Meet and greet
Fam finishes first again at fan event
Jared Cunningham sat against the concrete wall beneath a closed concession stand. It was the finish line, and he had won yet again. For the past 16 years, Cunningham and his sons have been first in line at the quarterbacks table on the annual Meet the Sooners Day. Beating him next year won't be easy. Cunningham parked his
lawn chair outside the Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium gates at 3 a.m. Friday. It was there the lawyer from Enid sat as the dead of night turned to dawn.
Cunningham's wife, April, and two of their three sons arrived 15 minutes before the gates opened at noon.
“They cruise in like royalty every year,” Jared Cunningham said.
From there, was another hourlong wait inside the stadium. Jared might have
been tired, but his boys Jaxson, 13, and Daxton, 4, were ready to get their sleek, white foot balls marked up with Sharpies.
Behind them were hundreds of crimson-clad OU fans. The autographs are only for children 14 and under, but each child can be accompanied by one adult. The quarterbacks line stretched the length of the east-side stadium concourse. The end was only a cruel illusion as it zigzagged even farther.
Everyone was eager to meet Alabama transfer Jalen Hurts.
When Hurts arrived at 1 p.m., Cunningham's sons were the first to shake his hand and get his coveted signature.
But there was no lingering celebration of victory. The Cunninghams have a strategy.
“If you're able to be at the front of the quarterbacks line, you're able to get every player's autograph,” Cunningham said. “It's the only way that can be possible.”
Jared and April met at OU. They shared a Spanish class in 1998. Jared proposed to April at the Duck Pond, just east of the football stadium.
Walker, their 16-yearold son, and Jaxson and Daxton were automatically indoctrinated as Sooners.
“They came home from the hospital in OU garb,” Jared Cunningham said. “They don't have a choice.”
Walker is now too old for Meet the Sooners Day, but the tradition began with him in the summer of 2002. Jared, then a fan day novice, was a third-year law student at OU. Walker was his 10- month-old with a mini Jason White jersey.
“We were inline for 3 1/2 and hadn't gotten a single autograph,” Jared said. “We got three from the front, and they said that's it. And it was like 100 degrees. I committed child abuse having him out there.
“I walked up to the front and said, ` Listen, we've been here for almost four hours. Surely my kid can have one autograph.'”
Jared was told no by those working the event, but White intervened and told Jared to hand his baby over.
“He had these awesome pictures with Jason signing his jersey,” Cunningham said. “So, from that point forward, I've been first in line.”
His boys have a collection of signed footballs, helmets and jerseys— autographs from White to Sam Bradford, Baker Mayfield to Kyler Murray.
Hurts, next inline as an OU Heisman hopeful, reached out to shake Daxton's hand Friday, not realizing the magic touch t he 4- year- old and his brothers might possess.