What Connects Us Today? Fraternity, Brotherhood, and the Oklahoma Sooners!
Bob Tierno

 In our book Letters In A Helmet A Story Of Fraternity and Brothehood Ron Sorter and I discuss our lives over five decades since we first met as Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity brothers at Oklahoma University. We touch on the importance of Oklahoma Football and we are loyal Sooners to this day. Every Saturday that the Sooners take the field, brothers Fred, RJ, Rich, Dennis, George, and I text the first thing in the morning "Boomer!" and as if on queue each responds "Sooner!"  

 Last night (11/16/19) the Baylor Bears went into halftime with a 31-10 lead. The texts went like this. The contributor will remain anonymous.
"Lets Go Big Red"
"Defense, Defense!
"For the love of God, tackle somebody!"
"Lincoln Riley has lost the team?"
"2018 Defense Redux"
"We suck!"
"Well, we are bowl eligible"
" Alamo Bowl?"
"No, Toilet Bowl  --- Flushing, NY"
Memes of faces throwing up appear on the screen.

 At half we were all dejected. Well , honestly I was really dejected. I put my OU Flag out, every game day. My golf cart is all things Sooner. I am known as OU Bob on the Pickleball court since I where my OU ball cap. A loss sets me up for verbal thrashings by Texas fans. Oh, the horror!

 "I'm good for one more quarter of this debacle and I'm heading to bed."
"We are going to win this game."
"Seriously, we aren't a come from behind team,"
" Yep, we are going to win this game."
" OK, I'm in for the duration."(It was still too early to hit the hay so I'm hanging with the true believers."

Apparently during the pregame invocation the minister, a Baylor Alum invoked a higher power. " Sick 'em Jeus" and who ever is in charge of the scoreboard showed video of the Sooner Schooner accident several games ago. Very poor taste. Jesus must have been busy elsewhere became obvious that the Baylor Bears didn't show up in the thrid quarter and the Sooners were reborn mounting a flurry of touchdowns finally kicking the winning field goal to win 34-31. A game ending interception sealed it. Baylor's prayers went unanswered

 " I told you the Sooners would win!"
 A Sheepish response. "Thanks for the pep talk at half time."

 In this virtual world of the internet we are able to have these conversations as if we were sitting in the stands, or back at the house at 700 Elm in Norman watching the game. It's a beautiful thing to be able to connect weekly, catch up on our health, our wives, and all things brotherly. I can only wonder what it was like for my late parents to only have the telephone and snail mail to keep in touch. Often they were never informed of a friends passing unless they ran into a friend at church or the store.   

 So what I'd like to leave you with today is reach out and connect with your friends no matter how far away. I use Facebook and LinkedIn . for social and professional networking.  Sadly, sometimes I find out about an associate from a past career who has died recently this way. Of course it doesn't matter the medium, it's the message that counts. Some argue that it depersonalizes the communication. I disagree! A simple text of "How is your health?" is uplifting to the receipient if for only a second knowing that somebody cares. In our brotherhood it has deeper meaning . 



Article from the OU Daily about Our Books




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