This is the story of the University of Oklahoma football
team.
The year was 2014 and the Sooners started their season off
strong. They were led by this new guy named Baker and a trustworthy receiver named Sterling. They were the strongest and smartest football team around. They were
so good that they did not fit in with the other teams in the Big 12 and they
thought that they were destined for a championship.
Until one weekend they took a trip to a sketchy place called
the Cotton Bowl. This is where they ran into the ever so deceitful Longhorns.
The Longhorns were not good people and they were known for their greedy and
selfish acts, such as the Longhorn Network. The Longhorns had a history of
being bad at football and they were especially down when they met the Sooners in
the Cotton Bowl. When they ran into each other the Longhorns found out that the
Sooners' power was stored in the bill of Bob Stoops’ trusty visor. With this
knowledge they realized how valuable that visor was.
In the first half the Longhorns ripped off a small portion of Bob’s
visor and began playing well. They took this part of the visor and were able to get an
advantage over the Sooners. As the game progressed the Sooners' began noticing
changes in their capabilities as players. The offensive line could not block as
well, the corners could not defend as well, and the fans could not cheer as
loud. The Longhorns' got a substantial lead on the Sooners' but that was not near
enough for their greedy coach, Charlie Strong. He wanted more of Bob’s visor
and he knew just how he could get it. Strong waited until Bob got pissed at
the obviously terrible officiating crew and threw his visor to the ground. This
was the perfect opportunity needed for the Longhorns to steal the rest of the
Sooners' power. After the Sooners' lost their power they were unable to do
anything to stop the Longhorns that day. The defense could not tackle the
Longhorns' sneaky quarterback. The Sooners' offense suffered injuries and could
not even piece together a first down. The Longhorns greedily ran the ball up
and down the field under the hot Texas sun until eventually the game was over.
However, the Longhorns forgot to take into account that the
Football Gods were watching this Red River Shootout. The Football Gods decided
to punish the dirty Longhorns for their rude actions against the Sooners. The
Longhorns were punished with a terrible rest of the season. The Football Gods
were going to punish the Longhorns more but they decided not to because they
already had to wear that ugly burnt orange. The Football Gods decided to give
the Sooners their football powers back along with Bob’s visor. However, this was no
ordinary visor, this was a magic gold visor that would give the Sooners the skill
they needed to win the Big 12. This visor would also help the Sooners make it to the College Football Playoffs. Boomer!
Author's Note: I wrote this story with the inspiration from A Jataka Tale comic
book titled Elephant Stories. This story is about an elephant that is a little
different than all the other elephants in his group so he decided to go away on
his own. He goes out of the forest (Cotton Bowl) where he is met by a stranger
who finds out how valuable the elephants ivory (Bob’s Visor) is. The man asks
the elephant for some of his tusk because he is in financial trouble and the
elephant lets him take it. He then goes and sells it and blows all the money.
He then comes back and tricks the elephant by saying he paid his debts but now
has no money to live. The elephant believes him and gives him the rest of his
tusk. The elephant lets this happen and then realizes that the tusk is where he
gets his wisdom. As the man leaves he is killed by God for being greedy (Texas
Sucking) and then God gives the elephant extraordinary gold tusks (Bob's gold
visor). I kept the general concept from the original story but I changed
many of the details by making this story more about football.
Source:Jataka tales of Nobility: Elephant Stories found in the reserves in the Bizzell Memorial Library on the campus of the University of Oklahoma. By: Lakshmi Lal, Ashok Dongre, and Anant Pai
I love this story! I'm really into Sooner football, so this story really sparked my attention. And, consequently, I hate Longhorn football, so I especially enjoyed the ending. The author's note associated with this story is great- you really did a great job adapting this story and making it your own. I'm glad that you have a good outlet to express your love for sports!
ReplyDeleteSooner!!
You're post was so fun to read, Joe. What a great way to tell a story using the cotton bowl as the setting! I honestly think only Sooner and Texas fans will ever understand the greatness of the rivalry going on there. Bob Stoops is often wearing that visor of his so it is pretty humorous that is where the talent is hidden.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to make your story a little longer you could probably go into detail about how Texas found out that is where the sooner magic is!
My favorite part: "the Sooners power was stored in the bill of Bob Stoops’ trusty visor". It's not only funny, it almost seems likely. Getting Stoops to throw down his visor is a clever move, devious enough for a classic story like The Elephant's Tale. But how do the Longhorn's steal "part" of the visor? Did someone have to sneak up with a pair of scissors and snip some off? What went awry? (Otherwise, why not steal all of it at once?) Little details like that lend consistency and completeness to your tale, and cinch the cleverness of the visor ruse.
ReplyDeleteThis modern day story was a great read. I love how you based it on our school and used real characters. The happy ending was a nice touch as well. I feel that your author’s note was well written as well. It explained every detail and exactly why you chose to make the visor sacred. The parallelism was easy to catch.
ReplyDeleteAhoy Jacob!
ReplyDeleteI thought your story was very hilarious! You started out very strong with your comment that all the power was stored in the bill of Bob’s trusty visor! Once I read that I knew that this story was going to be nothing short of witty comments and snarky remarks for the dreadful Longhorns. However, given the certain situation that happened to Charlie Strong I feel the comment given to him was a little harsh but Boomer! Am I right?! Your overall story was very good I thought. You were able to stick to the original story very well while being able to completely making it you’re our which is great! I did find one small error in the second to last sentence of your story. You wrote, “They Football Gods” when it should be “The Football Gods.” Like I said a very small error in an otherwise very Oklahoman story. Great job Jacob!
This may be one of my favorite stories I've read. I love getting to read these OU football themed stories. I'm extremely happy I decided to take this class in the fall while the energy around football is still raging. It's interesting because I don't even go to OU, so it's so cool to see everyone express this love for football. I love UCO football, but there's definitely a higher love for football at OU and for good and clear reasons. Anyway, back to your story. I thought this is a great story. I figured that this was based around the idea of one of the Jataka tales. I had a few in my mind including the elephant story. I was happy to read in your author's note that this was correct! I thought you did a fantastic job on taking aspects from the story and morphing it into your own story. This was definitely a smart edition to your portfolio. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI loved this story! I think that your unique twist was funny and exciting. You kept the reader involved and made it a story that the reader invested in. I think if you took the time to read through it and break it down there might be some grammatical errors or ways you could reword some sentences to make a bit more sense. I think the story had so much creativity and I wanted to read more. Overall great job and I can't wait to read more stories from you!
ReplyDeleteHaha, nice. I'm honestly not really into football, but I still found this story to be very entertaining none the less! I loved the quip about Stoop's trusty visor. You did a solid job connecting the story with the tale, because I recognized that it was the elephant story pretty early on! I could tell that you love OU football, and that really added an extra punch of energy to the story. Boomer sooner, am i right?
ReplyDeleteTexas Sucks and I'm glad you confirm that in your story. This was absolutely hilarious! I love all of the little details you included about Mayfield and Stoops. My favorite line in there is dissing the Longhorns' ugly burnt orange color, haha. Again, you do a really great job with incorporating all of the story's details along with details about the inspiration! Great story!
ReplyDeleteI'm not that into sports but I still really enjoyed your story! I don't know much about football but your story was still easy to read and follow along with. Maybe I know a bit more about football than I think I do. I did read the Jataka comic book you based your story off of, so I wasn't able to relate it back to that. There are so many reading options for this course that it's impossible to get to them all! I didn't even attend any football games this season but we did have an exciting win on Saturday! Now we get to go to the Sugar Bowl (look at me knowing my stuff)! You're right, that must be one special visor! I didn't catch any typos in your story either. This class has definitely helped me grow as a writer and I can tell you're a strong writer too. I admire your creativity with this story and really liked it!
ReplyDelete