saturday.
“Every year we look forward to Bedlam, cooking out, and having a good time with our friends. There always is a group of OU and OSU fans so it is just so much fun,” she said. “It’s just a big disappointment.”
Hayes knows OU wants to go to the SEC “but I don’t know that they are going to want to get their butt handed to them in that new conference. But they will, so maybe they will be back. Maybe this won’t be the end of it.”
Kauffman also enjoys the back-and-forth banter with OSU friends, as well, and said it won’t be the same if the Sooners and Cowboys are not playing each other in football.
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“Honestly, I love the ripping,” he said. “I love the year-round crap talk, for lack of a better term.”
OSU fan Rick Morris, of Purcell, also roots for the Sooners, except when they are playing the Cowboys. The Bedlam football game is his favorite each year.
“I hate to see it ending,” he said. “We are on the losing end of it most of the time, but I still look forward to the game every year. I am a little bit mad it is not going to happen anymore.”
He is upset that OU and Texas are leaving the Big 12. He blames Texas for the end of the Bedlam series.
“I think if Texas wouldn’t have gone (to the SEC), OU would have stayed,” he said.
Cox has been an OSU fan since growing up in Stigler. He looks forward to the Bedlam game the most on OSU’s schedule each year.
He has attended more than 20 OU-OSU clashes, even driving to Stillwater for the game each year while living in Illinois.
“Regardless of whether we were going to get our butts kicked or not, we loved going to the Bedlam game,” Cox said. “You always knew it was going to be a great week.”
Cox would love to see the game continue as an annual non-conference contest, but realizes the changing landscape of college football likely will keep that from happening.
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“I am not bitter at OU (for going to the SEC),” he said. “If that’s what they want to do, that’s what they want to do … Am I going to miss it? Yes. Is it going to upset me? I will move on because that is what the game is today. I will adapt.”
Steve Buck, of Oklahoma City, an OSU football and basketball season ticket holder, has similar feelings about the Bedlam football series coming to a close.
“I’m disappointed but understand the economics of the situation for OU,” Buck said. “I hope football renews in the future, but I am not consumed by it.”
Buck is confident Bedlam will continue in other sports such as basketball, baseball and softball.
As far as football, his dream scenario is that the next OU and OSU football game after Saturday will be in the college playoffs.
Record also hopes the Bedlam series will resume as a non-conference game in the future.
“It will make our schedule look much better than putting a South Dakota State on there,” he said.
Kauffman said Florida and Florida State are not in the same conference, but play each other annually. He doesn’t understand why OU and OSU can’t do the same.
“I will miss the matchup,“ he said. “Do I think we will revisit it one day? I certainly hope so.“
Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State
KICKOFF: 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater (ABC)
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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU football, Oklahoma State fans' feelings mixed about Bedlam's demise
