As you would imagine, there have been many thrilling games in the Oklahoma football rivalry with the Texas Longhorns.
The series dates all the way back to 1900. Texas was dominant in the early years of what is today known as the Red River Showdown. The Longhorns prevailed in 20 of the first 30 games with Oklahoma. The Sooners won nine and their was one tie.
After 42 games, the Texas advantage had swelled to 29-11-2. Because of that early domination, the Longhorns still lead the overall series 62-49-5. Since the 1948 season, however, the second year under legendary head coach Bud Wilkinson, Oklahoma has defeated its longtime archrival 38 times, lost 33 times and battled to a tie in three other games.
During the Big 12 years when Texas’ Mack Brown and OU’s Bob Stoops patrolled the sidelines for their respective teams, the Oklahoma-Texas game most often involved two ranked teams, and numerous times the winner would go on to capture the Big 12 championship.
My lifetime has spanned well more than half of the 116 games in the OU-Texas rivalry, and I believe some of the better games in the overall series have occurred in the Barry Switzer and Bob Stoops eras of Oklahoma football.
Here are the five best Oklahoma-Texas rivalry games I can recall seeing, in no particular order, all of which have happened in the last half century: