Oklahoma State Football: 10 Ways You Know You're a Cowboys Fan

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Oklahoma State Cowboys football fans have been spoiled this past season. A Big 12 championship, two of the best skill position players in the nation and solid consideration in the national championship conversation.

It's a good time to be a Cowboys fan. But how do you really know that you are a true Cowboys fan?

Here are 10 ways you can tell whether you bleed Cowboys Orange and Black.

You Hate Oklahoma

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The Oklahoma Sooners are the sworn enemies of the Oklahoma State Cowboys and all of their fans. It's that simple.

The state of Oklahoma has been divided between the two schools for forever, and that isn't changing any time soon. People in Oklahoma who say they don't like either are lying; everyone leans one way or the other.

You Are Loyal Beyond Sanity

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Oklahoma State fans have been through some pretty rough times with their football team.

The past decade has been good, but there have been pretty slim times. The program had just a single winning season from 1989 to 2001 and no winning seasons during the entire decade of the 1960s.

Getting annually spanked by Oklahoma and Texas at times has also been trying for fans. This team has been rag-tag throughout its history, and any objective viewer would give up on them. But a true Cowboys fan doesn't, even though it seems insane.

You've Been Through Tragedy

Embroidered emblem to remember the four from the OSU family, including women's basketball coach Kurt Budke, that were lost in a plane crash in November
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In 2001, the Oklahoma State men's basketball suffered an unimaginable tragedy. A team plane went down over the state of Colorado, killing two players, the play-by-play announcer and others.

This past year, just over a decade later, the women's basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant Miranda Serna were killed in a plane crash, along with two OSU alumni.

Neither of these events involved anyone from the football team, but the OSU family is a tight-knit one. It is no coincidence that the football lost its game the next day at Iowa State.

An OSU fan knows sorrow and feels it for their teams.

You Know Who Is Who

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If you are an Oklahoma State football fan, you know your stuff.

You know that current head coach Mike Gundy was the best player in the history of the Big 8 conference. You know that Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas were probably the greatest duo of running backs to ever play together in college. You know that Bob Fenimore was the greatest football player no one has ever heard of.

A Cowboys fan knows these things and clings to them.

You Love Your People Unconditionally

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Oklahoma State fans love their players and coaches completely unconditionally.

Dez Bryant is a knucklehead whose bad choices hurt the Cowboys in his last season. However, Cowboys fans still watch him in the NFL and root for him.

Zac Robinson struggled at the end of his career to be effective and to help the team win, probably due to injury. He is still one of the most beloved players to play their.

Donovan Woods failed as the Cowboys quarterback, but fans continued to love him anyway, especially as a defensive player.

Gundy could go winless next season, and true Cowboys fans would still want him as their coach.

Unconditional love. It's a Cowboys thing.

You're Used to Be Outnumbered

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The University of Oklahoma has a rich and storied history  in football. With that, comes a huge fanbase, consisting of both the dedicated and the bandwagon jumpers.

Oklahoma State fans have always been outnumbered and are used to it. The Sooners have dominated the state football-wise for the past century, while the Cowboys have had windows of success bookended by longer bouts of disappointment.

People like a consistent winner. Cowboys fans stick with their team, even though they will always be outnumbered.

You Love Offense

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Oklahoma State has been an offensive juggernaut for most of the past decade. Most recently, that offense was led by Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon, but it was formerly led by Zac Robinson, Dez Bryant and Kendall Hunter.

Despite the switch from a run-oriented to a pass-oriented attack, the Cowboys offense has remained consistently great. That is a testament to their coaching, and their fans love it.

A true Cowboys fan wants to see their team light up the scoreboard.

You're an Underdog

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Up until last season, Oklahoma State football had always been an underdog that no one expected much of. They've been a bridesmaid quite a few times, but never the bride until winning the Big 12 championship this season.

Cowboys fans are used to that mentality and thrive on it. Despite having a better record and ranking this past season, many still considered the Cowboys to be an underdog to the Oklahoma Sooners. The Cowboys responded by releasing a decade's worth of frustration in a 44-10 rout.

The underdog mentality of Oklahoma State and its fans makes such wins even sweeter.

You're Biased

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Bias is something that all fan bases could be accused of. However, I think it may have a special place in the hearts of true Cowboys fans.

It isn't necessarily a bad thing either. It goes along with the love those fans have for their team, who in their eyes can do no wrong and are the best no matter who else is out on the field.

Oklahoma State fans idolize players who wear their jerseys, even if they don't do much on the field. They believe in their team, even to a fault at times.

You Like Orange

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This one is pretty much a forgone conclusion, but it is still true.

Cowboy fans have to love the color orange, because it really defines the fanbase as a whole. With the chants of "Orange Power" ringing through the seas of orange fans in Boone Pickens Stadium, it would impossible to be happy without having an affinity for the orange.

Another reason true Cowboys fans like orange: They bleed it.