The SEC’s prize for taking over the Texas-Oklahoma game: TV ratings, and corny dogs

Oklahoma coach Brent Venables has seen it all in his 15 trips to the Cotton Bowl for the Oklahoma-Texas rivalry game, long known as the Red River Shootout.

He remembers losing his first as a Sooners assistant 38-28 in 1999 but dominating the Longhorns 63-14 the next year en route to a national championship. There was Oklahoma 65, Texas 13 in 2003, the 12-0 “Red River Shutout” in 2004, and plenty of unpredictable swings and wild finishes since. The emotions, the big plays, the bus rides through the State Fair of Texas to the Cotton Bowl all make it special to him.

“It feels like time stands still,” Venables said.

But there’s one thing Venables has yet to do in this one-of-a-kind rivalry game: eat a Fletcher’s Corny Dog.

“I have never eaten anything at the fair other than what they bring me on the bus afterward,” he said.

To some Oklahoma and Texas fans, this revelation could qualify as heresy. Fletcher’s Corny Dogs, a staple of Texas’ state fair for more than 80 years, have become almost synonymous with the rivalry game. On Saturday morning, when the gates open at Dallas’ Fair Park and tens of thousands of crimson- or burnt-orange-clad fans wander onto the fairgrounds, many of them will make a beeline for a Fletcher’s stand.

Saturday will be the 120th meeting of the Sooners and Longhorns but their first as SEC members, more than three years after their shocking decision to leave the Big 12 went public. The series began in 1900, and Dallas became the game’s permanent home in 1929. After decades as a Big Eight-Southwest Conference clash followed by 28 years together in the Big 12, the spectacle of Red River, with the fried goodness of Fletcher’s in tow, is now part of the SEC’s portfolio.

“It’s part of the tradition for us,” said Nichole Williamson, a Texas alumnus and fan who has attended the game consistently since 2010. “I’m convinced if we don’t go have our corny dog before (the game) we’re going to lose, even though I’ve had it when they’ve lost and I’ve had it when they’ve won.”

“It goes along with the game,” said Trae Anderson, former president of the OU Club of Dallas. “It’s the first thing I’ve always done. You get your corny dog and a wax cup with the beverage of your choice, and that’s how you start. I don’t know of anybody that does anything else.”

The launch of Fletcher’s Corny Dogs was not an immediate success.

According to the company’s origin story, the first version of their corny dogs sold for 15 cents at a small stand at the 1942 State Fair of Texas. Neil and Carl Fletcher, brothers who were former Vaudeville performers, developed the concept four years earlier after seeing a local baker serve hot dogs baked in cornmeal in the shape of an ear of corn. The Fletchers decided to put a stick in the hot dogs and fry them to shorten the cooking process and make it easier to consume.

But when they opened their first stand at Fair Park, they had to cut the corny dogs in half and give away samples to convince fairgoers to try them. Forty-one years after their debut, Neil Fletcher told the New York Times that people would approach the stand, ask what it was and then walk away. “We didn’t make much money,” he said then.

Neil and Carl experimented with the cornmeal batter for more than a decade before coming up with the recipe that stuck. Once it did, it became a rousing success.

When Neil died in 1988, he left the business to his two sons, Neil Jr. and Bill Fletcher. Neil Jr., known as Skip, became “the Corny Dog King,” further elevating an already successful enterprise. In 1983, Fletcher’s sold an estimated 350,000 corny dogs at the State Fair of Texas. At the 2023 state fair, it sold 550,000.

But is a Fletcher’s Corny Dog really that different and special from a traditional corn dog? Red River attendees swear it is.

“It’s one of the staples of going to OU-Texas,” said former Oklahoma offensive lineman Gabe Ikard. “People buy them because they’re delicious. … The lines are absurd; don’t care. Gotta wait in it or recruit somebody who will wait in it for you.”

Count Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione as a Fletcher’s fan. When several vendors showed an interest in selling corn dogs at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, he knew there was only one that deserved to be there. So he instructed his staff to get in touch with the company.

“Someone with OU reached out to us several years ago and said their athletic director loves Fletcher’s and ‘What do I need to do to get Fletcher’s here?’” said Amber Fletcher, who now runs the company with her brother Aaron and cousin William. The partnership with Oklahoma began in 2021, and Fletcher’s has been sold at Sooners games ever since.

“I’m sure (the other corn dog vendors) were fine, but they weren’t Fletcher’s corn dogs,” Castiglione said.

The cooking process is simple. Hand-stick a traditional hot dog — Fletcher’s gets dogs made with custom spices — and dip it in the batter, which is made on-site from a proprietary, secret mix. Stick it in the fryer at 365 degrees for three minutes until it has the right texture and color. Then six inches of hot, crunchy, corn dog heaven are ready to eat.

“Everything is the same way my grandfather did it,” Amber Fletcher said.

Texas and Oklahoma fans have their traditions. Although Fletcher’s has seven locations on the fairgrounds, many fans have a preferred source: the Fletcher’s stand at Big Tex circle.

A 55-foot-tall cowboy figure, sporting a Dickie’s shirt and jeans with a 95-gallon hat and size 96 boots, Big Tex is known as the “official greeter” of the State Fair of Texas and has been a fixture at the fair since 1952. It’s customary to see fairgoers consuming their fried goods while sitting next to Big Tex or taking selfies with him in the background.

The Fletcher’s stand that is steps away from Big Tex will be staffed with 60 to 80 employees on Saturday to get the hordes of Sooners and Longhorns their corny dogs as quickly as possible.

Grant Pinkerton, a Texas alum and superfan who owns the renowned Texas barbecue joint Pinkerton’s Barbecue, makes it his first stop every year.

“We beeline it for that very Fletcher’s stand,” said Pinkerton, who went to his first Red River at 9 years old. “We all get at least one corn dog pregame. … Then I have a rule that if Texas wins, you have to go back and get a victory corn dog after the game. It doesn’t matter how hot or soaking wet you are.

“And if they don’t win, no friggin’ dogs after the game.”

Ikard has the same order every year: a Fletcher’s Corny Dog, a funnel cake and three wax cup beers. When he played, he’d have his parents get him one, though he said former coach Bob Stoops would let the players hang out at the fair for an hour if the Sooners won. Now Ikard, who calls Oklahoma games on the Sooner Sports Radio Network, has his wife secure his refreshments while he does the postgame show.

Cade McCrary, who played 51 games for the Longhorns from 2009 to ’13, said that after Texas beat Oklahoma in ’13, Mack Brown allowed players to stay in Dallas and enjoy the fair with their friends and families.

McCrary, who was the holder for Justin Tucker’s game-winning kick in Texas’ 2011 win over Texas A&M, said his victory corny dog was “the greatest taste in the world.”

“It’s the most unique rivalry game in college football,” McCrary said. “There may be others that are as big, but they’re not at the Texas state fair. There’s 100,000 people in the stadium and 200,000 people outside the stadium.”

Of the 550,000 corny dogs that were sold at least year’s state fair, which ran more than three weeks, 124,000 were sold on Red River weekend and 45,000 on game day alone.

Texas has joined Oklahoma in installing a Fletcher’s stand at home games. Drew Martin, Texas’ executive senior associate athletic director for external affairs, said he’s learned a lot about the culture of the game since first attending in 2018. Because less than half of a standard Texas home crowd can attend the game — the 92,000-seat Cotton Bowl is split evenly at the 50-yard line between Texas and Oklahoma fans — he wanted to bring part of the Red River experience to Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. This year, for the first time, there’s a Fletcher’s Corny Dog stand at the “Smokey’s Midway” fan experience area outside of DKR and also a permanent stand inside the stadium.

“That’s a tried-and-true tradition for that game,” Martin said. “They can get a Fletcher’s Corny Dog just like they do at the state fair.”

The football game is only part of the State Fair of Texas festivities for many fans who descend on Dallas every fall. (Bryan Terry / The Oklahoman / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

It’s not just about the corny dogs. The attachment is borne out of good times shared with family and friends at the fair, rooting for the Longhorns or Sooners.

Williamson said her dad turned her on to Fletcher’s and she cherishes every trip to Red River with her father and husband. “He’s why I’m a Longhorn today,” she said.

Pinkerton’s parents met at the 1977 Red River Shootout as freshmen and later had their first date the night Earl Campbell won the Heisman Trophy. Pinkerton’s first trip was in 1998, as a 9-year-old. He still has a photo from it and remembers the T-shirt his dad bought him and the cooler temperatures. “I burned my mouth on some hot chocolate,” he said.

Anderson joked that he’s trying to teach his son about corny dogs to perpetuate the unhealthy tradition. “You’re in the middle of the fair, you’re not going to get sushi,” he said. Fletcher’s stands become meeting points before or after the game. “Every year you show up and see your friends you went to school with … and it’s something you end up sharing.”

Amber Fletcher and at least of a dozen of her family members plus 200 employees will have their hands full. “It’s the most incredible day,” she said. Amber, 37, has been going to the fair all her life. She has been part of the family business as long as she can remember, sticking dogs and serving up smiles. After Skip’s death in 2017, Amber has emerged as the face of Fletcher’s.

But she has never seen the game.

“I go to the game every year, but I’ve never seen the game,” she said. “I’ve been in the press boxes delivering corny dogs, and I may peek out to try to see the field, but then I’ve got to get back to work.

“Maybe one day when I retire, I’ll get a ticket and go watch the game. But we’re out doing what our family’s always done, which is serve corny dogs to the fairgoers.”

While fans gobble up the dogs outside the Cotton Bowl, the Longhorns and Sooners meet with plenty on the line. No. 1 Texas, which leads the all-time series 63-51-5, is one of just three teams unbeaten in SEC play entering Week 7. No. 18 Oklahoma, which made a quarterback change from Jackson Arnold to freshman Michael Hawkins Jr., would love to win its second straight over the Longhorns and remain in College Football Playoff contention.

Neither head coach has had a Fletcher’s Corny Dog. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Wednesday that in his three years coaching the Longhorns, he hasn’t had a chance to enjoy the state fair and all its trimmings. “Maybe if we win, I’ll try to find a corny dog or something,” he said.

Venables, who was seen running stadium steps in 99-degree heat this summer, said “my body might shut down if I eat one of those fried corn dogs” when encouraged by a reporter to try one.

But, Venables said, “If we get a W, I’m gonna have one.”

(Top photo courtesy of Fletcher’s Original Corny Dogs)