Hey, It's Tradition

Where to party for the Texas-OU Red River Rivalry weekend

Get your team's drink at Del Frisco's Grille.
Photo courtesy of Del Frisco's Grille
See the Pride of Oklahoma marching band at the Hilton Lincoln Centre on Friday.
The Pride of Oklahoma/Facebook
The King Bucks perform Friday night at the Burnt Orange Bash.
Photo courtesy of King Bucks
Eddie Deen's Ranch hosts the Red River Party, complete with face painters and anopen bar.
Photo courtesy of Eddie Deen's Ranch

We are a mere week away from the biggest annual sports event in Dallas. The University of Texas Longhorns and the Oklahoma University Sooners are once again poised to square off at the Cotton Bowl in Fair Park for the right to claim the Golden Hat for a year.

As always, there are Big 12 and national implications. Despite a loss to Kansas State earlier this year, no. 17 Sooners are still in the hunt for a BCS bowl and a Big 12 championship.

The Longhorns, ranked slightly higher in the polls at no. 11, face a stiff challenge from no. 8 West Virginia this weekend in Austin. But if they come out of that game victorious, the Red River Rivalry will be that much more enormous.

However, both teams could be 0-5, and fans would still be whipped up for this game. A lot of that has to do with the weekend’s atmosphere. It’s like spring break in October — not just for the students at both schools, but also for the alumni and locals interested in the rivalry.

So we rounded up a few parties and places to hit before the big game Saturday, October 13.

Del Frisco’s Grille is offering two new drinks for fans on Friday and Saturday called Bevo Booze and Sooner Soda. Each is a color-appropriate, vodka-infused cocktail garnished with pineapple. They’re $10 a pop, so you know they are classy.

But if you’re looking for full-blown parties, we’ve got you covered.

On the Sooner side of the festivities, Oklahoma HQ has a whole slew of parties in Denton, starting Thursday night at Hailey’s with $1 wells. Friday night, Sooner fans are encouraged to show up at Dan’s Silverleaf for a welcome party with Ray Wylie Hubbard. Tickets start at $15.

The OU Club of Dallas is also putting on a shindig Friday night at the Hilton Lincoln Centre Ballroom. The Beat Texas Party includes appearances by the Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band and mascots Boomer and Sooner. Tickets are $30, but if you’re a member of OU Club of Dallas, there’s a $5 discount.

On the Texas side of the border, we’ve pinpointed a few parties worth inspecting.

At the Burnt Orange Bash at the Fashion Industry Gallery (Friday, 8 pm-2 am), general admission is $100, but that includes an open bar and free food from places like Lockhart Smokehouse and Hacienda on Henderson. The King Bucks perform, as does the Mavs official spinmaster, DJ Whiz T. Check theburntorangebash.com for a limited number of discount tickets.

Another solid choice is the Red River Party at Eddie Deen’s Ranch Friday, 10 pm-2 am. For $70, you get an open bar that includes two Hideous bars (necessary) as well as three face painters and an airbrush t-shirt artist (super necessary). The band People’s Choice plays all night, and breakfast tacos are served late night.

The Texas Exes Dallas chapter is hosting the 2012 Bash Before the Clash at Knox Street Pub on Friday, 6 pm-2 am. There is no cover charge.

Of course, this is but a brief list. All of Dallas is going to be hopping with fans of both schools getting rowdy. It’ll be hard to go wrong wherever you end up — unless you stumble into a bar full of the other team’s fans.

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income analysis

This is the family income needed for one parent to stay home in Texas

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

With costs to raise a child soaring over $20,000 a year in Texas, some households might decide to have one parent work while the other stays at home to raise their child.

The cost of raising a child has ballooned in major metros like Dallas-Fort Worth, forcing many families to weight the choice between paying for child care or having one parent stay home full-time.

A recent analysis from SmartAsset determined the minimum income one parent needs to earn to support their partner staying at home to raise one child in all 50 states. In Texas, that amount is just under $75,000.

The study used the MIT Living Wage Calculator to compare the annual living wages needed for a household with two working adults and one child, and a household with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child. The study also calculated how much it would cost to raise a child with two working parents based on factors such as "food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, incremental income taxes and other necessities."

A Texas household with one working parent would need to earn $74,734 a year to support their stay-at-home partner and their child, the report found. If both parents worked in the household, it would require an additional $10,504 in annual income to raise their child.

SmartAsset said the cost to raise a child in Texas in a two-working-parent household adds up to $23,587. Raising a child in North Texas, however, is slightly more affordable. A separate SmartAsset study from June 2025 determined it costs $22,337 to raise a child in Dallas-Fort Worth.

In the report's ranking of states with the highest minimum income needed to support a family with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child, Texas ranked 32nd on the list.

In other states like Massachusetts where raising a child can cost more than $40,000 a year, the report's author says families will look for ways to reduce any financial burdens.

"This often includes considerations around who’s going to work in the household, and whether young children will require paid daycare services while parents are occupied," the report said. "With tradeoffs abound, many parents might seek to understand the minimum income needed to keep the family afloat while allowing the other parent to stay home to raise a young child."

The top 10 states with the lowest minimum income threshold to support a three-person family on one income are:

West Virginia – $68,099
Arkansas – $68,141
Mississippi – $70,242
Kentucky – $70,408
North Dakota – $70,949
Oklahoma – $71,718
Ohio – $72,114
South Dakota – $72,218
Alabama – $72,238
Nebraska – $72,966

texas income smartasset family