Last Saturday, we had a surprise home game. It’s football time in Oklahoma! The student section was a completely different experience than attending games as a kid. Listening to the band, singing the alma mater, and cheering on the players made college finally seem real. I live here. I belong here. I am part of this.
For some of my friends, this was more than their first time in the student section. It was their first time attending a game in Gaylord Memorial Stadium.
I talked to Sam Flowers and Reese Pokluda to get an idea of how game day on a college campus compared to their previous football experiences.
Sam grew up in a small town in Oklahoma. Her high school did not even have a football team.
“I would go to the other school’s football games”, she explained, but that was the extent of her football exposure. Still, Sam had high expectations for Sooner football, and Saturday’s game did not disappoint.
For Reese, the game could not live up to expectations. Reese is from Texas. When we met up to talk about his first college football game, he was decked out in full Dallas Cowboys attire.
“I don’t care about college football,” he told me. “That’s just how it is. After you go to an NFL game, you’re just unimpressed by a college game.”
I have never been to an NFL game myself, so Reese explained the difference to me.
“The music is louder,” he said. “The atmosphere is very different. But also just watching, the game is so much better in the NFL.”
Reese is more into the sport itself than football traditions like singing along with the band, doing the cheers, or standing up in the student section for hours on end.
For Sam, though, The Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band and the energy of the student section were the highlights of the day.
“Being a student here then going and sitting in the student section definitely felt like i was part of the game,” she said. “The heat was the worse part. The only reason why I left.”
The heat did not stop Reese from staying for the entire game. This is a matter of principle that I respect, though I will admit to leaving before the fourth quarter ended. Reese filled me in on what I missed.
“It did get exciting at the end, but it shouldn’t have.”
That was just the first game. We are ready for Saturday, even if Reese claims he is only coming back because he gets in free as a student athlete. The energy in Norman is building, and it is once again time to cheer on our Sooners. That leaves only one thing left to say…
Boomer!