Why Does Texas Hate Oklahoma

March 10, 2024

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Why does Oklahoma hate Texas? And I guess, why does Texas hate Oklahoma? That’s at least the question editors asked me to address as part of our coverage of the upcoming OU-Texas game.

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Hit Berry Tramel up for any answers involving football. I’ll hit the history books.

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Oklahoma was just a year old when the first fuss popped up during the July 1908 Democratic National Convention — when Oklahoma’s first governor, Charles Haskell, offended Texans by not naming a popular Texan, Judge M.M. Brooks, to the platform committee. Texans complained. Newspapers south of the Red River accused Haskell of being a lightweight and weak on democracy.

Haskell blew off such complaints, essentially arguing neither Brooks nor the Texas delegation ever made their interest in the committee known during the nomination process. Yeah, Haskell said, he had the authority to make such calls.

Instead of going to war, Oklahomans and Texans do what they usually do after such testy exchanges; they met at the Texas State Fair in Dallas. A Dallas political club invited Haskell to speak at the fair, and a crowd of 12,000 showed up that October to hear what the Oklahoma governor had to say.

That same year, the University of Oklahoma played Texas in Norman and beat the Longhorns 50-0.

For the next few years, the game went back and forth among the two states until finally getting established in Dallas. But the idea of a Red River Rivalry didn’t start until one of Oklahoma’s most ornery governors almost went to war against our much bigger neighbor to the south.

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Maybe Texans were able to laugh off its “little sibling,” but a state that took pride in getting its butt kicked at a mission called the Alamo wasn’t going to let this one slide.

“Alfalfa” Bill Murray was at the table as Oklahoma’s constitution was drafted and was elected the state’s first House speaker. He was a racist, someone who led in the creation of Jim Crow laws. He ran for governor, and lost. He ran for a congressional seat. He lost the seat. He ran for governor again, and lost.

In 1924, he led a group of Oklahoma ranchers in moving to Bolivia and creating their own colony. Five years later, Murray returned to Oklahoma and launched another campaign for governor. His campaign was outrageously racist and featured racial slurs in his campaign theme. Heck of a guy.

Murray won and quickly fell in love with the idea of enforcing his will by declaring martial law and calling out the National Guard to ensure his orders were followed on matters ranging from ticket prices at OU football games to shutting down 3,000 oil wells.

Murray’s unique finesse came into play in 1931 when a deal between Oklahoma and Texas to pay for a new “free” bridge to replace a toll bridge fell apart when Texas reneged on paying its share of the bill.

Texas closed the free bridge over the dispute and sent Texas Rangers to enforce a blockade. Murray responded by sending troops to secure the free bridge and destroy the Oklahoma side of the old toll bridge.

Bloodshed was averted when attorneys determined Oklahoma controlled both sides of the free bridge and could keep troops stationed on both shores to ensure it stayed open.

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That next year, the OU-Texas series moved to the brand new Cotton Bowl. Texas beat OU 17-10 and apparently all was forgiven.

Murray continued to call out the National Guard dozens of times, making him one of those governors we might want to forget and at least note that he was born and raised in Texas.

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Ever since, we’ve met in Dallas once a year to trash-talk each other, cheer for our teams and gather at the Texas state fair for giant turkey legs and photos next to Big Tex (photos by OU fans have not always been respectful).

Some of our loved ones live and work in Texas. And Texans are in our midst as well — some far more lovable than Murray.

And when we gather to hate Texas once again, just remember, one of our most beloved sports figures will be rooting against us. Kevin Durant is a die-hard Longhorns fan, a man we herald as the best player in the NBA (LeBron who?) and someone who is in Oklahoma City, and not Dallas.

Such a scenario would not have been imaginable had the one NBA team owner opposed to Oklahoma City getting the Thunder prevailed in his fight. That team owner, of course, was Texan Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks.

Oklahomans see Texans as arrogant and sometimes as bullies. Texans appear to see Oklahoma as the little brother that thinks a lot about Texas while they are preoccupied with other matters.

Yeah, we’re the little brother. Maybe we act out too hastily on this rivalry (perhaps calling out the National Guard was a bit much). But more often than not, we’re pretty good at getting the last laugh.

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