Oklahoma Sooners

We have written up columns for the next few months, and will be proof reading them and preparing them for publication over the next few weeks. We will get it all done real soon. For the summer, we are planning to have three short columns, ones that will mainly consist of just the puzzle itself. The first summer puzzle has a beach theme, and the second one a game theme. The third is still work in progress.

While we are on the topic of games, it would be good to say a little something about Oklahoma Sooner football and even American football games in general. A football game in Norman or Austin is much more than a game. It is a celebration. The long running rivalry between the University of Oklahoma-Norman and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln no longer exists, since it has now been replaced with the Red River Rivalry, but when it was around, it was one for the ages. Here is a clip from a 1986 game.

   

Even people from Europe typically don't realize how big these football games are as events. A game between these two teams from relatively small towns, Lincoln and Norman, the former with a population of about 250,000 and the latter with about 100,000, is quite a spectacle even on TV. Being a part of the spectacle was eye opening for me when I was in America fresh from India. To me, it was proof of the robustness of the American economy that these relatively small towns are able to stage high attendance games through the football season and yet have all the pomp and pageantry that you might only expect to find in games having large metropolitan area audiences. The rivalry game is often the most closely fought one in the football season, and all the big universities have a rivalry game. In the big rivalry game, the wins are to be cherished and celebrated and the losses are never to be forgotten, decades to come. You really have to see it to believe it.