Tulsa World: Airborne banner flies over UT

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Airborne banner flies over UT

A plane (not shown) with a banner that reads, "Hey Mack, Quit Whining U Knew The Rules" buzzes around the campus of the University of Texas in Austin, Texas, on Thursday. Rodolfo Gonzalez / Austin American-Statesman

By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer
Published: 12/5/2008 2:27 AM
Last Modified: 12/5/2008 3:42 AM

Remember when chat rooms, message boards and blogs were the cool way to be heard?

In college football — in the Big 12 Conference's South Division, anyway — the Internet seems so yesterday.

The latest — er, trend, apparently, is to contract out an airplane to fly over your rival pulling windblown trash talk.

University of Texas fans did it before Oklahoma's game at Oklahoma State last week, and on Thursday someone returned the favor, hiring a plane to fly over the UT campus in Austin.

This week's sign read, "HEY MACK. QUIT WHINING U KNEW THE RULES." A grainy video of the gloating glider was posted on YouTube by mid-afternoon, and even Austin television stations couldn't pass up a sensational news opportunity (tulsaworld.com/mackbrown).

The sign was in response to last Saturday's flyover in Stillwater, proclaiming, "Texas 45, OU 35, settled on a neutral field."

The flap is all about the Big 12's three-way tiebreaker between Texas, OU and Texas Tech. The Sooners are ranked No. 2, ahead of No. 3 Texas by a fraction of a point, despite Texas' 45-35 win on Oct. 11 in the Cotton Bowl.

One Texas fan runs a Web site called 45-35.com and, after handing out thousands of placards to fellow Longhorn backers, appeared on television during ESPN's broadcast of Texas' 49-9 Thanksgiving night victory over Texas A&M.

Tech fans have countered with 39-33.com, the score of the Red Raiders' Nov. 1 win over Texas.

Texas fans reportedly gathered some $7,000 to pay the Stillwater flyer. It wasn't clear which faction was responsible for Thursday's flyover, although an administrative post on 39-33.com indicated that it was done by Tech supporters.

Flying message boards are obviously nothing new, but the current trend of rivals forcing messages on each other harkens back a half century or more. In a 2003 interview with the Tulsa World, Bob Fenimore, an Oklahoma State All-America halfback in 1944 and '45, recalled the tale of a low-flying airman with a special delivery.

While Fenimore and his teammates were practicing in Stillwater before the 1945 Oklahoma game, a flyer buzzed the Aggies' practice field and dumped leaflets on the players.

"My number was 55 and they had this big old dumb-looking football player with 55 on his jersey, and down at the bottom they had 'OU 55, Oklahoma A&M 0,' " Fenimore said. "So we decided we were going to go down and try to beat them 55-0."

A&M won the game 47-0. Teams couldn't go for 2-point conversions back then, so coach Jim Lookabaugh, realizing the most he could get was 54, "called us off," Fenimore said. "I wish we'd have beat them a hundred to nothing."

John E. Hoover 581-8384
john.hoover@tulsaworld.com By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer

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	Report Comment Lawrence, Tulsa (12/5/2008 8:04:35 AM) BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
	Report Comment marlin, (12/6/2008 6:13:38 AM) How funny!!!!! Go SOONERS

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