Superstitions – a hallmark of sports fandom

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - All fans want to see is a “W” in the win/loss column on game day. That means they’ll do anything they can to help get that win like making noise in the stadium, or even doing something they think has an impact on the game, but in reality, it doesn’t.

“Fan” is the short form of the word “fanatic” or “fanaticism.” They’re all words that easily describe those wearing America’s brightest orange or crimson and cream each Saturday. It’s an obsession that you better believe brings them to do anything they can to help their team get that victory.

"Do you wear the socks every game?" KFOR asked.

"Yes, yes, yes,” Corey “Scissorhands” Sutter said. “I do not go to a game without wearing my socks."

"I watch this one when we're winning and when something goes bad, I'll move to the front TV,” OSU apparel store owner Garrett Schubert said.

They’re called superstitions.

"I wear the same T-shirt every single year, every single game,” OSU fan Randie Armer said.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with them either, according to OU Health’s Chief of Psychiatry Britta Ostermeyer.

"We are people who hang out with one another and having a favorite sports team gives you an identity and a sense of belonging,” she said.

She also said it’s human nature to want to have control over things and superstitions can make us feel like we do.

"That's very positive and very good for our wellbeing and our self-esteem,” Ostermeyer said.

"Here's where we store the game uniforms for game day,” OSU’s Director of Athletic Equipment Wes Edwards said while showing us all of Oklahoma State’s jerseys and pants.

Up in Stillwater, four tops and three bottoms are the baseline for the Pokes’ uniforms, according to Edwards. However, it’s the helmets and numerous decals that help mix up the combos. Edwards said safety does go into picking them. For instance, they won’t wear all black in extreme heat at the beginning of the season, but you guessed it, superstition does play a role in picking them at times.

"Back in the day if we won in a certain look at a certain place, we'd go back and search it, ‘OK, What did we wear last time when we won’ and maybe match that,” Edwards said. “Or what did we wear last time when we didn't win and ‘OK, let's not do that again.’"

Edwards said it makes things fun.

"We've had players that want to wear a shirt they wore in high school under their pads,” he said. "We've got coaches that always want to see the same Sharpie. When I give them the Sharpie, ‘is that the one I had last week when we won?’"’

Meanwhile, down at Fad-N-Up barbershop in Oklahoma City, they’re no strangers to OU fandom. OKC-based musician CAJ and Sutter made a music video together titled “Ready to Role” that was shot down in Norman. Sutter’s shop is also decorated to the hilt, as are any fans that come in, like Jason McDaniel and Adam Bowers.

"We get up early, we start driving around campus, we got flags flying, we're yelling out the window, man,” McDaniel said sitting next to Bowers.

Both McDaniel and Bowers had on OU gear when KFOR spoke to them. Bowers even had a couple artificial OU rings on his hand that he had made.

They, along with others in the shop, said their belief was geared more toward the supernatural than anything else. Of course, that’s a belief in “Sooner Magic” where a game changing play happens in the blink of an eye.

Two recent examples being Nic Anderson catching the game winning touchdown against Texas, capping off a 1:17 drive right after Texas scored to take the lead in 2023. There’s also Kip Lewis’s pick six against Auburn on the road that won it for them late in the game.

"It looks like it's over and everything and all of a sudden, Sooner Magic comes out of the sky like lightning, a lightning bolt,” Sutter said.

So, whatever your superstition is on game day, you’re probably not alone, so just roll with it. Who knows, maybe it’s just what your team needs to get over the top.