By Andrew Golden
Fall 2023
Like the maroon Texas based college it was derived from, Oklahoma State University is one with a number of unique traditions, practices, and groups. While all very different from each other, they all seem to share the bold, loud, and “in your face” attitude that makes up a Cowboy. One of the shining examples of this is the Paddle People.
The Paddle People are a group of students who sit in the front row of all home football games. With hand carved, sanded, and painted wooden “paddles” they hit the pads below them in order to create as much controlled noise as possible to disrupt the opposing team and generate excitement for fans.
The origins of the Paddle People aren’t fully known or documented, but most accounts of them place their start in the early 2000s. According to legend, one game, “a handful of diehard Cowboys showed up at a game one Saturday with orange paddles, resembling cricket bats.” (Steckley 1) They sat in the front row and paddled for as long as their arms could tolerate it. And then they came back for the next home game, and every one after.
The week of a paddle person starts on Monday. Every week with a home game, paddle people meet on Monday night. They discuss the upcoming game, the plan for the campout, and some things to improve from the last game (such as: don’t flip the other team off, don’t chant “block that sh*t” or “bullsh*t”, and don’t paddle without the leader). After Monday, everyone goes about their week as normal until Friday, (assuming there isn’t a different game to go to between then and Friday) when the campout happens.
Whenever the Paddle People first started, their spots in the front row were not guaranteed to them. They absolutely needed to be at the front of the ticket line every time, because the first people to buy tickets received a wristband that let them get in half an hour early. In order for them to be at the front of the line, they pitched tents on Wednesday and waited in shifts until the box opened, and they could buy tickets and be on their way. The reason I’m speaking in past tense here is because thankfully, the athletic department has changed their tune, and now gives the Paddle people entry to Boone Pickens Stadium 3 hours early. The problem is that by that point they quite enjoyed camping out before they games.
So we kept doing it. Every Friday night before a game, the Paddle People gather in front of the ticket booth outside of the stadium and stay the night. Campouts usually have some kind of theme around them, like “dance party” or “game night”. After one to three hours of coordinated activities, the people go their own ways. Those who have homework work on it, and most of the others spend time playing games like football, cornhole, and “kill ball”. Gradually, everything starts to fizzle out until most people are asleep. Those who are lucky enough to have large vehicles sleep in the back of them, others sleep in tents or on air mattresses or in hammocks, and the rest either stay up the w hole night and talk, or sleep on the ground. Those who sleep under the open sky are always delighted when it starts to rain on them, forcing them up against the covered ticket booth, which is always swarming with thousands of insects. Early the next morning, the paddle people are shooed away in order for them to get a couple hours of real sleep in their beds before the game. The next morning is the same for the paddle people as anyone else. Next, the members arrive at the stadium, get situated on the front row, and wait for the game to start.
During the game, the Paddle People erupt. Whenever they’re allowed to, they use their paddles to hit the mats in front of them. Typically, the hits are in unison with a leader, but sometimes something so crazy happens that everyone hits as hard and as much as they want. The Paddle People aren’t just there for themselves, though. Often times, camera crews both for ESPN and for Oklahoma state will feature the Paddle People on camera, (admittedly because they’re in the front row) and because of that, the Paddle People have become a representation of the student section at games. From cheering wildly at high moments, to grimacing at low points, the cameras are able to paint the rowdy, noisy, and dedicated Paddle People as what they are: a group of average students at Oklahoma State University.
Works Cited
Golden, Andrew. “Stunned Paddle People” Self-Made, 15 October 2023, accessed 27 October 2023.
archiveoklahoma.com 