The UTD Mercury

Issue date: 10/18/04 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Aidan Skoyles Sports Editor Richard Voit ventured to Dallas´ West End during the Texas-Oklahoma pre-game party wearing UTD apparel. Reactions to the Comet fan ranged from apathetic to confrontational.

Some were clever: "Two, four, six-eight-ten, OU women look like men."

Others were tastefully short: "Texas sucks."

Still others sounded like an A&M graduate starting to spell football: "F UT."

The Red River Shootout, as it is so dramatically titled, is that once-a-year excuse to publicly say things like this in the name of football.

Of course, what I am talking about is the annual college football game between Texas and Oklahoma, played in our very backyard at the Cotton Bowl in Fair Park.

But as seasoned TX-OU veterans know, by the time the game kicks off Saturday morning, the fun is already starting to wind down.

If you go the West End the night before the game, you know what I mean.

The streets are lined with rabid fans becoming progressively more inebriated while swearing on all things holy that their team is the Good Lord's gift to football.

I thought this year should be a little bit different. This year, fans shouldn't have to choose one or the other. There should be a third option.

So feeling very much like a Ralph Nader supporter at a bi-partisan brawl, I ventured down into the middle of the crowds. I was, of course, decked out in my UTD finest and exuding my share of Comet pride.

I don't know if I got more weird looks because I had a pom-pom sticking out of my hat or because it was green and orange.

Talking to some fans, I discovered just where UTD's place is in the Texas-Oklahoma rivalry.

"As long as it has UT in the first two letters, I'm cool with it," one Texas fan told me. When asked if his allegiance spread even to UT Permian Basin, he replied, "Yeah, UTPD too." UTPD indeed.

One OU fan said that as soon as UTD gets a stadium, he would graciously allow his team to come down and play us. Another assured me, "We play you guys every year, and we beat your (hindquarters)."

After explaining myself repeatedly to another Sooner loyalist that UTD was in fact different from UT, he said, "Okay, so you're neutral, then you don't matter - OU's going to win."

Now I can't attribute all of these seemingly silly quotes to the lack of intelligence of the fans - after all, the Aggie faithful were in Ames watching their team play Iowa State.

Copious amounts of alcohol played a huge part in the 'quotable responses.' Even at five dollars a bottle, the beer was flowing like wine.

But alcohol can't be the sole scapegoat, because most people seemed of relatively sound mind.

In six short words, a fan with a beer in each hand summed up the whole party better than I ever could.

"I'm not drunk," he said, "I'm just intoxicated."

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