OU football: Meet the Sooners Day a success

Meet the Sooners Day was vastly different this year. Moved to Saturday from Friday, because of the academic schedule. Moved to underneath the stadium, instead of the rugby fields, to avoid the blistering sun. And moved to children only — no autographs to anyone over 14 — because of the expected rush of the crowd set up by a weekend date.

And from all reports, it went swimmingly. Much cooler than in recent years, even though this is the hotter’n hell heatwave. One OU official said Bob Stoops really seemed pleased with the proceedings. Stoops is normally fantastic with small groups or individual fans, but big crowds can sort of turn him off. Yet Stoops seemed to enjoy the day. “We probably took care of 10 times more children than we would have if we did it other way,” Stoops said. “That was positive. And we had the children out of the heat under the stadium.”

4-year-old Carson Jackson of Moore carries a poster to be signed by OU players at the University of Oklahoma's Meet the Sooners Day at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman on Saturday, August 6, 2011. Photo by Zach Gray

At one point, a fan handed Stoops a screaming baby. Stoops took the baby and posed for a picture, all in stride.