This one is for everyone (most upvoted responses will get put in a post on the site).
Give me your favorite Bedlam memory. I’ll start.
Justin Gilbert going 89 yards with 2:50 left in 2010 to make it 40-38. That was before I started this site. Maybe it’s why I started the site. I’ve never been that excited about any play in any sport ever. Loved Gilbert, hated that OU team, believed OSU could do the impossible with three minutes left and Blackmon dragging his gimpy leg all over BPS. Those OSU teams were so good.
When I think of Bedlam plays there are a couple that really stand out, Bradford flipping through the air, Broderick Brown to Shaun Lewis interception (craziest play i’ve ever seen live), but I think my favorite memory was 2011, Richetti Jones sack and score. It was the greatest moment of OSU’s greatest Bedlam game in their best season. Finishing that game thinking that was it, the Cowboys were about to win their first National Championship.
Looking back at the game, this OU drive chart is delicious:
Punt
Punt
Interception
Punt
Punt
Fumble
Punt
Field Goal
Fumble (Jones TD)
Fumble
Punt
Punt
Punt
Interception
Rushing TD
Storming the field in 2011 after the greatest game I’ve ever been to. Seeing the goal posts being marched around the field. Giving a high five to an alumnus I had never met and him saying “Ya baby!”.
I was lucky enough to be in the stadium for the Tyreek punt return. The silence and the shock in that moment were great, but OSU still had to get a stop to end regulation and then find a way to exercise a century of bedlam demons in OT. The play that I remember from that game as “holy crap, this is actually happening” was when Hunnicutt missed the field goal to open OT fo OU. The Tyreek punt return was pure elation, but when the kick went wide you just knew it was your night.
I’ve never been so sure that we were going to win Bedlam than in 2010. That was in Stillwater, correct? If so, that was the longest drive back to Ardmore I’ve ever had. Would also be why I didn’t go back to Stilly in 2011. Couldn’t bear the thought of being disappointed again.
Mine is sappy but just winning 2011 and getting to celebrate it with my dad. We were at the game, and at halfway through the 2nd quarter, I was starting to think, “Holy crap we’re actually going to win.” My dad just kept telling me to shut up because game wasn’t over. With him being an #old and having seen some OSU heartbreak in his life, I don’t think he started celebrating until we were up 40 with like 3 minutes left.
Afterwards, my dad and I charged the field and I just remember him telling me to enjoy that moment because he had been waiting 50 years for it. I don’t think I really fully grasped it at the time how crazy it was for OSU to win, but I just remember it meaning so much to my dad and I’m glad that is who I was with to experience it.
2011 - Landry Jones weird fumble/pass right by their own endzone, where Richetti Jones scooped and scored. That was great, but during OU’s next possession, even though I was watching on my TV, I could hear and almost feel the excitement of the crowd that was there.
Unfortunately, I’ve never been lucky enough to attend a Bedlam game and see the Pokes win. But my favorite memory was in '04. My dad (Class of '71) had moved back to Oklahoma that spring, and it was the first OSU game we were able to attend together in Stillwater.
Obviously, my dad was an OSU fan, being an alum. But he didn’t live and die by the Pokes like I did. He’d been a part of the John Brooks radio team for OU football in the early 80’s, and was a bigger OU fan. He wore GREEN to the game, claiming he couldn’t wear either school’s color, but he was rooting for OU because they had “more on the line, nationally”. Gross.
However, long before Prentiss Elliot came thisclose to hauling in a last minute bomb from Donovan Woods to win it and Jason Rix missed a 49-yd field goal to tie it, my dad realized the error of his ways. His blood returned to the brightest of orange, and there’s no chance it ever changes back.
We’ll be back in BPS this Saturday for our 9th Bedlam game, both sporting the most beautiful colors God created. I’d love to get my first Bedlam win, spoil any playoff chances OU has, and punch Chuba’s ticket to New York. If it happens, does the 2019 Bedlam edition surpass 2004 as my favorite Bedlam memory? I doubt it. But man, it’d be cool to see it live with my dad.
This explains my 2011 experience as well. I’ve sat in the stands many times with my dad over the years watching Cowboy football. This by far was one of the best memories I have watching football with him. I remember jumping up and down and high fiving with every big play. Many years of frustrating losses and finally getting to celebrate a championship was unbelievable.
I have to go with the Tyreek Bedlam. I was watching at home and jumped up and yelled at the TV as he ran it back. When we hit that winning FG, though, I screamed so loud I nearly passed out.
I wasn’t able to be at the game and as a fellow #old like your dad I was not confident in that 2011 win until deep into the 2nd half. I think that win - and watching the fans storm the field - is clearly my #1 Bedlam memory. A dominant win when we still had everything on the line (not a spoiler win).
Yeah and when you think about it, we will never get to experience something like that again. With the conference championship game now, we will never beat them in Stillwater for the Big 12 championship. So I think there is something special about 2011 that will always make it my fondest memory. I hope I can experience 10 more OSU Big 12 titles, but I don’t think any of them will be like 2011.
I was watching on TV with my boys and we lost our minds just as you described on Tyreek’s punt return. Then my out-of-state daughter called since her streaming feed had stopped. So she listened to to OT on speakerphone and could not tell whether Grogan hit the FG or missed it since we were so loud the audio was distorted on her end. Was a good minute or two before she actually knew that he hit it.
Caleb Lavey whiffing on Blake Bell in ‘12. He makes that tackle we win 2 bedlam’s in a row and maybe ‘13 ends differently. Had a chance to win 4 in a row and Gundy is looked at in a whole different stratosphere of oSu coaches!
My favorite memory was the win in 2011. I was stationed in the Middle East and 5 months into a 12-month tour away from home. The game kicked off on December 4, 2011, at 0400hrs my time. I woke up and watched the game on the American Forces Network knowing that I had to go straight to work after the game. The game provided a “mental break” for me - keeping quiet so I wouldn’t wake other people who were sleeping was quite the challenge. Wins in Bedlam had been (and still are) few and far between during my lifetime, so the timing could not have been better. For the remaining 7 months, Brandon Weeden’s jersey hung in my dormitory window as a reminder of OSU’s win to all the OU fans stationed with me (see picture).
*My duty location had really good amenities, the only hardship was being away from family
Sitting through the first half of the 1985 Ice Bowl game. The bleachers had 2” of ice on them and sitting down melted the ice and then you had a wet cold butt. I did have a pair of waterproof ski gloves so I sat on my hands. No one could get traction but Thurman, it seems like he had a decent game but I can’t find stats. In any case, he was the only one that could get outside and turn the corner. It was raining and freezing the whole time we were there. We held out fir the first half then went home cold and wet. I know we didn’t win but that miserable experience is etched in my brain.
