NORMAN — A record crowd of 4,609 striped Love’s Field in crimson and white Sunday afternoon as OU beat Texas 9-8 to sweep the Red River Rivalry series.
Every seat was occupied beneath the overcast sky. Standing-room-only sections along the concourse were stacked two to three people deep. Fans would’ve taken root in the batter’s eye bushes if allowed. Or climbed the Oklahoma-shaped scoreboard for a better view. A few ticketless fans even stood outside the stadium’s outfield gates and peered in.
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OU softball is queen in this state, and it keeps getting bigger.
Time for the Sooners (and Longhorns) to think bigger.
Instead of striping the stadium against Texas, how about the Sooners and Longhorns adopt a football tradition and play in front of a 50/50 split?
How about OU-Texas at the Cotton Bowl … softball edition?
“I love it,” Sooner coach Patty Gasso said of the idea.
“It’s a possibility,” said Texas coach Mike White, who brought up playing OU at the Cotton Bowl before I could even pitch him on it. “Obviously, the growth of the game is big right now and we want to showcase it.”
More: OU softball coach Patty Gasso says Sooners ‘need to revisit’ playing at football stadium
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Gasso said she recently got a text from Ohio State head coach Kirin Kumar, who broached a Sooners-Buckeyes showdown at Ohio Stadium.
“The Shoe? Is that what you call it? I don’t know the dimensions or anything but we would do it in a heartbeat,” Gasso said. “We would love to do it here but I know that it does take some work to make that happen, just doesn’t fit right.
“But if we could do the Cotton Bowl, we could go to Ohio State, we could do wherever if it is going to help this sport grow.”
Gasso paused.
“The Cotton Bowl,” she said, letting the words linger.
The idea of OU softball playing in a football stadium to draw a record crowd was bandied about earlier this week in the wake of Stanford and Cal setting the college softball attendance record (13,207) at Stanford’s football stadium, which is where the Cardinal has played this season as its softball stadium gets renovated.
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The previous regular-season attendance record? The 9,259 fans OU and OSU drew this season at Devon Park in Oklahoma City.
The Stanford-Cal crowd drew more spectators than capacity allows at Devon Park, even when temporary bleachers are brought in for the Women’s College World Series. One WCWS session last year drew 12,566 fans, which was the overall softball attendance record before the Stanford-Cal game.
“Hey,” White said, “we’ve got to beat Stanford now.”
The three-game combined attendance for OU-Texas in Norman was a program record 13,734.
“Love’s (Field), where we’re sitting right now, is surreal still,” Gasso said, “but I don’t wanna stop. They don’t wanna stop. That’s our job, is to help push this sport.”
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More: OU softball squanders big lead but rallies to sweep Texas in Red River Rivalry series
Oklahoma fans walk around before the Red River Rivalry college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorn at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, Saturday, Oct., 12, 2024.
How many could the Sooners and Longhorns draw in Dallas? 20,000? Double that?
I have no idea if the Cotton Bowl is feasible as a softball venue. Owen Field is not due to its tight dimensions. But the Cotton Bowl hosted World Cup games in 1994. So if there’s enough real estate for a soccer field, maybe constructing an impromptu softball diamond is not so far-fetched.
In 1950, the Cotton Bowl hosted the opening game of the Texas League baseball season. More than 50,000 showed up for that. The Athletics and Raiders shared Oakland Coliseum for many years.
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Stanford fit a softball field into its football stadium by putting home plate in what would be the back corner of one end zone. The left-field line goes down one sideline while the right-field line runs across the back of the end zone to the far sideline. Stanford waited until after football season ended to install the dirt infield. Everything else, though, the grass, stands, concessions and lights, was there. An outfield wall was raised and netting was put up.
NCAA rules require that the outfield fence is at least 190 feet down the lines and 220 feet to dead center. Love’s Field is 200 down the lines and 225 to center.
Could OU and Texas actually do this? I don’t know. Administrators would have to want to do it. The Cotton Bowl would have to allow it. The schools would have to decide if it’s a one-game thing, a doubleheader or perhaps a whole series. If it’s not doable during SEC play, maybe it could count as a non-conference game.
“I don’t know, I don’t know,” said Gasso, considering all the questions. “But I wanna do it.”
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Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU-Texas softball at the Cotton Bowl? ‘I love it,’ Patty Gasso says
