on october 15, 1983 the university of oklahoma football team visited oklahoma state university in stillwater, oklahoma. the sooner squad played poorly at first, and within 10 minutes oklahoma state was winning by a score of 20-3. a policeman escorted gene thrailkill, the oklahoma band director, off the field for not having a sideline pass. before he was forced to leave, thrailkill shouted to the band members, "i want you to start playing and don't stop 'til the team's ahead!" the band complied, and played "boomer sooner" non-stop roughly 300 times. the team responded by scoring 15 unanswered points against oklahoma state. after an osu fumble with 1:17 left in the game, oklahoma scored a field goal to win 21-20. ou coach barry switzer awarded the game ball to the band (known as "the pride of oklahoma") for the non-stop effort and labeled it "the day the pride won".