> The Bedlam Series refers to the athletics rivalry between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and the Oklahoma State University Cowboys, of the Big 12 Conference's South Division. Both schools were also members of the Big 8 Conference before the formation of the Big 12 Conference in 1996.

History

The Bedlam Series is, like most other intra-state rivalries, a rivalry that goes beyond one or two sports. Both schools also have rivalries with other schools, though most of those rivalries are limited to one or two sports at the most.

When the Bedlam Series gained Ford and the Bank of Oklahoma as corporate sponsors, the series became much more formalized. A points system was adopted in order to award a winner of the all athletic competitions combined between the two schools. A crystal bell trophy is awarded to individual Bedlam game winners (such as football), in addition to a trophy for the overall series champion for that year. The "Bedlam Bell" is modeled after the bell clapper in Old Central, the oldest building on Oklahoma State's campus. For a time, the actual bell clapper was a traveling trophy for the two schools, until the popularity of this tradition waned.

The Douglas Cup

In 1900, in Oklahoma Territory, Oklahoma A&M (later Oklahoma State) veterinary medicine professor Dr. L.L. Lewis assembled a group of A&M students to participate in the first territorial Track and Field Meet. Held on May 41900, the event included Alva Normal College, Central Normal of Edmond, Kingfisher College and the University of Oklahoma, along with OAMC. The prize of the tournament was a silver cup donated by a local jeweler named Douglas. Surprisingly, A&M won the meet and returned to Stillwater with the traveling trophy.

In 1901, A&M won again, and a third consecutive win would mean permanent retirement of the Douglas Cup in Stillwater. The meet was held on May 23 1902, with the Aggies amassing the most points. Oklahoma filed a protest based on the pole vault competition not having been completed due to darkness, however, Oklahoma A&M claimed the Douglas cup.

The next day the Sooners held their own vault competition and declared themselves the victor. Several weeks later, the Douglas Cup was missing from its place in a glass case at the Oklahoma A&M chemistry lab. Suspecting that OU students had stolen the Cup, a group of A&M students retrieved the Cup from Norman, supposedly burying it under Old Central for safekeeping.

Ten years later, when excavation was being done for A&M's Gundersen Hall, the trophy was found. Today it resides in OSU's Heritage Hall.

Wrestling

While the football and basketball Bedlam games stand today as the marquee events in the series, the term 'Bedlam', as it refers to this rivalry, has its roots based in the rivalry between the schools' prestigious wrestling programs. Originally named after the atmosphere during a heated wrestling dual between the two schools (a newspaper writer emerged from Gallagher Hall exclaiming "It's bedlam in there!"), the Oklahoma State team holds a large advantage in the series. The Cowboy wrestling program currently holds an impressive 120-24-9 record against the Sooners. This dominance of the wrestling series between the two universities is a source of great pride for Oklahoma State. Both programs have been very successful on the national level, Oklahoma winning seven team national championships in its history, while Oklahoma State's highly decorated wrestling program has amassed a record thirty-four team national titles.

Wrestling national titles between OU and OSU

• 1928: Oklahoma St.
• 1929: Oklahoma St.
• 1930: Oklahoma St.
• 1931: Oklahoma St.
• 1933: Oklahoma St.
• 1934: Oklahoma St.
• 1935: Oklahoma St.
• 1936: Oklahoma
• 1937: Oklahoma St.
• 1938: Oklahoma St.
• 1939: Oklahoma St.
• 1940: Oklahoma St.
• 1941: Oklahoma St.
• 1942: Oklahoma St.
• 1946: Oklahoma St.

• 1948: Oklahoma St.
• 1949: Oklahoma St.
• 1951: Oklahoma
• 1952: Oklahoma
• 1954: Oklahoma St.
• 1955: Oklahoma St.
• 1956: Oklahoma St.
• 1957: Oklahoma
• 1958: Oklahoma St.
• 1959: Oklahoma St.
• 1960: Oklahoma
• 1961: Oklahoma St.
• 1962: Oklahoma St.
• 1963: Oklahoma
• 1964: Oklahoma St.

• 1966: Oklahoma St.
• 1968: Oklahoma St.
• 1971: Oklahoma St.
• 1974: Oklahoma
• 1989: Oklahoma St.
• 1990: Oklahoma St.
• 1994: Oklahoma St.
• 2003: Oklahoma St.
• 2004: Oklahoma St.
• 2005: Oklahoma St.
• 2006: Oklahoma St.

Football

The first Bedlam game was held at Island Park in Guthrie, Oklahoma. It was a cold, and very windy day with the temperatures well below the freezing mark. At one moment in the game when the Oklahoma A&M Aggies were punting, the wind carried the ball backwards behind the kicker. If the Oklahoma A&M squad recovered the ball it would be a touchback and if the University of Oklahoma squad recovered it, it would be a touchdown. The ball kept going backwards and rolled down a hill into the half-frozen creek. Since a touchdown was at stake, members of both teams dove into the icy waters to recover the ball. A member of the OU team came out with the ball and downed it for a touchdown, eventually winning the game 75-0. Thus was the beginning of Bedlam.

Author Steve Budin, whose father was a New York bookie, has recently publicized the claim that the 1954 Bedlam Game was fixed by mobsters in his book Bets, Drugs, and Rock & Roll (ISBN 1-602-39099-1).. Allegedly, the mobsters threatened and paid off a cook to slip laxatives into a soup eaten by many OU Sooner starting players, causing them to fall violently ill in the days leading up to the game. OU was victorious in the end, but their 14-0 win did not cover the 20-point spread they had in their favor. However, many people involved in the 1954 contest do not recall any incident like the one purported by Bodin to have occurred.

Just as Oklahoma State is very proud of its dominance over Oklahoma in the wrestling series, Oklahoma too is proud of its dominance over Oklahoma State in the football series. Oklahoma currently leads the series 78-16-7.

1915      11/25    OKC       NA        OU         26-7      5,000

1914      11/6    Norman     NA        OU         28-6       NA

1913

Basketball

Oklahoma owns the all-time series record in basketball, 124-88. With the rise of coaches Kelvin Sampson and Eddie Sutton at the two schools, the basketball series had been especially intense the last few years, with games rarely being certain between the teams, regardless of ranking. Time will tell how the school's two new coaches, Jeff Capel at Oklahoma and Travis Ford and Oklahoma State, will affect the heated rivalry between these two schools. Currently Capel is 3-1 versus Sean Sutton, winning 2 games in Norman, winning in Stillwater in 2008, while Sutton won in 2007 in Stillwater. On April 1, 2008, Sutton was fired from OSU and successor Travis Ford was named.

External links

• The Bedlam Series
• Oklahoma State University Athletics
• University of Oklahoma Athletics

References