The original Sooners were settlers, who sneaked into the territory that would become Oklahoma before they were supposed to, in order to beat rival claimants to the best plots.
Following the American Civil War, certain Native American peoples were forced to cede some of the land west of the Mississippi that had previously been assigned to them, as compensation for their support of the Confederacy. The territory that thus became vacant was known as the Unassigned Lands.
The Homestead Act of 1862 had entitled a settler to claim up to 160 acres of unappropriated public land, and receive title to it if they lived on it for five years and made improvements. Many European (non–Native) Americans believed that the Unassigned Lands were available for settlement. Some of them staked their claims, and were forcibly removed by the federal authorities. They became known as Boomers – because of the amount of noise they made (figuratively) in support of their claims.
In 1886 the Santa Fe Railway Company laid tracks into the Unassigned Lands, and three years later President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation that the lands would opened for settlement.
This ruling took effect at noon on 22 April 1889. No one was supposed to enter the territory before this time, but as the starting pistols were sounded an estimated 50,000 would–be settlers dashed into the Unassigned Lands to make their claims.
Some desperate claimants had not been prepared to wait, and had sneaked across the borders early to hide until the appointed time. There were also a number of people (such as railway construction workers) who had a legitimate right to be there. These people became known as Sooners.
Eighteen years later – in 1907 – Oklahoma became the 46th American state, and the University of Oklahoma's football team adopted 'Sooners' as its nickname from 1908. The expression soon took on a positive connotation, coming to symbolise an optimistic, enterprising spirit, and was embraced as a nickname for the entire state.
© Haydn Thompson 2021