On New Turf at BPS

THE 2014 OKLAHOMA STATE COWBOYS WILL BURST OUT OF THE GATE AT THE HOME OPENER ON NEW TURF IN Boone Pickens Stadium . The installation began after the completion of the annual OKLAHOMA SPECIAL OLYMPICS IN STILLWATER and was completed approximately one month later. The turf features the OSU logo at midfield and re-branded BIG 12 MARKS at the 25-yard-line, plus a BLACK BORDER and VIVID ORANGE END ZONES with classic block lettering.

STORY BY WADE McWHORTER PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRUCE WATERFIELD

FOR THE BETTER PART OF 15 YEARS AND COUNTING,

THE SCHULTZES HAVE BEEN BURNING UP THE ROADS BETWEEN THEIR HOMETOWN OF BOOKER, TEXAS, AND STILLWATER, THE HOME OF THEIR BELOVED COWBOYS AND COWGIRLS.

Brad and Margie make the 500-mile round trip in style in their custom Class A Motorhome, and the reason for their fandom is simple.

“WE LIKE TO DO FUN THINGS, AND OSU IS A FUN PLACE TO DO THINGS,” BRAD SAID.

Margie admits Cowgirl basketball is her favorite, but there are not many home events, regardless of sport, that she and her husband don’t attend on a regular basis — good luck finding an OSU sport for which they don’t have season tickets.

“I don’t know if we have two more loyal fans out there than Brad and Margie,” said OSU senior associate athletic director for development Larry Reece. “Just their commitment — I know we’ve got a lot of folks that travel, but they come to everything. It’s amazing their commitment to come all the way from BOOKER, TEXAS.

“That’s what separates college athletics — the people are so passionate. They get to know our student-athletes and invest in them, and there’s not a greater example of that than Brad and Margie Schultz. THEY REALLY EMBODY THE PASSION AND THE SPIRIT OF ‘THIS IS OUR TEAM, THIS IS OUR SCHOOL.’”

THEREIN LIES A LITTLE BIT OF IRONY, however.

While there’s no question of the Schultz’ orange-and-black loyalties, neither are Oklahoma State grads.

Brad attended OSU for three years in the 1960s but ended up leaving Stillwater and graduating from a school that, let’s just say, employs a different shade of orange.

And that’s something Brad will let you know still rubs him the wrong way.

“I SHOULD HAVE STAYED AT OSU — THAT WASN’T THE BIGGEST MISTAKE I MADE IN MY LIFE, BUT IT WAS ONE OF THE LARGER ONES THAT I REMEMBER,” HE SAID.

Brad’s rooting interest in the Cowboys was spawned at a young age. Both his parents attended then Oklahoma A&M in the mid-1940s, and he remembers attending several Cowboy football games each season as a child growing up.

Fast-forward half a century or so, and it was Brad passing on his love of OSU sports to Margie.

Both Brad and Margie are from Booker, a small town in the northeast corner of the Texas panhandle.

After holding several corporate gigs following college, Brad moved home to get into the family business — cattle ranching — with his father.

It was then that he met Margie, and the couple was married in 1977.

Eventually Margie, who attended West Texas A&M, also fell in love with OSU and its teams, and the road trips to Stillwater increased.

“Pretty much by being (Brad’s) wife — I didn’t want to stay in Booker,” said Margie when asked how she developed a love for OSU.

But joking aside, Margie quickly grew fond of Orange Country.

“It’s a large university in a small-town atmosphere,” Margie said. “You just feel like you know people. Even in the businesses up-and-down, people know your name, and that’s important.”

Over the years, numerous people have gotten to know Brad and Margie, and a big reason for that is the hand the couple played in helping grow and develop the RV community for game days on the OSU campus.

The Schultzes started out small but eventually graduated from camping trailers to their current rig. The RV community also had humble beginnings, spawning in a small lot on the west side of the Noble Research Center that held around 20 RVs.

Fast forward to the current lot, which sits just south of the COWGIRL SOCCER COMPLEX and accommodates upwards of 100 RVs. Led by donors Tom and Cheryl Hamilton, Art and Sylvia Couch, Jerry and Rae Winchester and the Schultzes, several donors pooled resources to reconstruct the lot, and among the biggest improvements was adding power for all vehicles to alleviate the need for generators, thus also doing away with the noise and exhaust that come with them.

“We just kept looking for better spots, and the university finally saw that there was a need for it and gave us a big lot,” Brad said. “It’s real convenient because we can park close to the stadium, and it’s self-contained with everything we need.”

And the best part for the Schultzes is the camaraderie it generates among OSU’s loyal fan base.

“It’s exactly like a big family,” Brad said. “We’ve met so many people and become such good friends with people we would generally never had the opportunity to meet. We come from a little town of 1,300 people and when you put 80-to-100 RVs in there with two or three people each, you really broaden your social circle considerably.

“Everybody looks forward to coming to that. It’s fun. Which is our experience with OSU — it’s fun.”

That fun extends beyond Stillwater. The Schultzes have taken their RV as far as San Diego and Tempe, Ariz., for football bowl games, and it’s been to every Big 12 city, save two.

“I’M NOT TAKING IT TO NORMAN OR MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA, BUT IT’S BEEN TO EVERY OTHER BIG 12 SCHOOL,” Brad said. “And we’ve been treated almost like royalty everywhere we go — people have been so good to us.

“Where we live, the closest Wal-Mart is 70 miles away so driving is nothing — we don’t mind doing that. We spend a lot of time on the road, and we like it.”

Margie guesses she and Brad began making regular trips to Stillwater at the turn of the century, and that’s provided countless memories along with the hundreds of thousands of miles traveled.

Asked her favorite memory or team, Margie doesn’t hesitate — that would be the 2004 COWBOY BASKETBALL FINAL FOUR TEAM.

“That was a fun time,” she said. “We were there every step of the way, loud and proud!”

As for Brad, it would be hard to pinpoint just one.

“In football, every time that we beat OU,” Schultz said. “Every bowl game we went to that we won, especially the FIESTA BOWL

“Getting to know Coach (Eddie) Sutton and seeing what he had to go through when the plane crashed in Colorado, how he manned up and handled that. I don’t know that I could have done that.

“And we got to know Coach (Kurt) Budke very well and fell in love with those women and how hard they compete. We felt it was important to contribute to that.”

Staunch supporters of Cowgirl hoops — among their contributions to OSU Athletics was fully endowing a scholarship for the program — the Schultzes are also fond of coach Jim Littell, whom they have known since his days as a JUCO coach in Liberal, Kan.

“He took an impossible situation and made the university and all of us so proud of him and his team,” Schultz said.

While he’s been a lifelong fan, Brad said his support of OSU Athletics really ramped up when the Schultz’ daughter, JADE , was younger. And he helped make sure Jade, a recent OSU graduate, would carry on the family tradition of rooting for the Pokes.

“I told her when she was a senior in high school she could go to any college she wanted to, but if she went to Oklahoma State, I’d pay for everything,” Brad said. “So she made a good decision.”

Brad’s success as the third-generation owner of BAR S RANCH (Jade will become the fourth-generation owner) has allowed his family the opportunity to generously support the sports they are so passionate about. The Schultzes rank 33rd on the POSSE donor list and have given over $1 million to OSU Athletics.

“The athletic department is pretty good at fundraising, and they’re not bashful at all about asking,” Brad said. “They’re awfully good to us, and we just fell in love with OSU. We spend a lot of time there, and it just made sense to help build something over there. We were eager to contribute what we could.

“We do very little — we don’t contribute enough to substantially change anything there. But collectively, like Boone (Pickens) said, if we can all put a little bit in there, look what happens.”

Brad says that type of generosity is something all OSU fans can take pride in, and the continued success of OSU athletics, not only in competition but also in upgrading facilities, is something he’ll continue to enjoy.

“ONE THING THAT REALLY STICKS OUT IS THE FACILITIES,” BRAD SAID. “WHEN I WENT TO SCHOOL THERE IN 1967 TO WHERE IT IS NOW, YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE IT’S THE SAME UNIVERSITY.

“The change in the facilities and the fact that it’s still stayed a small town, somewhere I didn’t worry about sending my only daughter o to college in a strange university where I had to worry about her, I don’t know how other to say it other than the fact we just love OSU. What they put out is a fine student, a fine young adult.