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Texas/ou game

joeycovers

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LTtxfan

LTtxfan 50005

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https://247sports.com/college/texas/board/21/Contents/the-tunnel-152586648/

"This was buried deep in the archives of the site (247) and I pull it up every year about this time and read it again. Because it was archived I couldn't bump it. Thanks to TornJock for a great read. Enjoy!". (Papa Horn)

        THE TUNNEL

Quote

TornJock
Posted on Sep 29th, 2010, 12:29 PM
This is something I wrote a few years ago at the request of some friends/fans that wanted to get a feel for what the pregame Cotton Bowl "Tunnel Walk" is like from a player's perspective. Although these are the recollections of a game that took place 35 or so years ago, the emotions are no different...even in these old bones.

As a footnote, I had the occasion to walk down that Cotton Bowl tunnel ramp this summer while we were shooting an episode of "Friday Night Lights". Even strolling down the ramp in complete solitude and near-total darkness, I could feel the sparse amount of remaining hair I have left standing on end, chills, and a churning stomach.

There is an incredible amount of energy and life in that stadium whether on UT-ou Gameday or in the wee hours of a sweltering hot June early morning. The game should never be moved from the Cotton Bowl.

THE TUNNEL

Texas vs. OU:

I've experienced the walk down the Cotton Bowl ramp/tunnel first as a young ball boy for many years and then as a player in three Texas-OU games. The emotions and excitement cannot be adequately described in simple words; I have multi-level goose bumps as I type this & it's been 30-something years since I last made that walk as a player.

This is how it used to be back before trash talk in the tunnel was in vogue; I remember this as how my final trip down that ramp as a player felt...:

When you're given the final word by the TV guy to leave the locker room and head down the short flight of steps to the top of the tunnel, you step out into a surreal, confusing world of childish taunts and inverted "Hook-ems" being hurled from the walkway above...stadium security personnel in cheap windbreakers and several members of the Dallas P.D. man the long tarp-covered gate behind you...you recognize a couple of the motorcycle cops that led the police escort through the streets of Dallas a couple of hours ago; an officer smiles as he gives you a quick salute and a "Hook Em". You return the salute and mouth a quick, "Thank you" to the officer.

We're told by the TV guy to wait at the top of the ramp...there's no breeze...it's hot...

Someone steps out of a black limo just outside the gate and is quickly escorted by Texas DPS troopers through the gathering and hurried down the ramp. Must be the governor or a senator...or Willie himself...you can't really see over the glare of all the glistening white helmets shining in the October sunshine.

The smell of diesel fumes, horse crap, and fried food wafts through the air, mingling with the sulfur smell of residue from the Ruf-Neks' shotguns and Smokey's pre-game cannon shots. You can always smell the State Fair.
The ticket less, orange-clad well-wishers behind the chain-link gate, trying to get a quick look or a finger shake from a player or coach are the only friendly voices you hear at that end of the Cotton Bowl.

"Get after 'em, Darrell!"

"Go Horns!"

"Anybody got a ticket?!"

"Can I have your chinstrap?"

No "OU sucks" chants; these were the days before that sentiment became the norm.

Strangely, above the yelling, the dull din of bus engines, police motorcycles, and the screaming siren from a ride over on the Midway, you can hear the clicking of the candy wrapping machines in the Salt-Water Taffy booth just across the walkway beyond the gate...

You've been taught to keep your focus...look toward the light at the bottom of the tunnel as you move slowly downhill...you're wedged so tightly together that your feet are barely touching the ribbed, dirty concrete below. It's like you're slowly floating down the ramp suspended among your fellow team members. You're in the shade of the tunnel now, beneath the stomping, screaming Sooner fans in the south end of the stadium. It's cooler, but you're having trouble catching your breath.

You can't help but steal a glance at your opponents as they assemble and begin to move down the ramp on the opposite side. You've seen them all through pre-game warm-ups, exchanged subdued good luck wishes to a misguided former high school teammate that wandered across the Red River, but suddenly, this instant is etched forever in your mind. The crimson helmets with the white interlocked "OU" really piss you off at this moment and the bile rises in the back of your throat...you feel...like...you might...lose your steak and scrambled eggs you ate four hours before in the quiet banquet room at the Hilton Inn. You don't want to puke on your facemask...or on your teammate's back.

Instead of letting the remnants of your pre-game meal fly, you choke it back and begin to yell out an unintelligible guttural sound...your teammates join in and the sound reverberates in your helmet....your mouth is dry...your chest is pounding...all of a sudden, your uniform is too tight...you feel enormous...you think of a cup of ice water... a huge ground swell of noise begins to engulf you as you move closer to the light...louder and louder...you're glad you have your helmet on, not because you think that one of those over served, jeering Okies will lob a half-eaten Fletcher's Corny Dog at you, but you feel secure and impervious when you manage to reach your hand up and snap your chin strap snugly as you move into the sunlight at the bottom of the ramp. You realize then how much you've been sweating as the swirling breeze on the floor of the stadium finally gets to the back of your neck and cools you ever so slightly.

The roaring sound echoing in your helmet reaches what you think to be a crescendo as the TV guy tries to hold back your screaming, snarling teammates...You look around and the sudden reality hits you: this is IT. This is the last time you'll ever experience this feeling as a player in what you have grown up knowing as the greatest football contest in the universe. You may get a chance to walk the ramp again, but not wearing this uniform...with these guys...against those guys.

Tears well in your eyes, a huge lump rises in your throat as you begin to hear curses being hurled at the TV guy to let you go; just let us run out on that crappy artificial turf now! You hear TV Guy yell something about the World Series game being nearly over and to just hold on for one more minute and one of your larger teammates instructs TV Guy to perform a physically impossible task with a baseball. We surge forward; frenzied and frothing...I look toward Coach Royal who has appeared just to my left...he looks to be alone in his thoughts. His jaw is set...he has to hear the taunts of, "Traitor!" and the like directed his way...I feel more contempt for the red-clad fans leering over the tunnel walls as they wave red and white pompons at my coach's face. I wish the fat woman would fall over the wall as she screams, "Darrell, you ain't sheeyit!" He is perturbed at the delay...he gives us a simple nod....the human dam breaks; TV Guy is left to fend for himself. He may have been trampled; we don't really care at this point.

Smokey sounds out a huge cannon blast; a perfect smoke circle rises above the sweltering field. You imagine a football sailing right through the center of the white smoke circle as you see it emblazoned against the clear, blue North Texas sky. You hear the band playing "Texas Fight" at what seems like an impossibly fast tempo and an ungodly loud volume in your helmet. You run. Your teammates are jumping all over you.

You may cry.

You aren't alone.

The swelling noise is louder than ever and you get to run out into that sunlight one last time. You'll never get to feel that way again.

Hook 'em.
TornJock

 

 

Edited by LTtxfan
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Domedriver

Domedriver 655

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I am slowly getting over sloppukeragehorroranger of the last game.  I woke up to a nightmare that it would be the last Longhorn game I see this season due to continued stupid shit , etc.

i do want to see this team play again, and I want them to show me that they bleed Texas Burnt Orange.

beat the ever living shit buggers out of those mud sucking, sister fucking, land thieving fucking Oklahomasux goners!

Pound some brutal shit and make 2020 a living nightmare for OUSUX!🤘🤘

get some back for me Horns!

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Droopy

Droopy 2639

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First time in over 7 years I won't be going to the game. Not a long streak, but not being in Dallas this year is going to suck. Not as much as the sooners, but still.

Instead I'll be watching the game with the same group of 8 I normally go to the game with and will be completely smashed in a pool after an all-nighter of golf and poker on Friday. Here's to ribs and brisket cooked just in time for kick off and watching Sam and Co kick the shit out of OU.

Not sure I or my liver can take another shitting of the bed, Tom. 🤘 🤬 🤘

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Zone Read

Zone Read 299

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My sons got student tickets so they'll be 2 of the 25%.  Since they were freshmen in 2018, we met them in Dallas, stayed at a hotel along the DART line and took the train to Fair Park.  This year wife and I can't go.  I managed to get them a rental car in Austin near campus (one month shy of their 21st birthdays, it would have been a shit-ton easier if they were 21) so they'll have a way to Dallas.  Wife insists they avoid the DART to go to the game from their hotel.  With 25% capacity and no state fair, I'm hoping they won't have a problem getting parking in the state fair lots.  Opinions and suggestions for a backup plan?

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Zone Read

Zone Read 299

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2 minutes ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

There's going to be about 25,000 at the fair grounds as opposed to the usual 200K.  If they can't navigate that you probably need new sons.

I did say that with 25% I'm hoping they won't have a problem.  Just want people more familiar with the area to confirm.  And I was hoping someone would reveal the super top-secret route to get into the Fair Grounds I've been hearing about for decades.  

I kind of like the sons I got, identical twins was kind a novelty growing up and both got into UT, so don't need new ones.

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Angry Gorilla

Angry Gorilla 1771

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I don't know if it's a top secret route, but I've always exited Munger from 30, took it south (it changes to Barry Ave then Fitzhugh, but it's the same street) and parked in lot 11 and never had any problems with traffic except for the line to get into parking lot.  Though I was usually there at 7am.

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Skipper

Skipper 6411

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I went through the State Fair Drive through today with the kids and it doesn't look like it's going to suck.  No picnic tables, etc. but there are vendors setting up in the food court area in the plaza in front of the Cotton Bowl (including, as we know, Fletchers).   It won't be the same but already fired up about Fletchers and Beer tomorrow AM.

Edited by Skipper
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