Because football is a fall sport and the season doesn’t begin until late August — it seemingly gets earlier every year; remember when the season-opening game wasn’t until the second or third weekend in September? — Oklahoma has never played a football game on Independence Day.
The Sooners have, however, played an Independence game, as in the Independence Bowl, played in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Twenty years ago this season, in Bob Stoops first year as the Oklahoma coach, the Sooners finished with a 7-4 regular-season record and earned a postseason bowl bid for the first time in five seasons.