Anyone who has ever been to a University of Oklahoma football game has seen The Pride of Oklahoma in action, but most don't know all the work that goes into it.
Pride is actually a class we enroll in. We only get one credit hour for it, but we meet eight hours a week during the school week. We meet Monday through Thursday from 4:30 to 6:30. It's hot and we're all sweaty and gross, and we even do a few stretches and workouts to warm up. All that rehearsal piled on top of all our other classes and homework definitely keeps us busy.
On game days, we meet six hours before the game even starts. We have a two hour rehearsal and then a lunch break with lunch provided (or breakfast for an early game day). That break is also used to get ready in our uniforms. Two hours before the game, we have a time to re-warm up and go through some game day traditions. If we don't follow tradition, it brings bad luck! Not really, but it's fun. We then get into our parade block and parade over to Wagner Hall for our pre-game concert. It's free and open for anyone! We put in a lot of work on our music, so we really appreciate it when people come and show their support! We then block up again, and march into the stadium for pregame. Most of us would agree pregame is the best part of the game. Keeping the tradition alive and representing our university brings us such great joy. When we finish, we go into the stands and relentlessly support our team for the rest of the game. We also go out for halftime and showcase a different set of music at every home game.
On top of all the work that we put in, we spend our game day in thick, hot uniforms. They're long sleeved and made of a very thick polyester. We sweat so much, we have to get them dry cleaned after every game. Fortunately, that is taken care of for us. We don't have to pay for that. Wearing these uniforms, you learn to keep hydrated. We're usually given three to four bottles of water every game and you won't find many with anything left in them by the end of the game.
We put in a lot of work and sometimes we aren't given the credit we deserve by some of the fans and students, but we do it anyway because we love supporting our university and our team.
