OU Football on Campus Corner in Norman, OK

Excited to be headed back to Campus Corner for the OU-Tulane Game where I’ll be hanging out with Thomas Lott and Barry Switzer during their broadcast.

Welcome back. Last Saturday was the opening football game for the University of Oklahoma and the Sooners didn’t disappoint their fans. A sold-out stadium meant parking was at a premium and that’s where I’m starting this week’s column. A good spot right next to the stadium where you wouldn’t be blocked in by other cars, where you could just walk a block, jump in your car and drive off cost forty-five dollars. Two to four blocks away there were parking spaces in business lots or in the front yards of private houses for twenty-five dollars. Spaces five to nine blocks away were going for ten dollars and if the Sooners keep winning these prices may go up. Several long-time parking attendants told me that will change if they lose and prices will go down of course.

I had been invited to join past OU quarterback Thomas Lott on Campus Corner which is the place to be for pre-game activities and friends even at 8AM when I got there it was busy. I circled several blocks hoping to find a free parking spot on the street close by but no luck. Then a cop suggested an area five blocks away where I found one and only one.

Thomas and Barry Switzer do a live TV feed and radio show from Campus Corner during the game and this would be my location for selling my book Footprints in the Dew which by the way is about the most famous unsolved murder of an OU student in the history of the school. I am also helping Thomas promote his new book called Getting in the Game and Joe Washington with his memoir the Seven Secrets of the Silver Shoes. Was I busy? Yes, I was but I did find that about thirty minutes before the kick-off Campus Corner clears out. Following tradition, the OU Drum Corps Band started playing right there in front of Thomas, Barry and me. Then they began marching toward the stadium which is only a few blocks away and in unison the crowd followed them. Not hundreds but thousands of people marched past us and it was quite a sight. Just moments before all those people had filled the street around us yelling Boomer Sooner and now it was empty.
It was also time for Thomas and Barry to get to work; TV cameras and big screen TVs were hurriedly set up all in anticipation of the kick-off which was now just minutes away. The two had done this during last season and they knew the drill but it was all new to me. Called “Barry Switzer’s Coaches Cabana” during every home game, they do a play by play not in the stadium but on right Campus Corner and I was right in the middle of it. Throughout the game other people drop by including past players, coaches and even a couple of local celebrities. It’s all quite a deal and that leads me to this week’s scoop. If you want to go to a game but not actually go in the stadium you can join me on Campus Corner with Thomas Lott and Barry Switzer. No ticket needed just bring a lawn chair. When the game starts it’s just you and a couple dozen others watching the game on the big screen and listening to Barry give the play by play ten feet in front of you. You can hear the crowd roaring from the stadium just feet away but you need to be prepared to pick up that lawn chair as soon as the game ends because Campus Corner gets flooded by sea of humanity again.

Fun? You bet and it’s the best people watching place I’ve ever been so grab your walking shoes and join me. The next home game is September 16th when OU plays Tulane.

Till next time, I’ll see ya down the road…….
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One thought on “OU Football on Campus Corner in Norman, OK

  1. Dale: This is Don Renfro over in Mulberry, Arkansas. Today, I purchased another book from a murder/mystery writer by the name of Anita Paddock. She was a guest speaker at our Crawford County Genealogy meeting here in Alma, Arkansas. She lives in Fort Smith and this is her second book to be published. This book is entitled “Closing Time”, her first book was a best seller entitled
    ” Blind Rage”. These are stories that happened in Van Buren, Arkansas, and she knew all of the local people that was involved. I think the books are well written.
    I told her about the book you have written, and she said she had a copy of the Mullendore Murder.
    She said she would like to read “Footprints in the Dew”, so I told her I would send her my copy for her to read.
    I gave her your address, so she could talk with you about the procedure you use in selling the books.
    Let me know if she contacts you.

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