Rivalry Between TU And OSU Grows Despite Possible End

Fans started talking smack about this game months ago.<br><br>The hype and rivalry grow stronger every year.<br><br>However, the decades long battle between the two Oklahoma schools may be over in a couple

Sunday, September 10th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Fans started talking smack about this game months ago.

The hype and rivalry grow stronger every year.

However, the decades long battle between the two Oklahoma schools may be over in a couple of years.

It was rather calm before the big game, except for the TU fans who hammered a car painted in OSU colors

OSU orange dominated the crowd, in this contest that has spanned several decades.

The fans say the rivalry gets hotter every year.

OSU fan Spencer Harris still laughs when he thinks about TU's new coach, Keith Burns insinuating, earlier this summer, that OSU's program was falling.

â€œI don't want a 10-15 point win, we want to win big," says Harris.

Stella and Kenny McCoy from Bartlesville have been fighting for days about who's going to win. It's all part of the fun, because they were holding hands before the game. That changes though, right after kickoff.

â€œI have to muzzle her up a little bit. Keep her aside," says Kenny.

â€œHe can't muzzle me. I have the biggest mouth. Go pokes," says Stella.

Even though this rivalry brings in huge crowds, OSU leaders have indicated they may put an end to it.

"OSU is just scared,â€ says Stan Acuff, OU Fan.

Acuff is anti-OSU, which is why he wore the crimson of OU. Any loss or a close game to a small school like Tulsa hurts OSU's chance for a post-season bowl.

"They just can't take it anymore. They want to schedule the sister of the poor at a home game in Stillwater," says Acuff.

OSU leaders have said the series isn't dead. There is still a contract until 2001.

Most of the fans on both sides, do agree on one thing-this is a rivalry they don't want to become a thing of the past.