92,000 fans packed into one 95-year-old stadium. 92,000 fans split right down the middle, painting a sea of crimson violently crashing with one of burnt orange. Often regarded as the most anticipated rivalry game in college football, the 125-year-old Red River Rivalry has once again been the talk of the town as a 3-2 Texas team prepares to take on the undefeated Oklahoma Sooners.

But what exactly is the history of this storied game? At what point did it go from a regular conference matchup to one of the spectacular sights in college football? To answer that question, we have to go back 120 games to the turn of the 20th century, when the two teams first squared off.

The year is 1900 in Austin, Texas. The forward pass had yet to be invented, the state of Oklahoma had yet to be recognized, and the Texas Longhorns had won 28-2 in what had yet to become an illustrious rivalry. It wouldn’t be until the 8th meeting between the two teams in 1905 that the Sooners had finally notched a win with a score of 2-0.

Fast forward to 1932, when the matchup had finally found a place to call home, almost smack dab in the middle of both colleges at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas. Texas would win the first Cotton Bowl matchup 17-10.

Up until the 1950s, Texas had historically been the better of the two teams, winning 29 of the 44 games played. Cue Bud Wilkinson. Having amassed a record of 145-29-4 in his 17 years as Oklahoma’s head coach, Wilkinson is often mentioned as one of the greatest coaches in Sooner history. Bud practically owned Texas in the 1950s, winning seven out of the ten matchups against the Burnt Orange. It seemed as though the tide had begun to turn to those in crimson.

That was until the Texas stadium's namesake, Darrell K Royal, entered the picture. From 1958 to 1965, Royal and his horns would go on to win every game against the Sooners, most of which in dominating fashion.

Now we enter the 1970s when Hall of Famer Barry Switzer took over the mantle as Oklahoma's head coach. He’d go undefeated against the Longhorns in his first four seasons as coach and finish his career with a 9-5-2 record in the Red River Rivalry.

At this point, the game became more than just a rivalry. The two teams had become so dominant that this one game could determine a team's entire postseason and whether or not they’d qualify for a spot in the national championship.

Throughout the 80s and 90’s we’d continue to see a back-and-forth pattern between the two teams with neither one being quite able to establish a true dominance over the other.

If you’re a Texas fan, it’s time for the unfortunate era of this rivalry: The 21st century.

Since 2000, the Sooners have dominated Texas in the record books, winning 17 of the past 26 matchups. In an era that’s been filled with heartbreaks, most recently in 2021 when Caleb Williams singlehandedly came back from a 21-point deficit, Texas fans haven’t proudly sung the Eyes of Texas nearly as many times as they’d hope.

While they got the better of the Sooners last year, this year's shaping up to be far different. With recent news suggesting that John Mateer is planning on playing on Saturday, Texas’ chances are only getting slimmer. While they may lead the series all-time at 64-51-5, people likely aren’t going to remember the first 50 or even 100 times the two have played; they’ll remember the game that just happened. But regardless of which team you support, the Red River Rivalry still stands as one of the greatest games of all time, and there’s still beauty in that, even if the results aren’t always quite what you want.