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NORMAN — A little more than 130 years ago, John Harts stood in Bud Risinger’s Norman barbershop and declared, “Let’s get up a football team.”
Harts’ words — which marked the genesis of what became OU’s football program — have long been known, thanks to the research of legendary Sooners Sports Information Director Harold Keith.
But the location of Risinger’s shop had been lost to time.
Until Bryce Jones’ research finally unearthed the location earlier this year as OU looked to commemorate 100 years of Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.
Thursday, in front of what is now InkFire Ramen Tapas and Bar at 121 E. Main in Norman, an historical marker was dedicated at the location where Harts started the process of creating the football program in September 1895.
“Six words that changed the trajectory of our university, this community, our state, and the true feeling of Oklahoma,” OU athletic director Joe Castiglione said. “He said. ‘Let’s get up a football team,’ and though our first coach, Coach Harts, he really didn’t enjoy the immense success that the program would earn over many, many decades to follow, but this was history nonetheless.
“Up until now the birthplace of Oklahoma football has been relatively a mystery.”
More: Why OU football brothers Eli, Peyton Bowen’s first starts together was ‘freaking awesome’
Harts coached the Sooners for just one season — one game, a 34-0 loss to Oklahoma City on Dec. 14, 1895 in a field at the intersection of Boyd Street and Elm Avenue.
“I am the daddy of football at the University of Oklahoma,” Harts wrote to Keith in 1931. “For years I have watched your record with no little sense of pride and am indeed glad to hear that I had not been forgotten.”
Risinger’s barbershop moved around several times in the late 1890s, making it…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/where-did-idea-start-ou-222819088.html
Author : The Oklahoman
Publish date : 2024-10-17 22:28:19
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