How to register late

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If you go to register online for Homecoming 2011, you will notice that it asks you for a password before continuing. That’s because registrations were due on September 24 at midnight, shortly after our beloved Sooners defeated the Missouri Tigers.

Can you still register? Yes, you can still register! For a while. Your officers try very hard to include as many band alumni as possible in this wonderful annual event—but since work has already begun on ordering the appropriate items (especially tickets!), you need to touch base with Rita Heath (OUBAA Secretary) first.

Therefore, if you need to register, you need to contact Rita first. She’ll give you the password for the page after making sure everything’s ready. Don’t worry, it’s not difficult—just E-mail her at secretary@oubandalumni.org.

Sorry to make this an extra step, but registrations are still trickling in two days after the deadline and we need to be sure that we don’t accidentally let you pay for something that might not be available anymore as more days tick by. Just drop Rita a note so we make sure everyone’s on the same page, and then you can register online just as easily as you could before. Thanks!

Oklahoma, the conference, and the media

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As I’ve said before, I don’t have any inside sources at OU feeding me information on the conference alignment situation, but I have (by necessity) become a reasonably acute media watcher. If you’ve done the same, you’ve known since the “story” of OU moving to the Pac-12 first broke on September 1 exactly who was driving it, and how those drivers lost control of it at the end. Let’s explore the details after the jump (warning: long and extensively sourced).

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Gameday #1: OU vs. Tulsa!

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It’s that time again! The 2011 football season kicks off shortly after 7PM tonight with OU hosting the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, broadcast nationally on FX (Cox channel 35, DirecTV channel 248, Dish Network channel 136) at 7PM CDT (8PM EDT, 5PM PDT).

On The Pride’s side, it’s the first performance of the year, as 120-plus first-year members run out of the tunnels for the first time. (Remember that? Does it still make your heart race?) It’s Band and Spirit Day (the extension of “Band Day,”) with high-school band members and spirit squad members from 46 high schools in five states joining The Pride at halftime.

If you subscribe to our events calendar in your calendar program, you already have the day’s schedule. If not, you can find it online here. The pregame concert starts at 5:30 in the usual place near (or on) the North Oval.  We hope to see you there, and BOOMER SOONER!

Register NOW for Homecoming 2011!

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Homecoming registrations are due by September 24, 2011!

Look in the left sidebar to see how much time you have left until then. Register for homecoming now to make sure you get what you want! Section 36 seats are more limited this year, and the tickets are always first-come, first-served.

Read more about the newsletter after the jump!

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An A&M secession theory

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Aggie Secession License PlateThe appropriate but not-as-funny-as-it-should-be image you see to the right here comes from NBC Sports’ impressive College Football Talk blog, which has never given up on the idea that Texas A&M is going to leave the Big 12 in favor of the SEC.  They were rightt: A&M informed the Big 12 this morning that the charter Big 12 member (and 1996 BIg 12 football champions) think it’s in their best interest “to make application to join another athletic conference.” Should said application be approved, A&M will exit the Big 12 on June 30, 2012.

I have no inside sources, no moles, no insiders whispering in my ear.  I’m only connecting dots as reported in various publications and not denied by those mentioned, something anyone could do.  But doing that, I’m confident that the reason A&M wants to bolt to the SEC boils down to just two words: Continue reading →

Things people want to know, part 2

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As long as I find this interesting, I thought I’d move the series to Mondays from Fridays as football season gets underway this Saturday—ugh, how can something that seemed to take forever to get here now seem to be arriving too fast?  As before, this is a look at search engine queries—things people typed into Google or Bing or Yahoo that led them to our humble site.  Let’s take a look, shall we?

1972 Pride of Oklahoma drum major

That was our good friend, the late Mel Penn. He’s only been gone six months but we still miss him greatly.

starting an alumni band association

You know, that’s an interesting question.  OUBAA was founded in 1954, 50 years after The Pride of Oklahoma first took the field, so none of our current officers was involved in the formation.  You might ask Rita Heath if she has any suggestions, and any other officers who want to volunteer can pipe up in the comments.  I’d also suggest talking to some other strong university band alumni associations (Michigan comes to mind; they publish a very slick alumni band newsletter/magazine).

meredith sigler twirler

Is she ever! Meredith Sigler ended her reign as the Pride’s Feature Twirler after the 2008 season.  This year, Megan McGeary returns for her third year as feature twirler for the Pride of Oklahoma, coming off a summer where she placed second overall in the national “Miss Majorette” competition, where she also took first place nationally in the twirling-only portion of that competition.  Way to go, Megan! [Ed: Yes, this originally had some names backward.  My apologies to both Meredith and Megan. It's been a long week!]

OU football homecoming date

Still October 22, 2011.  I think we get a lot of people looking for it because we’re on top of it because, as the alumni band, we have to be. It’s the job.

[several queries for "poster," "pictures," etc.]

We’ve posted several 11″ by 17″ posters for OU symphonic wind concerts in advance of the performances, but to my knowledge, there are no “poster-size” posters of either The Pride or OUBAA images currently for sale.  Some Pride images are licensed by Sooner Sports Properties, so merchants that sell official OU logo merchandise may also have posters that include The Pride—but I’m not aware of any.  A few years ago, one of the student organizations sold pictures of a giant interlocking OU on the field as a fundraiser, but that ended the same year.  if I hear of anything, I’ll let you know.

As for pictures—the band department has a huge number of high-quality photos that they have put in the public domain, but this summer saw a revamp of the bands.ou.edu web site to use a spiffy content management system (kind of like the one that drives our new site but different to suit their different needs), and the pictures have not yet made the transition.  I’m sure they will at some point, so please have patience with them.  The first game is this Saturday (did I mention that?), so they’re a bit swamped this week!  :-)

Get your own user icon

Aside

You may have noticed that some posts and all comments have a small picture (“avatar”) beside them.  Mine is the OUBAA logo because, well, I’m the Webmaster and I’m the one who got Kevin Wolfe to redraw it several years ago in the same style as the now-current Pride of Oklahoma logo.  :-)

The images are called gravatars, short for “globally recognized avatars.”  You sign up for one free at gravatar.com (new window).  The picture is tied to your E-mail address, so if you comment on any other site using gravatars (and there are thousands upon thousands of them) with the same E-mail address, you’ll get the same picture.  It only takes about a minute to sign up, so if you’d like a picture of your choice displayed by any of your comments here, hop on over there and get it started!

Site change log

Status

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As I continue to get the site updated, I’m looking at what people seek on the old site and trying to get them mapped to the new site.  Here is where I’ll keep a running log of the changes I make, with the newest ones at the top.  You don’t really need to care, but some people do care, so here’s the log. Continue reading →