The Oklahoma–Texas football rivalry is a college football rivalry game between border rivals Texas and Oklahoma. The two teams first played each other in 1900, and the rivalry has been renewed annually since 1929 for a total of 122 games as of 2026. The rivalry is commonly referred to as the Red River Shootout, the Red River Rivalry, or the Red River Showdown. The name refers to the Red River, which forms part of the border between Oklahoma and Texas.
Since 1934, the game has been played on the second Saturday of October, though it has occasionally been played on the first Saturday. Since 1932, the game's site has been the Cotton Bowl inside Fair Park in Dallas. The winner of the regular-season matchup receives the Golden Hat trophy, a gold ten-gallon hat once made of bronze. The trophy is kept by the winning school's athletic department until the next game.
Overview
The first game in the series was played in 1900, when Oklahoma was still a territory. The game was called the Red River Shootout until the 100th game in 2005, when, sponsored by SBC Communications, the game was officially renamed the SBC Red River Rivalry. "Shootout" was replaced so as not to convey an attitude of condoning gun violence. The following year, with SBC's purchase of AT&T Corporation, the game was renamed the AT&T Red River Rivalry. It was renamed again in 2014 to the AT&T Red River Showdown, before Allstate secured naming rights in 2023, and changed the name to the Allstate Red River Rivalry. The terms Red River Shootout and Red River Showdown are also applied to meetings between the two schools in all other sports.
Since 1936, the first year of the AP poll, at least one of the teams has come into the game ranked on 70 occasions. Texas leads the overall series 65–52–5 (.553).
Texas and Oklahoma have combined for 11 claimed national championships, and in each instance the national champion won the Oklahoma–Texas game; the losing team in this rivalry game has never gone on to win a national title.
In 2005, The Dallas Morning News asked the 119 Division 1A football coaches to identify the top rivalry game in college football. The Red River Rivalry ranked third, behind only Michigan–Ohio State and Army–Navy.
History
1900–1960
The first meeting between the Oklahoma and Texas football teams occurred in 1900, before either team had acquired their current nicknames. At the time, the Texas team was typically called "Varsity". The write-up in the Austin American-Statesman article referred to the game as a "practice game". The paper reported:
The game of football yesterday afternoon at the Varsity athletic field was an interesting contrast, notwithstanding the rather one-sided score of 28–2 in favor of the Varsity.
In the 1950 rivalry game, Billy Vessels scored on an 11-yard run late in the contest, and Texas native Jim Weatherall kicked the extra point to give Oklahoma a narrow 14–13 win.
In 1958, Texas defeated Oklahoma by one point, breaking the University of Oklahoma's series dominance of the 1950s. Texas Longhorns head coach Darrell Royal had 10 years earlier been the quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners, and defeated his former coach and mentor Bud Wilkinson in the game. Wilkinson would lose to Texas the next five years before retiring in 1963.
1960–1995
The 1963 game featured No. 1 Oklahoma versus No. 2 Texas, the seventh regular-season No. 1 versus No. 2 game (eighth, overall) in the history of the AP poll. Texas won the game, took the No. 1 ranking, and kept it for the rest of the season, winning its first national championship.
Prior to the 1970 meeting, Oklahoma changed its offense to the Wishbone formation following a home loss to Oregon State (the Sooners had an open week between the games versus the Beavers and Longhorns). The offense was invented by Texas offensive coordinator Emory Bellard two years earlier and used by the Longhorns to win 23 consecutive games and the 1969 national championship to that point.
Texas routed Oklahoma 41–9 in 1970 and extended their winning streak to 30 before losing to Notre Dame 24–11 in the Cotton Bowl. Meanwhile, as the Sooners mastered the Wishbone, they went 6–1–1 to close 1970 and opened 1971 with three consecutive victories before facing the Longhorns.
Oklahoma showed just how far they had come in one season, shredding Texas for 435 yards rushing in a 48–27 victory. The Sooners finished 1971 averaging 472 yards rushing per game, an 11–1 record and a No. 2 final ranking, with only a 35–31 loss to Nebraska in the "Game of the Century" keeping Chuck Fairbanks' squad from the national championship.
In 1972, Oklahoma spied on Texas' practices, allowing them to block a quick kick the Longhorns had secretly been working on en route to a victory.
In an article referencing the 1976 rivalry game , Texas coach Darrell Royal accused Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer of spying on their practice before the matchup. Before the game, current president at the time, Gerald Ford, was with the two coaches. There was little conversation between the two. The game finished in a 6-6 tie in what would be Royal's last Red River Rivalry game.
Going into the matchup from the 1977 season, Oklahoma had beaten Texas five years in a row. The Longhorns were also down their starting quarterback, Mark McBath for this game. They then had to pivot to the backup, Jon Aune. Nine plays after he got in the game, however, Aune also got injured and was taken out. Texas had to pivot once more to their third string quarterback, Randy McEachern. The Longhorn's Heisman running back, Earl Campbell, was also very involved in this matchup. Campbell ran for 124 yards, and his 24-yard touchdown run broke the 3-3 tie, a key play in the game. Texas kicker, Russel Erxleben, impacted the game as well; drilling a 58 and a 64 yard field goal. With four minutes left in the fourth quarter, Oklahoma had the ball on the five-yard line and on 4th and 1, Oklahoma quarterback Thomas Lott was stopped by Longhorn Brad Shearer. Texas would go on to hold their lead of 13-6 to the final whistle. After the game, Texas moved to the #2 ranked team, taking the Sooners place as the second best team in the country.
In a rain-soaked 1984 game, Texas entered the game ranked No. 1, Oklahoma No. 3 (No. 2 in some polls). The matchup in 1984 was a rainy game. It was a "relentless downpour", as put by Texas' All-American kicker, Jeff Ward, in an interview. Switzer wore a ballcap during the game that read "Beat Texas." This game also marked the only time that future University of Texas at Austin head coach Mack Brown participated in the Red River Shootout not as a Texas Longhorn, but as Oklahoma's offensive coordinator. Oklahoma had a 15-10 lead at the end of the 3rd quarter. With two minutes remaining in the game, Oklahoma Coach Barry Switzer called a play in which OU intentionally snapped the ball out of the back of the end zone, rather than punting the ball downfield, resulting in a safety and 2 points for the Longhorns. Now only being down 3, Texas received the free kick after the safety and drove down the field into scoring position. Texas quarterback Todd Doge aired it out to the end zone, and the pass appeared to be intercepted by OU defensive back Keith Stansberry. Officials, however, ruled him out of bounds. The Longhorns were then able to capitalize with a 32 yard field goal from Ward to tie the game at 15. Since overtime wasn't fully adopted until the 1996 season , the game finished in a 15-15 tie.
In the 1994 game, after the pregame prayer in the Texas locker room, coach John Mackovic informed the team that backup quarterback James Brown would be starting the game in place of the injured Shea Morenz (who had strained knee ligaments that limited him in practice ahead of the game). Texas was up 17-10, as a result of a 9-yard rushing touchdown by Brown in the third quarter. Oklahoma had the ball with 43 seconds remaining in the game. It was on 4th down and goal that sophomore tailback James Allen carried the ball down to the goal line. He made his way around the outside of the Texas defensive line when junior defensive lineman Stonie Clark stopped him just after the one yard line. Texas would go on to win the game 17-10, for one of their seven wins over Oklahoma in the 1990s. Brown finished with a stat line consisting of 148 passing yards with a passing and rushing touchdown.
1996–2001
The first Big 12 Conference overtime game, the 1996 meeting featured a John Blake squad under the direction of freshman quarterback Justin Fuente. The game ended Oklahoma 30–Texas 27 after a come from behind victory in the final seven minutes. Down 24–13, Jarrail Jackson returned a punt 51 yards for a touchdown, then Fuente completed a 2-point conversion pass to Stephen Alexander to cut the lead to just 3. The Sooners forced the Longhorns to punt, and drove to the Texas 28. Jeremy Alexander kicked a 44-yard field goal to tie the game at 24 each.
In overtime, Texas was forced to settle for a 43-yard Phil Dawson field goal, after losing 1 yard on three plays. Lining up at the Texas 25, James Allen broke a ten-yard run, carried for two and three yards, then caught an 8-yard screen pass from Fuente on 3rd and 5 from the 10. On the ensuing play, Allen took a pitch from Fuente for two yards into the end zone for a touchdown to win the Sooners the game, doing what he was unable to do in the 1994 matchup two years prior.
The 2000 game was marked by rain and 49-degree weather, but it ended up being noted for the most lopsided margin of victory in the history of the match-up at that time, though Oklahoma would top its feat just three years later. Oklahoma came into the game ranked 10th, with Texas ranked 11th. This was the highest combined rankings of the teams since 1984. The Sooners got up to a 42-point lead before Texas scored, finally winning the game 63–14. OU also held Texas to minus-7 yards rushing, an all-time regular-season low for the Longhorns.
Longhorn coach Mack Brown said "It wasn't even a game because we did not play in the first half." Sooner coach Bob Stoops said, "This was a total team victory, everybody made plays. ...We had a little bit of everything." OU President David Boren cancelled classes the following Monday on account of inclement weather: "It was snowing touchdowns in Dallas." Sooner running back Quentin Griffin scored six touchdowns, tying the all-time NCAA record for most rushing touchdowns in a game. Oklahoma went on to an undefeated season, and won the 2000 National Championship.
The 2001 game, which ended Oklahoma 14–Texas 3, was a classic defensive struggle that was notable for a play made late in the 4th quarter.
Both the Sooners' and the Longhorns' defenses were outstanding, holding their counterparts to less than 100 yards rushing for the entire game. When either offense could muster any momentum, they were often let down by their kicker: OU's Tim Duncan missed two field goals, and UT's Dusty Mangum had one blocked. OU led 7–3 at the half on the back of a Quentin Griffin 2-yard touchdown in the second quarter. That score held until late in the fourth quarter.
The Sooners got the ball with just over eight minutes to play on their own 20-yard line, and put together a 12-play, 53-yard drive that took them all the way to the Texas 27-yard line. Facing a 4th & 16, OU sent out Tim Duncan for what appeared to be a 44-yard FG attempt. Instead, Duncan sent a pooch punt deep into the Texas zone, which caught UT's Nathan Vasher off guard. Confused, Vasher caught the ball at his own 3-yard line and was immediately downed.
Down 7–3, Texas had 2:06 to drive 97 yards on the stiff Sooner defense. On first down, Texas quarterback Chris Simms' pass was deflected by OU safety Roy Williams, who had blitzed and literally leapt over the blocker, Brett Robin, to collide with Simms at the moment he released the ball. The ball landed right in Oklahoma linebacker Teddy Lehman's hands, who walked into the endzone for a touchdown. The play happened so fast, many fans did not know exactly what had happened. The play by Roy Williams is often called "The Superman Play" because of the way that Williams resembled Superman flying through the air with his arms stretched out at Chris Simms when he hit him. Duncan's extra point sealed the 14–3 OU victory.
2004–2009
The 2005 game, which ended Texas 45–Oklahoma 12, was the 100th meeting in the series and a special logo was created to commemorate the event. The game logo included both team logos, the logo of sponsor SBC Communications, the number 100, a football, and a star. Prior to the game, the Longhorns were ranked 2nd by the Associated Press, and the Sooners were unranked for the first time since 1999, which was also Texas's last victory over OU.