Athletic Village THE

And then … all that cleared land sat. It would’ve been easy, as an outsider, to think that we’d given up the dream. In the last year, however, visible progress has been made. The Sherman Smith Indoor Training Center should structurally complete by the time you hold this magazine, though the field surface will not come until later in the summer. The new tennis facilities are nearing the halfway point in the construction process. A new track is being installed just north of McElroy, and is on pace to be ready for the fall.

“I’m pleased with the progress in the athletic village,” says Mike Holder, Vice President for Athletic Programs and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics.

“I think eventually it will turn out like I imagined it could. Back in 2006 when we announced it, we essentially had all the money then. It was a matter of when it would be completed, and money was no object. After the financial meltdown

100 acres of land north of Hall of Fame. We had a great place to build these facilities. A lot of schools, that’s not the case. They have two problems: money for the facility and a place to locate it. Having that vacant land north of us created a sense of urgency from our donors to want to see something done there.”

Cowboy Athletic Facilities manager, John Houck, has overseen the massive project since the fall of 2005, and he has witnessed all the ups and downs.

“In December of 2005, $165 million was given to the university to develop the west end zone of Boone Pickens Stadium . That money, along with about $35 million additional, was invested in Mr. Pickens’ hedge fund. The agreement was there was no commission. Whatever the money made would come back, which high. The whole world turned in about 120 days. That nest egg, basically, was gone by Thanksgiving of ’07. We finished the WEZ, and we purchased Scholar’s Inn. And we purchased all the land from BPS to Will Rogers School. And we cleared it.

“So there it sat. We were land-rich and money poor.”

As it turns out, that was just a temporary set-back. In typical OSU fashion, donors have been inspired by Boone Pickens and have come forward to get the Athletic Village back on track.

“Sherman Smith, before his passing, gave us the money to do the indoor facility,” says Houck. “The Smith family provided the resources to do everything, not just the building itself. We had a larger vision for it, once upon a time. But the building will be completed by early April, and then we have to go in and put the rug down inside, and put in the outdoor field, which is also a synthetic surface.”

The outdoor synthetic surface will be directly east of the Smith center, sitting inside the L of the two natural practice fields that were installed almost two

“They are maturing,” says Houck. “We wanted two growing seasons to make sure they take and can put up with a beating.”

In addition to the Smith training center, construction is well underway on the tennis facility on the southeast corner of McElroy and Washington.

“Mike and Anne Greenwood have stepped forward to help us build the tennis facility. There will be six indoor courts and an additional 12 outdoor courts,” says Houck. “We will get the outdoor courts in, but not much more. At least we have the building and the outdoor courts, and we will have a grandstand essentially against the building looking south.

“There are other things we want to do in there, but that’s all we can get done right now, until someone else steps up to the plate.”

In addition to the tennis facility, the new track is being built to the north of McElroy. Construction crews are currently grading out the area for the track, and new steel has gone up on the track administration building and locker rooms.

“That is essentially the east one-half of the area north of McElroy,” says Houck. “It will essentially be what we have right now, but in this new location, and everything will be new and up to today’s standards. We toyed with making the new track surface orange. We decided not to because eventually it would’ve turned red. That covers what’s currently under construction. Wheels are turning for the other facilities as well, such as a new baseball park on the northeast corner of McElroy and Washington.

When that happens, what is now Allie Reynolds stadium will be converted to parking. The softball facility, for the time being, is staying where it is, though upgrades are not out of the question. There is also talk of a new soccer stadium.

“We have engaged a design firm to help us study whether soccer should remain where it is, and to put together a concept we can take out and sell,” says Houck. “There’s a lot of interest in soccer. The jury is still out on whether we should keep it where it is. We have parking available. It’s a good field in good condition.

“Also, it’s in the middle of our student housing, and a lot of our students like to come watch the ‘real’ football. There are some plusses to keeping it where it is. The minus is that it is where it is. It’s disconnected from the rest of athletics. We would also have more development costs. People would have to find it. Parking. There are plusses and minuses.”

There is another major project getting underway that is not part of the Athletic Village footprint, but is part of upgrading the facilities for all OSU sports — the equestrian center. The new facility would be built at the old swine barn on the south side of state highway 51, and run to Sangre Road, covering approximately 120 acres of land.

“The swine farm will be developed into the training/ competition/show center for Equestrian,” says Houck. “Immediately adjacent to that would be pasturing and a place for coach Sanchez to exercise his animals.

“Wouldn’t that be a neat entrance to Stillwater?”

As with the rest of the Athletic Village, it’s a work in progress.

“It’s kind of a start, stop, start,” says Houck. “We had a huge gift years ago. That gift doubled in 18 months, and then it went away. I couldn’t sleep at night. Who would’ve thought? But it happened. We took a real gut punch. We had to stake stock of things for 18, 24 months. And now it’s coming back. And that’s cool. We’ll pick ourselves back up again and go. We don’t have the huge resources that we did, but it’ll happen.

“One of Mr. Pickens’s things is, ‘Don’t get in a hurry. If it’s right, it’ll come about.’ And that’s what’s going to happen. It won’t even take a decade. In five or six years from now, it’ll be there. I’m confident that’s what’s going to happen.”

450 COWBOY AND COWGIRL STUDENT-ATHLETES THANK YOU FOR YOUR LOYAL SUPPORT.

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Who influenced c oach Sutton? Why did he go to o klahoma a & m ? What W a S it like to play for m r. i ba? What about hi S fir S t coaching job?

On a hot August afternoon

These t o my surpr I se, Eddie Sutton sat I n the shop, waiting for his turn in Richard’s chair. We four former players, all several years younger than the 76-year-old coach, hold Eddie in the highest regard, mainly in appreciation for what he did for the Cowboy program. The fact that we all played for Mr. Iba makes us somewhat of a Band of Brothers . We exchanged small talk. “Gene, I enjoyed that POSSE article you did on Doc Cooper,” Eddie said, “Doc’s one of my favorite people.” I was thr I lled. Eddie had read my article. “Thanks, Coach,” I replied, and then hesitated. “Coach, if you’d be agreeable, I’d like to do a story on you from the angle of your growing-up years, plus playing ball for Mr. Iba, maybe up to your first coaching job?”

I walked I nto w h I sper I n’ rI chard’s barber shop on s t I llwater’s c ampus c orner w I th three of my former teammates. We had just finished lunch. Richard, an interesting and fun guy, who speaks softly , is a local icon. He’s been cutting hair, in the same shop, going on 60 years.

“I’d be happy to,” said Eddie, handing me a business card. “Call me anytime.”

Eddie And I

met several weeks later in the board room of Stillwater’s Spirit Bank where he is Vice-Chairman and a Director. Wearing jeans, a navy blazer and opened collar-blue dress shirt, Eddie looked dapper. “Gene, I’ve been trying to call you for a few days. You must have been on vacation,” he said, which made me feel at ease.

I told eddIe I’d been with some old basketball buddies and our wives on a trip to Alaska. This reminded him of a fishing story he proceeded to tell.

“Several years ago, while I was in Anchorage, an OSU alum invited me to go fishing. The next day, after a one-hour flight, we were surrounded by majestic snow covered peaks. The pilot told me we were in the Aleutian Islands, which I thought was part of Russia, but I was wrong.” After the four passengers exited the plane, they made ready their fishing gear.

“Fishing was great,” recalled Eddie, “you’d catch a nice salmon about one out of four casts. I wasn’t comfortable fishing that close to people … . afraid I’m going to hook someone or get myself hooked, so I moved 100 yards upstream where the fishing was even better. I’d catch one about every second time I’d throw. If I didn’t catch one, I’d hook one. Thickest bunch of fish I ever saw. After a while I glanced upstream and saw a grizzly bear, about 150-200 yards away. He was bent over, supported himself with one paw and fished with the other. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I hollered and waved my hands, thinking I’d scare him away. That didn’t work. He stood up and was well over six feet tall, glanced at me, then slowly started lumbering my direction.” Eddie continued, “I froze for a second, then I dropped my pole and started moving, fast as I could, back toward the plane, hollering for help. The guys yelled back, ‘run, eddie, run!’ I thought to myself, I’m going fast as I can and I hope its fast enough. Finally I made it to the plane, completely out of breath. The pilot held a loaded rifle. I turned around. That darn grizzly stopped right where I was fishing, sat down and was eating my catch. Must have been a dozen fish on the ground.” Laughing, Eddie added, “I made that bear’s day, and he almost ruined mine!”

“My earliest memory, when I was five years old , was of the Japanese bombing Pearl Harber. Both my parents and the town-folk were anxious, alarmed. It was front-page news and all over the radio. I can still feel the fear Mom and Dad had. People speculated, ‘Would the Japanese invade our country and take over?’”

Eddie’s father worked building military installations during the war and moved his family to a different Kansas town every time he began work on a new base. “Dad had an 8th grade education, but was real intelligent. He dropped out of school to go to work. But he could do anything — mechanic, carpenter, plumber, electrician, farmer, rancher — he did it all and worked hard.”

After the war, when Eddie was a sixth-grader, his uncle leased Eddie’s dad 160 acres outside Bucklin in a share-cropper arrangement. Eddie’s Dad kept two-thirds of the crops, usually maize and wheat, while the uncle got one-third.

On the farm, the Sutton family had no electricity or indoor plumbing until Eddie was in the eighth grade. “That’s just the way it was … didn’t think anything about it. We did have kerosene lanterns for our house plus a Sears catalogue for the outhouse.” o ur conversat I on changes to eddIe’s early years. Eddie was born in Bucklin, Kansas, 136 miles west of Wichita, population 750 in 1936 — the same year pitcher Dizzy Dean won 26 games for the Cardinals.

Eddie’s senior class totaled 18. “Great place to grow up … everybody knew each other. No one locked their doors. Friendly people would pitch-in and help each other. Our school system had dedicated, demanding teachers and coaches who encouraged us students.”

Working on the farm Eddie spent many a 10- to 12- hour day on a tractor and did all the chores of a farmhand, which later, made Mr. Iba’s five hour practices seem like a “piece of cake.” His Mom and Dad extolled old-fashioned virtues including thriftiness, hard work, honesty, integrity and humility, all of which helped prepare Eddie for the rigors of college life and a coaching career.

Standing 6’1” as an eighth grader, Eddie had almost reached his full height and excelled, both as a student and athlete. “Today’s kids all specialize and are involved in one sport or an activity or two. In Bucklin, I participated in everything — track, baseball, football, basketball, glee club, debate, school plays, student council. If anything was happening, I was there.”

Most farms around Bucklin had a basketball goal nailed to the side of the barn. “m om, who played high school basketball, shagged balls for me. Shooting on that old goal I played hundreds of make-believe games. I never lost a contest.”

Growing up, Eddie listened to the St. Louis Cardinals on the radio. First baseman Stan Musial was his hero. to this day eddie is an avid cardinal fan.

Four of the country’s best college basketball coaches, who were later inducted into the Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, coached within radio-broadcast range of Bucklin. his senior year eddie was recruited by these coaches: p hog a llen of k ansas , r ed m iller of Wichita , Henry Iba of Oklahoma A&M and tex Winter of k ansas s tate . “I listened to the radio and rooted for all those teams. My senior year I visited KU three times. Everyone in Bucklin knew that’s where I was headed. When I visited stillwater, it was a positive experience. m r. Iba was not a hard salesman. He pointed out the advantages, as he saw it, of me playing for the aggies. He was honest, direct and impressive. I liked him. t he students and players were friendly and down-to-earth, my kind of people.”

At that time the Missouri Valley Conference, with Oklahoma A&M, St. Louis, Drake, Cincinnati, Houston and Wichita were, by far, the toughest conference in the country. “Stillwater felt like home and the rest is history. For me, it’s been a great decision, no regrets .” s am a ubrey coached eddie as a freshman. In WWII, during the U.S. invasion of Italy, Sam’s leg was severely wounded. Doctors predicted he’d never play basketball again, but he proved them wrong. Returning from the war, Sam rehabbed and started on the Oklahoma Aggies 1945 NCAA championship squad. “Sam knew his basketball, was a good coach and a wonderful man. I learned a lot but didn’t get to play much that year. Looking back, they worked our butts off, but it didn’t hurt us. my sophomore year I played a little. But I practiced a lot. I started at guard my junior and senior seasons.

“In 1957, we went from being the Oklahoma A&M Aggies to become the Oklahoma State University Cowboys. You remember how Mr. Iba’s practices were. It was common to have three-to four-hour practices. On Christmas break we’d do three-a-days, spend as much as ten hours a day on the court. Of course we couldn’t drink any water during practice which, in retrospect, was a bad idea.”

Eddie shook his head, “That afternoon practice was the most spirited, intense practice I ever saw. Guys dove into the bleachers for loose balls and went all-out, took charges, ran over each other, committed hard fouls, all with the intent of making sure we got the night off. Toward the end of practice, another team entered through the south door of Gallagher Hall. The eddIe recalled a partIcular practIce on new year’s e ve. “We practiced three hours that morning and, knowing we had two more practices, we paced ourselves a little, not wanting to run out of gas before the end of the day. At the end of that morning practice, Mr. Iba had us to take a seat on the bleachers. ‘Boys, he said, looking us square in the eye, Sam and I’ve decided if we have a real good practice this afternoon, and I mean all out , that this evening we won’t practice.’ It was hard for us to conceal our joy. When we got over to the chow hall for lunch we called our girlfriends and told them the good news.” team, from East Texas State was coached by one of Mr. Iba’s former players. After our afternoon practice ended, Mr. Iba changed plans and told us to come back at 7:30 p.m. and we’d have a short scrimmage with this visiting team. That evening we went six halves or three full games. Having been on the court a total of 11-anda-half hours, our squad was past exhaustion. After a quick shower, I walked into the gym. That old Longines clock on the south end of the field house read 12:05 a.m. Not only had we missed welcoming in the New Year but our girlfriends got tired of waiting and went home!” eddIe’s junIor year the cowboys pulled a major upset. the n o. 1 rated k ansas Jayhawks and Wilt Chamberlin came to Stillwater. “Wilt was the best center to ever play the game … not only huge but a splendid athlete, virtually unstoppable. Wilt had 18-20 points at the half. During halftime Mr. Iba made an adjustment. He told us guards to slow Wilt down, bump him as he crossed half court so he couldn’t get the ball on the low block. It worked. We forced Wilt to catch the ball at the free throw line, and he had to work harder, but he still scored 33 points.” Eddie paused, “With the score tied, we froze the ball for the final four minutes. The plan was, when the clock got down to eight seconds, for me or m el Wright to take the last shot. Mel flashed open at the top of the key with 10 seconds remaining and hit the shot. g allagher Hall went wild.” In that longtalked-about game, Eddie scored 18 points, drilling nine of 12 tries, all from what today would be 3-point range, which made him the Cowboy’s leading scorer. t he p okes ended the season ranked 16th in the ap poll.

“The University President cancelled classes the next day. Our student body celebrated!” Later that season, the Jayhawks lost the National Championship game to UNC in three overtimes.

Next season the Pokes were improved, although returning starter Jerry adair left school after signing a baseball contract with the Baltimore Orioles. “We finished 21-8 and beat the University of Cincinnati with o scar r oberson , the best skill player I’d ever seen.

Oscar averaged a ‘triple-double’ in the NBA. As an independent we beat Texas to get in the NCAA tournament. Once in, we whipped Arkansas 65-40, which put us in the regional finals against Kansas State and a chance to go to the Final Four. We lost by eight points … tough loss . But, looking back, I had a great career, wonderful university, super teammates. Those were memorable years.”

After graduating, the following year Eddie earned his master’s degree and worked as a graduate assistant for Mr. Iba, while Patsy, his future bride, finished her last year of college. “ I learned more basketball as a grad assistant than I did the previous four seasons as a player. Being able to sit in on strategy sessions with Sam Aubrey and Mr. Iba proved invaluable for me in developing my philosophy of coaching.

“that following summer i got to select our wedding date and, unbeknownst to patsy, i picked a week in j uly when the St. louis cardinals hosted a three-game series against the dodgers, the two best teams in the National League. Asked about the honeymoon , I innocently suggested St. Louis. The city had one of the best zoos in the country, gourmet Italian food, and was only a day’s drive away. patsy bought in . Our afternoon ceremony took place in the University Chapel on a hot humid afternoon with no air-conditioning. Everyone perspired a lot. After the ceremony, we drove to St. Louis. We saw some great baseball. It wasn’t until years later that Patsy found out that she’d been set up,” Eddie chuckled. eddIe’s fIrst coachIng job was at tulsa central, the largest hIgh school In the state, with over 3,000 students in the top three grades. “At the age of 23, I was lucky to get that job. Patsy got a position teaching junior high home economics for $3,500 a year. I coached basketball and assisted in football; taught five history classes, had no planning period and they paid me $4,250 for nine months. I earned an extra $250 coaching the golf team. I didn’t know anything about the game. My responsibility was to chauffeur the golfers to matches, wait five hours and then drive them home. That’s when I decided to take up golf, rather than just sit around, watching and waiting.”

“how was tulsa?” I asked.

“ Great community, super people — we rented an apartment for $75 and a Cokes were a dime, so we did OK financially. One of the toughest things for me, as a new coach, was that we’d have 100 boys try out for basketball, and I had to cut that down to 30 within two weeks.” after seven years as a successful high school coach, eddie began his college coaching career at an Idaho junior college that didn’t have a campus. Later, after three years and an 83-14 record, e ddie left Idaho for successful stints at Creighton, a rkansas , k entucky and then, returned to stillwater.

“Throughout my career I’ve had a lot of wonderful players and quality assistant coaches. p atsy was the best assistant I ever had. I’m serious, she knew the game and provided valuable input!”

“ I invited Mr. Iba to the press conference when I accepted the OSU job. He was tickled to have one of his boys returning. It was a homerun for me to come back. We had some good players, so we hit the ground running. I couldn’t have gone to a better place.” When Mr. Iba was alive and in good health, Eddie would send a trainer to pick him up and drive him to practice.

Eddie Sutton’s coming home was a grand-slam homerun for the Cowboy program. During the 31 years prior to 1990, the year Eddie became OSU’s coach, the Cowboy basketball program had been in post-season play only three times. Eddie took the Cowboys to post-season play 14 times in 17 seasons, twice to the Final Four. This was quite an achievement for a Kansas farm boy who spent long days on a tractor, had no electricity, used an outhouse and everyone in Bucklin thought was headed to the University of Kansas … quite a