Sooner Tradition: The Sooner Schooner

OU's Sooner Schooner - much like Purdue's Boilermaker Special or Georgia Tech's Ramblin' Wreck - is a highly recognized symbol of school spirit has been the official mascot of every sports team at the university since 1980.  Matching white ponies named Boomer and Sooner pull the Schooner, which is modeled after the Conestoga wagons that brought settlers to Oklahoma Territory.

In 1965 Dr. M.S. Bartlett and his brother Charles "Buzz" Bartlett donated the original "Sooner Schooner" and the ponies, Boomer and Sooner, to circle the field on home game days and at bowl games. After several groups passed on the care-taking of the Schooner, the RUF/NEKS, the oldest male spirit group of any college in the country, took the reigns. In 1980, the University of Oklahoma officially named the Sooner Schooner as its mascot. Today the Schooner is kept in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, at the Bartlett Ranch. The RUF/NEKS are still the official caretakers and drivers of the Conestoga wagon and each year one member is selected to become a Schooner Driver.  These well-trained young men are responsible for driving the Schooner out onto the field after OU touchdowns.

It's also tradition for the RUF/NEK queen to sit beside the driver and a young member of the RUF/NEKS usually hangs by his legs off the back, waving the university's flag as the Schooner is driven out onto the field and then back into the tunnel.

To honor the tradition, a retired Schooner has been placed in the student union in the Clarke-Anderson Room, adjacent to the union food court.

The Sooner Schooner...just one more reason there's only one Oklahoma!  Boomer Sooner!

Ten Reasons There's Only One Oklahoma!

There's only one Oklahoma!

1.  The University achieved the Carnegie Foundation's highest tier of research activity classification in 2011, the first time a public institution in Oklahoma has received this outstanding recognition.

2.  OU ranks No. 1 in the nation among all public universities in the number of freshman National Merit Scholars enrolled, with 207 in the fall 2011 freshman class.

3.  Klout, which measures influence online using data from social networks, has ranked OU the most influential university in America.

Climate science display (photo courtesy SloverLinett Strategies)

4.  The University has been selected by the U.S Department of the Interiors as the site of one of the only eight regional climate science centers nationwide.

K20 (photo courtesy Signs Now)

5.  The OU-based K20 Center for Educational and Community Renewal promotes innovative learning through school/university/community collaboration, serving 900 schools, 1,800 school leaders, 12,000 teachers and 150,000 students throughout Oklahoma.

School of Community Medicine

6.  The University's School of Community Medicine is the first of its kind in the nation, improving the health status of the under-served Oklahoma rural and urban communities.

EYEChina has been accepted into the Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition!

7.  The first social entrepreneurship project of the OU Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth is developing a sustainable business model to eliminate a backlog of 1 million patients suffering cataract-related blindness in China's Sichuan Province by 2020.

Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art

8.  OU's Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art ranks among the top half dozen university museums in the United States and is home to the most important public university collection of French Impressionist art in our country.

Seed Sower at OU's Health Sciences Campus

9.  Between 2005 and 2010, 62 U.S. patents were issued to the OU Health Sciences Center and 11 license agreements were executed, resulting in nearly $1.7 million in license income.

Sam Bradford statue on campus. (photo courtesy Dave Hunt/OU Insider)

10.  OU recognized its fifth Heisman Trophy winner, Sam Bradford, with the placement of his sculpture in Heisman Park.  The University's four other Heisman winners - Billy Vessels, Steve Owens, Billy Sims, and Jason White - also have sculptures in the park, located directly east of The Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

This information and more can be found in the 2012 Community Impact Report.  If you'd like to see more, click here or send an email to alumni@ou.edu and we'd be happy to mail you one.