Oklahoma Permanent Rivals

Ole Miss Rebels – This game is the first one we’ve looked at that doesn’t make any sense. There is no rivalry between Ole Miss and Oklahoma. They have only played two times EVER!! They are separated by ~550 miles. I think the Head Coach of the Rebels, Lane Kiffin had it right when he said “Yeah, Oklahoma is really disappointing,”. “We don’t have anything in common with them or our fans, so that doesn’t make any sense at all. So, that’s unfortunate, with so many great teams that we’ve played for a long time here, especially from our SEC West years. That’s unfortunate.” 

There are a lot of people out there saying Alabama or Arkansas would have been a better choice for the Rebs. Oh well, we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Maybe someone will say something stupid and create a rivalry out of thin air. I don’t think Brent Venables will do it. Lane Kiffin certainly doesn’t mind talking, but he rarely says anything that isn’t true, much less stupid. It irks this MS State guy to say that! Lol!

Missouri Tigers – The rivalry between Missouri and Oklahoma isn’t a typical SEC rivalry. This one originated in 1902. It was played annually from 1910-1995 only missing 1918 due to World War I. In 1995, the two schools joined the Big 12, but in different divisions. This created a scheduling anomaly. The teams played a home-and-home series with two years in between each series (1998–99, 2002–03, 2006–07, 2010–11).

In 2012, Mizzou withdrew from the Big 12 Conference to join the SEC and the rivalry again fell into uncertainty. As it turned out, there really wasn’t any uncertainty at all. The teams just didn’t play each other for 12 years. Then low and behold, Oklahoma jumped at a chance to leave the Big 12 and join the SEC beginning league play in 2024, paving the way to reignite the annual skirmish fought over their 34 mile shared border.

The coolest rivalry trophy was played for by the two schools from 1940-1974. A peace pipe, in the form of a tomahawk that belonged to Chief White Eagle of the Pawnee tribe. The peace pipe was believed to be over 100 years old at the time it was donated in 1940. The reason they don’t play for the pipe still is, in my opinion, both tragic and scandalous, but that’s a story for another day.

As of 2024, the Sooners lead the all-time series over the Tigers 67-25 with 5 ties. This year, the skirmish happens on November 22 in Norman, OK.

Texas Longhorns – Now THIS is a proper rivalry! “The Red River Rivalry” as it’s called now, is one of the truly great rivalries in all of sports let alone college sports. The University of Texas at Austin and Oklahoma University  first played this game in1900 and it has been contested in Dallas, annually, since 1929. 

As well as for bragging rights, the two schools play for the coveted “Golden Hat” trophy which is awarded to the winner on the field after each contest. 120 times these titans of college football have met with Texas owning an advantage in the series, 64-51 with 5 ties.

This is the only rivalry game that I can speak about with personal memories. I was actually blessed with tickets from a friend of mine. My wife and I went with he and his wife and my life was changed forever. It was 1987 and we had just moved to Irving, TX the year before. The State Fair of Texas and “The Red River Shootout” as it was called back then was almost too much for this country boy from Mississippi to take.

I remember it was a gorgeous October day and my wife was asking lots of questions about the game. She wasn’t totally clueless about football, but her knowledge was built around her little brothers playing in high school. We met while at a university that didn’t have a football program, so that didn’t help. The crux of my knowledge as a child was from my dad’s love of the New Orleans Saints. So as I answered her questions, a man in the row in front of us kept turning around and telling her that I was wrong about pretty much everything. I think my wife believed him to be right, but she thought that I was being chivalrous by trying to help her. Of course, I came away feeling like an idiot. The stuff you remember sometimes, huh? I can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday, but I remember that from 38 years ago! Lol!