While Oklahoma Christian University celebrated its homecoming festivities with colorful floats and basketball victories, three hours away in Stillwater, OK, two Oklahoma football teams met Nov. 4 for the 112th time in an annual battle known as Bedlam.
The University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University, both in the Big 12 Conference, met at Boone Pickens Stadium in what Bleacher Report calls “one of the greatest rivalries in college football.”
Sophomore Ashton Nemeck attended the game and said Bedlam perfectly describes the atmosphere of the game because of the total chaos of the fans.
“It was really intense, and where I was at, everyone hated Baker Mayfield,” Nemeck said. “I was really far away from the section where OU people were. They were yelling very mean things that I won’t repeat, but they also passed around like 2,000 of Baker’s mugshots and would hold them up every time he would throw. It was insane and really intense.”
The two football teams first played each other in 1905. However, the term “bedlam” rose from the rivalry between the Cowboys and Sooners wrestling teams and the crowds in attendance at those sporting events.
Over the years, the University of Oklahoma remains dominate in the Bedlam series with a winning record of 85-19-7.
On Saturday, the Sooners maintained their superiority with a 62-52 victory over the Cowboys. In a game ruled by the offense, the two teams combined for a total of 1,446 yards.
Freshman Julia Moore attended the game and said both teams were bad on defense.
“It was such a high scoring game, which was really surprising,” Moore said. “But basically each team would run down and score a touchdown, and then the other team would do the same thing. There wasn’t much defense.”
Senior Mackenzie Marquardt’s cousin plays on the defensive line for Oklahoma State. She said she believes Oklahoma State’s defense did not perform that poorly, but rather the University of Oklahoma’s offense played better.
“I think Oklahoma State’s defense is extremely good,” Marquardt said. “I think OU just got lucky with a couple of plays and they just ran it the whole way. It was definitely like a score-score game, back to back.”
With 2:56 left in the game, Oklahoma State threw an interception to University of Oklahoma’s Trey Brown.Then, the referees called targeting on University of Oklahoma’s Will Johnson. After reviewing the play, the officials confirmed the targeting occurred before the interception, so Oklahoma State maintained possession of the ball with the chance to win the game.
“Oklahoma State messed up in really key areas, like at the end of the game when they threw the interception and then got it called back,” Moore said. “They had like two minutes left. They could have scored a touchdown and won the game, but they screwed it up.”
The atmospheres at Division 1 games such as Bedlam was described as “intense” and “insane,” compared to Oklahoma Christian.
Nemeck said Oklahoma Christian needs to get more people to attend the games to improve the atmosphere, because more people bring more noise. Moore also said Oklahoma Christian needs to advertise the games more.
“Sometimes I don’t even know an event’s going on until right before, then I can’t go,” Moore said.
Despite the difference in environments and sports, Marquardt said she still would choose Oklahoma Christian over any school.
“I realize that OC was my calling,” Marquardt said. “I don’t think I could survive at a big school, and I think I was placed at OC for a reason. It is fun to go and experience those things, but then go back to OC.”
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