
More than 60 years ago, Henry "HK" Pitts showed Harley Clark, Texas' head yell leader, his hand in the shape of a fist, with his index and pinky fingers extended, and said it looked like the horns of Texas' mascot, the longhorn steer. "No one's ever gonna stop doing it."īetween a bonus Texas-OU rematch in the conference title game for the first time in 115 years, new rivals getting taunting penalties, John Slate's pork-rind-fueled gesture and Baker Mayfield being Baker Mayfield, it's been the biggest year in the 64-year history of the inverted Hook 'Em Horns sign. "As long as Horns have been going up, Horns have been going down at Oklahoma," legendary Sooners coach Barry Switzer said this week. There's no simpler act of pettiness in college football.Īnd in Oklahoma, it might as well be as important a tradition as the Sooner Schooner. Fans can sarcastically mock Florida's Gator Chomp or USC's V for Victory, but nothing quite has the vigor of a briskly delivered Horns Down. But it's also unique in its widespread appropriation by rivals. Texas' Hook 'Em Horns sign is without a doubt one of the most iconic symbols in sports. It's a universal sign of love for Okies." Whether you're a Sooner or a Cowpoke, we can all agree that Texas sucks. "Nothing goes better together in Oklahoma than tornadoes, pork rinds and Horns Down," he told ESPN that afternoon. A shot at the Texas Longhorns right there on the highway, on the news, in the middle of May without any real rhyme or reason. Now, stranded with nothing but a bag of pork rinds to keep him company, Slate saw an opportunity. Didn't work, he said, with a deadpan nod to the camera. He'd tried to be slick, to be that guy who drives up the shoulder when nobody else is moving.

A local news crew spotted him on the side of the road in El Reno, sitting on the tailgate of his pickup. There was nowhere to go in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Tornadoes had given way to flash flooding.

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John Slate found himself stuck on the side of the highway amid a series of dangerous storms in May in Oklahoma. The petty, wonderful and delightfully weird rise of Horns DownĬollege Football, Oklahoma Sooners, Texas Longhorns, Texas A&M Aggies, Oklahoma State Cowboys, Texas Tech Red Raiders, TCU Horned Frogs, West Virginia Mountaineers, Baylor Bears
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