It’s Torture Sometimes Being A Poke

FanSided recently released a list of college football’s 15 most tortured fan bases of all time:

As you can see from the picture in the tweet above, Oklahoma State made the list. Coming in at #15, the Cowboys have the first fan base discussed in the article. FanSided’s Connor Muldowney discusses the Poke fans’ torture in several short pararaphs.

His reasons for including the Cowboy faithful in his rankings include being Oklahoma’s “other” team, only having 10 conference titles in 115 years of competition and having only four 10-win seasons in the past 28 years... all four coming under Gundy, word to T. Boone.

Muldowney then goes on to discuss the Central Michigan game earlier this year, and the play that must not be named. He wraps up the Oklahoma State misery by reminding us that the Cowboys were basically eliminated from the College Football Playoff in week 2, making for another title-less season in Stillwater.

I have absolutely no issue with being included on this list.. Hell, I think we should be #1 (which goes to Oregon, according to Muldowney). As far as being Oklahoma’s “other” team, just look at the head to head match-up. I know you probably don’t want a reminder, but it’s 85 - 18 - 7 in favor of the Sooners. I think it’s the most lopsided rivalry in college football, and Bleacher Report listed it as one of the 20 most lopsided rivalries in their post from 2012.

There is even a name for this mystical power that’s main goal is to mess with Cowboy fans... Squinky. If you need any proof that OSU is one of the most tortured fan bases in college football history, just read that 2011 Grantland article from Brian Phillips.

Squinky has been alive and well even after Phillips wrote his article. Remember 2011 in Ames? Or, how about the one un-timed down mentioned above?

Whenever an article like this one from FanSided emerges, I think about Squinky and all the times my heart has been ripped out of my chest during my tenure as an Oklahoma State fan. But, that being said, there’s been plenty of great times to go along with the bad.

I’m sure some people reading this post that are more seasoned than me are thinking “Damn’t man, at least in your lifetime we’ve had some great seasons and even won the Fiesta bowl. You don’t even know how it used to be”. And, hey, I completely understand. But, I think something we can all agree on is that it takes a lot of heart and faith to be an OSU fan, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Oh, the misery...

I apologize. But, anyway, at least we got the win this weekend, and Squinky or not, I’m still excited for the rest of the season.