My OSU Football Story

In light of all of the craziness surrounding OSU’s Football program, I thought I might share my story with you.

Back in Fall 2005 I transferred from Rogers State University to Oklahoma State University. I essentially had a full scholarship to RSU so for a middle income kid like me it made sense to knock out some of my gen ed requirements on the cheap for my freshman year.  I knew when I was a junior in high school and won state for an FCCLA competition held at OSU that one day I would be a student.  I was totally in awe of the beauty of the campus and I just had a great feeling about all of it. I felt like it would be my home. I had no idea how grossly I had underestimated my future experience.  To this day I would be willing to have a larger student loan debt to have had one more year at OSU. All things work out for a reason and they say timing is everything so I suppose I should just have faith that it all turned out like it was supposed to.

I was assigned to the honors dorm. Every stereo type you can come up with about the residents of an honors dorm is absolutely true. There were video games a plenty. I’m actually glad that I don’t have a picture of my room because looking back it’s a little embarrassing. My roommate told me about the bed spread she bought and I bought the same one. I had the room decorated so cute, but more so if you were 14 instead of 19. I quickly abandoned that décor but I realize now that I was a little overzealous. I don’t know if Tisha M. reads my blog but I will always remember her for this. She was hanging out in my room and I asked her “So…. Do students like… actually buy tickets to the football games? Is that a thing? Would you say it’s worth the money? I pay my own bursar so I just don’t know…” I’ll never forget the look on her face. After a dumbfounded pause she replied “Yes.”

I had NO CLUE college football was a thing. I had heard people argue about OU vs. OSU and I never got what the big fuss was all about. I’m a first generation college student and I spent much more of my childhood in rodeo arenas than I ever did at sports complexes. So… yeah, I was a little oblivious.  Forget about tailgating. I mean, I knew what a tailgate was, but I took the whole thing a little too literally.  I can thank the Durant family for helping me realize what fun fellowship before games could be like.

I can also thank Meredith for her patience in teaching me what on earth 1^st down and 10 meant (you mean, they could literally, at least potentially have 40 downs in a single play??? Now wonder this game is so long). She also taught me to wave the wheat.  Gosh I had so much fun with Abbey at games. She taught me to clap for Martel Van Zant, the deaf football player by waving both of your hands in the air. That one still makes me want to cry just thinking about it. 

Fast forward to 2007. This is the year we (my sorority- ADPi) did Homecoming with the Delts. The World’s Largest Homecoming. I didn’t want to do Homecoming with the Delts that year because we had decided to do it with them the previous year and they backed out and did it with Zeta and I always thought that was shady. I hold grudges so I didn’t want to give them another chance.  Well once again, and fate would have it, I never knew how much that decision would change the rest of my life.  The story of how Matt and I met is for another blog post (I actually like to tell more personal stories like these ya know, in person) but what I can tell you is that the series of events leads me to be continually grateful. 

So… Shanna… what does this have to do with football? Well it was Homecoming for football so I am technically staying on track.  A week or so after homecoming was over I got a text on my cool flip phone from Matt (that I later learned took him 30 minutes to perfect).  He asked if I wanted to sit with his family at the upcoming football game.  I knew that they had club seats. My first thought was I’m not worthy! I thought of Matt’s friend Scott and how I knew he deserved to sit in those nice seats so much more than I did. Sorry Scott, I took him up on the offer. Thanks for taking one for the team =). 

Our First Football Game. 

This is waving the wheat.

I met Matt’s parents that day and I’ll never forget his dad introducing me to their shih-tzu, Pete, as Matt’s little brother. Oh my, they’re those kind of people. Dog people.  Dog people who name their dog after the team’s mascot.  Fast forward to 2010, we got a shih-tzu and named him Pistol. He lights up my life.

Since that day I have sat in the same seat for 32 games and have developed so many fun memories. I have yelled and cheered and laughed.  I have invested in relationships, such as my husband, my in-laws, the great people we sit by, and our friends. We all come together at game time.  Come fall we are called home to Stillwater. Our engagement party was even a tailgate. 

This whole ordeal with Sports Illustrated is frustrating, concerning, and disheartening. There’s still a lot we don’t know about the sources of information, and the things to come in future publications this week. I told Matt last night before the first publication that I hope that the allegations aren’t true, but if they are, we deserve what is coming to us. Cheating isn’t right and I don’t support it. I just can’t imagine a world where OSU is a bunch of true, low-down cheaters.  I don’t want to win if cheating is what is required. And why the heck would they cheat? Don’t we have the most advanced facilities in the nation? Have we spared any expense?  I mean, it seems to me that a pay check is the only thing that our athletes don’t get. We’re from Stillwater, land of truly good people. We’re better than that. Or at least I hope so.

But the thing is, no matter what comes out about our sports program, it doesn’t change our institution.  Football is an integral part of the college experience, but it is a far cry from the only experience.  No matter what, Stillwater will still be a great place. It will still be my alma mater and no matter what university I attend, from RSU, to OSU, to Veritas to Texas Tech, I will always sing: “Proud and Immortal, Loyal and True.”

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Bandwagon Fans Need Not Apply

Welp, the big game has come and gone. Of course I’m referring to Bedlam. Where OSU and OU go head to head and dole out bragging rights for the next year. What’s a little interesting is who actually gets the bragging rights. Is there really a “we” when you didn’t attend the university? Maybe never even saw the town where the university resides? I mean, there’s a few exceptions. You can be a die hard fan if you didn’t go to the school, I’ll give you that. But I think that to be “die hard” you have to do a little more than contribute to the university through a couple of t-shirt sales throughout the year. If you’re going to talk the talk, you need to go ahead and walk the walk. For example, my mother-in-law didn’t go to OSU, but after 30ish seasons of OSU football attendance (and I mean attendance, not watching on TV), and sending three kids there, I’m not going to try to take that away from her. She earned her “we” in a pretty serious way. But this is all really just a side note and some ramblings that have been wandering around in my head for a while.


The truth is, I really didn’t have the time to go to Bedlam this weekend. It could not have fallen on a more terrible weekend! What happened to Thanksgiving weekend? You know, the one where we’re already in town?? I just looked at my odometer and it says 12824.9 and we bought the car at the end of July. We’re dedicated. Well Matt is, He’d go with or without me (and actually did for the K-State game!). This week is finals week and it’s going to be a trip, but how could I justify missing the biggest game in OSU history? How would I explain that to my kids? So we packed up early Friday morning and headed to God’s country (I sincerely miss Oklahoma). We got to watch Joe play the first home game of his senior year, where I thankfully held it together (if you think I’m proud of the Cowboys… let me tell you how proud I am of that kid). They won! Great start to the weekend (furthermore, my Aunt came so that was a bonus!).

Then it’s time to head to Stillwater. My little brother is planning to attend OSU and went with some people from Inola to go to the game. He watched it at the tent at Eskimo Joes. What a game for his first OSU football experience! Wish he could have actually been there. Next year though! He’ll probably be one of those nuts in the freezing cold painting their bodies orange. I’ll be so proud. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings (is there a better game day location?) and met up with my cousin and her friend. We decorated Pistol in his best game day attire and walked around campus where it was confirmed that we have the cutest dog on the planet. He even did his infamous trick! Pistol, would you rather be a Sooner or a dead dog? Then he rolls over and plays dead. He's so smart.

We met up with Matt’s parents and headed to the game. The nerves started setting in. But at lunch my cousin had told me so matter-of-fact-ly, “We’re going to win.” No questions about it. She had made up her mind and our bad attitudes weren’t going to help the situation. So I decided to take her lead. So we took our seats and watched senior night and thought about how much the season had meant to us. Those guys, win or lose, had worked their behinds off and played with nothing but determination and heart.

Now, let’s talk about what happened after that. I struggle with my thoughts on OU and typically feel that the actual people of OU are pretty decent and it’s their rotten fans that are in no way affiliated with the school that give them a bad rap. One of my bridesmaids was an OU graduate and her husband made an excellent point that people in Oklahoma treat OU as their pro team because we don’t have one. See? Rational people. Great people. Well, I read an article in the O’Colly this week that was in the OU newspaper that was nothing short of arrogant and rude which made me think that maybe I’m giving OU too much credit. THEN, before the game started, OU came out and ran all the way down to our end zone where our players were about to come out. They kneeled down to what seemed like praying (but why would that in our end zone? Isn’t prayer kind of a personal thing and a humbling experience before the Lord? Isn’t respect the point?). Maybe they always do that (Matt edits me), but I don’t get it. THEN after their [fake?] prayer, they move themselves in front of the gate where our players were about to come in, I guess to make a statement. Well I hope the statement was, I just wanna give you a good look at my face before you whip our behind. The arrogance! Why, why, why can’t OU be classy? WHY???????? I want to like them! I want to be one of those, I always root for Oklahoma people, but if they keep giving me reasons not to, then why would I? I was just appalled from the get-go and that’s 100% on them.

We all know how the game turned out, and it was the most fun game that I have ever, ever been to. I am so blessed that I got the opportunity to be there. Watch the goal posts come down. Sing the Alma Mater with my family in unison with 50,000+ people. That’s a memory I’ll never forget.

The next 7 days are going to be miserable. I have a mountain of work to do. But you know, I’ll always have work to do and experiences like this only come along every once in a great while.

But I don’t think I speak for just myself when I say, listen Sooner fans. Don’t give up on “your” team. You stand by them and be who you need to be. Here at Oklahoma State University, we uphold a standard that you’ll never understand and frankly, we don’t want you to.

See ya next year.

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