Berry Tramel

Thoughts from The Oklahoman Sports Columnist Berry Tramel

Hoops season arrives October 31, 2007 | Comment on this article

Tonight is Halloween, and I’m sitting home, passing out candy, trying to get some work done and watching some NBA basketball. Cavs-Mavs on ESPN, Hornets-Kings on Cox. I could have went out to Lloyd Noble Center and checked out the Sooners, who play an exhibition against Rockhurst College, but that was a pass.... Read More

Adventures from the Saturday sofa October 31, 2007 An off week, so no travel adventures. Just a Saturday full of watching wall-to-wall football. So this week’s big blog will be all football. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Let’s go straight to the gridiron. BOWL BUSINESS We’ll start a new feature this week. Analyzing the Big 12 bowl... Read More

Fighting for the Sonics October 30, 2007 Clay Bennett’s bid to bring the Seattle SuperSonics to Oklahoma City has hit a muddy road, and that’s not at all surprising. Cities are not quick to let go of their major-league franchises. Seattle went to court to force the Sonics to adhere to the lease that keeps the NBA team at KeyArena through spring... Read More

Ducks looming again for Sooners? October 29, 2007 sharedVideo(1276249748) 1 Show / Hide Archive Comments The following comments are archived from the original publication of this post Phil Robins on Oct 30, 2007 @ 12:52 am That would make for an interesting tilt. I believe both teams are much improved this year. They look evenly matched with a slight edge to the... Read More

Sooners still standing October 28, 2007 Sorry, but I don’t buy the theory that Saturday was a bad BCS day for the idle Sooners. So Oregon beat USC. Someone had to win; it’s in the rules. And if it had been USC that won, the Trojans would have jumped the Sooners in the BCS, and OU would be in the business of cheering against the Trojans instead of... Read More

OSU bowl hopes improving October 28, 2007 Oklahoma State’s bowl hopes don’t ride quite as much as we thought on beating either Texas or Kansas. The Cowboys now look like they can go bowling at 6-6. The Big 12 has eight bowl slots, and the only way a 6-6 team is eligible for a bowl is if it is needed to fill out those slots. A few weeks ago, it appeared... Read More

Readers love nicknames October 27, 2007 Here’s something I already knew but was reminded of this week. Readers love to read about nicknames. It’s got to be one of the top five subjects, on a long-term basis, that I’ve ever written about. Anyway, I thought I’d share a few comments, including some ideas on nicknames, from readers. Pete wrote,... Read More

Lamenting the loss of nicknames October 26, 2007 I wrote about nicknames yesterday, and how they aren’t as good as they used to be. I came up with the 10 best college football nicknames ever, a list that in no way do I claim is encyclopedic. A sport as historic and tradition-rich as college football will have hundreds of pockets of teams and players that... Read More

Back on the nickname train October 25, 2007 sharedVideo(1256318086) 1 Show / Hide Archive Comments The following comments are archived from the original publication of this post carson antelope on Nov 03, 2007 @ 8:03 pm Honorable Barry Tramel(The sports guru)I thought it was a man's world. But, I just don't know about the Sooners. They started out good and... Read More

Doubts means Bradford has arrived October 24, 2007 sharedVideo(1267577797) 1 Show / Hide Archive Comments The following comments are archived from the original publication of this post James Soulsby on Oct 24, 2007 @ 3:41 pm EVER THINK THAT BRADFORD AND A YOUNG JIM PLUNKETT LOOK QUITE A BIT ALIKE? Read More

Tebow for Heisman October 24, 2007 Mea culpa time. A few weeks back, I ripped the Scripps Howard Heisman poll, both in general and for listing Florida’s Tim Tebow as the leader way back in September. Well, Tebow soon enough fell from favor, and here we are in late October, and Tebow is back atop the poll. And this time, I salute the voters. I... Read More

The Week That Was in College Football October 24, 2007 Question of the week Who should OU fans cheer for tonight when Virginia Tech hosts Boston College? The obvious answer seems BC. But maybe not. The 7-0 Eagles are No. 2 in the BCS; 6-1 Virginia Tech is No. 8 in the BCS. The Sooners are sixth in the BCS. If BC loses to the Hokies, they almost surely would fall... Read More

Why home-field advantage? October 22, 2007 sharedVideo(1264609469) 1 Show / Hide Archive Comments The following comments are archived from the original publication of this post Phil Robins on Oct 25, 2007 @ 2:55 am Great ideas Berry! Read More

BCS still unkind to Sooners October 22, 2007 This week’s BCS rankings weren’t kind to Oklahoma. And they won’t be anytime soon.The Sooners fell from fifth to sixth in the BCS, and truth is, forget rankings and computers and anything else. Any team that goes to Ames and trails at halftime, then wins 17-7, deserves a mighty fall. But even so. OU’s... Read More

Stories from the football front October 22, 2007 One of the fun things about my job is the stories I get to hear. I hear some live. Others I get by email. Some I got when I took calls on my radio show. Not every story makes the paper, but that’s not necessarily because they’re not worthy. They just don’t fit. But this blog offers another option to place a... Read More

What was Les thinking? October 21, 2007 I’m a big Les Miles fan. I think he’s a heck of a coach. Good play-caller. Good strategist. But I have no idea what Les was thinking in the final seconds Saturday night, when LSU beat Auburn 30-24. LSU trailed 24-23, and with the clocking winding down, and LSU with the ball on the Auburn 22-yard line, the... Read More

Dez dispenses touchdown October 20, 2007 Dez Bryant just showed us what the big deal is all about. The 6-foot-2 Oklahoma State freshman just outjumped Kansas State cornerback Justin McKinney for a 24-yard touchdown catch from Zac Robinson, bringing the Cowboys within 14-7. OSU has been looking for a sidekick to Adarius Bowman, and Bryant in August seemed... Read More

Robinson off to slow start October 20, 2007 Zac Robinson is off to a slow start in Stillwater. He’s 1-of-5 passing, with a 3-yard incompletion and an interception, and his Oklahoma State Cowboys trail Kansas State 14-0 midway through the first quarter. The Cowboys clearly are going to have to feed Dantrell Savage. The OSU tailback has four carries for 36... Read More

Hey, this guy is good! October 20, 2007 Remember about 15 months ago, when the Big 12 seemed void of quality quarterbacks? Now, the league is awash in good quarterbacks, and when making that list, don’t forget Kansas State sophomore Josh Freeman. The KSU quarterback just threw a 46-yard touchdown pass to Jordy Nelson, and it was a heck of a play.... Read More

Great goal-line stand October 20, 2007 If OSU loses this game, it can look back to Kansas State’s goal-line stand late in the second quarter. First-and-goal at the KSU 2-yard line, and the Wildcats hold. They stuffed bruising tailback Julius Crosslin for no gain, one yard and no gain on three consecutive plays. With the pressbox crowd saying the... Read More