Charlotte Wilder takes in the view from the Sooner Schooner

By Charlotte Wilder
FOX Sports Columnist

SOMEWHERE IN OKLAHOMA — My production crew and I are driving down a long road that cuts through the Oklahoma plains and over the gentle, rolling hills. 

It’s evening, and the sun hits low on the road, illuminating the tall grass beside us so that the individual stalks appear to glow from within. 

There’s something magical about being out here in the quiet as we make our way toward an undisclosed location.

The reason the location is undisclosed, you see, is because it’s home to two of the biggest celebrities who live in Oklahoma. They are the stars of game day in Norman, and they represent what it means to live and breathe football in this state. They are poised, they never speak out of turn, and they are the most dedicated fans who’ve ever set foot in the stadium.

Or, should I say, "set hoof." Because they are ponies. Sooner and Boomer, the two white mares who pull the Sooner Schooner — a beautiful replica of a Conestoga wagon — on game days.

We pull up to the ranch and are greeted by Tonya (last name undisclosed because, once again, this is top-secret stuff), the woman who owns the ranch where the ponies live. We’re also greeted by students who are a part of the RUF/NEKS and Lil Sis spirit squads.

The RUF/NEKS are the oldest male spirit squad in the country and the second-oldest in the world. Created in 1915, they’ve been shooting guns at games (with blanks, of course) and running the ponies since then. 

In 1973, the University of Oklahoma added the Lil Sis program to include women. It’s a tough selection process. Sara Wheeless is one of the drivers of the schooner, and she told me there’s a whole committee who decides not only who makes the squad but also who gets to drive the wagon on Saturdays.

"My freshmen year, I just really showed a lot of heart, and they picked me," she said.

Wheeless had no experience with horses or ranching before she came to OU, but a lot of the RUF/NEKS did. Especially John Patrick Carter, who will drive the wagon this Saturday, when the Sooners face Nebraska (noon ET on FOX and the FOX Sports App.) This is his second year in the driver’s seat.

"We spend three to four hours a week here at the farm practicing," Carter said. "Once a week, we’ll go up to the field, and we’ll practice game-day drives."

Carter is from a little town outside of Waco, Texas, called McGregor, with a population of fewer than 5,000. On this beautiful evening, he takes Sooner out of the pasture and leads her into the stall where she’ll be bathed for game day. He wears a beautiful cowboy hat with a beaded band — a real, present-day cowboy. He grew up around horses, and he talks to them in a way that makes it clear both man and beast are speaking the same language.

For more up-to-date news on all things college football, click here to register for alerts on the FOX Sports app!

You have to address Sooner and Boomer differently, though. Sooner is more laid back than Boomer — "the girls" require different handling and care to make sure they work together as a team. Carter likes to get the horses riled up and ready to go before a run, but during the game, when they either wait in their air-conditioned trailer or stay briefly in a special stall in one of the stadium’s tunnels, it’s all about keeping them calm.

After I spend some time with Boomer and Sooner and after Sooner gets her bath and pregame haircut, we head over to the Schooner itself. A few of the students roll it out of its special trailer before they start putting it together.

Now, let’s address the elephant (or pony?) in the room: Yes, the Sooner Schooner tipped over in 2019. But since then, the RUF/NEKS and Lil Sis have completely revamped it. The wagon is wider now, with a lower center of gravity, and there are special breaks and safety measures on the wheels to prevent 90-degree turns. This thing isn’t going to tip over again anytime soon.

The wagon is pretty majestic up close. It’s smaller than I expected, but the gravitas with which the students assemble it — raising the stanchions, gently draping the canvas over them and hitching up the post — makes it feel larger than life. I ask Carter if he’ll show me what it’s like to ride on the wagon on game day, and he tells me to hop onto the driver’s seat. He goes through the motions, pretending to speak to the ponies, calling out "Hip! Hip!" and then shows me how he’ll guide them in their graceful turn around the gridiron.

It’s pretty surreal being up there. The wagon represents so much more than a football team — it stands for the people who took a chance, hopped into their Conestogas and headed out here to try to build a life. Many of the members of RUF/NEKS and Lil Sis grew up watching OU football, watching this wagon circle the field and dreaming of being in the exact seat that I got to sit in. 

College football is about games, sure, but it’s really about history. Oklahoma’s — and that of most places — is complicated.

But football plays a huge part in it.

"In 1933, the president of the University, George Lynn Cross, looked around and saw the dust bowl, the depression, the Grapes of Wrath, the people who didn’t have anything to live for," FOX Sports’ own RJ Young — and a born-and-bred Oklahoman — told me. "He believed a winning football team would raise the spirits of the people who lived here."

And it has.

On Saturday, when Carter drives that wagon out onto the field, when Boomer and Sooner give their runs all they have, they’re doing it for a lot more than one game. They’re doing it for everyone in this state, for everyone who loves these plains and for everyone here who always hopes for something better. Who hopes for wins.

So let me end on this: As they say around here, BOOMER SOONER!

For more up-to-date news on all things Oklahoma, click here to register for alerts on the FOX Sports app!

Charlotte Wilder is a general columnist and cohost of "The People's Sports Podcast" for FOX Sports. She's honored to represent the constantly neglected Boston area in sports media, loves talking to sports fans about their feelings and is happiest eating a hotdog in a ballpark or nachos in a stadium. Follow her on Twitter @TheWilderThings.