Oklahoma coach Brent Venables has seen all of it in his 15 journeys to the Cotton Bowl for the Oklahoma-Texas rivalry recreation, lengthy often known as the Pink River Shootout.
He remembers dropping his first as a Sooners assistant 38-28 in 1999 however dominating the Longhorns 63-14 the following 12 months en path to a nationwide championship. There was Oklahoma 65, Texas 13 in 2003, the 12-0 “Pink River Shutout” in 2004, and loads of unpredictable swings and wild finishes since. The feelings, the large performs, the bus rides by the State Honest of Texas to the Cotton Bowl all make it particular to him.
“It appears like time stands nonetheless,” Venables mentioned.
However there’s one factor Venables has but to do on this one-of-a-kind rivalry recreation: eat a Fletcher’s Corny Canine.
“I’ve by no means eaten something on the honest apart from what they carry me on the bus afterward,” he mentioned.
To some Oklahoma and Texas followers, this revelation might qualify as heresy. Fletcher’s Corny Canines, a staple of Texas’ state honest for greater than 80 years, have grow to be nearly synonymous with the rivalry recreation. On Saturday morning, when the gates open at Dallas’ Honest Park and tens of 1000’s of crimson- or burnt-orange-clad followers wander onto the fairgrounds, a lot of them will make a beeline for a Fletcher’s stand.
Saturday would be the a hundred and twentieth assembly of the Sooners and Longhorns however their first as SEC members, greater than three years after their stunning choice to go away the Huge 12 went public. The sequence started in 1900, and Dallas grew to become the sport’s everlasting dwelling in 1929. After a long time as a Huge Eight-Southwest Convention conflict adopted by 28 years collectively within the Huge 12, the spectacle of Pink River, with the fried goodness of Fletcher’s in tow, is now a part of the SEC’s portfolio.
“It’s a part of the custom for us,” mentioned Nichole Williamson, a Texas alumnus and fan who has attended the sport constantly since 2010. “I’m satisfied if we don’t go have our corny canine earlier than (the sport) we’re going to lose, although I’ve had it after they’ve misplaced and I’ve had it after they’ve received.”
“It goes together with the sport,” mentioned Trae Anderson, former president of the OU Membership of Dallas. “It’s the very first thing I’ve all the time executed. You get your corny canine and a wax cup with the beverage of your selection, and that’s the way you begin. I don’t know of anyone that does anything.”
The launch of Fletcher’s Corny Canines was not a direct success.
In line with the corporate’s origin story, the primary model of their corny canines bought for 15 cents at a small stand on the 1942 State Honest of Texas. Neil and Carl Fletcher, brothers who have been former Vaudeville performers, developed the idea 4 years earlier after seeing an area baker serve sizzling canines baked in cornmeal within the form of an ear of corn. The Fletchers determined to place a stick within the sizzling canines and fry them to shorten the cooking course of and make it simpler to eat.
However after they opened their first stand at Honest Park, they needed to reduce the corny canines in half and provides away samples to persuade fairgoers to attempt them. Forty-one years after their debut, Neil Fletcher informed the New York Instances that individuals would strategy the stand, ask what it was after which stroll away. “We didn’t make a lot cash,” he mentioned then.
Neil and Carl experimented with the cornmeal batter for greater than a decade earlier than developing with the recipe that caught. As soon as it did, it grew to become a rousing success.
When Neil died in 1988, he left the enterprise to his two sons, Neil Jr. and Invoice Fletcher. Neil Jr., often known as Skip, grew to become “the Corny Canine King,” additional elevating an already profitable enterprise. In 1983, Fletcher’s bought an estimated 350,000 corny canines on the State Honest of Texas. On the 2023 state honest, it bought 550,000.
However is a Fletcher’s Corny Canine actually that totally different and particular from a standard corn canine? Pink River attendees swear it’s.
“It’s one of many staples of going to OU-Texas,” mentioned former Oklahoma offensive lineman Gabe Ikard. “Individuals purchase them as a result of they’re scrumptious. … The traces are absurd; don’t care. Gotta wait in it or recruit anyone who will wait in it for you.”
Rely Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione as a Fletcher’s fan. When a number of distributors confirmed an curiosity in promoting corn canines at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, he knew there was just one that deserved to be there. So he instructed his employees to get in contact with the corporate.
“Somebody with OU reached out to us a number of years in the past and mentioned their athletic director loves Fletcher’s and ‘What do I have to do to get Fletcher’s right here?’” mentioned Amber Fletcher, who now runs the corporate together with her brother Aaron and cousin William. The partnership with Oklahoma started in 2021, and Fletcher’s has been bought at Sooners video games ever since.
BOOMER!! Fletcher’s Unique Corny Canines are NOW accessible for Sooner Soccer this fall at Gaylord Household Memorial Stadium. Solely the Greatest for the Greatest AD @soonerad ☝️ pic.twitter.com/e2qPuF9UXG
— Amber Fletcher (@AmberFletcher_) September 10, 2021
“I’m positive (the opposite corn canine distributors) have been effective, however they weren’t Fletcher’s corn canines,” Castiglione mentioned.
The cooking course of is easy. Hand-stick a standard sizzling canine — Fletcher’s will get canines made with customized spices — and dip it within the batter, which is made on-site from a proprietary, secret combine. Stick it within the fryer at 365 levels for 3 minutes till it has the correct texture and coloration. Then six inches of sizzling, crunchy, corn canine heaven are able to eat.
“All the things is identical approach my grandfather did it,” Amber Fletcher mentioned.
Texas and Oklahoma followers have their traditions. Though Fletcher’s has seven areas on the fairgrounds, many followers have a most popular supply: the Fletcher’s stand at Huge Tex circle.
A 55-foot-tall cowboy determine, sporting a Dickie’s shirt and denims with a 95-gallon hat and dimension 96 boots, Huge Tex is named the “official greeter” of the State Honest of Texas and has been a fixture on the honest since 1952. It’s customary to see fairgoers consuming their fried items whereas sitting subsequent to Huge Tex or taking selfies with him within the background.
The Fletcher’s stand that’s steps away from Huge Tex will likely be staffed with 60 to 80 staff on Saturday to get the hordes of Sooners and Longhorns their corny canines as shortly as potential.
Grant Pinkerton, a Texas alum and superfan who owns the famend Texas barbecue joint Pinkerton’s Barbecue, makes it his first cease yearly.
“We beeline it for that very Fletcher’s stand,” mentioned Pinkerton, who went to his first Pink River at 9 years previous. “All of us get not less than one corn canine pregame. … Then I’ve a rule that if Texas wins, you need to return and get a victory corn canine after the sport. It doesn’t matter how sizzling or soaking moist you’re.
“And in the event that they don’t win, no friggin’ canines after the sport.”
Ikard has the identical order yearly: a Fletcher’s Corny Canine, a funnel cake and three wax cup beers. When he performed, he’d have his dad and mom get him one, although he mentioned former coach Bob Stoops would let the gamers hang around on the honest for an hour if the Sooners received. Now Ikard, who calls Oklahoma video games on the Sooner Sports activities Radio Community, has his spouse safe his refreshments whereas he does the postgame present.
Cade McCrary, who performed 51 video games for the Longhorns from 2009 to ’13, mentioned that after Texas beat Oklahoma in ’13, Mack Brown allowed gamers to remain in Dallas and benefit from the honest with their mates and households.
McCrary, who was the holder for Justin Tucker’s game-winning kick in Texas’ 2011 win over Texas A&M, mentioned his victory corny canine was “the best style on the earth.”
“It’s probably the most distinctive rivalry recreation in school soccer,” McCrary mentioned. “There could also be others which can be as huge, however they’re not on the Texas state honest. There’s 100,000 folks within the stadium and 200,000 folks exterior the stadium.”
Of the 550,000 corny canines that have been bought not less than 12 months’s state honest, which ran greater than three weeks, 124,000 have been bought on Pink River weekend and 45,000 on recreation day alone.
Texas has joined Oklahoma in putting in a Fletcher’s stand at dwelling video games. Drew Martin, Texas’ government senior affiliate athletic director for exterior affairs, mentioned he’s discovered quite a bit in regards to the tradition of the sport since first attending in 2018. As a result of lower than half of a normal Texas dwelling crowd can attend the sport — the 92,000-seat Cotton Bowl is cut up evenly on the 50-yard line between Texas and Oklahoma followers — he wished to convey a part of the Pink River expertise to Darrell Ok Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. This 12 months, for the primary time, there’s a Fletcher’s Corny Canine stand on the “Smokey’s Halfway” fan expertise space exterior of DKR and likewise a everlasting stand contained in the stadium.
“That’s a tried-and-true custom for that recreation,” Martin mentioned. “They’ll get a Fletcher’s Corny Canine similar to they do on the state honest.”
It’s not simply in regards to the corny canines. The attachment is borne out of excellent instances shared with household and mates on the honest, rooting for the Longhorns or Sooners.
Williamson mentioned her dad turned her on to Fletcher’s and she or he cherishes each journey to Pink River together with her father and husband. “He’s why I’m a Longhorn at the moment,” she mentioned.
Pinkerton’s dad and mom met on the 1977 Pink River Shootout as freshmen and later had their first date the evening Earl Campbell received the Heisman Trophy. Pinkerton’s first journey was in 1998, as a 9-year-old. He nonetheless has a photograph from it and remembers the T-shirt his dad purchased him and the cooler temperatures. “I burned my mouth on some sizzling chocolate,” he mentioned.
Anderson joked that he’s making an attempt to show his son about corny canines to perpetuate the unhealthy custom. “You’re in the course of the honest, you’re not going to get sushi,” he mentioned. Fletcher’s stands grow to be assembly factors earlier than or after the sport. “Yearly you present up and see your mates you went to high school with … and it’s one thing you find yourself sharing.”
Amber Fletcher and not less than of a dozen of her relations plus 200 staff could have their palms full. “It’s probably the most unbelievable day,” she mentioned. Amber, 37, has been going to the honest all her life. She has been a part of the household enterprise so long as she will be able to bear in mind, sticking canines and serving up smiles. After Skip’s demise in 2017, Amber has emerged because the face of Fletcher’s.
However she has by no means seen the sport.
“I’m going to the sport yearly, however I’ve by no means seen the sport,” she mentioned. “I’ve been within the press packing containers delivering corny canines, and I’ll peek out to attempt to see the sphere, however then I’ve bought to get again to work.
“Perhaps sooner or later after I retire, I’ll get a ticket and go watch the sport. However we’re out doing what our household’s all the time executed, which is serve corny canines to the fairgoers.”
Whereas followers gobble up the canines exterior the Cotton Bowl, the Longhorns and Sooners meet with lots on the road. No. 1 Texas, which leads the all-time sequence 63-51-5, is one in all simply three groups unbeaten in SEC play getting into Week 7. No. 18 Oklahoma, which made a quarterback change from Jackson Arnold to freshman Michael Hawkins Jr., would like to win its second straight over the Longhorns and stay in School Soccer Playoff rivalry.
Neither head coach has had a Fletcher’s Corny Canine. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian mentioned Wednesday that in his three years teaching the Longhorns, he hasn’t had an opportunity to benefit from the state honest and all its trimmings. “Perhaps if we win, I’ll attempt to discover a corny canine or one thing,” he mentioned.
Venables, who was seen operating stadium steps in 99-degree warmth this summer season, mentioned “my physique would possibly shut down if I eat a type of fried corn canines” when inspired by a reporter to attempt one.
However, Venables mentioned, “If we get a W, I’m gonna have one.”
(High picture courtesy of Fletcher’s Unique Corny Canines)