My second trip to Texas was in 1973 when I was a student at The University of Oklahoma. Some friends and I drove to Dallas on a Friday afternoon with plans to see OU play Texas in the Cotton Bowl.

Wow.

The Bedlam game between OU and Oklahoma State is a storied and intense rivalry but OU-Texas not only matches two major football universities but two states.

Driving south on I-35 in 1973, the fun started as there was an informal parade of Sooner fans. Some had messages painted on their auto glass and some had OU flags attached to their antennas (cars had antennas back then).

We got to our hotel and went to eat at a Mexican restaurant. Of course, we ran into Sooner fans decked out in red leisure suits (people wore leisure suits back then) and there were Longhorn fans wearing cowboy hats and western boots.

The back and forth conversations with the Texas faithful was generally cordial until later on Friday night. After dinner, we drove downtown to the infamous Commerce Street that was chock full of fans from both teams. People were walking faster than the cars were moving. We rolled our windows down and cheered with fellow Sooners and jawed with Longhorn fans.

We didn’t drink but a lot of people were drunk. Really drunk. In fact, the Dallas Morning News used to report the next day on how many fans were arrested for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct on Saturday morning.

The game usually started at 11 a.m., so we had to get up early to eat breakfast and start driving to the Cotton Bowl. The Texas State Fair is always underway at the same time as the OU-Texas game and that makes driving and parking a nightmare.

We slowed to a crawl about three miles from the fairgrounds and that last stretch took almost an hour.

All the regular parking lots were already full so we paid some guy $10 to park in his front yard. (Ten bucks was a lot of money to pay to park back then).

Our student tickets also gave us access to the fair, which surrounds the Cotton Bowl itself. The crowd was overwhelming. You literally could not take a step without almost running into someone.

We made our way to the stadium and were fortunate enough to be by an entrance used by the teams. The OU buses pulled up and out walked former OU coach Barry Switzer, followed by LeRoy Selmon, Joe Washington, Steve Davis, Jimbo Elrod and a lot more highly talented Sooner players.

The Texas fans booed and some shouted comments I can’t repeat in a family newspaper.

Then the Texas buses pulled up. Texas coach Darrel Royal and the Longhorn players got out and got similar treatment from their fans and verbal abuse from the OU faithful.

People were not drunk enough to start any fistfights but they would be later.

Oklahoma won the game, 52-13.

I was hooked.

I had seen my first OU game in Norman in 1970 but this was a unique experience. Every year, OU gets half of the tickets and Texas gets the other half. Half of the stadium is decked out in crimson and cream while the other half is in burnt orange. The dividing line is the 50-yard line.

When the OU band came on the field, half the crowd erupted in cheering. Ditto when the Texas band paraded out.

This was pageantry befitting of the most storied rivalry in college football.

Texas invented the wishbone offense but Switzer perfected it. OU scored early and then it snowballed.

Throughout the years that I have attended the game in person, the scores are mostly close. OU has blown out Texas a handful of times but I have never seen Texas truly dominate the Sooners.

Regardless of the record before the game or the national ranking, this is a game both teams target and must win. They are playing for state pride, for recruitment and for a chance for the Big 12 Championship (it was the Big Eight in 1973).

Needless to say, the Longhorn fans were not happy after losing 52-13. There was probably a traffic jam on the road back to Austin. Whenever I have attended that game, if OU wins, we stay in Dallas and have a nice supper and celebrate. If Oklahoma loses, we head straight north out of Dallas and we don’t stop to eat until we cross the Red River.

Texas A&M got mad at Texas a few years back and abandoned the Big 12 to go to the Southeastern Conference. In retribution, Texas privately vowed to never play them again and that ended another storied rivalry.

As contentious as OU-Texas is, I hope those teams keep playing forever. OU is heavily favored this Saturday.

We win most of the time and that is a whole lot of fun.