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Jenks-Union? Union-Jenks? Either Way, It's Fun Stuff
Published: 9/8/2007 3:11 PM
Last Modified: 9/8/2007 3:11 PM

I spent the first half of the Jenks-Union game on the sidelines in an attempt to try to figure out why this game is always off the charts on the cool meter.
Some observations:
--The Backyard Bowl has crept out out of the backyard and gone global. Union's 43-42 overtime triumph was available for viewing on the World Wide Web, plus an NFL Films crew was on hand to shoot footage for the Versus Network (don't know what that is, but it's got to be preferable to Soap Channel). Hey, NFL Films: Can you get Chris Berman to do the audio work for defensive lineman Stephen Ruempolhamer's rumblin', bumblin', stumblin' touchdown return?
--Why do people always say Jenks-Union instead of Union-Jenks? Seems like it rolls off the tongue better if you say Jenks-Union, but Union, by virtue of triumph, deserves top billing, at least until the rematch.
--You've got to like any high school sporting event in which more than 20,000 people show up to watch a sprinting, barefoot Trojan soldier (in this case, sword-wielding Jenks student Ryan Fischer) lead a football team into battle. By the end of the game, Fischer had artificial playing surface flotsam all over his toes.
--Ten kids teamed up to sing the pre-game national anthem. One of them wore a kilt. Two of them, including the kilt-clad lad, had their faces painted.
--Jenks-Union (oops, make that Union-Jenks) is amateur sports at its best. Guys aren't playing because they want to get paid or because they are on scholarship. They are playing because tackling somebody seems like great fun. Dallas Beeler celebrated so vigorously following a touchdown reception that his heel came out of his shoe.
--Joke all you want whether Union-Jenks is the social event of the sporting season or the sporting event of the social season, but where else do eight jillion high school students show up, and stand up, for an entire game? Smells like teen spirit.
--Ex-NFL coach Dick Vermeil once created a chart that helps coaches decide whether to kick extra points or go for two. Throw the chart away and always take the free point! Think the outcome of an overtime game would have been different if the Trojans and Redskins hadn't combined for three failed two-point conversion attempts? But, on second thought, maybe those kicks aren't free after all. Jenks had a pivotal PAT blocked in overtime.
--Union-Jenks is so big (see the satellite trucks parked outside?) that it's way past time to take the post-game press conference indoors. When the dam breaks and students storm the field afterward, anarchy rules the day.
--Ten people were on the Union radio pass list. There are eight-man football teams in Oklahoma with less manpower. Also, who are all these people on the sidelines? The silver lining is you never know who you are going to meet down there. Maybe you'll run into somebody married to former TU basketball player Brandon Kurtz.
--An official attendance figure (20,578) was distributed in the press box. Question: Does that number include those who perched themselves inside the spiffy new Case Athletic Complex overlooking the north end zone? By the way, if you haven't toured the place, it's spectacular, though coach Todd Graham's library shelves seem naked without a copy of Pat Jones' book.
--And, finally, Union-Jenks is the stuff that dreams are made of. Caleb Pearson and Tress Way, Redskins since forever, have long imagined making heroic plays in "the" game. Mission accomplished in overtime, and Pearson gave feel-good vibes afterward when he described the rivalry as one of respect rather than hate. "We don't fight after the game," he said. "Hugs, you know what I'm saying?"
--P.S. Many of the kids who attended the game will grow up wanting to be the next Pearson or Way (or Brandon Rogers or Jeremy Smith or Tracy Moore or Mark Ginther or Chris Adkins). If they're savvy, they will grow up wanting to be in charge of t-shirt sales and body/face paint sales. Somebody turned a serious profit.



Reader Comments 4 Total
unionfan til the end (5 years ago)
That was the most incredible game that I have ever seen. I was most impressed with the sportsmanship that was displayed by both schools. It would have been very easy to be cocky at the end because my team won but there didn't seem to be any need for that. There was so much respect it was amazing. Great job coaches and players and FANS!!!
huh? (5 years ago)
don't know what game you were at, guess you weren't sitting next to he bullies in the stands that assaulted someone in an unprovoked manner, or see the fight going on behind the stands, or hear the dirty words and name calling the could turn sailor's heads.........hmmmmmm........blinded by unreality.
Jimmie Tramel (5 years ago)
Always going to be a few bad eggs at a game, but I refuse to let weasels spoil what was a great time for thousands of others.
tAdnMingJNsXK (5 years ago)
doors1.txt;3;5
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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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