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Oklahoma, Texas Governors Wager BBQ For Charity On OU-Texas Football Game

The University of Texas marching band performs before the 2010 OU-Texas matchup in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
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The University of Texas marching band performs before the 2010 OU-Texas matchup in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

No matter what happens on the gridiron, someone’s getting barbecue. And it’s for a good cause.

Gov. Mary Fallin made her traditional friendly wager with her counterpart south of the Red River over the outcome of Saturday’s annual football matchup in Dallas between the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Texas at Austin.

“I felt a little bad about accepting this bet because UT doesn’t stand a chance,” Fallin said in a statement. “The Sooners are going to bring home a win.”

If OU does win, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott plans to donate a shipment of Railhead Barbecue from Austin to the City Rescue Mission, a non-profit that provides meals for the homeless in Oklahoma City. The donation will count toward Fallin’s ongoing Feeding Oklahoma Food Drive.

“In the unlikely case we see a UT upset, Head Country Barb-B-Q and I will console ourselves by knowing we are supporting a good cause in Austin,” Fallin said. The Oklahoma company will sponsor 600 meals at the Capital Area Food Bank in Austin.

The odds appear in Fallin’s favor. The undefeated Sooners are ranked 10th in the Associated Press college football poll, and at 1-4, the Longhorns are off to their worst start since 1956, when they finished 1-9.

That year, the top-ranked Sooners shut out the Longhorns 45-0 in the Cotton Bowl on their way to their second national championship in a row. That win also came in the middle of the Sooners’ still-unbroken 47-game winning streak.

The next year, the Longhorns hired former Sooner standout Darrell K. Royal (who still holds OU’s career interceptions record). Over the next two decades, he would beat his alma mater 12 times, still a series record for a head coach. Current OU head coach Bob Stoops is next on that list with 10 victories.

Texas leads the all-time series 60-44, with five ties, although most of that disparity comes before World War II. The series has been remarkably even since 1945, with the Longhorns holding a 34-33-3 advantage over the Sooners.

“The friendly rivalry between the state of Texas and the state of Oklahoma runs deep, especially when it comes to football,” Abbott said in a statement. “In the history of the Red River Rivalry, the Texas Longhorns have come away with more victories than Oklahoma ever has, and I expect this Saturday to be no different. In the unfortunate event the Sooners pull off a win, Governor Fallin and the charity of her choice will receive some of the finest barbecue Texas has to offer – a prize valued far more than any trophy.”

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Brian Hardzinski is from Flower Mound, Texas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. He began his career at KGOU as a student intern, joining KGOU full time in 2009 as Operations and Public Service Announcement Director. He began regularly hosting Morning Edition in 2014, and became the station's first Digital News Editor in 2015-16. Brian’s work at KGOU has been honored by Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI), the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters, the Oklahoma Associated Press Broadcasters, and local and regional chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists. Brian enjoys competing in triathlons, distance running, playing tennis, and entertaining his rambunctious Boston Terrier, Bucky.
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