Last October I accompanied my two sons to the OU-Texas game at the Cotton Bowl. Though I'd watched countless playings of the game on television, I had never attended in person until now. Wow! What intensity of spirit between the crowds rooting for their team! Save for time outs, we stood for the ENTIRE game. Previously I thought only cadets and midshipmen at the service academies (and maybe Oakland Raider fans - you know, the real football crazies) engaged in shows of loyalty to this degree . . . hunh unh. Everyone - all 96,000 plus (a record for the game) - were on their feet the entire time.

If you're unfamiliar with the venue, what with OU located in Norman and the UT in Austin, Dallas is close to being halfway. After playing the game in a variety of sites, to include Dallas in 1912, beginning in 1929 the game took up permanent residence in Dallas and in 1932, the Cotton Bowl - situated in the midst of the Texas State Fair Grounds - became its permanent home, at least through this year. However, in 2010 the game will shift to Jerry Jones' glass and metallic spaceship a.k.a. Cowboys Stadium. But wherever it's played, one rule will still apply: half of the seats go to Texas and the other half to Oklahoma. Am not sure what next year's attendees will think of this change but I for one will miss Big Tex, the 52 foot tall statue that has peered down with seeming approval on fans and fair goers since being erected in 1952. Somehow, with Big Tex and the midway's fried dough, fried corn dogs, fried corn and fried-who-knows-what-else deserted for classier digs, it just won't quite be the same.

Another thing I could go with though, regardless of the site, is for the Sooners to BEAT Texas for I am a true "Sooner born and Sooner bred." Rah Oklahoma - OKU!!

With this patently partisan shot at UT and all things Texas, we begin our series on sports rivalries over the years. Whether college or high school, team rivalries are real and and deeply engrained in our sports culture. Got a favorite rivalry to share? Let us know and we will tell your story.