OU football: Bring back the flags to Owen Field

Anyone remember the flags that once ringed the stadium at Owen Field? Every 5-10 feet, atop the stadium before the upper decks were built, were school flags of OU opponents. I don’t think it was every foe OU had ever played; I don’t think the Kingfisher College crowd made the cut. Maybe it was since the Depression, or World War II. Don’t know the timeline. And I don’t know if it was every opponent since then, or just the visitors to Owen Field.

But either way, it was a cool element. North Carolina. Navy. Notre Dame. Wisconsin. Maryland. Just simple pennants representing the opponents. I thought it added class and color to the game-day scene.

The OU flag is carried accross the field after a touchdown during the second half of the college football game between The University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Baylor Bears at the Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memeorial Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009, in Norman, Okla. Photo by Steve Sisney, The Oklahoman.

I asked Joe Castiglione about it the other day, and he hadn’t heard of it. I guess the pennants came down when OU added the first upper deck in 1975. I don’t really know. So it’s certainly understandable that Joe C. never saw or even heard about the flags.

But I told him I’d like to see OU restore the tradition, put the flags up somewhere around the stadium, and Castiglione liked the idea. He thought it would be a good way to honor, in a low-key way, visitors to campus. The Sooners have made a campaign in recent years for sportsmanship, and while some fans have not been totally receptive to the pleas, the flag tribute is a subtle move in that area.