Reports: Pride of Oklahoma Will Stay Home in 2020

The Big 12 Conference has reportedly decided to have bands and spirit squads at home games on if games are played this fall

John E. Hoover|

Reports: Pride of Oklahoma Will Stay Home in 2020

If college football season does happen in 2020, it will sound much different for Oklahoma fans.

The Pride of Oklahoma will not travel to road games in 2020, according to a report in the OU Daily.

All Big 12 schools reportedly agreed to leave their marching bands and spirit squads home when the football team hits the road this year, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

The Pride has accompanied the Sooners at every road game ever since David Boren took over as president in 1994.

Brian Britt, OU’s director of athletic bands and the head of the Pride, told the OU Daily there would be other changes ahead as everyone tries to manage risks of COVID-19.

“I think everything’s still really fluid right now with the current status of the virus," Britt told the Daily. “I think there’s so many other things that have to be decided for just starting the season and keeping everyone safe.

“All of us understand that health and safety come first. … It’s first and foremost about student safety.”

The decision hasn’t been made yet for neutral-site events like OU-Texas or postseason games.

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Published Jul 12, 2020

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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