One of my favorite days of the year, the day of the Red River Shootout.  For those of you that don’t know, once a year folks from the University of Oklahoma in Norman and folks from the University of Texas in Austin meet in Dallas at the Cotton Bowl to play for bragging rights.  Not to mention, there is 350 lbs of beef riding on this outcome.

Why Dallas?  Back in the day, the two schools wanted to play each other but the distance was really far, so they decided to meet halfway in Dallas.  As a matter of fact, the folks in Norman, OK have to travel 7 less miles than the folks in Austin.

The atmosphere is great because this game is played in Fair Park, where the Texas State Fair is out in full force and this year’s meeting between the two teams was the 101st.   Texas leads the series 57-39-5.  It’s great because you know both sides know the joy of winning, and the agony of defeat.

One of the things I really like about this is how the Cotton Bowl divides the the stadium right on the 50 yard line.  As you can see, one side is burnt orange the the other is crimsom.

There has been a lot of talk about moving this game between Austin and Norman, swapping each year, but that talk totally sucks the lifeforce out of me.  The tradition is too rich for this to happen.  There is also talk of the game being moved to the new Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington set to open in a couple of years; but if that happens, you lose the atmosphere of the Texas State Fair and the feel of tradition at the Cotton Bowl, even if it’s old and out-dated.  Why didn’t the Cowboys just move back to the Cotton Bowl and do a fixer-upper?  Because the leadership in Dallas sucks in short.

This is what I like about it when my team is winning when the clock runs out – a lot of empty seats on the losing side.

 

Now, if only the Cowboys beat the Eagles, that will make my weekend complete.