Drake Stoops looks back on growing up an Oklahoma fan with father Bob

Drake Stoops and the Oklahoma Sooners came away big winners in the Red River Rivalry against Texas last weekend, affording Stoops the chance to reflect on his time in the series.

It goes back a long ways, with his father Bob Stoops the coach at Oklahoma for the majority of his childhood.

“It’s funny how life works coming full circle,” Stoops said on Sellout Crowd. “I just remember being as a little kid, not really caring a whole lot about the game. I wanted us to win, but I cared more about getting cotton candy and corn dogs and riding rollercoasters and doing all that before and after the game. So that was always the highlight of my time as a young kid.”

Bob Stoops was the coach at Oklahoma from 1999 to 2016, a remarkable run of longevity in today’s day and age. Even after stepping away from college coaching Stoops has remained close to the program.

That’s allowed his son to build an affinity for the Sooners, eventually joining them as a wide receiver prospect.

Stoops remembers his maturation from the child who wanted to partake in all the fair activities leading up to the Red River Rivalry to a high school player who began to get more interested in the game.

“As I got into high school it was fun coming from our high school game on Friday night and getting down there, enjoying the guys at the hotel,” Stoops said. “I was starting to care more about the game, started understanding the magnitude of it. And now that I’m in it it’s truly indescribable, for one, to play in it and contribute and then, for two, to win it there’s no better feeling, to be honest.”

Oklahoma secured an impressive 34-30 win over Texas last weekend, remaining unbeaten and establishing itself as the lead contender in the Big 12 this year.

There’s still a long way to go, but you’ll excuse Stoops if he lingers on the Red River Rivalry win a bit longer, knowing everything the game means.

Stoops shared one more story of his recollections of the game as a young kid.

“The rooftop, they had a pool,” he said. “We’d be up there just messing around with the pool and there’s like these little shoots you can throw stuff off the side of the building. We’d drop apples down it, whatever we can find, like 40 stories up. Coach (Brent) Venables told a story about Tony Wilson, they didn’t have enough tickets one year so they let him roam around at the fair, he’s like seven. He comes back candy all over his face, turkey leg, and he’s like, ‘Who won the game?’ That’s just kind of a tribute to we really cared about all that early on.”