No love lost amid rivals at Love County school
Red River rivalry divides educators at district near Texas border

By Bryan Painter

Published: October 10, 2008

TURNER — Steve Short, athletic director of Turner Schools, opened the classroom door of special education teacher Kim McGehee, just enough to poke his head in.

"The eyes of Texas are upon you,” sang Short, 55, wearing a burnt orange shirt.

He’s a native of Pottsboro, Texas, but has taught and coached at Turner for more than 30 years.

"Whatever. Go back down to your end of the hall,” said McGehee, a cousin of former University of Oklahoma linebacker Rocky Calmus and an OU football season ticket holder for 10 years. "I don’t like Texas. It doesn’t matter who they’re playing.”

The border war is on — about 2

miles north of the Oklahoma-Texas border.

Turner Schools, with about 300 students in prekindergarten through 12th grade, is 11 miles west of Interstate 35.

The close proximity to the Red River makes OU-Texas week anything but just another week.

In fact, Short drove his golf cart to school. Attached is a burnt orange Texas flag bearing a huge, white Bevo.

The cart has University of Texas stickers on the front and sides. He bought the cart only after the previous owner removed a "Boomer Sooner” horn.

Today when the school buses start to leave on the eve of OU-Texas, he’ll drive back and forth in the parking lot, with Bevo flapping in the wind.

"I get them fired up on their way home,” Short said. "I’m sure the parents love it.”

But if McGehee’s plan worked, this day probably began with a bit of a shock for the Texas fan.

McGehee snickered after Short finished singing and left her class the other day.

She turned around and looked toward a poster amid the Sooner shrine in her classroom that reads "The Ultimate Sooner.”

"I got an extra one at the last home game,” she said.

"I’m going to put it in his classroom after he leaves Thursday. I’m going to write his name above where it says ‘The Ultimate Sooner.’”

Not knowing this, Short had made the comment, "I would say in 33 years, we’ve had a lot of obnoxious OU fans here in Love County.”

In the past, when he lived on campus, his flag would be turned upside down while he was in class. And this week, Short arrived one day to find OU spelled out in athletic tape on his door.

But the lifelong Texas fan isn’t just a target. Recently he went across the Red River to Gainesville and bought a sheet of Longhorn stickers.

Not so mysteriously, they started showing up on doors and windows.

Turner Superintendent Don Simmons, a lifelong OU fan, said the rivalry is all in fun.

He also said, "This is as close as I ever want to live to there. Thank goodness I have good brakes or I would have slid into Texas.”

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