The Oklahoma Bedlam Football Game is the annual battle between the Oklahoma Sooners and the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Although historically the Sooners have had the greater success, recent years have been marked by tough competition and a nearly even win record for both teams in the game.
Bedlam has been known to divide friends and families between the colors orange and red. It fills the sportscasts for a week as both sides make derogatory remarks about the other. It leaks from the radio waves on sports talk, the analysis and the predictions. In the end, it will bring a year long celebration for one and disappointed shame for the other. It is Bedlam.
There isn't much more hyped in the state of Oklahoma than the Bedlam game. Along with the emotions, it also brings various ad campaigns and sales events as everyone milks it for all its worth. But in the end, it's a football game, one charged with emotion and carrying serious consequences.
You will struggle to find an Oklahoman, even one who doesn't care much about football, who hasn't chosen sides on the issue. People who get along famously year round will shrug their shoulders and frown at each other when "the game" rolls around. Bedlam is for Oklahoma bragging rights, and nobody ever knows what to expect.
The 2008 Bedlam Football Game will be played on Saturday, November 29th in Stillwater. Game time and television information have not yet been announced.
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History
100 years old in 2005, the Bedlam series has historically been dominated by Oklahoma, who owns a first 99 year record of 76-16-7 against the Cowboys, formerly Oklahoma A&M. Since 1995, however, the series has lived up to its moniker in a better way.That was the year that a Bob Simmons-led Oklahoma State team shutout Howard Schnellenberger's Sooners in Norman 12-0. The victory was widely celebrated in Stillwater, of course, and signaled more parity between the two teams in the coming years.
From 1995-2004, no team had won more than 2 games in a row. Oklahoma, almost always favored in the game, has blown out the Cowboys during that time on an occasion or two, but they have also been upset. One of those upsets came in 2001 when Oklahoma was closing in on a trip to the National Championship game. Freshman QB Josh Fields hit Rashaun Woods for a TD in the 4th quarter to give the Cowboys the 16-13 win.
The very next year, OSU won yet again in a 38-28 game that wasn't as close as the score indicated. The Sooners, though, would go on to win the next five straight: decisively in 2003, by a nose in 2004, ending the "no more than two in a row" issue with a large margin win in 2005 and apparently returning to their previous dominance with 27-21 victory in 2006 and a blowout win in 2007.
