University of Oklahoma
Team Name: Sooners, previously Rough Riders and BoomersNickname Established: Sooners est. 1908 Mascot: Sooner Schooner Costumed Mascot: Boomer & Sooner, two creme white ponies, previously Top Daug/Dawg at basketball games & wrestling matches Costumed Mascot Debut: Boomer & Sooner, August 26, 2005 at the Big Red Rally, Top Dawg, mid 1980's Live Mascot: Sooner Schooner, a covered wagon pulled by two creme white ponies. The wagon's not live but the drivers and ponies are. Live Mascot Debut: 1964, became official mascot in 1980 Team Colors: Crimson and Creme University Location: Norman, Oklahoma  
What's a Sooner? Historically speaking a Sooner is someone who entered the Unassigned Lands of the Oklahoma Territory before the April 22, 1889 high noon start time of the "Oklahoma Land Run." These settlers were either there legally in official roles or they had snuck in. Eventually the term Sooner came to represent the Progressivism of the 1920's. Per the official OU site a Sooner was an "energetic individual who travels ahead of the human procession - prosperous, ambitious, competent. And Oklahoma was the Sooner State, the land of opportunity, enterprise and economic expansion..." Wow. What a description. Is that why Adrian Peterson went to OU instead of Texas? Trivia Goldmine: Top Daug.
It's obvious why one horse is named Sooner, but why is the other horse named Boomer? Strap on your history boots for another ride. While the Sooners were on the Unassigned Lands sooner than others, the Boomers were the initial advocates of the Unassigned Lands being open for settlement. President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862, stating if a legal settler lived on and improved up to 160 acres of land for five years the settler could receive title to the land. During the 1870's groups of citizens lobbied for the Unassigned Lands to be opened for settlement. Newspapers began to refer to these people as Boomers. What's the Sooner Schooner? The Sooner Schooner is the official mascot of OU. It is driven by the OU RUF/NEKs, the univeristy's all-male spriti squad. The Schooner appears at home football games, bowl games and the Red River Rivalry with the Univeristy of Texas. After an OU touchdown, the Schooner is driven in an arc to about the 50-yard line and back with the RUF/NEK Queen next to the driver and a young RUF/NEK sitting in on the back of the wagon, usually dangling his legs and carrying the OU flag. A schooner is a covered wagon modeled after the ones settlers used in the 1889 Oklahoma Land Run. These wagons were known as "prairie schooners" because the canvas covers gliding across the plains resembled the sails of schooners.
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