UD has true Longhorn fan

Education professor attends 51st consecutive Red River Shootout

By: Nancy George

Posted: 10/13/04

Tradition.
Besides the Core and family ties, no other idea unifies the UD community to the extent tradition does. UD folk love traditions- Charity Week, Groundhog, and the list goes on.
But one UD member and ardent football fan has a tradition all his own, a tradition tied to Texas and Oklahoma history.
Since 1900, the University of Texas (UT) Longhorns and Oklahoma University (OU) Sooners (formerly Rough Riders) played football against each other.
The games played at the Cotton Bowl have been sold out since 1946, according to www.dailytexanonline.com.
Dr. Jerry Irons, visiting education professor, attended his 51st consecutive UT-OU game this past weekend.
"It is one of the top football events in the nation. It is right here in Dallas. If a person likes football and keeps up with it, where else can you go to see two of the top football teams.
"It is much bigger than the game itself. The game is unique. There is an even number of Texas and Oklahoma University patrons involved.
"Two of the best marching bands in the United States are there. It is an event. This is Oklahoma against Texas," he said.
As a child, Irons used to attend the Red River Shootout, as the UT-OU football game is called. But the tradition of attending the game consecutively developed much later and unexpectedly.
"I started going to the game as a kid. My father did his master's degree at University of Texas. When I was a sophomore in college, my wife and I went to the game, along with her college roommate and her boy friend from University of Texas at Austin. [The roommate's boyfriend] had tickets.
"My college roommate, Jack Smith, also went to the game but not with us. Beginning next year, Jack Smith and I started going to the game," he said.
As they graduated and lived their separate lives, Irons and Smith continued to attend the game together. The two (not living in Dallas at the time) would meet in Dallas with their wives. While Irons and Smith went to the game, their wives would go shopping.
"We used to tell our kids, 'Do not mess with us this weekend.' It is just the two of us. This is our game. This is our time.
"We had not started out to attend that game consecutively. Forty years later, I looked; and we hadn't missed a game. Now the pressure is on," he said.
Though both Irons and Smith root for the Longhorns, neither any official affiliation with University of Texas or Oklahoma University.
"Neither one of us went to Texas or Oklahoma. We just adopted that team.
"It is a sellout every year. They give patrons [of the respective universities] opportunity to buy tickets to patrons. [Their] students can buy tickets. It is a challenge to find tickets," he said.
Until recently when Irons began purchasing tickets on e-bay, finding tickets for the game every single year involved sheer daring and an immense amount of luck.
"We have purchased tickets from families of Longhorns. We have got tickets through state representatives. We have been guests of the UT football team. At one time we purchased bench passes to go down into the field. I bought them in an auction in Tyler at charity auction for $750," he said.
The friends nearly got into trouble with the law because of their eagerness to purchase tickets.
"We bought tickets off a guy on a street once. The tickets were stolen. We were young, naïve. [When we realized it], we went to the head of security at the game. He said, 'You know you are in here illegally, don't you?' We said, 'yes.' But he did not throw us out. They took us to the 50-yard line, under the overhang where a line of wheelchairs was at that time. They put out some folding chairs for us," he said.
Once after failing to locate tickets, Irons spent Friday evening before the game with his wife at a shoe sale in a Dallas department store.
Irons and his wife struck up a conversation with a random woman in the store. The woman turned out to be the wife of UT's chancellor. Irons did not hesitate. He asked her if she had extra tickets.
"A total stranger. She had never seen me before. She gave me two free tickets at the 40-yard line," he said.
Another year, Smith and Irons had not found tickets and Saturday morning had arrived.
"On the day of the game, my friend went to the cleaners. [A woman there happened to know of someone with tickets]. She gave him the guy's name, address, and phone numbers. Jack [then] called me, and we were on our way," he said.
With modern technology in his hands, Irons does not have to rely on pure chance as much; but even e-bay ticket purchases have their downside.
"[E-bay] is a two-edged sword. I can find tickets, but the cost is astronomical. It is a relief in a sense. I know where I can find the tickets. [But] it does take the fun out of finding the tickets," he said.
Irons and Smith have also had adventures at the game itself. Once Smith and Irons slipped into the Longhorns locker rooms.
"We just [walked in] with family members of team members after the game. We knew them [the players] by their numbers. We patted them on the shoulders. They did not know we were not related to somebody else on the team.
"This did not happen last year. This was in our younger days," he said.
Irons said he might receive criticism for his efforts at locating tickets to attend the game when he could watch the game from the comfort and privacy of his own home.
But a television screen cannot transmit the feeling of actually being there in the stadium with thousands of other excited fans.
"You don't get to smell the beer, the burping, up close. It is an event. Once a year is enough. I don't need much of it," he said.
Having come thus far, Irons is considering the possibility of missing a game on purpose.
"I am wondering if I should miss a year on purpose. I am wondering if I am letting this game become a god. I do pray that God will not allow it to be a god," he said.
Looking back, Irons said, "I am really glad that I reached 50. If I saw 50 of them, that means I have had good health and at least 50 good times in my life that did not have to do with my family."