For the primary time in its 60-year historical past, the Sooner Schooner, the College of Oklahoma’s iconic coated wagon mascot, is being pushed by a Native American lady.
Brianna Howard, a junior at OU and a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, first drove the Schooner onto the sector in the course of the soccer crew’s season opener in opposition to Illinois State.
“I only had a minute to get on the Schooner, get the reins and go,” Howard stated Saturday earlier than the Sooners’ sport in opposition to Missouri in Norman. “I didn’t have enough time to get too nervous. When I went out there, it was amazing. I could not even hear the audience I was so zoned into driving.”
Members of the RUF/NEKS and the all-female spirit group Lil’ Sis handle the Schooner and its ponies, and so they take turns driving it in the course of the sport.
Members of the Oklahoma spirit teams drive the Sooner Schooner after a landing in opposition to Missouri in the course of the first half of an NCAA faculty soccer sport Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025, in Norman, Okla.
Alonzo Adams / AP
First launched in 1964, the Sooner Schooner is pulled throughout the sector earlier than the sport and after Oklahoma scores by matching white ponies named “Boomer” and “Sooner.”
As a result of the scaled-down Conestoga wagon is harking back to these pioneers used whereas settling Oklahoma Territory within the late 1800s, Howard acknowledged that some see the Schooner mascot as an emblem of oppression in opposition to Native individuals. However she stated to her, driving the wagon represents taking possession of that image.
“I know that for me, it’s a representation of taking back something that was used to oppress my people and my culture, and now that I’m in charge, it’s giving us the power,” she stated. “Not everyone’s going to see it that way, and that’s OK.”
Jack Roehm, a senior at OU and president of the RUF/NEKS, drove the Schooner throughout Saturday’s sport in opposition to Missouri and described the Sooner Schooner custom as one among faculty soccer’s most uncommon.
“It’s a historic tradition after every score having the ponies run across the field,” Roehm stated. “There’s nothing like it in college football.”
Extra from CBS Information
