11/22/25 04:48:00
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11/22 16:46 CST First Native woman drives Oklahoma's iconic Sooner Schooner
First Native woman drives Oklahoma's iconic Sooner Schooner
By SEAN MURPHY
Associated Press
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) --- For the first time in its 60-year history, the Sooner
Schooner, the University of Oklahoma's iconic covered wagon mascot, was driven
by a Native American woman.
Brianna Howard, a junior at OU and a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, first drove
the Schooner onto the field during the football team's season opener against
Illinois State.
"I only had a minute to get on the Schooner, get the reins and go," Howard said
Saturday before the Sooners beat Missouri 17-6. "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 take care of
the Schooner and its ponies, and they take turns driving it during the game.
First introduced in 1964, the Sooner Schooner is pulled across the field before
the game and after Oklahoma scores by matching white ponies named "Boomer" and
"Sooner."
Because the scaled-down Conestoga wagon is reminiscent of those pioneers used
while settling Oklahoma Territory in the late 1800s, Howard acknowledged that
some see the Schooner mascot as a symbol of oppression against Native people.
But she said to her, driving the wagon represents taking ownership of that
symbol.
"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 said. "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
during Saturday's game against Missouri and described the Sooner Schooner
tradition as one of college football's most unusual.
"It's a historic tradition after every score having the ponies run across the
field," Roehm said. "There's nothing like it in college football."
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