Spreading out all over South Florida

If you’ve been reading our stories on the Oklahoma-Florida game, you’ve been seeing a lot of different datelines. I know it has to be confusing. So I thought I would explain.

MIAMI — This is the big place, of course, but relatively little has taken place in Miami proper. The Sooners flew into Miami’s airport, so the arrival stories were set here. Nothing else.

MIAMI BEACH — This is the famed incorporated city that stretches thinly out from Miami, with Biscayne Bay on the west and the Atlantic on the east. South Beach is here. Jackie Gleason’s theater is here. And the Fontainebleau Hotel, home of OU’s Orange Bowl trips since the 1950s, is here. Any story stemming from OU’s hotel had a Miami Beach dateline.

FORT LAUDERDALE — Media headquarters is at the Marriott Harbor Beach on this other resort spot. Fort Lauderdale has become a huge city in its own right. Three pre-game press conferences are held in Fort Lauderdale.

MIAMI SHORES — OU’s practice facility, at Barry University, is here. It’s just a suburban municipality, same as a Moore or a Choctaw.

MIAMI GARDENS — This is home to Dolphin Stadium, and it didn’t exist until recently. Dolphin Stadium was built in an unincorporated area. Most people called the stadium in Miami. But several census-designated places that wanted better representation consolidated and incorporated. Places like Andover, Opa-Locka North and Carol City, the latter of which produced former OU nose guard Johnny Lewis in the 1970s. Anyway, the new city was named Miami Gardens.