Stillwater / OSU

[Blackshirt]

Article Published: Monday, November 10, 2003

big 12 football

Little ditty sets the tone to Stillwater

 

Country tune sums up Cowboys

 

By Bill Briggs

Denver Post Sports Writer

 

STILLWATER, Okla. - An hour before the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma State Cowboys kicked off, I was buzzing down Peaceable Acres Road in my rented Ford F-150. (Hertz threw in a free hound dog and gun rack along with unlimited miles).

 

As I sipped my Cowboy Springs premium bottled water, a country-western song crackled on the AM radio. The tune was hauntingly familiar but the words were new and strange. The ditty was about - what else? - losin,' lyin' and drinkin'.

 

Garth Brooks' alma mater marked stop No. 10 of The Denver Post's tour of Big 12 football venues.

 

Oklahoma State has had a long, strange trip of its own: a flirtation with success during the 1980s Barry Sanders era, a bottoming out in the early 1990s following a cheating scandal and, now, a renewed taste of the good times. The whole roller-coaster ride has been washed in country denim - a laid-back and durable corps of fans.

 

Coming off a 52-9 loss to Oklahoma, the home team needed some perking up, the DJ said. So he was dedicating the ballad, "Stillwater Blues," to coach Les Miles, his players and all the fans filing into Boone Pickens Stadium.

 

It mirrored the melody to "Your Cheatin' Heart" and now I can't get the stupid thing out of my head:

 

Their hats were orange

And their mullets brown.

Still Sooner-bruised

Like rodeo clowns.

 

Now the 'Horns rolled in,

A burnt-orange flock.

How they needed this:

A Chance to Mock.

 

So they settled in

To their bleacher seats.

Cheered the home mascot

Named Pistol Pete.

 

Sporting black mustache

And cowboy hat:

Village People style

But firing a gat.

 

With Bullet the horse

And Pete's quick-draw charms:

A celebration of

The right to bear arms

 

'Course it should be known

A way back when,

The REAL Pistol Pete

Once killed five men.

 

Back to the game,

A real butt-whippin.'

To buy Les a clue

We should all chip in.

 

Cuz the Pokes' boss, Miles

 

Saw his defense drown.

But so much worse:

Outcoached by Mack Brown.

 

Texas ran wild

And boos could be heard.

Boone Pickens cleared

Halfway through the third.

 

But you never should

Expect no greater

In a place named for

A corporate raider.

 

'Least they're scandal free!

And no 10-loss seasons.

Like after boosters

Did some palm-greasin'.

 

See in '89

To bring touchdown spikes,

They gave free money

To Hart Lee Dykes.

 

So no postgame smiles.

No Heisman pose.

Bought a girl a beer

At Eskimo Joe's.

 

But not Cowboy Springs

Should I have bought her,

Cuz the more she drinks

It is Stillwater.

 

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,3...1756625,00.html