Oklahoma football: OU has lowered the ‘Boomer’ on its Sooner State rival
By Chip Rouse
The Oklahoma football rivalry with Texas is in its 116th year and is considered one of the longest and best rivalry series in college football.
But the Sooners’ continuing series with their in-state rivals about an hour up the road in Stillwater is nearly as old — 115 years this year — and considerably more lopsided. That’s also why what they refer to as the Bedlam Series doesn’t hold nearly the interest outside of the Sooner State that the OU-Texas Red River rivalry does.
The Bedlam Series, which is the term commonly used to describe athletic competition between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State has been a completely one-way affair in football. Oklahoma won 15 of the first 16 games played in the series, which dates back to 1904. The Sooners won the inaugural game, played in Guthrie, Oklahoma, approximately halfway between the two schools, by a score of 75-0.
To illustrate how lopsided the series was in the first 16 years, Oklahoma A&M, as that school was known at the time, did not score its first points against the Sooners until the ninth game between the two in-state schools and didn’t reach double digits in the scoring column until game 21.
The combined score in the first eight games between OU and Oklahoma A&M was 233-0.
Oklahoma has owned Oklahoma State in the Bedlam football series.
Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy has been in the headlines quite a bit over the past week and under fire because of a t-shirt he wore recently displaying the name of a far-right news network. An anchor for that network recently called the “Black Lives Matter” movement a “farce.” Needless to say that sparked a great deal of criticism during this highly sensitive time of social unrest.
That might not be the only reason the former OSU quarterback and a coach at his alma mater for 24 years (the last 15 as head coach) finds himself on the hot seat. Gundy is an abysmal 2-13 against Oklahoma as a head coach.
And it gets even better if you are a Sooner fan. In the 29 years he has been associated with Oklahoma State football as both a player and a coach, Gundy’s composite record against the Oklahoma Sooners, a school that actually recruited him, is 5-23-1.
Mike Gundy’s younger brother, Cale, is a former Oklahoma quarterback and has been an assistant coach at OU for the last 21 years, first with Bob Stoops and the last three seasons with Lincoln Riley. Needless to say, when the discussion of the OU-OSU football rivalry comes up at Gundy family reunions, the Gundry brothers are on opposite ends of the spectrum.
Brother Mikes losses in the rivalry series have been Cale’s gain. Cale’s collective record as a player and coach in games against OSU is 20-4-1. He was 3-0-1 against the Cowboys as a player between 1990 and 1993.
Stoops was 14-4 in his 18 seasons coaching against Oklahoma State, including an eight-game winning streak from 2003 to 2010. Bud Wilkinson never lost a game to Oklahoma State, fashioning a record of 17-0 against the Cowboys.
Barry Switzer’s teams were equally dominant against their Bedlam rivals, going 15-1 against OSU.
It doesn’t seem to matter where the game is played. Oklahoma has had the number of its in-state rivals both at home and on the road. Of the Sooners 16 wins in the last 20 years, seven have been at home and nine have been on the road in Stillwater.
In the last 40 years, Oklahoma State has won five times in Norman, but has only beaten OU in Stillwater three times over the same time span.
If you are wondering, the 2020 game is scheduled to be played in Norman.