University of Oklahoma - Sooner Yearbook (Norman, OK)

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v. 1 l . , 's iii' ' -.. 5 '4' I - W . V- YT I ifffzitcmj 'Ri 5 gg I Yr n -vf 5 X N ' I im 5 I V, W 4, ini ' -A 4 ' I . . ' ' . - a 4 W fe A - I 'gk Y ZAf7lH college experience than some textbooks ever will. Oklahoma held the dubious distinction among its college counterparts as the number one frustrator of Alcoholics Anonymous. Granted, Norman night life wasn't any Las Vegas strip or New Orleans' Bourbon Street. We made the best of what we had, though. 0 Every OU student had his or her favorite watering hole. Some had two, or three or four, or the dedicated Sooners could care less where they were drinking just as long as the tap kept running. Thursday was paint-the-town night. It really didn't matter where the celebration of the upcoming weekend was held. Across The Street offered Trivia night where free beers were foamed out for correct answers to bizarre questions. The Gray Fox manned two bars for madhouse Thursday night and weekend bashes while the Jockey Strap was a favorite hangout for pool and foosball enthusiasts. One could have seen the OU jocks at their best at O'Connells' Irish Pub. On crowded nights a Sooner front line was kept busy opening holes to the bar for some fellow athletes. . Winchesterfs, the newest addition to the bar-hopping circuit, attracted a quieter crowd to its small, cozy at- mosphere. ' The Blue Onion continued to be Norman's official night club with live music for dancing. A visit to the Onion usually included borrowing a fake I.D. to get in and then drowning to tolerate the overcrowded conditions on the tiny dance floor. Thursday night officially kicked off the weekend, but a number of bars offered the traditional happy hours or drown nights early in the week that coaxed students away from studying. Donovan's, for example, had a special night of the week that forced students to decide between doing homework or getting shipwrecked at the Reef. By mid-semester the OU faculty was ready to erect a lighthouse on Classen to cut ldown on the number of nightly wrecks at the popular ar. Of course drinking wasn't the only evening activity students engaged in, although it might have appeared that N GI-ITLIFE

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l l L if A , in f. , ill '-'lfrfa ' Ulm. W by Jackie Austin and Tim Marlow College: for some the opportunity to gain a worthwhile education, for' others a place to keep warm between high school and marriage, and for the majority of us an ex- pensive project in which blood, sweat and tears were shed for that precious little piece of paper certifying us as full- fledged graduates. The reasons we came here were as numerous and varied as the people who comprised our student body. Ask any student on any campus in America, though, and he would tell you that college was a lot more than lectures and note-taking. One thing common to all students no matter what their major or where they were from was that everyone needed to break away from the grind once in a while. Night life in Collegetown, USA served as the best example of this fact. More so, the night life was a reflection of the student body itself. Take for example that other state college. For years students there have been labeled as cowpokes and red- necks. The aggies couldn't understand why or how they latched onto this reputation. By simply looking at their town's night life one could see that the reputation was well deserved. When a hot game of horseshoes or an all-night vigil at Lewis Stadium waiting for the artificial grass to grow ranked as the entertainment for the weekend it was ap- parent where the stereotype image came from. Here at OU we have our own reputation through our nocturnal misadventures. We, too, have an image to maintain, an image that can be best summed up in one word: partying. Oklahoma's reputation for good times was as enriched in tradition as the Sooner football team with the party image rivaling the gridiron glory. Of course drinking was as much a part of college as lectures and final exams. It was a wonder that there weren't any universities bearing the names of Adolf Coors or Anheuser-Busch. Those men contributed more to the ORM

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at way. The University itself offered a variety of night time ac- tivities in an effort to surround the pasttimes with an air of scholasticism. Bizzell Memorial Library was open until midnight for any last minute research papers, finals' cramming, browsing, or sleeping that needed to be caught up on. Then there were the numerous speakers the school sponsored ranging from debates between state politicians to lengthy lectures on the sex life of the whooping crane. Functions announced in the Oklahoma DaiIy's campus notes provided entertainment such as foreign language films, Rupel Jones Theatre drama productions, University Symphony Orchestra concerts, and those fabulous Dale Hall movies where one could catch up on the current cinema scene for a mere dollar. After the flicks, barhopping, or whatever, midnight's everlastin' munchies hit with the predictability of a hangover the morning after the night before. As beer ranked as the traditional thirst-quencher for college students, pizza topped the food charts as the number one supplement to the suds. There was a ration of five pizza parlors for every single bar in Norman, or so it seemed. The city was virtually saturated with Italian diners. A drive down Lindsey Street left the impression of New York City's Little Italy. Heck, the pizza parlors even outnumbered the gas stations. The Sonic Drive-In deserved mention, too, for its pacifying effects on home-sick freshmen. The first year of college life involved quite an adjustment, especially for those from a small town. For years now Norman's Sonic has served as a comfort to lonely and depressed freshmen. The new student could put on his letter jacket or her old cheerleader's outfit and cruise through the drive-in to bring back soothing orman Nightlife .,,..a- ,f A1 4' r-.Xf 1. gf .. ff'g,f! '?fy l in r - ' TL' I ' 4 -i+x.xrK1 E 'f ,, wc? -47 7 53'l'L37 gm? ' L'--3xk4x' R .rr-Q ,gfr-'v'4jv'!y,L - rqnk .. I.. -fm ,Ye ,K ABOVE: THE MEAN MACHINE is operated by George Davis and Jay Flaherty while passing the time at the Reef. LEFT: ENJOYING ICE CREAM are Sally Barry and Terry Maulding.