OU’s Pride of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University’s Cowboy Marching Band will take over Boone Pickens Stadium Saturday morning for the second annual “Bedlam Flag Football.”
The event will be followed by a barbecue benefitting El Sistema Oklahoma, a nonprofit that offers free music opportunities five days a week to students attending Oklahoma City Public Schools.
Caden Chase, a music education senior and a member of the Pride of Oklahoma, said this is his second year running the marching band’s flag football league.
“We’ve had a flag football league in the (OU) Pride for five or six years now,” Chase said. “This is the second iteration of Bedlam Flag Football.”
According to Chase, the idea for the event began in a conversation between Chase and his friend who attends OSU. He said the Cowboy Marching Band formed a league based on the Pride of Oklahoma’s flag football team.
“(The Cowboy Marching Band) didn’t have something like this, but I had always talked about how much fun I had doing it, so he started a league there last year,” Chase said.
The two bands also held the first “Bedlam Flag Football” last year. Chase said it was an informal game, in which a few people traveled from Stillwater to Norman to play flag football on the marching band practice field. Now, Chase wants to turn the social event into something more impactful.
“Last year, it being their first year playing and with no Bedlam football game, we wanted to come together as a way to kind of bring it back,” Chase said. “(This year), we wanted to kick it up a notch.”
To do this, the bands selected a nonprofit to support in Oklahoma City. Chase said they chose El Sistema as the fundraiser recipient because the nonprofit aligns with the missions of many OU School of Music organizations and the OSU School of Music.
“It’s a national program, but we chose the Oklahoma City chapter,” Chase said. “(It) provides music education services to underprivileged students.”
The organization holds music classes and rehearsals for kids five days a week, Chase said.
“As students in college, whether music majors or not, who get to do marching band at this level and get to have an experience of wealth because of it, it would make sense that we come together and use that shared powerful influence for students who don’t necessarily have the same opportunities,” Chase said.
This year’s Bedlam flag football game will take place inside Boone Pickens Stadium, OSU’s home football stadium.
“I’m incredibly excited for what the event has become. We found out last week that we got permission to play inside Boone Pickens Stadium,” Chase said. “Never in a million years did I think it would actually happen.”
The attendance for the game is free, but all proceeds from the barbecue following the game will go to El Sistema. The barbecue itself has been funded independently by greek life chapters within the music communities at both universities.
Chase said one of the music fraternities is hosting the post-game event and collecting donations for El Sistema. The nonprofit also accepts donations through its website.
A flyer promoting the event writes that donations allow the organization to provide free music and instrument lessons, composition and fundamental classes, performance opportunities, ensemble experiences, and instruments including repairs and maintenance.
“Within both of the schools of music at OU and OSU, we have four greek chapters, two at each school that serve the marching band and two school of music affiliated chapters. All eight of the organizations have been the primary donors,” Chase said.
In total, the organizations have raised $650 to cover the materials for the game and the barbecue, according to Chase.
“The organizations that have donated have agreed that whatever is left over will be part of the donation (to El Sistema),” Chase said.
Charlie Harris, commissioner of the Cowboy Marching Band flag football team, wrote in a text message to OU Daily that the collaboration between the two organizations has been one of his favorite college experiences.
“Being able to coordinate such a large-scale collaboration between our two bands has been one of the most special experiences of my time in college,” Harris wrote. “This is going to be an incredible celebration of pageantry, athletic tradition, and love for music. I am beyond honored to be part of bringing Bedlam Football back to our band programs.”
The flag football league of OU’s Pride of Oklahoma marching band is entirely student run and Chase approximated that 30-40% of the marching band participates in the games.
“After rehearsal, we’ll set up the (marching practice) field to have cones. It’s like a seven versus seven sort of thing,” Chase said. “It usually goes by (instrument) section. The clarinets have a team, some have two teams together, like the melophones and tubas have a team.”
Chase said it’s fun to have something in addition to rehearsal that brings people together.
“I try to kind of market it as a way to get to know people in your section better, but then also as a way to get to know people across the band,” Chase said.
The flag football game will be at the Boone Pickens Stadium and the barbecue social will be at 121 S. Knoblock St.
This story was edited by Thomas Pablo and Natalie Armour. Gretchen Schultz copy edited this story.
