I distinctly remember sitting in my La-Z-Boy on October 7, 2023, watching the closing moments of the wild and wacky Red River Rivalry (the annual game between the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas) played in Dallas’ Cotton Bowl Stadium before a crowd evenly split between Crimson and Burnt Orange.

I thought about two things in that moment:

• First, why do we continue college starting games before noon local time? This one began at 11 a.m. in Dallas purely to genuflect to the demands of big television. Seems as though college games should kick off between noon and 8 p.m. local time.
• Second, watching Sooners’ quarterback Dillon Gabriel finding Nic Anderson in the back corner of the end zone with 15 seconds left to seal a 34-30 Sooners’ victory, I wanted to be in the stadium for one of these some day.

Fast forward about one year and look where I found myself … in Section 134, Row 23, and somewhere near Seat 13 in the Cotton Bowl, surrounded by Oklahoma Sooners’ crimson-clad OU fans.

How it Happened

In looking at future college football schedules last winter, I saw the date October 12 for this border showdown and filed it away for future consideration. It wasn’t until late spring when the final Permian High School schedule was set and that it had a home game on Friday, October 11, and this jaunt to Texas would be a twofer that I locked it in.

And when the NFL blessed us with its 2024 schedule in mid-May and I saw that my hometown Detroit Lions would be in Dallas on October 13, well, that was simply icing on the cake.

The traveling party came together pretty quickly.

The best man at my wedding, Wayne, was in. His now 29-year-old son, Macker – a Sooner graduate who never made the 3-plus hour trip south from Norman for the Red River Rivalry – was also in. Rounding out our quartet, was my former co-worker Rob Byrd who’s goal is to see the Lions play in every NFL stadium. Rob had not yet checked Dallas’ AT&T Stadium off his list. OU versus Texas was simply a happy bonus for Rob.

Whose Idea was This?

After picking Rob up at his hotel in Arlington on our way back from West Texas (see Part 1 of Event No. 8), we made our way to a commuter train station to begin our trip to the Texas State Fair.

Yes, you read that correctly. In order to attend the Red River Rivalry you need to go to the State Fair. (And everything’s bigger in Texas, right?)

Every year this showdown has been played since 1929, it’s been in Dallas, and every year since 1930 on the grounds of State Fair.

Which, after experiencing it in person, is absolutely nuts!

^{Clockwise from left, the concourses of the Cotton Bowl Stadium are fairly narrow for 92,000-plus fans to navigate; the view of the crush of fans attempting to get in the stadium from above; that same mass of people from ground level; amazingly, due to renovations, one of the routes to the stadium was through the food court.}

Think about it. You bring together the Texas State Fair, a major college football rivalry, and – by the way – basically an auto show and rodeo inside the fairgrounds … what do you think you’ll get?

If you answered “absolute mayhem,” you’re correct.

Did I forget to mention the Cotton Bowl is undergoing renovations at the moment as well?

Ugh:-(

Macker warned us that he’d heard even at its most efficient getting into the Cotton Bowl was challenging. Suffice to say, Saturday, October 12, 2024, was not the Cotton Bowl at its most efficient.

Simply stepping off the train and getting directed to the correct gate was, shall we say, interesting. It only got more challenging from there. All totaled, for Rob and I, it took us about an hour to get to our seats after disembarking.

What none of us could fully grasp were the families that were attending the State Fair on Red River Rivalry Saturday. Mind you, they weren’t attending the game, they were there for the rides, the food, the exhibits. Never mind that 92,100 other folks were coming there for an entirely different reason. There are 23 other days to attend the State Fair, why are people choosing this one!?!

What the infusion of spectators and Fair goers created was something akin to gridlock the closer one got to the stadium. Mind you, we picked Rob up from his hotel in Arlington (just 21 miles away) about 11:30 a.m. and, I kid you not, Rob and I arrived at our seats fewer than 15 minutes before kickoff.

That said, we did make it in time to see the bands pregame as well as the military flyover near the end of OU’s playing of the “Star Spangled Banner.”

^{In the ongoing nod toward neutrality, both bands (Oklahoma, left, and Texas) had pregame and halftime performances.}

What an Environment!

The challenges of getting to our seats aside, once in the Cotton Bowl, the environment was as previously witnessed on TV.

That is, electric!

As you’d expect for a neutral site league game it’s almost as though a line is drawn up each side of the stadium at the 50-yard-line and tickets are allocated equally to each university.

Macker, OU alum that he is, was insistent we sit on the Oklahoma side and that was A-OK with my budget. Though ranked No. 18, tickets on the Sooners’ side were a minimum of $100 cheaper than those on the top-ranked Texas’ side.

Boomer Sooner

Texas won the game, 34-3, and, hard as it might be to comprehend, Oklahoma actually led after the first quarter, 3-0.

In hindsight, perhaps Macker – and the other 45,000 or so Sooners’ fans – should have ventured out to the State Fair for food and beverages after those first 15 minutes. While OU fans dared to dream, its true freshman quarterback, Michael Hawkins Jr., was under duress all afternoon and was realizing a nightmare scenario and could never get the offense on track.

Beyond its pregame and halftime peformances, the OU band never got bust out its fight song. Likewise, the Sooner Schooner sat, in neutral, the entire game but that might have been a nod to the heat as well.

My Goodness it was Hot

Did I mention the heat?

The high in Dallas was 93 degrees and, with seats in the east grandstands and a kickoff at 2:30 p.m. local time, we got to enjoy every degree of it. (Suddenly I was a fan of 11 a.m. – or even 10 a.m. – kickoffs!)

Compounding the heat was this fella in a red shirt who appeared with a digital clock when there was a stoppage of play. I referred to him as “TV Timeout Dude” (and may have uttered an expletive each time he appeared). Basically, the sign he toted onto the field at about the 20 yard line informed the onfield officials how long the media timeout was going to last. The first time he appeared his sign read “3:25.”

Those consistent breaks, which seemed to be front-loaded in the early part of the game when viewers were still assured to be tuning in, made for an insufferably long first quarter which, by my watch, lasted nearly 50 minutes (for 15 minutes of game action that had just three points scored!).

Gameday Dress Code?

Macker passed along the memo that – due to the half of the stadium I was seated in – I should wear red, but he failed to note that I was to be dressed to the nines.

Now, it’s been a minute since I’ve attended a college football game and during those games I was typically in Big Ten country so take this for what it’s worth, but I’ve never seen as well-dressed spectators as I did in the Cotton Bowl Stadium that afternoon.

The number of skirts and sun dresses paired with cowboy boots was off the charts. And then there were the half-dozen or so fellas who wore blazers, ties, and jeans (was later told they were probably fraternity pledges). Needless to say, the 93-degree heat likely treated the former better than the latter.

When at the State Fair …

… one must eat interesting foods, correct?

It only made sense.

Afterall, our ticket to the game included admission to the State Fair, so we headed into, perhaps, the only place in the vicinity that was hotter than the Cotton Bowl Stadium’s east grandstands: the Food Court.

Unlike the stadium heat, there was zero breeze inside the Food Court and, apparently, someone ordered extra humidity because it felt Amazonian Rainforest-esque.

Also, inexplicably in the Year 2024, all vendors at the State Fair utilized the ticket/coupon system. That is, we were required to purchase ticket strips from a kiosk for a dollar apiece. Nope, there were no deals. Ten for $10, 20 for $20, 60 for $60 … you get the idea. And, because food and drink were at different (and not divisible by five) price points, attempting to come out with a nice round purchase(s) was nearly impossible.

Nevertheless, we succumbed and strapped on our feedbags following a long, hot day of football watching.

^{Some of the food we sampled, clockwise from upper left, Birria Taco Deviled Eggs from So Eggciting Deviled Eggs; Cotton Candy Bacon on a Stick from Who Dat Daquiris; Fried Apple Cinnamon Crepe from Crepes and Company; the Rise and Shine from Holy Biscuit; and Pickle Pizza from Pizza by the Giant Slice.}

A Few Final Images

^{Clockwise from upper left, a few Longhorns’ fans were in our area, this fella had a good day; the exterio of the Cotton Bowl Stadium post-game; a view from the last row in Section 135 down to the Texas State Fair; the Red River Rivarly logo at midfield; near game’s end, many of the Sooners’ faithful had departed.}

• Next Time: How ’bout Them Lions!?!