The Oklahoma Bedlam football game marks one of the biggest rivalries in the state and fans from three generations back still take it seriously. Players for both teams, Oklahoma State University and The University of Oklahoma, will meet Saturday in Stillwater at Boone Pickens Stadium at 7 p.m. Everywhere you look in Oklahoma people are either dressed in orange or maroon.
The same is true inside The Montereau retirement home in Tulsa on 71st and Granite. OSU and OU fans who went to the universities in the 1940s and 1950s still walk around in their OSU and OU attire.
“I think we are going to have a pretty tight football game tomorrow (Saturday),” said Gordon Holland.
Holland played quarterback for OU in 1941. He only played one year before he was called to fight in World War II.
“I think it's going to go to the fourth quarter. I don’t think there is going to be more than a 13-point difference.” Holland knows his Sooners well. “We have a good defensive team but we've lost three of our outstanding offensive players.”
He is worried about the Bedlam game, but also happy to see the strong rivalry continue at the retirement home, as if nothing has changed in the last six decades.
“I like to tease with Bob,” said one retired OSU fan to another retired OU fan.
Another former OU football player from 1943, Robert Stover, remembers his fondest moment on the field.
“First game was against Kansas and I went in as substitute and intercepted a pass,” explained Stover. “My only moment of glory!”
Stover has been a fan long before he even attended OU. He remembered listening to OU games called on the radio in 1937.
Betsy Cutchin also lives at the same retirement home. She is the wife of the late coach Phil Cutchin. He died in 1999. He coached the OSU Cowboys from 1963 -1968. Mrs. Cutchin remembers beating OU in 1965 and 1966, but she is nervous for this Bedlam game.
“I don’t know how I feel about that game,” says Mrs. Cutchin. “I am a little bit on the edge. I can never pull for OU.”
She explains how the players her husband coached still treat her well and have even created a scholarship at OSU in Coach Cutchin’s honor.
“Phil's players have been so dear to me. They are just like my children. Some of them are 65-years-old now, but I love them dearly.”
She then turned to her other OSU friends and said, “Let’s hope they play like they did against Kansas State, and Texas.”
