The battle of the crimson and cream. This weekend I was lucky enough to attend the OU versus Alabama game and it was absolutely mind blowing. I got there at around 4 o’clock, with plenty of time to spare until kickoff, so my friend and I went to one of the sports bars on campus corner called Louies. There was a surprisingly fast wait considering the traffic, however we were also a party of two. The game-day menu was rather large considering the surrounding options and we stayed for a little less than an hour and a half. The food was good, but we were also just starving so that could have been clouding our judgement. And we got the wrong drinks, other than that though it was a fine meal. We left the campus corner area around 5:40 p.m. to head towards the stadium since kickoff was in around an hour. This however was the first sign of trouble.
There were lines leading across the lawn and into the roads, all converging into the one mass near the gates along with the ticket scanners and it seemed not to be moving at all. It was dark and hard to see what was going on but as we neared, the stadium lights lit the surrounding areas and we could see everyone. We were shocked to see such an outpour of people behind ,and ahead of, us. It was okay though, because we ended up befriending the father son duo behind us. We spoke about everything from baseball to Formula One racing, and theorized about the issues with the gates. The pair speculated some gates were closed however no other sources corroborate that.
After an hour's wait, we made it into the stadium after kickoff, which was disappointing, but not that big of a deal. We found our seats and got comfortable. Alabama was the first to put points up on the board which was a scary sight. It wasn't a touchdown but it was worrying nonetheless. Slowly but surely, even though we missed a few touchdowns, our lead climbed until it was 24 to 3.
If we are being completely honest, nobody honestly expected OU to win. Not even diehard OU fans like myself. We were all there for a good time. With 28 seconds on the clock though, the crowd was ecstatic. Even before, you could see fans abandoning their seats and flowing in crowds down to the edge of the stadium waiting to get their feet on the field. The school started flashing preemptive warnings on the screens, asking fans not to rush the field for safety reasons. Fans were determined though and rushed early in fear that they would be stopped if they waited. Breaking a twenty four year streak of behaving, they took down goal posts and met players in the center for a party. After a while the university gave up. They took down the threatening warnings and began panning cameras over the stadium, and playing house music, while they captured the insane view. It was a historic moment that I am so thankful to have witnessed first hand. Boomer Sooner!