Norman Urban Myths, Legends, Rumors, etc...

[brenna]

I recently ventured onto the Norman Transcript community forum to find an interesting topic regarding urban myths in Norman. I thought it was so interesting, although it's more like ghost stories than a history lesson! I thought it would be fun to start a thread like that on here, but if one already exists please direct me to it, I couldn't find it.

Basically, I wanted to see if anyone knew of any urban legends, rumors, myths, etc. about Norman.

Here's the link to their Urban Myth forum: Norman Urban Legends, Myths, Rumors - Topic Powered by eve community

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

Bob Stoops is a football robot terminator coach from the future. That's how he got his mojo.

My best bud's sister's ex-husband's accountant told me so.

[brenna]

That's how he got his mojo.

.

...better watch it, someone may start a rumor about you

[Misty]

...better watch it, someone may start a rumor about you

Oh GAWD likes to dress up like a lady and have tea parties. He refers to himself as Mable at these events. He does make tasty tea.

[brenna]

oh gawd, that's funny! we need to plan a tea party and invite Mable, for sure.

[dismayed]

These are some of my favorite Norman tales:

- There is a Bigfoot that inhabits the Lake Thunderbird / Little River area. It has been heard many times over the years, and seen once or twice.

- Various stories of the follies of the Norman Police Dept.

- Norman proper will never be hit by a tornado because according to ancient Indian stories the city was built between a unique branching river formation that will not allow tornadoes to develop.

- Norman is built on an Indian burial ground. Variations of this story involve either the spirits protecting the town from tornadoes, or terrorizing the town in the form of ghosts and strange sounds late at night.

- The OU football field is protected by a sophisticated laser fencing of some kind. Setting foot on it without permission will set off alarms and security will arrive within seconds to arrest you.

- Various haunted buildings on the OU campus.

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

...better watch it, someone may start a rumor about you

Only if it's a good rumor.


I'll pay you start one.

Oh GAWD likes to dress up like a lady and have tea parties. He refers to himself as Mable at these events. He does make tasty tea.

*sigh*

How many times do I have to tell you, it's MILDRED, not Mable.

[Martin]

oooh... my turn...

when i was in college at ou, i worked as a student in one of the departments. there is a building called newman hall on the northwest corner of boyd and chautauqua that is currently owned by the university. from what i've heard, this building was used, up through the 80's, as a halfway house for psychiatric patients. when i was on campus, the building was derelect and was used by various ou departments as storage. rumor had it that former residents would feel 'homesick' and would break into the place for somewhere to live or to hang out or to whatever.

so... one day i'm given the task to take a service vehicle over there to put a bunch of old stuff into storage. there was nothing super heavy, so it was just me. i go in and get to work. i get about halfway finished putting the vanload of junk into my department's storage room... it was literally a room... the old rooms were left intact and individually padlocked. so... i'm halfway finished and decide to take a break.

it's obvious that this place was once some kind of apartment/hotel... probably built in the 20's or 30's. it's the old style where the main entrance opens into a parlor with a fireplace. what's funny to me is that even though this place is pretty much used as a warehouse, there's old mismatched furniture placed into a setting in the parlor. i walk over there and take a look around... at that point, i notice that the mantle is empty except for one lone item.

in the dark i begin to make out what it is. apparently somebody had propped up a dead bird on the mantle, removed its head and posed it so that its wings were outstretched. needless to say, that was quite unsettling. for all i know, this amateur ornithologist was hanging around in some other part of the building. at that point, this old, dusty, abandoned building just got creepier by several orders of magnitude. i couldn't get the rest of those boxes unloaded fast enough.

-M

[adaniel]

After being in Norman for a few years I've heard....

About 10 years ago, an employee at the Mont taking out trash found someone's decapitated head in a dumpster (I don't know how true this is but I've heard it from alot of PhD students who've been here a while)

The Old "decks" in the memorial library are haunted from a person who fell through the floor back in the 1920's or 1930's.

There are several old tunnels under campus that connect some of the older buildings, the presidents house, and several frat houses.

The Physical Sciences Center was designed during the turbulent 1960's to be"riot proof" with large metal doors that slam shut and slight sloping exterior walls to prevent people fro climbing them (this is actually true).

An old meatpacking/slaughterhouse south of town is very haunted, I guess by disgruntled cows

As recently as the 1970s, the South Canadian River flooded violently and will eventually destroy everything south of Highway 9 and east of West 36th Street in a Katrina-like flood of epic proportions. You can see houses on stilts at around West 60th and Franklin Road.

[brenna]

'mmm' - that is so creepy!! I know which building you are talking about. That would've been really messed up if you actually found someone living there! I've heard quite of few stories about mentally ill patients or of people just 'losing it' in Norman. I know this probably has to do w/ Griffin Mem. Hospital, but still, kind of creepy.

There is also a really out of place looking building off of Boyd & Pickard. I know it's an apartment or something like it now. Do you know what that was used for? I've always wondered about it b/c it looks scary.

[brenna]

The Old "decks" in the memorial library are haunted from a person who fell through the floor back in the 1920's or 1930's.

...A few of my friends swear they have heard a woman's voice in the 'stacks'/decks late at night when the library is empty, like on a Friday night or something. For those who don't know, the floors in the stacks are made of some kind of glass, not see-through, but you can see light or even people's shoes through the floor above you. It's pretty cool. Personally, though, I never ventured into the stacks by myself b/c it is definitely eery.

A side note: Anyone who lives in Norman or is interested OU (for more than just it's football), should take a tour of the OU library(student or not), it truly is remarkable.

[brenna]

An old meatpacking/slaughterhouse south of town is very haunted, I guess by disgruntled cows

disgruntled cows, lol

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

Cows have a lot to be disgruntled about.

Except that whole 4 stomach thing.

That would rock. One for each of the 4 food groups.

1. Canned
2. Frozen
3. Microwavable
4. Beer

[adaniel]

Oh yes, I heard this one today....

Somewhere on the OU campus, there is a small nuclear reactor (not in the NEL, but somewhere in the physical plant area) and it provides a small amount of electricity. I wouldn't be surprised because OU does in fact generate its own power. Its not big enough to do anything, but I did hear that if it ever melted down, a large portion of Norman would be affected.

[Chefdavies]

I've heard about the library hauntings, kinda fun. I had heard something about the duck pond once. I might have been under the influence of adult beverages as to why I can't remember. Wasn't there suppose to be a ghost in one of the frat houses?

[BG918]

I've heard about the library hauntings, kinda fun. I had heard something about the duck pond once. I might have been under the influence of adult beverages as to why I can't remember. Wasn't there suppose to be a ghost in one of the frat houses?

There was a girl who fell out of a window at the Beta fraternity house in the 60's (true story). She was a Chi Omega who lived next door. Supposedly she haunts both houses, but I lived at Beta for two years and never saw anything. The creepiest part of that house is the basement.

Interesting about Newman Hall, I've always wondered what goes on there. It seems like a good place for apartments, but then maybe not! Also that apartment bldg. across Boyd, that place looks really creepy.

Does anyone know the story about the big house with columns at College and Cruce? It's huge but it never looks like anyone lives there?

[dismayed]

I've heard something about the Duck Pond too but can't quite remember. I think it's something like a pioneer woman's ghost is supposedly seen there, something like that.

[bmrsnrou]

Anyone ever been to the graveyard in the middle of Brookhaven? Kind of creepy, and I'd hate for my house to back up to it.

[Martin]

never heard of that... interesting... there's probably 120 brookhavens in norman... which one? -M

edit: nevermind... found it. that's the strangest thing! it's dead center (pun unintended) on the square formed by 48th, 36th, rock creek & robinson... smack in the middle of the neighborhood.

[dismayed]

Wow I had no idea that was there.

[Martin]

ok... so i'm a sucker for things like that cemetery... right in the middle of everything but you wouldn't know it was there unless you were looking. i swung by tonight and it was pretty darn cool. the whole thing is about 10-ish acres. some of the graves are from the turn of the century and some were from just a couple years ago. all this completely surrounded by late 1970's homes and the only way you get to it is by driving between a couple of them on a drive the size of a narrow alley. really cool find. thanks for the heads up.

-M

[bmrsnrou]

When my wife and I were dating, her parents had just built a house on the N. Side of Brookhaven. We were on a walk one day, and just found it. I have never done any research on the cemetery. I suspect that from the dates on some of the graves, and the names, that it must have been started around the time of the land run.

[Andrew4OU]

I work at Bizzell. I've heard of the many stories about ghosts in the decks. It's creepy closing up shop at 2 A.M. on a weeknight. However, most of the people that want to go into the decks after midnight are drunk couples. If you ever have the time, go up to Decks 6/7. There are some dirty messages/notes written on the wall.

[SoonerDave]

Okay, I'll give you an Urban Legend that I've actually tried to confirm or debunk for years. It came from someone who lived in Norman and would have actually had contacts such that what he relayed to me could have been credible, even if nothing came of it.

Here goes.

About 17 years ago or thereabouts, there was a fairly quiet meeting among some rather influential high-dollar types in central Oklahoma. They got together to discuss the future of the area, what kinds of resources were needed, what kinds of roads were needed, what kinds of attractions could invigorate the economy in the region, and it was decided that this group should try to land an NFL franchise - in particular (no, I'm not kidding), the Dallas Cowboys.

Now, about this time, Jerry Jones was an unknown, but the Cowboys themselves were on hard times. The franchise itself was up for sale in this time frame, so the idea then wasn't as ludicrous as it might sound now. This group realized that there was no chance of landing the Cowboys (or any other NFL team) without a place to play, so the plans were set out to build a new home for the Cowboys just west of I-35 in the western/southern area of Norman. And this plan, supposedly, got very serious. Preliminary sketches were drawn up. Funding estimates and viability studies were, presumably, conducted, and it all looked like while it would be a risk - an expensive risk, to be sure, it could work. It *might* work.

Plans, as the story goes, went so far as to identify where I-35 would need to be amended to provide for traffic around the stadium, including additional overpasses, exits, and service roads. Funding for some of the preliminary work was, supposedly, very close to being put in place....

...then, it all went south....

About this same time, a different group of "powerbrokers" in the Oklahoma City area caught wind of what was going on in Norman, and they didn't like it at all. Story was that there was this "blueprint" for a huge downtown revitalization project that was about to "go public," with a new minor league baseball stadium and possibly an NHL hockey franchise. But those OKC leaders knew it probably wouldn't fly if something like an NFL team ended up as entertainment destination just 20 minutes south of town.

So this group of OKC leaders, again supposedly, talked to the Norman group, and said they'd "really appreciate it" if they ditched their plans and let the OKC plan proceed unfettered. Because some of the Norman group had substantial financial interests in the OKC area, and they themselves stood to benefit from the OKC project, they pulled out of the Norman project - which finally fell through altogether.

As you might guess, the OKC revitalization project later became known as MAPS, and we got Bricktown as a result. Norman got, well.....nothing.

Like I said, I freely admit this is urban legend I know of strictly second-hand, but the gentleman who told ME the story insisted it was truthful, and that more than a few Norman city leaders were royally hacked off that OKC had managed to shut the project down.

It all sounds just a bit too fantastic and coincidental to me to be true, but I do remember the problems the Cowboys had finding a buyer back then, and I also know there was an effort to bulid a stadium on the fairgrounds years ago that was defeated by voters, and for a time the Gaylords owned part of the Texas Rangers baseball team, so at least the rough notions of the idea of true pro sports in OKC from that time frame aren't completely out of the water.

Anyone ever hear of anything like this? I figure at least some parts of it have a ring of truth to them, but I honestly can't fathom the Cowboys or the NFL being successful up here.


-SoonerDave

[MikeLucky]

Okay, I'll give you an Urban Legend that I've actually tried to confirm or debunk for years. It came from someone who lived in Norman and would have actually had contacts such that what he relayed to me could have been credible, even if nothing came of it.

Here goes.

About 17 years ago or thereabouts, there was a fairly quiet meeting among some rather influential high-dollar types in central Oklahoma. They got together to discuss the future of the area, what kinds of resources were needed, what kinds of roads were needed, what kinds of attractions could invigorate the economy in the region, and it was decided that this group should try to land an NFL franchise - in particular (no, I'm not kidding), the Dallas Cowboys.

Now, about this time, Jerry Jones was an unknown, but the Cowboys themselves were on hard times. The franchise itself was up for sale in this time frame, so the idea then wasn't as ludicrous as it might sound now. This group realized that there was no chance of landing the Cowboys (or any other NFL team) without a place to play, so the plans were set out to build a new home for the Cowboys just west of I-35 in the western/southern area of Norman. And this plan, supposedly, got very serious. Preliminary sketches were drawn up. Funding estimates and viability studies were, presumably, conducted, and it all looked like while it would be a risk - an expensive risk, to be sure, it could work. It *might* work.

Plans, as the story goes, went so far as to identify where I-35 would need to be amended to provide for traffic around the stadium, including additional overpasses, exits, and service roads. Funding for some of the preliminary work was, supposedly, very close to being put in place....

...then, it all went south....

About this same time, a different group of "powerbrokers" in the Oklahoma City area caught wind of what was going on in Norman, and they didn't like it at all. Story was that there was this "blueprint" for a huge downtown revitalization project that was about to "go public," with a new minor league baseball stadium and possibly an NHL hockey franchise. But those OKC leaders knew it probably wouldn't fly if something like an NFL team ended up as entertainment destination just 20 minutes south of town.

So this group of OKC leaders, again supposedly, talked to the Norman group, and said they'd "really appreciate it" if they ditched their plans and let the OKC plan proceed unfettered. Because some of the Norman group had substantial financial interests in the OKC area, and they themselves stood to benefit from the OKC project, they pulled out of the Norman project - which finally fell through altogether.

As you might guess, the OKC revitalization project later became known as MAPS, and we got Bricktown as a result. Norman got, well.....nothing.

Like I said, I freely admit this is urban legend I know of strictly second-hand, but the gentleman who told ME the story insisted it was truthful, and that more than a few Norman city leaders were royally hacked off that OKC had managed to shut the project down.

It all sounds just a bit too fantastic and coincidental to me to be true, but I do remember the problems the Cowboys had finding a buyer back then, and I also know there was an effort to bulid a stadium on the fairgrounds years ago that was defeated by voters, and for a time the Gaylords owned part of the Texas Rangers baseball team, so at least the rough notions of the idea of true pro sports in OKC from that time frame aren't completely out of the water.

Anyone ever hear of anything like this? I figure at least some parts of it have a ring of truth to them, but I honestly can't fathom the Cowboys or the NFL being successful up here.


-SoonerDave

That's very interesting..... I wonder if that's where the almost comical anecdotes about "Conoco" stadium originated from..... some of you might know what I am talking about.....