on losing

My favorite football team, Oklahoma State, is a fun team to watch. But then we play the Big Three! I watched us play Nebraska for over 30 years before we beat them the first time and I think we have beat them about 3 times. We have only played Texas since the Big 12 was created and we have beat them twice (including this year). Then there is the University of Oklahoma. Since my first year of college until now, O-State has beat OU 8 times.

Eight times in 45 years is not much of a record. This brings me to my point, O-State fans don't hate the Sooners, we hate playing them. We are so used to loosing to them that we deep down expect something to happen. It usually does.

The two programs were vastly different. In the 1980's I did a lot of work with O-State. OSU's entire athletic budget for all 16 sports (men and women) was half of OU's football budget. The fact that we beat them at all was something to consider. It is the same as a Class A high school team playing a 6A high school team. It doesn't work. Thanks to OSU's benefactor, Boone Pickens, the gap is closing, but the gap is there.

Now, here's the thing OU doesn't just beat the Cowboys, they and there fans do everything possible to make the OSU family miserable. They are very good at it. Buzz words like "Hard to be Humble" and "Sooner Pride" come to mind.

So what's the problem. I can take loosing, I have much experience. It is the "plunder" that takes a toll. Plunder (to take by force) is the stuff that gets old. Example: I worked in a Fort Smith firm after College and everyone there was either Arkansas Razorback or OU Sooner Fan. OSU played both teams every year buy they didn't play each other. I was not just kidded, I was ridiculed. I was told that "I" was inferior because I rooted for an inferior team. I took that crap constantly for three years. The hard part was that when I went to church, I got the same treatment.

Over the years at every church that I have attended, there are always some that treat us as inferior people. As I aged, I put it aside and became smarter and harder. This stuff doesn't bother me like it did, but it still hurts. Today, at church, I watched an OU fan taunt an OSU fan and the memories came back.

The Bible doesn't say much about winning other than winning respect (1 Thes 4:11). But David sums up my feelings about bad treatment by "Friends". In Psalm 55:

"If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it;

if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him.

But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend,

with whom I ONCE enjoyed fellowship as we walked with the throng

at the house of God.

My companion attacks his friends; he violates his covenant.

His speech is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart."

Sports should be just be a sport. In our state it is much more, it's war.

And there is always another year!

PS: I'll lighten up tomorrow!