The RUF/NEKS are the nation's oldest all-male spirit squad of its kind for the University of Oklahoma and the 2nd oldest in the world.
The RUF/NEKS are the nation's oldest all-male spirit squad of its kind for the University of Oklahoma and the 2nd oldest in the world.
The earliest years of this student organization are not well known. The RUF/NEKS began in the late 1910s. In December 1915 at a basketball game between Oklahoma and Oklahoma A&M a group of football players were yelling, cheering, and causing a ruckus. An elderly woman shouted, "Sit down and be quiet you roughnecks!" [1] The name was later changed to RUF/NEKS. The founder of the RUF/NEKS was Charles Leslie High. [1] His most famous act was the "Dallas or Bust" campaign, in which he sold tickets at a cheap price to students who wished to attend the Red River Showdown game against Texas. Unfortunately, this low-cost option is not available anymore.
In 1921, the famous red and white paddles were introduced that have since become a tradition of the organization. Presently, they are carried as a symbol of tradition and pride the RUF/NEKS have for their university. Around this same time, the RUF/NEKS decided to not shave their beards following Sooner losses, this tradition also continues to this day.
In 1923, the first official appearance of the RUF/NEKS was at a Friday night pep rally. [1] This event is now known as the "Big Red Rally" which occurred before the start of every football season until the start of the 2010 season when the University did not have enough funding for it. The group, which was at that time a lot larger than it is today (82 in 1939; the group hovers around a couple dozen today), successfully stopped a group of Oklahoma A&M students from raiding the campus. In 1992, another attempt was made to deface the fountains just west of the Bizzell Memorial Library. The OSU marauders were stopped once again by several RUF/NEKS who were protecting the campus. To this day, RUF/NEKS still stand guard around campus the night before the Bedlam game. [1]
The RUF/NEKS were abolished in September of 1929 after a hazing incident, along with a fellow organization, the Jazz Hounds [2] . The Board of Regents voted to disband the organizations and suspended 54 students between the two, pending an investigation. Following a warning from OU President Dr. W.B. Bizzell to cease all hazing activities, the organizations were accused of defiantly paddling freshman pledges in a secret initiation. In previous years, the paddlings were a public affair as the freshmen were made to march across campus.
The RUF/NEKS and Jazz Hounds were both reinstated on March 23, 1932 on condition that the paddling traditions be banned. [3]
During World War II, the RUF/NEKS were disbanded so the members could join the armed forces. The group was reformed in 1946. In 1952, the FBI confiscated the RUF/NEK ceremonial shotguns. These ceremonial shotguns are used at various times throughout football games including when the team scores, comes out on the field, and at the end of every quarter. All but one was returned and that one is currently on display at the Smithsonian Institution. The use of the ceremonial shotguns is amongst the many traditions carried out by this organization.
Every year, over a hundred students apply to join the group [4] but less than a dozen are chosen.
Every home football game when the team runs onto the field, the RUF/NEKS sprint down the field with OU flags, and slide into the goalpost. At the goalpost they say a chant that is named "FADADA". The "FADADA" originated as a ritual to scare snakes out of the endzone during early OU games.
The first appearance of the RUF/NEKS ceremonial shotguns was in 1955, since then, the sound has become synonymous with home football games at the University of Oklahoma.
The most notable job of the RUF/NEKS is the driving of the Sooner Schooner during football games. This tradition started in 1965. The ponies that pull the Conestoga wagon are taken care of by local Oklahoma residents who drive them to Norman. Once there, the ponies are prepped and strapped to the Schooner by the RUF/NEKS. After every OU score, a selected member, called the "Sooner Schooner Driver," drives the Schooner out onto the field to the cheers of 85,000 fans.
Starting in the 1980s, each year on the Monday before the Showdown, the RUF/NEKS apply a fresh coat of paint to the painting in the South Oval that reads "Beat the Hell Out of Texas." Due to construction along the South Oval, this part of the concrete was recently removed to make way for a new pedestrian walkway. The "Beat the Hell Out of Texas" has been moved on campus between Nielsen and Ellison Hall. Once painted, it is expected that the OU Community attempts to keep the painting as pristine as possible so it can be viewed by fans all year long.
Every home game, the RUF/NEKS and the Sooner Schooner parade down Lindsey Street several hours before kickoff, greeting and delighting fans from all over with chants to generate excitement through campus.
Throughout their history, the RUF/NEKS have had their fair share of notable instances.
The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the state of Oklahoma. In Fall 2024, the university had 34,523 students enrolled, most at its main campus in Norman. Employing nearly 4,000 faculty members, the university offers 174 baccalaureate programs, 199 master's programs, 101 doctoral programs, and 88 certificate programs.
The Oklahoma Sooners are the athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to a nickname given to the early participants in the Land Run of 1889, which initially opened the Unassigned Lands in the future state of Oklahoma to non-native settlement. The university's athletic teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)'s Division I in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The university's current athletic director is Joe Castiglione.
The Oklahoma–Texas football rivalry is a college football rivalry game between border rivals Texas and Oklahoma. The two teams first played each other in 1900, and the rivalry has been renewed annually since 1929 for a total of 119 games as of 2023. The rivalry is commonly referred to as the Red River Shootout, the Red River Rivalry, or the Red River Showdown. The name refers to the Red River, which forms part of the border between Oklahoma and Texas.
Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, also known as Owen Field or The Palace on the Prairie, is the football stadium on the campus of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. It serves as the home of the Oklahoma Sooners football team. The official seating capacity of the stadium, following renovations before the start of the 2019 season, is 80,126, making it the 41st largest stadium in the world, the 15th largest college stadium in the United States and the ninth largest in the Southeastern Conference.
"Boomer Sooner" is the fight song for the University of Oklahoma (OU). The lyrics were written in 1905 by Arthur M. Alden, an OU student and son of a local jeweler in Norman. The tune is taken from "Boola Boola", the fight song of Yale University. A year later, an additional section was appended, borrowed from the University of North Carolina's "I'm a Tar Heel Born".
The Bedlam Series is the name given to the Oklahoma–Oklahoma State rivalry. It refers to the athletics rivalry between the Oklahoma State University Cowboys and Cowgirls of the Big 12 Conference and the University of Oklahoma Sooners of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Both schools were also members of the Big Eight Conference before the formation of the Big 12 Conference in 1996, and both were divisional rivals in the Big 12 South Division prior to 2011. Since Bedlam began in 1900, 40 years of the rivalry's games were played without the teams playing in the same conference. The rivalry concluded as an annual conference matchup for football following the 2023–24 NCAA Division I FBS season, after which Oklahoma joined the SEC; while scheduling issues preclude the resumption of the Bedlam Series for football until the 2031 season, the Series will continue for basketball as a non-conference game for the 2024–25 season.
The Sooner Schooner is an official mascot of the sports teams of the University of Oklahoma Sooners. Pulled by two white ponies named Boomer and Sooner, it is a scaled-down replica of the Studebaker Conestoga wagon used by settlers of the Oklahoma Territory around the time of the Land Run of 1889. Its name comes from the common term for such wagons and the name for settlers who sneaked into the Territory before it was officially opened for settlement ("Sooners").
Boomer and Sooner are two matching white ponies who pull the Sooner Schooner, a Conestoga wagon across the field when the University of Oklahoma football team scores. The Sooner Schooner is the true mascot of the team, bringing to mind the pioneers who settled Indian Territory during the 1889 Land Run and were the original "Sooners". The Sooner Schooner represents the University of Oklahoma as a mascot for the university and its sports teams, the Oklahoma Sooners.
The Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band, known as "The Pride", is the student marching band for the University of Oklahoma Sooners.
Campus Corner is a college-oriented commercial district in Norman, Oklahoma located directly north of the University of Oklahoma campus. The area is bounded by White Street, University Boulevard, Boyd Street, and Asp Avenue. The district is home to four blocks of unique retail shopping and mixed-use development, including restaurants, bars, clothing stores, OU memorabilia, personal care, and other businesses and professional organizations. Established in 1917, the area around Boyd Street and Asp Avenue has long been a focal for OU pep rallies and other displays of school spirit.
James Shannon Buchanan, the fourth president of the University of Oklahoma, was born October 14, 1864, to Thomas and Rebecca Jane Shannon in Franklin, Tennessee. His grandfather, Major John Buchanan, was one of the founders of Nashville, Tennessee. His brother, John P. Buchanan was a governor of Tennessee. He attended public school and the academy at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Then he attended and graduated from Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennessee in 1885 with a Bachelor of Science degree. He did graduate work at both Vanderbilt University in 1893-4 and the University of Chicago in 1896. He received his LL.D. from Kingfisher College, Kingfisher, Oklahoma in 1917.
The University of Oklahoma College of Engineering in the engineering unit of the University of Oklahoma in Norman. It has an enrollment of 2,086 undergraduates and 2,193 graduate students,. In 2009, 257 bachelor's degrees, 92 master's degrees and 29 doctoral degrees were conferred.
The Oklahoma Sooners football team represents the University of Oklahoma (OU) in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The program began in 1895 and is one of the most successful in history, having won 950 games and possessing a .723 winning percentage, both sixth all-time. Oklahoma has appeared in the AP poll 905 times, including 101 No. 1 rankings, both third all-time. The program claims seven national championships, 50 conference championships, 167 first-team All-Americans, and seven Heisman Trophy winners. The school has had 29 former players and coaches inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and holds the record for the longest winning streak in Division I history with 47 straight victories. Oklahoma is also the only program with which four coaches have won more than 100 games each.
The Texas Longhorns football program is the intercollegiate team representing the University of Texas at Austin in the sport of American football. The Longhorns compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision as a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Their home games are played at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas.
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