OU fan sails to Knoxville to cheer on Sooners

NORMAN, Okla. (KFOR) – A University of Oklahoma fan went the extra mile to cheer on his team this past weekend against Tennessee.

Watching the Sooners from the famous "Vol Navy" has been on Wade Huckabay's bucket list for some time, and now that dream has come true.

In a sea of orange, Huckabay's boat stood out, full of crimson and cream blasting Boomer Sooner in the middle of Vol Navy.

"There were plenty of Tennessee fans that came to our boat, and said, 'How in the world did you get that from Oklahoma?'" said Huckabay.

It's a river route, Huckabay says, few have taken from Oklahoma.

"Everybody, I think, was incredibly happy for me because we were finally there because I've been talking about it for so long," said Huckabay.

Huckabay is from Mustang and moved his boat to Muskogee.

From there, he sailed on the Arkansas River to the Mississippi, then South to Demopolis, Alabama, but last year his trip ended there. However, this fall he picked up where he left off.

"We traveled from Demopolis, Alabama, to Knoxville. It's about 700 river miles," said Huckabay.

It was an eight-day voyage to get to Knoxville.

"We were there eight days early and we got the last spot on the dock and so you don't have any hookups or anything, so we were just living off a generator while we were at the dock," said Huckabay.

Once game day hit, Huckabay says the wait paid off.

"It was great, we didn't expect all the attention that we received, we didn't know we'd be the only boat and everybody was incredibly nice," said Huckabay.

Family members also traveled to town to tailgate on the boat.

"It was just a great atmosphere of being on the boat and being able to welcome everybody and, you know, kind of after the game, getting to celebrate in front of, in the midst of all the UT boats as well," said Kelly Yanity, Huckabay's sister-in-law.

Huckabay and his boat engineer aren't done yet. The two left Monday morning and are sailing back to Alabama.

They plan to go to Tuscaloosa for the OU-Alabama game on November 15.