Sooner fans anxious

By Julianna Parker

January 08, 2009 04:26 am

— Most Norman residents know exactly what they'll be doing at 7 tonight.
And it's no wonder, with the University of Oklahoma football team playing in the BCS National Championship on Fox.
Family and friends will gather 'round televisions throughout town and hang their hopes on the No. 1-ranked Sooners.
Fans will go into the event with a variety of emotions, but Bobbi Warren of Norman summed up many fans' fears Wednesday.
"I just hope they don't choke," she said. Warren said she isn't a superstitious person, so there's nothing she can do to help her team on. However, come tonight she said she'll be "watching the game and rooting and hoping and praying for 'em."
Bryan Alcorn of Norman is taking another approach as he watches the game tonight.
He watched OU play in BCS bowl games the last three times with the same group of friends, and OU didn't play as well as he'd like. So this year he's switching it up.
"I'm watching it with a different group of friends this time," he said. Then he added sarcastically, "I'm sure it'll make a big difference where I'm watching the game."
In fact, Alcorn said he's trying not to have high expectations for the game.
"I'm not getting my hopes up," he said. "I always expect us to win those bowl games and then get disappointed. So I'm quietly expectant, I guess you could say."
With so much interest in the game, some Norman activities are being shut down to accommodate watch parties.
"We just came from a church meeting," Norman resident James McKee said Wednesday. The group at church was balking at a choir practice scheduled for the same time as the championship.
"They've postponed it," McKee said. He said he'll be at home watching the game with his wife. He was much more confident in OU's performance than some other fans.
"I think that OU is going to win," he said. "It'll be a very close game -- probably like 65 to 40."
But in Norman, he's probably preaching to the choir.
While many in Norman will be eagerly watching the game tonight, OU students perhaps have the highest stakes in it.
Chase Velharticky, a junior majoring in Russian, couldn't afford to go to the game, but said many OU students did take the trip out there.
"A lot of kids in my classes are going to it, a lot of my friends are, I guess, actually in Miami," he said Wednesday.
Velharticky said he'll watch the game with his family in Elk City, but the level of enjoyment will depend on how well the Sooners play.
If they win, his whole family of OU fans will glory in it.
"It'll probably be the happiest at my house that it's been since the last time they won," Velharticky said.
But the celebration is contingent on a Sooner victory, he said.
"I'm going to expect them to win, but if they choke up I probably won't come out of my room for a few days."
Julianna Parker 366-3541 jparker@normantranscript.com