I know I was going to share search engine queries more often—terms that people enter in Google or Bing or Yahoo or whatever that leads them to our side—but then people stopped asking interesting things. The vast majority of search engine queries revolve around three topics:
- OU Alumni Band information (hey, that’s us!)
- Information on present and past twirlers
- People looking for rah-rah sheet music (sorry, folks, but the arrangements used by The Pride of Oklahoma are their own, protected by copyright, and not freely available. Contact University Bands for licensing information.)
Nonetheless, looking back 30 days, I find a few interesting things, with the caveat that my definition of “interesting” is perhaps wider than a normal person’s. Here’s a few:
- Dig in and fight for the Red and White of Oklahoma
- We march down the field with our heads held high, determined to win every battle we’re in
- O.K. Oklahoma fight song lyrics
Most of you know that the first two requests are partially an answer to the third: those are the lyrics to O.K. Oklahoma, the 1939 spirit song written by Fred Waring for OU. You can find the lyrics and more of the story on the page I wrote in 2004 for the song’s 65th anniversary, O.K. Oklahoma at 65.
- Pride of Oklahoma Insight Bowl performances
- [several other similar ones]
Some queries correctly looked for “Horton Productions” for this, run by fellow Pride alums Matt and Pat Horton (or perhaps the other way around). They segregate their several business ventures into many different URLs, and this is the one you want for 2011 Pride of Oklahoma performances on video. That includes the Insight Bowl, homecoming pregame and halftime (including OUBAA pregame), and all the rest of the 2011 season’s halftime performances. You also get instructions on how to buy the DVD, which you should do to conserve the Internet for everyone else.
- Kyle Wiemar on Wheel of Fortune
Someone was really looking for this last month, as people were led to our site under several similar queries. On March 17, 2006, outgoing Pride drum major Kyle Wiemar appeared on the syndicated TV game show Wheel of Fortune and won, going to the bonus round and winning again. In addition to the above link from us, there was a story in the Norman Transcript about it (a page I’ve edited because I had Kyle’s name misspelled—sorry, Kyle!)
Trivia: Kyle’s friend in the audience for the bonus round was incoming Pride drum major Eric Shannon, who created (I believe) the “Boomer 5″ arrangement the Pride still uses on first downs! I have video of this on an old disconnected DVR in a room somewhere, but if it’s already on YouTube somewhere, I’d be happy to link to it.
- Where can I purchase a rain poncho like the OU Band wears?
A nice lady asked me this in E-mail because she couldn’t find an answer anywhere, and I didn’t have on either. After asking Mr. Britt, I’ve learned that the band’s current ponchos, the ones carried on the back in poncho packs, are a custom-made band uniform item and are not for sale to the general public. Sorry—they are cool, so maybe the manufacturers will make them available someday.
That’s about it for the search engines. What’s been on your mind?
What did you think of “Band Bedlam?”
Update 28 December: Be sure to click through and read comments from OETA’s Bill Perry about Band Bedlam DVDs, rebroadcasts, and the use of previously unbroadcast footage in OETA’s Gallery in January 2012!
Consider this an open thread for your thoughts on the OETA show or other issues of this BEDLAM week. Comment away! (No registration required.)
Merry Christmas from OUBAA!
The timing of the season usually doesn’t give The Pride opportunity to play Christmas (or even holiday) tunes, but a rare 1989 concert in Tulsa late in the season provided just such a chance. From that concert, introduced by none other than George Ryan, here’s Leroy Anderson’s classic. Please enjoy with the warmest wishes of the season from all your friends at OUBAA—we’ll be back tomorrow with news of the Insight Bowl trip and where to see the 2011 Pride of Oklahoma!
“Band Bedlam”
OETA, The Oklahoma Network, presents an original 30-minute production about the marching bands at the state’s two largest universities: The Pride of Oklahoma, and the OSU Cowboy Marching Band.
Band Bedlam premieres Thursday, December 1, at 7:00 PM (CST) on the stations of OETA. It will be rebroadcast Saturday, December 3 (Bedlam Day!) at 6:30 AM. If you get OETA’s digital sub channels (like KETA-DT 13-2 in Oklahoma City, available over Cox Cable HD service and via antenna), you can also see it on Friday, December 2 at 8:30 AM or 4:00 PM, or Saturday, December 3 at 1:00 PM or 4:30 PM. Dish Network and DirecTV subscribers without antennas do not receive the subchannels, plus you really want to watch it Thursday night anyway.
Don’t believe me? Look at the embedded video below, which is the first minute of the program. If you donated to OETA, you should have received December’s Odyssey program guide by now, which includes a cover story about the program, too. A lot of the scenes in this video should look verrrrry familiar to you, and now the rest of the state gets a chance to see what you saw. Here’s a preview:
Marching Band: The Video Game!
OK, not really; it was in the opening act of last Sunday’s episode of The Simpsons on Fox. You can watch it online now! The segment in question starts at about 1:38 and lasts for about 30 seconds:
Calendar updated
Status
Our events calendar has been updated with the times of the final three games of the season. Games at Baylor and at OSU kickoff at 7:00 PM CST; the final home game (against Iowa State) kicks off at 11:00 AM CDT. The gameday schedule for Iowa State is also online, including the 5:30 AM rehearsal—yikes!
All three games will be telecast by ESPN on ABC. I’m sure the OSU game will be nationally televised, given the BCS implications, but you can check here after Thursday of each week to see how ESPN/ABC plan to handle national and regional coverage in your area.
Coming later this week: more on “Band Bedlam,” notes about Monday’s final symphonic wind concert of the semester, and whatever else comes up that we find and you might want to know. BCS expert Jerry Palm now predicts, on his subscription site CollegeBCS.com, that the BCS National Championship game will be LSU vs. Oklahoma. In New Orleans. Talk about a classic case of good news-bad news!
That deserves more good news, so here’s another poster for “Band Bedlam:”
Coming soon…
Image
Texas A&M gameday schedule is up
You can find it in your calendar program if you subscribe to our events calendar, or find it on the Web here.
Kickoff is at 2:30 PM. The game will either be on your local ABC station (as it will here in Oklahoma), or on ESPN2. Check here later this week for ESPN’s full coverage map and exact Dish Network/DIRECTV channel numbers. (Satellite customers get several “ESPN Alternate” channels because, unlike local cable companies, the satellite providers can’t switch what you seen on “ESPN” or “ESPN2″ based on your region. In those cases, you can usually at least see the game in standard definition on one of the “alternate” channels. If not, you’ll have to use ESPN3 or the pay-per-view ESPN GamePlan.)
Passages, October 30 2011
Good news: today is “Coach” Gene Thrailkill’s birthday, though if I tell you which one, I’m going to hear about it for a long time.
Bad news: Long-time Oklahoma sportscaster Bob Barry Sr. has died.
Got photos of Homecoming? [updated]
If you’ve got photos you’d like to share of Homecoming 2011, post the URLs here (to Flickr, or TwitPic, or wherever you share your pictures).
[Update: Fellow alum Matt Horton alerts us in the comments that videos from the press box of 2011 OUBAA pregame and halftime performances are available online now!]
And if you have any you’d like to see added to the rotation of photos that show on every page of the site, just E-mail them to me and I’ll get them into the mix at some point. Due to the design of the site, photos are cropped to exactly 1000 pixels by 288 pixels, so please make sure your pics are at least 1000 pixels wide or we can’t use them (stretching shorter pictures to fit just looks awful). We don’t need super-hires photos or anything, just at least 1000 pixels wide. Most phone cameras these days shoot at least twice that resolution, so you should be fine. 