End of Bedlam?: An oral history of OU's in-state rivalry with OSU, uncertain future

One of the longest tenured rivalry games in college football, which has been played uninterrupted since 1910 and alternates between two campuses, is ending. At least for the near future.

The Bedlam Series, which pits two in-state rivals — Oklahoma and Oklahoma State — hasn’t historically been competitive, as the Sooners hold a 91-19-7 record in the game.

The Cowboys are being left behind in the Big 12 as OU moves to the SEC next season and OSU’s Power Five non-conference slate is scheduled out until the late 2030s.

Since the Sooners chose the money, prowess and competition of their new conference that ‘just means more,’ no one knows for sure the next time the two schools will play football against one another.

For now, Oklahoma State will aim for not only its 20th win at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Stillwater on ABC, but bragging rights for the next several years or decades until the two foes meet again.

Dan Cody, former OU linebacker (2000-04): “I can't believe we're not playing these bozos anymore. It's terrible.”

Curtis Fagan, former OU wide receiver (1998-2002): “I'm shocked. … I didn't even realize. I thought that they had worked something out. I'm actually more shocked. I'm telling you right now — probably tonight — I’ll be discussing this with my wife, who also played played softball at Oklahoma.”

Trey Millard, former OU fullback (2010-2013): “I think it's really sad. I just hope that in the SEC, (which) has their rivalry week with South Carolina and Clemson and Florida vs. Florida State… I pray that's something that we can do in the future because it's a great game for the state of Oklahoma.”

Mykel Jones, former OU wide receiver (2016-19): “It just sunk in (this week). I'm indifferent because there’s just so much history that's been involved with that game, so many great games have occurred between both of these teams. It's going to take some getting used to not seeing that on our schedule yearly.”

Tim Duncan, former OU kicker (1999-2001): “It'll be different. I think the whole season will be different next year, it's going to have a completely different feeling, obviously being in a different conference. So, there's a lot of rivalries over the years that stop … I'm sure we'll develop another rivalry in the SEC and we'll have Texas as well. So, rivalry football is not over.”

The game has always meant more to players who grew up in the state. For the Sooners’ final Bedlam matchup as a Big 12 member, Oklahoma’s five captains announced Monday are all Oklahoma natives.

Defensive ends junior Ethan Downs (Weatherford) and redshirt senior Trace Ford (Edmond) and sophomore defensive back Gentry Williams (Tulsa) will serve as OU’s defensive captains vs. OSU. Wide receivers sophomore Gavin Freeman (Oklahoma City) and Drake Stoops will lead Oklahoma’s offense. Freeman’s father Jason played in the rivalry for the Sooners and Stoops grew up attending games as his father is Hall of Fame coach Bob Stoops.

Mark Clayton, former OU wide receiver (2001-04): “I was actually born in Oklahoma and just having ties there and then knowing the relationships and the closeness of “Okie State” fans to Sooner fans and the in-state rivalry is always awesome. And as always, there’s an electric atmosphere and it’s a game that you want to have and you look forward to in that season. It’s crazy that that won't be the case for a while, year after year.

Eric Striker, former OU defensive end (2012-15): “The people of Oklahoma love it. Everybody loves it. The teams love it. The players love it. I mean, I'm gonna miss it. It is gonna be missed, because I know the intensity behind this series. It's a great rivalry.

Michael Hunnicutt, former OU kicker (2011-2014): “Really disappointed that it's ending. It means a lot to the state. It's fun — I grew up in Dallas, so not as much — but the people that grew up in Oklahoma knew a lot of people on the other sideline, or at least students on the other team, had friends that had all their parents on Oklahoma State. So it’s just fun and the in-state rivalry is always a big game. First is Texas to me, but always second is Oklahoma State.”

Growing up in Coalgate watching every Bedlam game, Cody wanted to play for Oklahoma State as his uncle played in Stillwater. However, he was never offered.

Cody: “(Then-defensive coordinator Rob Ryan), he really liked me. I saw him at the (NFL Scouting Combine) years later and he said he would’ve offered me but the Pokes didn’t want me.”

With Texas being Oklahoma’s main rival, some players didn’t appreciate how much Bedlam meant to both programs until long after their playing days.

Jamelle Holieway, former OU quarterback (1985-1988): “I didn't understand it until life after football and just how dear football is to both sides. But you know what? It's only one side, though, that’s always victorious. I think they beat us once every 33 years. You know, every 20 years, something like that. So it's gonna be a good game, but in the end we’ll prevail.”

Striker: “Even now man, ever since I stopped playing, those OSU games that I reflect on, I had some of the best games and best times in my life playing football, especially during my senior year when we played out there (in Stillwater). It was just a party. Like I said, there is nothing like going out dominating and winning that game and winning the Big 12 because usually the Big 12 is on the line.”

With the series’ record so lopsided, many Sooners fans have questioned the rivalry’s validity. OU players and fans often refer to Oklahoma State as their “little brother.”

Clayton: “I always considered it us playing our little brother and we won't get to beat up on little brother as much as we used to.”

Barry Switzer, former OU head coach (1973-1988): "I only lost one game to them in 16 years. (There were) games scheduled that were certainly more important, Texas and Nebraska. Oklahoma State was a third prong game in importance to us. … I don't think much about it. It's going away and somebody will replace them."

For Casillas, he was recruited every day by Oklahoma State in high school. Former OSU head coach Jimmy Johnson would deliver him chili dogs. Once Switzer offered him, however, he immediately chose the Sooners.

Casillas: “Who doesn't know anything about Oklahoma? They were the blue bloods of college football. I used to dream about playing for them. When I went to Oklahoma State, I understood it. With the campus and the coaches, I really felt like that was a good place for someone to go that didn’t have the chance to go to Oklahoma.”

That sentiment rang true for players who played versus the Cowboys in future contests.

Fagan: “At least it was said (to us), Oklahoma State players wanted to come after us because they wanted to be at OU. That was sort of what was told to us.”

Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy made headlines this week for comments he made during his weekly press conference. Gundy, who has coached 19 Bedlam games and played in four, downplayed the rivalry’s importance in 2023 and mentioned legendary OU linebacker Brian Bosworth.

Gundy says the two spit in each other’s faces during one of their matchups. Casillas remembers things differently.

Casillas: “I've never even heard of that. And honestly, I would have heard about that. I think that that's something that was just fabricated. First of all, I don't know why he's bringing it up now because it's a couple guys who have been out of football for a long, long time and to bring it up now, I don't know if it's to deflect on what may happen.”

True or not, Gundy’s comments stirred up emotions from numerous former Oklahoma players.

Holieway: “I gotta be politically correct. I can't say what I really want to say. As long as they have Mike Gundy, they will never win a championship because he choked when he played against us. He’s gonna choke when he’s coaching.”

Brent Burks, former OU offensive lineman (1980-84): “When Mike came onto OSU I was already gone. I always stayed in touch with a lot of my younger teammates. Mike was always just kind of like a little banty rooster. … I've met Mike a few times and know Mike, and we knew a lot of the same people. But anyway, Mike was always kind of cocky anyway, a little bit of a banty rooster.”

Casillas: “If he was spitting in Boz’s face, shoot, man, Brian would have had that roid rage, and he would have kicked his ass.”

The former OU defensive lineman thinks Gundy’s comments have taken away from the pageantry for what is potentially the final game in Bedlam history.

Casillas: “I think that's what Gundy is forgetting. It's a game for the fans, so they love it. They embrace it. Just because he's gotten his ass kicked — his record as a player and a coach is 6-25-1 — that shouldn't take anything away from it.”

Bedlam has offered the nation some of the most exciting games in college football history. For example, the 1985 Ice Bowl. OSU’s turf was covered in a thick sheet of ice. The temperature at kickoff was 27 degrees, with a wind chill of 10. By halftime, it was 23 degrees with a minus-four degree wind chill alongside constant freezing rain.

Oklahoma went on to win the game 13-0.

Casillas: “Every part of the human anatomy was frozen. I mean, everything. It was just atrocious. I've never seen the weather change quite that fast.”

Switzer: “That was the worst game we ever played in. But, the officials did a good job of letting players scrape the snow and ice away to get a footing before a play.”

Another example came during the 2001 season, when Les Miles’ three-win Cowboys upset the No. 4 Sooners in Norman, knocking them out of the Big 12 Championship Game and ending the defending national champions’ repeat hopes.

OSU wide receiver Rashaun Woods caught a game-winning touchdown pass and left Owen Field silent. Oklahoma players who played in the game described it as “deflating.”

Cody: “What I remember is that was the most deflated I've ever seen OU’s stadium. I’ll never forget the contrast between all that orange jumping up and down … It wasn’t even the silence. (It was) a deflated stadium. Like silence means you may still have a little something underneath you. Deflated means the wind was out of our sails, dog.”

Clayton: “That finish in the corner of the end zone was just deflating. So deflating. They sewed up the energy that they had and what they played with, to be tough and just stick to it. Man, I mean, they sure had a hell of a day.”

Duncan: “That was a rough one. If I remember right, that was the first home loss we had in a while. That was kind of the nail in the coffin that allowed us not to go back to the Big 12 Championship Game so I remember being let down for a few reasons because number one, that was the last time that I played on Owen field as a senior and then also the loss to our rivals. I was pretty tough as well. It's kind of what football teaches, you're down a little bit but you gotta get up and move on.”

When asked this week to recount a Bedlam memory, OU head coach Brent Venables, the Sooners’ defensive coordinator from 1999-2011, pointed to the ‘01 game.

Venables: “We had really good teams, they beat us straight up. We were all mad … Like it was a fluke, but they really beat us straight up. They whooped us.

“ … It doesn’t do me any good to reminisce. I need to focus on this week’s game.”

Fagan: “I went to this Father's Day event and there were a couple guys who played with the Miami Hurricanes. We were talking about how we were supposed to get to play each other (in the national title game) and how we lost to Oklahoma State and that ruined it. But, kudos to them. They did their job. They ruined our season.”

Clayton: “Coming off having won a national championship, the expectations are high and our ego was our ego. And our expectations were that it was just a game to get through. … That is the thing I think that is the blow to the ego.

“ … We were right there. That's the last game of the season, we would’ve had to go to the Big 12 Championship Game, but you're at the end of the season and it's like, man.”

Another memorable game came in 2013, when this time OU ruined OSU’s chances of clinching a Big 12 title. Quarterback Blake Bell found wide receiver Jalen Saunders in the end zone for a touchdown before the Sooners’ defense recovered a fumble to seal it.

Hunnicutt earned his own shining moment when he caught a touchdown pass on a fake field-goal attempt. The score tied the game 17-17 with 2:36 remaining in the third quarter.

Hunnicutt: “Coach Stoops came up with it during the Thursday practice, and we ran it four or five times, and I never got the ball. It was always supposed to go to one of the two tight end options at the time. … It was a really fun and great experience.”

After sealing the victory with his fumble recovery, Striker remembers Oklahoma State fans pelting him with a mix of snow and ice balls.

Striker: “They threw ice snow at me. Man, those people are crazy. We celebrated at the end of the game, and they were dead serious about throwing it. If that snow ice hit you, you're gonna be bleeding and you'll be hurt.”

While Saturday marks the end of Bedlam’s era in the Big 12, many anticipate the two rivals will meet again in the distant future.

Cody Havard, a Professor of Sports Commerce and the Director of Research in the Kemmons Wilson School at the University of Memphis and a college football rivalry expert, sees the animosity only growing as time goes by without Bedlam games. He says this will make the day they meet again more anticipated, similarly to Texas and Texas A&M’s rivalry.

He spoke to OU Daily about the rivalry’s history, conference realignment and the game’s future.

Havard: “It's one of those when you talk about rivalries, most teams have an interstate rivalry if you are the flagship school of the state, so the University of Oklahoma or the University of Texas, that type of thing. And a lot of other universities in every state, they usually have an intrastate rivalry where they're playing a school from another state. And so there's kind of a state bragging rights.

“It's especially relevant for those flagship schools, but then you have your interstate rivalries within the state. So it's bragging rights within the state of Oklahoma. … (State schools) look at (flagship universities) as elite. Those are always really big rivalries and they carry a lot of weight for people in those states.”

Up until recently, Bedlam was the final game on each team’s schedule during rivalry week. Since, the game has moved sooner every year, taking away from the stakes and implications nationally.

Havard: “(Those games) typically had some really big implications. One team or the other is looking to play in the Big 12 championship any given year, or the other might be looking at getting a good postseason bowl, might possibly even be in the College Football Playoff.”

While the game is no longer held during the final week of the season, 2023’s edition of Bedlam feels as important as it gets. Ranked No. 9 in the first CFP ranking this week, the Sooners (7-1, 4-1 Big 12) can’t afford to lose to the Cowboys (6-2, 4-1 Big 12).

Havard: “It seems like once again, Oklahoma is possibly looking at Oklahoma State as trying to ruin their chances and Oklahoma State is looking at Oklahoma saying, ‘Hey, we want to ruin your chances.’

“And those are the fun things about it. If you like the fun competition, going back and forth with people within states, almost everybody knows someone who went to the flagship school or who went to the state school or at least roots for one or the other.

“ … The relationship won’t change just because the game is over. With Texas and Texas A&M, the rivalry didn’t go away, it just went to recruiting.”

When does Havard see the two in-state rivals playing again? Sooner than you’d think.

Havard: “Those schedules get broken all the time. They get renegotiated all the time.”

Another unique perspective Havard brought up was within the world of conference realignment and the ACC and Big Ten’s focus on stretching coast to coast, attendance could start dipping, leading schools to ponder bringing back some in-state rivalry games.

Havard: “Maybe that makes athletics departments worry about attendance. If it does, then that could actually force them to put more focus on those regional rivalries and say, ‘Hey, let's bring back some of these interstate competitions that we have.’

“So I wouldn't say Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State is done. Things are moving so rapidly that it could be a matter of four or five years, or maybe even less before somebody comes to the realization that for fan consumption purposes, we need these competitions back.”

From Clayton to Switzer, everyone will be watching to see what chaos happens this time inside Boone Pickens Stadium Saturday. After all, according to Oklahoma State, the rivalry series received its name after "a newspaper reporter emerged from a wrestling match in OSU’s historic Gallagher Hall (now Gallagher-Iba Arena) and said, 'It’s bedlam in there!'"

For now, former players, coaches and fans will hold on to every second of the final Bedlam until who knows when.

Clayton: “I know they'll do it again in the future. I'm sure it’ll go home and home or whatnot. But you shake your head similar to when Nebraska left the conference. It was just like wow, those games were so monumental and those coaches were of such stature in college football history. It's one of those ones where it's like, man, these two giants, will never fight again in one of the heavyweight battles that people across the country would talk about and boast about and all those things.

“This is no more. So it’s similar to this. (Oklahoma State is no Nebraska by any means, but the history of that game holds a lot of weight in terms of the tradition and what both universities are to that state. So it's bittersweet in that regard, but I know they'll get after it again in the future at some point.”