November 27, 2007
Tulsa files complaint against the MOB

Since I'm sure someone is going to send me this link, I figure I'd better blog it now and get ahead of the curve.


Tulsa has filed a formal complaint with Conference USA over the Rice marching band's performance of "Todd Graham's Inferno" during halftime of Saturday's football game in Houston.

Graham left Rice for Tulsa after just one season. His Golden Hurricane defeated Rice 48-43 to win the C-USA West Division title. Tulsa plays Central Florida for the conference championship Saturday.

The band's show depicted a search for the former Owls coach through different circles of Hell -- based on Dante's "Divine Comedy."

The Tulsa World reported Tuesday that the show ended by calling Graham an offensive name over the public address system.


That would be "douchebag". Here's the script. The bit in question is at the very end, our walkoff line:

Announcer:
You know, that reminds me of a joke: A priest, a nun, and a rabbi walk into a bar. Now, I forgot how the rest of it went, but I think in the end Todd Graham is a douchebag.

Ladies and gentlemen, the two-thousand seven Marching Owl Band. Please send all complaints to: your mom at mob dot rice dot E-D-U.


I should note that the "your mom at rice dot edu" address did once belong to an actual MOB member, and that we've used it in a script before. I don't know if it still works, but that's not really important right now.

Back to the story:


"We filed a formal complaint with the conference and that's where it stands now," Tulsa athletic director Bubba Cunningham said. "I talked to their AD (Chris Del Conte) this morning. Our conversation was very cordial and he said to do what we thought was appropriate."

Cunningham said sportsmanship has been a point of emphasis in C-USA.

"When we don't meet those standards, we need to look at ourselves as a league and find how we can make that experience better," he said.


I'll leave that one open to your suggestions. Beyond that, I'll just say that this one will go down as one of my favorite shows ever. It was totally worth freezing my butt off for.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on November 27, 2007 to Other sports
Comments

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/article.aspx?articleID=071127_2__Thedi35130

Check it out. The apology and a bunch of blowhard comments.

Oops. I better apologize for the blowhard comment.

Posted by: katy on November 27, 2007 9:12 PM

I thought the glory days of the MOB would be over for good once the SWC dissolved and the big targets left for greener pastures. Good to see the ol' MOB still has some bite!

And, for a coach who left after only one year for a rival school, "douchebag" is certainly an appropriate term. Throckmorton gave an exceptionally diplomatic "apology" under the circumstances...mine would have been more like, "I'm sorry you douchebags don't have a sense of humor."

Posted by: Ken on November 28, 2007 1:40 PM

I'm a University of Tulsa graduate and based on the transcript (I live and work in Louisville, KY, so I wasn't there for the game and halftime show) I thought the routine was hilarious, witty and clever. As a TU alumnus TU's BEST tradition is having NO TRADITION (or humor) at all. Many TU students and administrative types are apathetic (at one point there was a drive to change the name of the mascot - and it was ALMOST changed to Tulsa Grasshoppers!)

My guess is that those who complained didn't have enough brainpower to get admitted to Rice!

Posted by: RayLRiv on November 29, 2007 11:54 AM