Posted on 09/11/2007 1:21:14 PM PDT by 1riot1ranger
OU-UT rivalry at center of bloody bar fight Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — To hear Oklahoma football fans tell it, some things just aren't done in the heart of Sooner Nation, and one of them is to walk into a bar wearing a Texas Longhorns T-shirt.
That's exactly what touched off a bloody skirmish that left a Texas-shirt-wearing fan nearly castrated and an Oklahoma fan facing aggravated assault charges that could put him in prison for up to five years.
The shocking case has set off a raging debate in this football-crazed region about the extreme passions behind a bitter rivalry. Some legal observers have even questioned whether this case could ever truly have an impartial jury.
"I've actually heard callers on talk radio say that this guy deserved what he got for wearing a Texas T-shirt into a bar in the middle of Sooner country," said Irven Box, an attorney in this city 20 miles from Oklahoma's campus in Norman.
According to police, 32-year-old Texas fan Brian Christopher Thomas walked into Henry Hudson's Pub on June 17 wearing a Longhorns T-shirt and quickly became the focus of football "trash talk" from another regular, 53-year-old Oklahoma fan Allen Michael Beckett.
Thomas told police that when he decided to leave and went to the bar to pay his tab, Beckett grabbed him in the crotch, pulled him to the ground and wouldn't let go, even as bar patrons tried to break it up. When the two men were separated, Thomas looked down and realized the extent of his injuries.
"He could see both of his testicles hanging on the outside of his body," said Thomas' attorney, Carl Hughes. "He was wearing a pair of white shorts, which made it that much worse."
It took more than 60 stitches to close the wound, and police interviewed Thomas at a nearby hospital emergency room.
Beckett's attorney, Billy Bock, concedes that his client commented about Thomas' shirt, but said it was just good-natured ribbing and that he apologized to Thomas when it appeared to upset the Texas fan. Later, Bock said Thomas approached his client at the bar and threatened him.
"My client is a little man, and this guy (Thomas) is 30 to 40 pounds bigger than him," Bock said. "He's bigger, stronger, younger and probably faster, and he aggressively leaned in and touched my client and threatened to beat him up. ... My guy was defending himself and just took control of the situation."
Thomas' attorney disputes Beckett's version.
"That's total malarkey," Hughes said. "My client never said a word to him. He got up to pay and when he paid and left a tip, the guy grabbed him."
Beckett, a 53-year-old church deacon, federal auditor and former Army combat veteran, has pleaded not guilty. His next court appearance comes Oct. 4, two days before the Sooners and Horns tangle in their annual football game at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
Thomas, who once lived in Houston and became a Texas fan during the heyday of star running back Earl Campbell, is still recovering from his injuries but has returned to work as a meat cutter at a Sam's Club warehouse store.
Like Beckett and Thomas, many fans of the two college squads never attended either university, but have come to identify so closely with these teams that they attach banners to their cars, wear team colors on game day and even have programmed their car horns to play school fight songs.
Dallas police Sgt. Andy Harvey, a 12-year veteran of the force, said it's not uncommon for fights to break out between fans of the two schools.
"People are passionate about their teams and their universities, and that's a good thing," he said, "but when you mix a real passionate sports fan and then get a little alcohol in there, sometimes it's not a good mix."
On both Texas and Oklahoma fan Web sites, boosters trade familiar tales of having their car tires slashed or windshields smashed for sporting the opposing team's sticker in enemy territory.
Assistant District Attorney Scott Rowland said the rivalry will have no bearing on the way the case is prosecuted.
"It appears that it played a part in the fight," he said, "but that won't play any more of a role in our handling of the case than would a fight over a girl or a car or a song on the jukebox."
I can't speak as to the Sooner, but if the t-sip was drinking a wine cooler, he probably attended t.u.
oh, and also the fact that he got his ass kicked by a 53 year old.
These losers did not even attend the colleges that they were supporting. If you didn’t go to school there, you have no business wearing their stuff.
OU fan was just trying to get himself a pair.
later
I live in TN now and it amazes me that people can go to a school like Tn Tech, or Austin Peay, and yet their sports loyalties lie with UT. Of course you have the multitudes of 8th grade dropouts sporting their UT gear as well.
A couple of years ago when A&M played UT (Tenn) in a bowl game, my inlaws kept calling to razz me that Tenn was winning. I'm thinking "that means so much from a bunch of hicks who couldn't find the campus if their lives depended on it.
In Texas there are only two sports: football and Spring football.
The last few TX-OU games I went to, previous to about nine years ago, we always went to the West End. This was a few years after the notorious shootings and the cops were thick and we saw no violence at all. Just a bunch of drunk happy fans.
We lived in Mesquite until I was nine years old, and I remember one time when my grandparents visited from Oklahoma. They had a new car and we went for a ride during TX-OU weekend. Downtown Dallas, we had a ton of beer bottles and other trash thrown at the car because of the OK plates.
Do you have a link for any of this?
This is just nuts.
Monkey Takes Peach, also known as The Arizona Death Grip.
Utter nonsense. Even it held a shred of truth, it’s without relevance. Wearing a shirt shouldn’t get you attacked. This is what we usually think of as being gang behavior. Not sports fans.
It obviously meant enough that it got under your skin. I don't get it. I don't get sports fans in general. I just can't see how anyone could possibly be emotionally died to the winner or loser of a game they're not personally playing.
“I can’t speak as to the Sooner, but if the t-sip was drinking a wine cooler, he probably attended t.u.”
I’ve never understood why (presumably)otherwise normal adults get so caught up in a rivalry that they say such stupid things. You don’t know me and I don’t know you but that is an idiotic, juvenile statement.
Okay, I get that the Sooners and ‘Horns don’t like each other, but you just can’t have people trying to pull the other team’s fans’ privates off. That’s unacceptable.
That would never happen here in Michigan. Even U of M fans are now wearing MSU shirts.......
Admitting my bias up front, I say you have a point until the guy tears 'em off. The one fight in my life that I won (in 1973) was when a guy got me in a headlock - I managed to take care of myself without maiming anyone for life.
The old dude sounds like a lifelong loser too.
BTW, (Carville voice) this heah's all old news! This all happened back even before the season started! /s
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.