Sooners is the name given to settlers in the Southern United States who entered the Unassigned Lands in what is now the state of Oklahoma before President Grover Cleveland officially proclaimed them open to settlement on March 2, 1889 with the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889. The name derived from the "sooner clause" of the act, which stated that anyone who entered and occupied the land prior to the opening time would be denied the right to claim land.Sooners is the adopted nickname of the University of Oklahoma football team and the U.S. state of Oklahoma is nicknamed the Sooner State.