Touch down, Oklahoma

Today is Father's Day so I am going to blog about the only fella who fills the paternal spot in my world. It is about his best contribution to our familyisms.
We live in a state where sports is a really big deal. Especially football.  Even the most important  of events events are planned around college football games.
To describe many if not most oklahomans as rabid sports fans would be a gross understatement.
And then there is my Pop Buzz.
He is like a walking sports page. He knows all the stats. He stays game ready. Even his phone has a team based ring tone. It plays "Boomer Sooner."
He has always been great about attending family events with my Mom. If one of the children has a recital or ballgame, you can usually find him in the audience. Same with graduations or awards ceremonies and other school functions.
If the particular function coincides with a ballgame, you can count on Pop Buzz wearing headphones. He can listen to a sporting event and watch a kid get an award or participate in some sport at the same time.
That is the setting for the familyism he is most famous for.
He was with the fam and about a gazillion other people in a gymnasium for the state cheerleading competition. It was noisy as announcements were being made but then, the speaker called for a moment of silence in observance of a member of one squad who'd recently died in a car accident.
With his head phones on, Pop Buzz had no idea that a moment of silence was being observed when he shouted "Touchdown, Oklahoma!" Had the gym been as quiet then as it was when he put on his headphones, no one might have heard his shout. As it was, everyone did. All eyes turned on him.
He had no idea why.
Some of us wanted to curl up under the bleachers and hide. Others of us were rolling in the aisles.
My baby daughter, who was competing with her squad found no humor in the incident at all.
Years later when she and her classmates together, one of them recollected "that time Katie's grandpa yelled 'touchdown, Oklahoma! during the moment of silence." She cringed still.
My mom tells of a wedding when something similar happened. I am not sure if he gave voice to his excitement about points on the OU scoreboard as the bride was walking down the aisle, when vows were being exchanged or at some other time. Mother said she was shocked and not a little embarrassed.
It happened again last month at my nephew's Baccalaureate. This was a spring rather than fall event so Pop Buzz wasn't listened to a football game. He did, however, forget to turn the ringer on his phone down. When it went off, no one cringed or looked shocked.
My graduating nephew said that he and a classmate started clapping along with the tune, until Pop Buzz managed to get the sound muted.
It seems the kiddos in the family and their friends rather expect this to happen by now.
Besides, my nephew said, we are going to OU in the fall, so it kind of seems appropriate.