[jcranmer]

> whatever the hell a "Sooner" is

The US decided to sell the land in most of Oklahoma (the parts that weren't Indian territory, in any case) by land rushes. You would line up at the county border, a starting gun would be fired, and the first person to claim a plot of land would get it. Sooners are the people who were in the county before the starting gun was fired, letting them (illegally) claim the land before anyone who was honest and started at the starting line.

(Side note: my great-great grandfather was in one of the Oklahoma land rushes, but lost the land he wanted to a Sooner.)