Bedlam!

Bedlam!
by Drew Edmondson

First off, it is wrong.

An entire football tradition, the annual battle between Oklahoma State University at Stillwater and the University of Oklahoma in Norman, has been named for a mispronunciation.

There are two primary definitions of “Bedlam”.  The first and most common is “a scene of uproar and confusion.”  This, too, is based on a mispronunciation but it accurately describes most, if not all, OU vs OSU games.

The other definition, “archaic:  an institution for the care of mentally ill people”, gives us the source of that mispronunciation.

Bedlam is commonly thought to refer to a specific and storied institution for the housing and treatment of the mentally ill in London, England, but the institution was never named “Bedlam”.  It was Bethlehem Royal Hospital, also knows as St. Mary of Bethlehem.

Notwithstanding the hearing of the Christmas story annually (we always favored the version in the book of Luke), all of which took place in the city of Bethlehem in the hill country of Judea, where shepherds watched over their flocks by night.  Many in England several centuries ago, had trouble pronouncing “Bethlehem” Royal Hospital and the moniker of “Bedlam” developed and was understood to mean the hospital.  To be fair, there were places in the written history where “Bethlehem” was shortened to “Bethlem”, which may have hastened the way to “Bedlam”.  And the sounds and scenes inside attached to the name.

The Bethlehem Royal Hospital, also known as St. Mary of Bethlehem, was founded in 1247 near Bishopsgate, outside the walls of London.  In 1676 it was moved to Moorfields, not a town but an open space partly in the City of London lying adjacent to and outside its northern wall.  In 1815 the hospital removed to St. George’s Fields on the southside of the Thames and in 1930 it made its last move to Monks Orchards where it remains to this day.  If you wish to visit it is less than 10 miles south of the Thames in London.

The hospital had some significant residents.  One that some lawyers might remember from law school was Daniel M’Naughten, whose case gave us the M’Naughten Rule for a sanity determinization in a criminal case: does he know the difference between right and wrong and is he capable of appreciating the nature of his actions.  It should be noted that there are several spellings of “M’Naughten”.  This one is the one I learned in law school.

The other resident of significance was Dr. William Chester Minor, of whom we might never have known but for the publishing of The Professor and the Madman, in 2009 about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary.  The Professor, James Murray, solicited words to go into the dictionary, along with their definitions and origins.  One of the most prolific providers was Dr. William Chester Minor.  The Professor did not know at the time and did not learn for years that this contributor to his work was housed at Bethlehem Royal Hospital, and was not on staff.  He was the Madman.

Dr. Minor had been a surgeon in U.S. Civil War.  After the war he moved to London and in due course committed a homicide.  He pled insanity.  As a result of that trial he was committed to Bethlehem Royal Hospital.  Professor Murray assumed he was on staff there, mistakenly.

That was “Bedlam” in England.  In the U.S., “Bedlam” means football and specifically the battles between Norman and Stillwater.

The first game between OU and OSU (then named Oklahoma A&M), was played in 1904, before Oklahoma became a state.  It was played at Island Park in Guthrie, which is now Mineral Wells Park.  OU won that first one 75-0, which probably explains why “beat OU” is in the OSU fight song.

Bedlam, as an annual tradition, ended last year with OSU prevailing 27-24.  We in Rotary have enjoyed the annual program with predictions made by coaching staff from both schools.  We can still have the program with OSU talking about the path to winning the Big 12 and OU’s outlook in the SEC.  But, the “uproar and confusion” will have to be found somewhere else this year and down the road.