PFB Staff Picks Favorite Moments and Stories From 2023

That’s a wrap on 2023.

As we say hello to 2024, and wave goodbye to a year that featured the last Bedlam football win (for now), another trip to the Women’s College World Series and Mike Boynton’s squad getting snubbed again, the PFB staff took time to reminisce our favorite moments and stories from 2023.

Marshall Scott

Favorite Moment: Ollie’s fourth quarter in Morgantown

Thoughts: The real answer is Bedlam football, but how could it not be? But aside from that, give me Ollie Gordon treading all over the country roads late in OSU’s 48-34 win. Gordon was playing a video game in the fourth quarter, going for 149 yards and three touchdowns on nine carries. Gordon was good the week before against Kansas, going for 168 rushing yards, 116 receiving yards and two touchdowns, but in Morgantown it went from “OSU has a good tailback” to “OSU has an elite tailback.”

Favorite Story: 10 Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 27-24 Victory in the Final Bedlam

Thoughts: Alright, I didn’t pick it as my moment, but I am going to take the easy answer here. The Cowboys have lost most of the Bedlam games I’ve been alive for, so writing some 2,000 words about the Pokes winning the final one was rather cathartic. Everything from Squinky to Alan Bowman forcing a guy out of bounds after Gordon threw up a duck, it was just fun.

Kyle Cox

Favorite Moment:  “…it ends with state. It ends with state.”

Thoughts: I have to say that I picked OSU to win Bedlam this past offseason, and I never pick OSU to win Bedlam. But that didn’t dampen the mood when it actually happened.

Favorite Story: Oklahoma State’s Loss to Iowa State a Further Indictment on Constant Person

Thoughts: I am (really) not one to brag on myself too much — and this was definitely not a ground-breaking idea — but I called it with this one. Rarely do I prove to have this much foresight, but more than that, I’m very glad I did.

…maybe we look up at Halloween and think, “Wow, where was this team in September?” If that’s the case, it will be an even further indictment on strategy to split reps.

Dekota Gregory

Favorite Moment: The last Bedlam football game (for now)

Thoughts: I actually thought I was going to die, but what a way to go out, drowning in a Sea of Orange on the field of Boone Pickens Stadium. I didn’t have the luxury Marshall did of following Brennan Presley like a lead blocker through the fans. I had to make my way through the mess on my own to get to Gundy’s postgame news conference. Along the way, I witnessed grown men dancing and screaming, a swarm of students fighting through security and tasers to get a goal post down, and Ollie Gordon embrace being a living legend (more later). After the storm, Marshall and I took the time to take pictures of Stillwater’s newest historical monument. And after seeing the steel post up close, I truly have no idea how it was even possible to tear like an envelope.

But with all that, my precise favorite moment of 2023 was earlier that day. It was the start of that last Bedlam, as the Pokes were driving. Before the ball was even snapped, OSU fans chanted, “Ollie! Ollie! Ollie!” Then, as if it was scripted, the ball was handed to Gordon, who ran it 20 yards and dove into the end zone for the first points of the final Bedlam. Chills.

Then, even after all that fun, I’m glad it was the last time and won’t be on the schedule for 2024.

The newest historical monument in Stillwater. pic.twitter.com/fqoB3zovVQ

— Dekota Gregory (@dekotagregory) November 5, 2023

Favorite Story: How Ollie Gordon, After Becoming a Bedlam Legend, Celebrated in a Sea of Orange

Thoughts: Of course my favorite story of the year comes from my top moment. Before I got to the tunnels of BPS, I saw Ollie scrambling and on the shoulders of fans. He got celebratory handshakes from Mike Gundy and Mason Rudolph, a Bedlam hero himself. I just wanted to figure out what it was like to be the man himself in that moment.