Oklahoma’s oil and gas industry and football share the same grit, teamwork, and pride that define life in the Sooner State

In the heart of the SCOOP, pumpjacks nod 50 yards from the west end zone when the Lindsay Leopards take the field.

Thirty miles south, pickups share a parking lot with more pumpjacks when the Friday night lights shine down on the Velma-Alma Comets.

In north Oklahoma City, Crossings Christian’s home stadium is sponsored by JMA Energy, and the Knights’ north end zone sits in the shadow of a Vaquero Resources production site.

In oilpatch towns and suburbs alike, the oil and gas industry and football are intertwined. The same is true at The Petroleum Alliance.

The overlap between football and the oilfield is no coincidence. Both demand long hours, teamwork, and a relentless drive to succeed. Across Oklahoma, the values that power the state’s energy industry — perseverance, discipline, and community pride — are the same ones that take the field every Friday night and Saturday afternoon.

At Heritage Hall, the Chargers are led by Hudson Ferris, son of Alliance Board of Directors member David Ferris. On the sideline is head coach Brett Bogert, the grandson of the late Dick Bogert, the founder of the publicly traded Bogert Oil and the 1988 member of the year and 2000 Hall of Honor inductee at the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association, an Alliance legacy organization.

“In both football and oil and gas, you have to be ready and resilient,” said Hudson Ferris, whose Chargers are currently ranked No. 3 in 3A as the Oklahoma high school playoffs near. “There will always be ups and downs, and you’ve got to be ready to go when it is time to push and resilient when times are tough.”

The Petroleum Alliance’s ties to football run deep. From high school rivalries to college traditions, the connection between the oilfield and the gridiron runs statewide. Many Alliance members have taken the field on Fridays and Saturdays or supported the teams that define their communities, including:

• On the college gridiron, the name of legendary oilman T. Boone Pickens is etched on the stadium at Oklahoma State. Down in Norman, Sooner coaches wear headsets emblazoned with Devon Energy’s logo. And in Weatherford, Southwestern Oklahoma State’s Flex-Chem Field is named so thanks to 1995 SWOSU alumnus Bryce Conway, founder of Flex-Chem and a Petroleum Alliance board member.
• Unit Drilling’s Jacob Bruster, who is roughly the size of a well-appointed house, was an offensive lineman at Friends University in Kansas, where he was named the school’s first-ever AFCA All-American in 2008 for the NAIA school following the Falcons’ undefeated regular season that saw them ranked No. 5 nationally.
• In Elk City, Alliance members Clif Price and Jorey Price (the two aren’t related) were both All-State selections for the Elks, and Clif was a member of the 2002 Big 12 champion and Rose Bowl-winning team at OU.
• Chris Akin, a superintendent at Cactus Drilling, was an Oklahoma State Cowboy who started at center when the ‘Pokes took on Ole Miss in the 2004 Cotton Bowl and finished the season as an honorable mention All-Big 12 choice by the Associated Press. His OSU media guide biography notes the Weatherford High School graduate was described by recruiting services as a “hard-nosed, blue-collar kind of player.”
• Flowco’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing Drake Andarakes was a four-year letterman at OU, and was a member of the Sooners’ national championship team in 1974.
• H&P’s Lee Welker has a famous football-playing brother, Wes, but his son, Cal, has his own gridiron heroics. The younger Welker kicked a 28-yard, game-winning field goal for Heritage Hall to beat Marlow (the hometown team of this article’s author) in the 2023 Class 3A playoffs and send the Chargers to the state championship game.