POSSE Magazine - Summer 2019

CANADIAN COWBOYS

BOB JACOBSON CFP SOCIAL TEAM GARY AND CLAUDIA HUMPHREYS KIM RODRIGUEZ YVES BATOBA

COMMERCIAL INTERRUPTION

BY KEVIN KLINTWORTH SENIOR ASSOCIATE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

This is going to sound like an advertisement — and I guess in a way it is. It’s an advertisement for access, approachability, connection, school ties, family ties and lifelong bonding. It’s a look at people with big heads and big hearts. It’s an OSU story.

In a time that seems so long ago, but in reality not so much, college athletics was different. There was a casual feel to even the biggest sporting events of the year. Security was lighter, game times were consistent and social media meant listening to a game on the radio with a friend or two.

In those days, access to your favorite athletes or coaches took place in person rather than electronically. It was such a non-factor it was rarely discussed. But the world has changed. Some of it for the good and some of it — to be determined. In any case, unfettered access to many athletes, professional or collegiate, is mostly a thing of the past.

Except …

At OSU, there is a program called Pistol Pete’s Partners for children eighth grade and younger. It is perhaps the best kept secret in OSU Athletics. For a $30 annual membership, kids receive a t-shirt, ID card, a surprise birthday card, free admission to soccer, wrestling, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball and softball (some exceptions apply) and a discounted ticket to one football game each year. In addition, there are exclusive parties with Pistol Pete and OSU’s student-athletes.

It’s an early indoctrination to the Cowboy Life and it can be impactful. And it provides access to OSU athletes and coaches that is mostly a thing of the past.

How much of an impact can childhood memories have?

In 1998, 10-year-old Lauren Blackwell of Chicago was in Stillwater for Homecoming to visit her cousin, Nick Kalina, who was a member of the OSU football team. The magical weekend of house decorations, Pistol Pete and the spirit squads worked their magic.

“That weekend I told my dad that OSU was where I was going to college,” said Blackwell, who now hangs out with Houston Astros as the team’s in-game (video) host. “I applied to OSU early in 2005, attended Camp Cowboy in the summer of 2006 and moved to Stillwater for Rush Week in August. It truly changed my life.”

There aren’t a lot of events that change your life at age 10. And often times we don’t recognize them when they happen. But Pistol Pete’s Partners in an introduction into the world of OSU.

And if you are in one of those nasty relationships in which the kids are in a tug of war regarding college loyalties, it might be the best $30 you ever spend.

okstate.com/kidsclub

COVER PHOTO BY BRUCE WATERFIELD

POSSE Magazine Staff

VICE PRESIDENT OF ENROLLMENT AND BRAND MANAGEMENT KYLE WRAY

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF / SENIOR ASSOCIATE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR KEVIN KLINTWORTH

SENIOR ASSOCIATE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR / EXTERNAL AFFAIRS JESSE MARTIN

ART DIRECTOR / DESIGNER DAVE MALEC

GRAPHIC DESIGNER CODEE CLASSEN

PHOTOGRAPHER / PRODUCTION ASSISTANT BRUCE WATERFIELD

ASSISTANT EDITOR CLAY BILLMAN

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS GARY LAWSON, PHIL SHOCKLEY MELISSA MORALES

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS CLAY BILLMAN, JOHN HELSLEY KEVIN KLINTWORTH, JOHN LANGHAM WADE McWHORTER, ROGER MOORE, KYLE WRAY

Athletics Annual Giving (POSSE) Development Staff

ASSOCIATE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR / ANNUAL GIVING ELLEN AYRES

PUBLICATIONS COORDINATOR CLAY BILLMAN

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, ANNUAL GIVING RYAN SEVERSON

DIRECTOR OF DONOR EXPERIENCE & COWBOY VIP ALLISON ESCOTT

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, ANNUAL GIVING / EVENT COORDINATOR ALEXA ABLE

Athletics Major Gift Development Staff

SENIOR ASSOCIATE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR / DEVELOPMENT LARRY REECE

ASSISTANT ATHLETIC DIRECTOR, DEVELOPMENT MATT GRANTHAM

ASSISTANT ATHLETIC DIRECTOR, DEVELOPMENT SHAWN TAYLOR

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At Oklahoma State University, compliance with NCAA, Big 12 and institutional rules is of the utmost importance. As a supporter of OSU, please remember that maintaining the integrity of the University and the Athletic Department is your first responsibility. As a donor, and therefore booster of OSU, NCAA rules apply to you. If you have any questions, feel free to call the OSU Office of Athletic Compliance at 405-744-7862 . Additional information can also be found by clicking on the Compliance tab of the Athletic Department web-site at www.okstate.com

Remember to always “Ask Before You Act.”

Respectfully,

BEN DYSON ASSISTANT ATHLETIC DIRECTOR FOR COMPLIANCE

Donations received may be transferred to Cowboy Athletics, Inc. in accordance with the Joint Resolution among Oklahoma State University, the Oklahoma State University Foundation, and Cowboy Athletics, Inc.

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POSSE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2019

Featuring the New York Philharmonic , Academy of St Martin in the Field, touring Broadway productions, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Sarah Coburn, Cirque Mechanics, and much more!

Sign up for free priority access at

McKnightCenter.org/events

Beki Jackson

Lindsay Bracken

IN THE WORLD OF COLLEGE ATHLETICS,

large rosters normally mean lots of helping hands for head coaches: operations folks, assistant coaches, maybe a graduate assistant or two and possibly some administrative help.

For the OSU spirit squads, with a roster of 53, just two women run the show.

TWO WOMEN RUN THE SHOW

Lindsay Bracken is the head cheer coach, in charge of OSU’s large and small co-ed teams and STUNT.

Beki Jackson is the spirit coordinator for cheer and pom squads, as well as Pistol Pete, and serves as the coach of the pom squad. It might seem like a rather straightforward job description. But there are some outliers. Keep in mind that Pistol Pete alone makes approximately 700 appearances annually, not counting athletic competitions. And the spirit groups logged closed to 1,300 hours of voluntary community service during the most recently completed academic year.

And don’t forget the championships. Along with raising spirits at OSU’s athletic competitions, the OSU spirit squads have their own national competitions.

IN FACT, OSU HAS WON 20 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

(at three different divisions) since 1988.

Both Bracken and Jackson have similar backgrounds. Both are OSU grads and former spirit squad members. Both are married moms and have backgrounds in education. Bracken is a professor and has earned a PhD. That’s Dr. Bracken to you and me. Jackson is a former elementary school teacher.

Add it all together and it makes for a chaotic schedule with lots of travel, lots of moving parts and lots of ups and downs. That means lots of coordination without a lot of helping hands.

IT’S THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT COACHES, who are the team behind the teams that support the teams!

CARDIAC COWGIRLS

With a comeback win, the OSU softball squad swept the Red Raiders in Stillwater, showing the grit and determination that would lead them to the Women’s College World Series for the first time since 2011.

PHOTO BY BRUCE WATERFIELD

PHOTO BY BRUCE WATERFIELD

2019 WOMEN'S NCAA TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP

The Cowgirls celebrated a Sweet 16 berth after knocking off 19th ranked Miami in dramatic fashion.

More than just steaks. All summer long.

Moscow, Idaho, isn’t exactly the epicenter of Oklahoma State University athletics news, so Bob Jacobson is grateful for the Internet.

Late last winter, while the Oklahoma A&M alum perused an online article about Cowboy Basketball, a strangely familiar image appeared in his newsfeed along with other related content.

Wait. Is that?

Nah. Couldn’t be.

Jacobson clicked the link. A “throwback” Twitter post by an OSU fan popped up, featuring clever blackand-white caricatures of Aggie athletes and coaches dating back seven decades.

In a virtual blast from the past, Jacobson found himself looking at his own illustrations!

(& FOUND)

LOST ART

“It was a big shock,” Jacobson says. “I was in my 20s then so those drawings are close to 70 years old.”

“It was plugged into the comments section of some newspaper he was looking at,” recalls Bob’s son, Erik. “He looked at the images and said, ‘Those are mine.’ And so he had me sign him up on Twitter (@JacobsonRobertJ) so he could contact the poster and ask him about it.”

Drawn in the late 1940s and ’50s, these “Sportoons” had been given new life in the digital age thanks to nostalgic collector Doug Shivers (@casdas29) and his like-minded followers, who appreciate vintage Cowboy content.

“I came up with that term — Sportoons — but didn’t come up with the idea of doing that kind of drawing,” Jacobson explains. “At that time there were a few guys who would make a drawing of an athlete and then add these little cartoons sprinkled around with extra information, and they were syndicated nationally. I had seen them and admired them. I guess I did some and showed them to (former OAMC sports information director) Otis Wile. He liked them enough, and I did a fair number of them for him.”

Shivers’ social media account often features OSU memorabilia from bygone eras, but the serendipitous story that follows this particular post is unique.

“As old as the original cartoons were, in no way did I anticipate that one of the artists who drew them would ever know I tweeted them, much less respond to my tweet,” Shivers says. “But cool things happen on the Internet sometimes.

“When I got a reply from Bob saying he was surprised to see some of his drawings, I have to think that his level of surprise wasn't even close to mine.”

“We were both stunned that the connection was made,” Jacobson says. “It’s kind of a really weird circumstance, but it makes life interesting to have those things pop up like that.

“I don’t remember exactly what our conversation was, but somewhere along the way I began to wonder whether I could still do that stuff. I thought, ‘Well, I’m not full-time employed right now. I’ve got the time to try.’”

So at age 91, “Jake” (as he often signed his creations) went back to his drawing table.

STORY BY CLAY BILLMAN | PHOTOS BY ERIK JACOBSON

DRAWN IN

Artistic endeavors have always been a part of Jacobson’s life.

“When you’re a kid, you just do what you do, and I started doodling around. I was attracted to various illustrations I’d seen in magazines and got hung up on comic books for a while.”

As a boy growing up in the 1930s in Shelby, Montana, he found a world of adventure via comics and the emergence of animated pictures. Jacobson would spend hours sketching with pencil and paper trying to replicate the characters he loved, honing his own illustration skills all the while.

“I’m surprised to see Superman and some of those early superheroes are surviving in great shape so many years later,” he says, recalling his favorite characters. “Of course, Flash Gordon … what I liked about that one as much as anything was that fella, Alex Raymond — he was one heck of an artist. I always admired him. I liked the Disney things, too.

“You know, after a while you practice and you find pretty soon you can draw Popeye’s face without looking at anything. You’re not so original at first — you just copy stuff and see if you can make it look the same. It’s not the worst thing in the world, and I’m saying that from an art instructor’s view. I used to teach illustration. Go and copy somebody because in the long run you can’t copy them anyway. Your own style is going to show up no matter what, which is great, but it gets you started and gives you a foundation. You can lean on the other guys’ expertise.”

Jacobson’s own graphic style and personality began to come out in college publications like the Daily O’Collegian and the satirical Aggievator

“I tell my kids, it’s amazing how badly you could do that stuff — and I did a lot of bad stuff — but I didn’t know how bad it was so I kept on doing it. And if you keep doing it, why eventually you get better at it.”

ON THE MOVE

In 1943, before his senior year of high school, Jacobson’s family moved to Hamilton, nestled in Montana’s scenic Bitterroot Valley.

“That was quite a change,” he says. “I’m not gonna knock Shelby or anything — it’s just a small town that was there primarily because there was a railroad going through — but it was a lot of empty prairie, I’ll tell you that. I thought the Hamilton area was heaven compared to Shelby. Lots of mountains and fishing.”

He graduated in 1944 just as Allied forces were beginning to turn the tide in the Second World War.

“I went into the Army Air Corps, as it was called back then, pretty late in the war. When World War II ended in 1945, they didn’t need guys like me anymore so I got out early.

“I met a guy in the Army named Bill Hardwick, and we just decided we’d go to college together. No one in my family had ever gone to college before so I didn’t really know what to look for. Bill’s dad was stationed at Ft. Sill for a while, and he had been to Oklahoma quite a bit so we finally ended up down there at Oklahoma A&M. It was great, and I enjoyed my time there a lot.”

Jacobson recalls being an Aggie basketball fan in Henry Iba’s heyday.

“I had no idea before I went to the school what a powerhouse they had been, and were still, in college basketball. To go there and hear about their two national championship teams and so forth was amazing. When I started going to the games I was so impressed with the skill level of those guys. We had great times because basketball was so good back then. And we hope it will be again with any luck here now.

“Back in those days you could just walk into the fieldhouse and shoot baskets. All you needed was a basketball. I remember I was out there one time, and I made about four jump shots in a row, which can happen to anybody if you shoot enough. Otis saw me and hollered, ‘Mr. Iba, you gotta come see this guy!’ and I thought, ‘Good God, I hope he doesn’t show up.’”

POKING FUN

“I was looking through some Aggievators that we saved, and I was surprised to see that one year I was on the art staff, the next year I was the associate editor and the next year I was the editor. I spent more time with those people than I realized.”

The irreverent publication was printed on the same press as the O’Collegian , Jacobson says, but unlike the student newspaper, there was little supervision.

“The adviser for the O’Colly was the same guy that I dealt with. His instructions for me were, ‘Here’s the key to your office,’ and that’s all I knew. So I really had no guidance and we did some things I’m not too proud of, but some things turned out pretty well. But we had to learn on the run.

“There were a number of these humor magazines in colleges at that time, and some were really good. We would steal jokes from each other, and that became kind of underground sometimes … always a question of taste and so forth.”

All Aggievator jokes had to be approved by Clement Trout , head of the OAMC publications department.

That didn’t always happen.

“I have to admit there were times we would put jokes in that he hadn’t seen because I thought he would never let that go by. One time I looked at the jokes we had available and thought, ‘Boy these are pretty lame,’ so I borrowed something from another publication that might be just a little bit off-color. You wouldn’t think it was off-color in today’s world, but anyway … Eventually I heard about this threat that they were gonna throw me out of school! After that I’m sure all the jokes were submitted. We didn’t like to break the law too much.”

Bandleader Woody Herman reads the Aggievator

DESIGNS ON LOVE

As Jacobson pursued a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, he was tapped to teach classes on campus by art department head Doel Reed. It was there he met the love of his life, Jeanne Rollier

“One of the classes I taught was for home economics students,” he says. “Every six weeks I would get about 20 or 30 new students who would come in and do something basic with a color chart, learn how to mix colors and what the primary and secondaries were, tonal values … Jeanne was in one of my classes, and well of course I noticed her right away. At one point I asked her if she would like to be our Aggievator girl of the month, and she said, ‘I guess so.’ She didn’t know what it was.

“I couldn’t ask her out as a date because I was her instructor, but as soon as she was finished with that section of the class we got together pretty fast. I met her in the fall, and we were engaged by New Year’s.”

Jacobson and the Lamont, Okla. native (Rollier’s parents owned the movie theater in the Grant County town of less than 600) wed in 1950. They were married nearly 64 years until Jeanne’s passing in 2014.

“She was smart, beautiful, kind, fiercely loyal and a wonderful mother,” he says. “She was my best friend. Deep down I feel like the main reason I attended Oklahoma A&M was to meet her. She was the love of my life, and I miss her dearly.”

Jacobson continued to draw for Wile and the O’Colly and worked to establish his own freelance illustration business while finishing up his degree. “Anything to earn a buck at that time,” he says.

“I wasn’t a hanger-outer because I was always looking for work. My GI Bill was good for only two-and-a-half years. I had my own silkscreen shop with a partner, Dick Gilpin , where we mostly produced posters and signs. We also made the set backgrounds for the drama department and decorations for the fieldhouse dances.”

In those days, Stillwater was a popular stop on the big band circuit. Jacobson recalls seeing some of the biggest names in music play to enthusiastic audiences at Gallagher Hall.

“ Woody Herman was there … Spike Jones and his City Slickers came. That was a crazy outfit, and we really enjoyed it. Matter of fact, we got pictures of those guys looking at a copy of the Aggievator. So I guess I must have corralled them some way and gotten some publicity for it.”

Bandleader Tommy Dorsey was one of Jacobson’s favorites.

“We had a contract to decorate the fieldhouse for a prom he was playing,” he adds. “We got streamers and attached them to the scoreboard. I don’t know how we got them up there, but I do know that I was exhausted and Jeanne was exhausted. Still, Tommy Dorsey was so good that we danced every dance — you just couldn’t not dance, no matter how tired you were. But the streamers kept coming down, and the next thing you know you’re having to duck them because they stretched in the heat. Somehow I got upstairs and walked along some iffy-looking place and found a crank and cranked the scoreboard back up to raise those streamers so we wouldn’t all get hooked on them. It was kind of fun.”

Bob and Jeanne (left) pictured with legendary jazz conductor Tommy Dorsey (far right) at Gallagher Hall.

DRAWN TOGETHER

Jacobson says meeting Gilpin was one of the best things that ever happened to him.

“He was a fantastically gifted illustrator and designer and an even better person. Later on, after graduation, we teamed up to run our own commercial art studio — Graphic Art Center — in Oklahoma City.”

Within five years, Jacobson says their six-person studio became the largest freelance commercial art studio in the state of Oklahoma.

“We had kids come through from the various schools looking for work,” Jacobson recalls. “We would look at the portfolios, and some of the kids were really talented but none of them had a clue about what commercial art was about. You know, it’s marketing. And certain requirements are there. It’s not the same skills as being a fine artist. The main difference is, if you’re painting and someone wants to buy

ing or an illustration, then you’re a commer

Gilpin and Jacobson worked together for about 10 years.

“He was a great partner. Dick was an outstanding layout artist and designer. You could see it from the start.”

(Editor’s note: Gilpin, a native of Garber, Okla., would go on to illustrate a number of iconic program covers and publications for Oklahoma State in the ’70s and ’80s. He passed away in 1989.)

In 1963, Jacobson was hired to start a commercial art program at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. On the side, he freelanced as a book designer and created motivational posters for schools and libraries — an endeavor that eventually became his full-time job under the business name RJ Design.

“What I really wanted as a kid was to be a comic strip artist. That seemed like the place to be. I actually tried two or three different strips and couldn’t get anybody interested in

them. But when I finally got into this poster business, they were basically cartoons. I didn’t get to be a comic strip artist, but I wasn’t married to the strip either. I was lucky. I got to do kind of what I wanted to do and didn’t have to ask anybody but myself. If they didn’t like it then they wouldn’t buy it … but they did. Jeanne ran the office and so forth. She was a big part of it.”

Jacobson sold RJ Design to his daughter and son-in-law and retired from illustration in 2000 but continued to dabble from time to time.

“What a blessing to have this to do as a hobby because I’m an old man now, and I feel very grateful to have something to do. Right now I am working on a new book that requires a number of pen and ink illustrations and having a lot of fun with it. I’m very lucky. Sometimes I wonder why I am so fortunate.”

"What I really wanted as a kid was to be a comic strip artist. That seemed like the place to be."

- Mike Gundy -

“Wow. Pretty dang good. The amount of detail is incredible.”

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD

Jacobson’s productivity waned in recent years, but his serendipitous social media interaction with Shivers provided much-needed motivation.

Why not try to draw a new OSU Sportoon?

“He spent a lot of time trying to figure out who to draw,” his son Erik says. “It just became more and more logical to do Mike Gundy because Dad is a big admirer of not just his teams but his coaching methods and the way he looks after his players. So it was a labor of love to pour himself into honoring that.”

“Erik and I looked up photographs of Coach Gundy online, and I thought this particular one with the headphones kind of looked different from the rest and was a little more lively and so forth. So that was my reference.

“I think the thing that surprised me a little bit was the fact that, as an old man, my hand doesn’t shake. My eyes water badly, and sometimes I’ve got paint on the brush and I’m about ready to put it down, and now I can’t see the paper because my eyes are all teared up so I’d have to take off my glasses, wipe my eyes ... but it wasn’t too bad. I was a little worried about the likeness, but I think that came out okay.”

“This all happened in mid-winter and when we started on the project to do the Gundy thing, Dad got really sick. In fact, it was kind of dicey there for a while,” Erik admits. “But what kept him going — and he said this several times — was the painting. He’d say, ‘I want to see how this turns out.’ He was

sick as a dog in there, standing and drawing and painting … It seemed like what kept him going and what got him through that particular health crisis was that painting.”

Last May, Shivers presented the finished framed Sportoon and original acrylic painting to Gundy in his Boone Pickens Stadium office.

“Wow,” Gundy said upon seeing the art for the first time. “Pretty dang good. The amount of detail is incredible.”

The artwork now hangs on Gundy’s wall, where it has become a conversation piece, along with a vintage game program Jacobson illustrated in 1954.

“Everyone wants to know where I got it. There have been a few people who said they’d like to have it.

“It’s great to see someone doing what they love,” Gundy adds. “And to still be on top of their craft like that, it’s really impressive.”

“The whole thing was kind of wild and weird,” Jacobson says. “Luckily I didn’t spill too many splotches of paint in the wrong places on it and screw it up too badly. It finally ended up in Gundy’s hands, which is pretty bizarre, really.

“Life’s funny.”

Like a Sportoon.

T.C. BREWSTER STOOD JUST BEYOND THE BACK OF A LEVI’S STADIUM END ZONE IN JANUARY, THE ONE WITH THE BLOCK-LETTERED CLEMSON PAINTED IN ORANGE AND OUTLINED IN PURPLE, READYING FOR ACTION AT THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP.

The action came sudden and swift.

SEVEN PLAYS INTO THE GAME, CLEMSON’S A.J. TERRELL JUMPED A PASS FROM ALABAMA QUARTERBACK TUA TAGOVAILOA, GATHERED IT IN AND SPRINTED FOR THE END ZONE — AND FOR BREWSTER.

45… 40… 35… 30… 25…

“IT ALMOST FELT LIKE THE GUY WAS RUNNING RIGHT TOWARD ME,” SAID BREWSTER, AN OKLAHOMA STATE STUDENT WORKING ON CFP’S SOCIAL MEDIA TEAM. 20… 15… 10… 5… TOUCHDOWN!

Through an ORANGE LENS

“I was just holding down the button. I had like 30 different shots of him running into the end zone, dropping the ball and celebrating. “And I knew I had the shot. One because I was holding it down, and two, because I could see it in the camera. I was like, ‘There it is, right there.’”

And what a shot for Brewster, the photo for sure, but also the opportunity, as he worked alongside seven other OSU students, past or present, producing mass quantities of content for the CFP’s various social media platforms during a memorable week in San Jose.

Photos. Videos. Graphics. The highs. The lows. The moments that mattered. And some that didn’t.

The Cowboys may not have played in the title game, yet a definite Oklahoma State influence stamped the game and all the buildup to the action, thanks to the OSU communications block spinning stories and visuals across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more.

Meagan Bordayo, a 2018 OSU graduate added by the CFP as a communications intern, built a crew of 15 for her championship week social media team. She leaned on her past in filling more than half of the spots with familiar faces from her alma mater and the student work force from its athletic department.

“They knew how I operated,” Bordayo said. “They knew how I liked things done.”

Bordayo’s instincts proved true, as the OSU-dominated crew flourished in the spotlight.

The lineup: Baillee Burmaster, Patrick Osborne and Elias Williams, all graduates now working professionally; Brewster, Brady Moore, Matt Villareal and Jacob Derichsweiler, four current students.

“It was almost like a reunion,” Derichsweiler said.

Future reunions may be in order, just to celebrate the experience, and the outstanding work, produced through a tightly orchestrated cast of Cowboys.

STORY BY JOHN HELSLEY

MEAGAN BORDAYO 2018 GRADUATE CFP ROLE: SOCIAL LEAD

Originally from Plainview, Texas, some 45 minutes north of Lubbock, Bordayo looked at Syracuse, TCU and others out of high school. Ultimately, she needed to stay closer to home, and Stillwater fit the bill, taken as a last-minute option.

Not that she’d do anything different now.

“Oklahoma State is definitely the foundation for everything I will hopefully do in my career,” Bordayo said.

Early on in her career on campus, Bordayo dabbled in documentaries, live production and other areas of mass media before crossing campus to go to work in athletics communications. That’s where she thrived, given flexibility to stretch her skills while working for Gavin Lang , director of communications for OSU athletics, and eventually Kellie Reeves , the athletic department’s director of social media.

“Looking back now, it was the most fun that I’ve ever had,” she said.

Bordayo specialized in social media, working with men’s basketball, football and baseball.

“Endless opportunities,” she said.

After graduating in May, she landed the internship with the College Football Playoff, a post she’d wanted since the CFP was created in 2012 to update the national championship process. Bordayo even turned down some NFL internship opportunities in favor of her dream scenario.

And the job was a dream.

“The CFP was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I will be forever grateful for,” Bordayo said. “I tell my boss, Gina Lehe, I’m forever indebted to her because she gave me this opportunity.

“And I know for a fact I will never do anything like it again in my life. I feel really lucky and blessed to have been a part of it.”

Bordayo’s job ran for months, all in preparation for college football’s biggest two weeks, the semifinals and Championship Week, when the four-team playoff unfolds. She attended games, compiled a 222-page program and spun the late-October-on weekly rankings into social media hits for all college football fans.

Championship Week represents an affair all its own, with an array of daily events leading up to the contest, all promoted and featured on the various social media platforms. That takes a team. And Bordayo knew just where to turn.

“The No. 1 thing for me was I better trust everyone on my social team because if something goes wrong it’s not on them, it’s on me for bringing that person in,” Bordayo said.

“I knew I had to bring in some people I trusted.”

BAILLEE BURMASTER

2016 GRADUATE

CFP ROLE: VARIED

Bordayo and Burmaster became fast friends at OSU, although the latter’s time as a communications student wasn’t conventional.

Rather than cover sports, she starred in a sport: soccer.

“I wanted to do the broadcasting route, but because I was an athlete it was hard to do internships,” said Burmaster, who recently took a new position in Green Bay as a reporter and anchor at Fox affiliate WBAY, the market’s No. 1 television station. “I was always training in the summer in Stillwater. It was hard for me to dabble in other things.”

So Burmaster extended her stay, taking on another year of school on her way to degrees in sports media and marketing.

“That fifth year was really the time,” she said. “I wasn’t playing that fifth year so I was able to get the reps I needed as a sports broadcaster.”

Her fifth-year duties included a stint in Orange Power Studios. An internship in Lubbock led to a full-time job at a local station.

Still, when Bordayo called about a CFP position, Burmaster answered. She served as a reporter, photographer, videographer and assisted Rachel Baribeau , a national radio personality.

“It was a really hard and long week and not a lot of sleep, but when you get there on game day and see Clemson upset Bama,” Burmaster said, “and being around that atmosphere, it’s truly a memory you will hold onto forever, especially when you get to do it with people with whom you enjoy working.”

Oklahoma State people.

“Oh, Go Pokes, baby!” she said. “It’s a straight testament to how that journalism school has set everyone up to be successful. I have a lot of interns come in and say, ‘Did you know this when you were interning?’ And I say yeah, I did, because Oklahoma State and that sports media program did an amazing job to prepare me for the real world. To show me the potential I did have. That’s something I think we can all say we have in common.”

PATRICK

OSBORNE

2017 GRADUATE

CFP ROLE: SOCIAL MEDIA ASSISTANT

Patrick was the first in his family not to go to the University of Oklahoma.

No regrets, either.

“I’m the outlier of the family,” Osborne said. “And it’s the best decision I ever made. The sports media program there completely changed my outlook on things. And it did nothing but set me up for success.”

Osborne spent two years working for OSU athletics, propelling him to his current job in communications at the University of South Carolina.

Bordayo plucked him from there.

“As a kid who grew up watching every national championship,” Osborne said, “instantly I said, ‘I will be there. Whatever you want, whatever you need, I’ll do it.’”

Osborne and Williams worked in tandem, mostly providing captions for the flow of content going out over all platforms. He’d dreamed of attending the national title game since watching Vince Young’s Superman effort against Southern California in 2006. And the joy of getting there this time was only elevated by the company around him.

“It was already a special week,” Osborne said, “but to have the Oklahoma State family there with me, people I grew up with in college, I can’t tell you how special it was.”

ELIAS WILLIAMS

2017

GRADUATE CFP ROLE: SOCIAL MEDIA ASSISTANT

It takes a lot for Elias Williams to get star struck. He worked a lot of big events working for OSU athletics as a student, and continues to do so now as an assistant director of athletic communications at Arizona State.

Still, Media Day during championship week sucked him in.

“It was really cool to see Nick Saban center stage,” Williams said of the Alabama coach. “And there was a horde around him. I’d never seen that many media members before. And Nick Saban is put on this pedestal in college football, and there he is up there.”

The wide eyes didn’t end there, either.

“Going into the press box for the first time — I’d never been in an NFL press box before — and seeing what the 49ers had, man,” Williams said. “And all the media there for just one college football game. And probably not many of them had any connection to Alabama or South Carolina, but they had to be there for this one game. And it’s incredible that college football has that big of a pull.”

BRADY MOORE

JACOB DERICHSWEILER T.C. BREWSTER

MEAGAN BORDAYO

MATT VILLAREAL

ELIAS WILLIAMS

BAILLEE BURMASTER

PATRICK OSBORNE

CFP ROLE: VIDEOGRAPHER

A good relationship with his high school guidance counselor led Villareal out of Albuquerque, N.M., to Oklahoma State. Didn’t hurt that the counselor was also his mom.

“I grew up playing sports and loving sports,” Villareal said. “The hope when I was a kid was to be a commentator on TV. My mom did some research and said, ‘There’s a sports media program in Oklahoma. And it’s really specialized.’

“As we did more research on it, we found that it was one of the most specialized, if not the most specialized program for sports media in the country. I applied and got accepted into six schools. But none of them had the program that OSU had so when it came down to the curriculum and the degree itself, OSU was definitely a no-brainer.”

For OSU athletics, Villareal is the primary communications publicist for men’s tennis and contributes with other sports. It was his video efforts that documented the Cowboy basketball team’s trip to Europe last summer.

During championship week, Villareal and Brady Moore shot and edited video, capturing everything from puppies to tailgaters to college bands to pop concerts. And, oh, the game.

“We pumped out I don’t know how many videos that week,” he said. “It was a blur. But it was an amazing experience.”

On game day, Villareal collected for a special behind-thescenes video, capturing many scenes from many angles.

“From the moment I got there, I gathered things from the whole day,” he said. “People working. People setting up. I got to go to every corner, every nook and cranny of the stadium — the very top row of the very top corner, down to the locker rooms — and it was honestly so fun.

“I was like a kid in a new playground.”

BRADY MOORE

2019 GRADUATE

CFP ROLE: VIDEOGRAPHER

Championship week wasn’t all fun and games. It was a load of work requiring early wakeups and late nights.

Game day provided the payoff.

“There’s something about that adrenaline when it kicks in,” Moore said.

Moore, who publicizes equestrian, among other duties, for OSU athletics, was assigned a significant CFP project: the Playoff Playlist Live, a three-day concert series. He shot video of a variety of acts: Logic. Alessia Cara. Leon Bridges. Jay Rock. Brynn Elliott. And more.

“It turned out really well,” Moore said, “one of my proudest videos I did while I was there.”

The game day adrenaline was needed, as Moore and Villareal, roommates in Stillwater, spent the entire day providing video content for social media.

There were team arrival videos, preview videos, in-game videos and postgame videos. And they all had to be shot and edited and readied for immediate sharing on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Moore found time for some favorite shots, too: “Nick Saban walked off the bus, and I was right there. (Clemson quarterback) Trevor Lawrence walked right by me, and his hair is literally flowing in the wind. And the pyrotechnics coming up during the national anthem.”

MATT VILLAREAL 2019 GRADUATE

“The CFP was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I will be forever grateful for.”

JACOB DERICHSWEILER 2019 GRADUATE

CFP ROLE: PHOTOGRAPHER

Full disclosure: T.C. Brewster is Deirichsweiler’s roommate, and a Clemson fan.

“All season I would have told you I was pulling against Clemson, just to mess with him,” Derichsweiler said. “But I kind of wanted to see Clemson do it, just because I knew it would be really cool for him to see his favorite team win a national championship in person.”

The favorite team delivered, too, 44-16, in a stunning domination.

The experience was cool for Derichsweiler, too.

The roommates were a photo tag team for the title game. Brewster worked the first half on the field, Derichsweiler the second. When one was shooting, the other was editing photos for social media content.

“We went out to the field afterward,” Derichsweiler said. “All the people were gone, and there was confetti all over the ground. And it was like, ‘We really just did that. We got to work the national championship.’”

Brewster got his money shot. Derichsweiler’s was different, yet glorious.

“The golden moment shot for me was I got this awesome picture of Trevor Lawrence holding the trophy, and he’s got this smile on his face,” he said. “I love that photo. That was my favorite.”

T.C. BREWSTER 2021 GRADUATE CFP ROLE: PHOTOGRAPHER

Brewster’s path to the College Football Playoff was different, routing not through OSU athletic communications, but the O’Colly, the school’s student-run newspaper.

Friendships with Derichsweiler and others clearly paid off, as he found himself in a group message, with a request from Bordayo asking him to reach out.

Even before responding, he knew he wanted in. It was the national championship game. And Clemson would be there. T.C.’s dad, Kevin, went to Clemson. And the family had been Tigers fans forever.

“I know for a fact that it would have been an exceptional experience regardless, but it was super cool with Clemson there,” Brewster said. “Being there, it was cool, because I knew that all my family was watching, all my friends were watching and then seeing the team I grew up watching win a national championship was cool.”

Besides, Brewster got the shot. And it wasn’t by accident. A photographer with the O’Colly, he’d shot enough games in the tight confines of Boone Pickens Stadium to know how crowded things can get on the field. And this was the national championship game. So Brewster claimed his spot behind the end line and never budged.

“I got out there really early because I wanted to get a good spot,” he said. “Covering Oklahoma State, I know the sidelines get really crowded. And there were three times the amount of media.

“I stood in that spot during warm-ups, with one guy from USA Today on one side, another from ESPN on the other.”

One exhausting week. One huge game. One talented group from Oklahoma State putting their stamp on the College Football Playoff National Championship.

“I couldn’t be prouder of that group, going to work the College Football Playoff was an opportunity that each of them earned,” said Lang. “I’m happy to see good things happen to good people.”

Good people doing good work.

“We kind of had a moment before the game started,” Bordayo said. “We were all on the field in the morning, we had just had our social debrief and we made a point that all the Oklahoma State people get a picture taken together.

“And that night, there was a moment in the hospitality room where we thought, ‘Look at how many of us are here.’ It had us take a step back and say, ‘I can’t believe we just did that.’

“These kids, from Oklahoma State, creating content on the biggest stage in college football. Never would have thought it.”

“These kids, from Oklahoma State, creating content on the biggest stage in college football. Never would have thought it.”

STORY BY JOHN LANGHAM PHOTOS BY BRUCE WATERFIELD & MELISSA MORALES

CANADIAN COWBOYS

COWBOY COUNTRY stretches across the United States, and in recent years, the reach of Oklahoma State has found its way up into the “GREAT WHITE NORTH.”

Amen Ogbongbemiga

Chuba Hubbard

Specifically, two current Cowboy football stars — running back Chuba Hubbard and linebacker Amen Ogbongbemiga — have shown that the talented, hard-working student-athletes that OSU desires can be found all across the North American continent.

Ogbongbemiga and Hubbard officially joined the Oklahoma State family in 2016 and 2017, respectively. But the relationship that the Alberta natives have, and the similar experiences they shared on their journeys to Stillwater, date back much further than their first night under Oklahoma skies. Both Cowboys began competing in organized football when they were in sixth grade and quickly fell in love with the game that would take them to places far and wide.

Three Countries, One Amazing Journey

Amen Ogbongbemiga wasn’t always the Canadian football star that Cowboy fans know him as today.

Long before he was known for crunching tackles, earning a starring role on special teams and sacking former Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray during last year’s Bedlam game, Ogbongbemiga was just a kid that found himself in three different homes during three different phases of his life.

Originally born in Lagos, Nigeria, he and his family moved to Houston in 2003, then to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in 2011 when he was 13 years old.

“It was a different experience for me moving from country to country,” Ogbongbemiga said. “I don’t remember much of Nigeria, to be honest. Growing up in Houston, that’s what I really call home because that was the first place I remember. After that, it was a big change moving to Canada because of the weather, the different people and atmosphere and things like that.

“I always enjoyed being in different places though. It was good for me to experience that.”

Football was an anchor for the young Ogbongbemiga, as the game traveled with him from Texas to Canada, albeit with a slightly altered rule book.

“Football really helped me moving to Canada because it helped me with making new connections,” Ogbongbemiga said. “It made it

very easy to find new people to socialize with. I socialized and bonded with people quickly because it’s a sport where you have to work with people, regardless of difference.”

Canadian football holds many of the same qualities that American football does, just with some slight tweaks to its setup and execution.

The biggest difference between the two is the most obvious — the size of the field.

Canadian football fields are 110 yards long and 65 yards wide (10 yards longer and 11.67 yards wider than the American footprint). The goal posts in the northern game are also placed at the front of the end zone instead of the back. There are 12 players on the field at once, instead of 11, and three downs for the offense instead of four.

There’s also the offensive motion rule in which a player can be moving toward the line of scrimmage at the snap, putting an extra strain on defenders like Ogbongbemiga.

The differences, along with adjusting to life in a new country, could be overwhelming for most, but Amen had a tremendous support system guiding him through it all, led by his brother, Alex Ogbongbemiga

“(Amen) has always been a wonderful kid. He was quiet but had passion and loved football,”

Alex said. “A lot of younger brothers are heavily influenced by their older siblings. With me being the oldest, I knew I wanted to set a good example for him. I stayed out of trouble, didn’t do drugs or anything like that. The older we got, the closer we became, and it got to the point where anything I did he would participate in, too. Eventually, we always ended up doing the same things.”

Alex played football at the University of Houston before playing three seasons at the University of Calgary, where he recorded 26.5 tackles and helped UC win back-to-back-toback Hardy Cups as Canada West champions from 2011-13. He has also played for three franchises in the Canadian Football League, most recently signing a free agent contract with the BC Lions in the summer of 2017.

His influence over his brother was a powerful one, and it was a key part in shaping Amen and his future.

“Amen was just a small kid that loved video games and was really smart in school growing up,” Alex said. “He loves his family, cares about them and has always been a good kid. We’ve always been very, very close. Funny enough, when he comes back to Calgary, he still sleeps

in my room. He’s got his own room, but we’re just that close.”

The Ogbongbemiga brothers’ close relationship helped guide Amen throughout the various stages of his life as he always had a daily demonstration of how to be successful, thanks to his older brother. There is no better illustration of that than the classroom. Amen, an accounting major, is already a two-time academic all-Big 12 first team selection entering his junior season.

“You never know what the outcome of your life is going to be, but for Amen, he sort of had the answers to the test and got them before the test,” Alex said. “I passed along everything I knew about recruiting, what it took to get the next level. I shared that with him, and it helped him a lot I think.”

“(Alex) always taught me to never be complacent,” Amen said. “There’s always someone working harder than you, and you have to have that mentality to succeed. He ingrained little things into my routine, and that’s helped me be successful up to this point.”

YOU

KNOW

WHAT THE OUTCOME OF but for Amen, he sort of had the answers to the test beforehand.

— Alex Ogbongbemiga

NEVER

YOUR LIFE IS GOING TO BE, ”

Sprinting Toward Success

Chuba Hubbard, a speedster from Sherwood Park, Alberta, has always been a dynamic figure for opponents and spectators.

He first got into football when he was in sixth grade after a friend who lived down the street from his grandfather piqued the track star’s interest. His straight-line running ability lent itself quickly to the gridiron game, and he really only needed to run two plays to be successful — the wide receiver reverse and taking the snap out of the ‘Wildcat’ formation.

Before he picked up his first pigskin, Hubbard blazed past his competition on the track, where he was a three-time national champion for his age group in the 100 meters and

a former competitor at the IAAF World Youth Championships.

But that first day with his friends on the football field flipped the script of Hubbard’s life for the years that followed.

“I just remember how much fun I had playing football growing up and was always just enjoying it with my friends,” Hubbard said of his early football memories. “You’re so innocent when you’re young, and you don’t have any worries. I was just enjoying the game and learning a new sport.”

Unlike Ogbongbemiga, Canadian football was all Hubbard ever knew. He was born and raised in Canada and became a national star.

During three seasons at Bev Facey Community High School, Hubbard amassed 6,880 rushing yards on 458 attempts and scored 82 touchdowns. His senior season was cut short due to injury, but he still managed to tally 2,330 yards with 23 touchdowns in 14 games for coach Curtis Martin .

He was named to the All-Canadian first team and was his league’s most valuable player. Hubbard also was a dynamic performer for the Canadian national team, leading the squad to a 42-0 victory over the United States in a January 2015 Under-15 International Bowl matchup. He rushed for three touchdowns and earned MVP honors for the game.

“For me, adjusting to football was just a bunch of little things that all kind of add up,” Hubbard said. “I had to learn about defenses and stuff. There was learning about kickoffs, which coverage you’re in and stuff like that, but the transition wasn’t too bad.”

“Chuba was always a very motivated child and always has been. He was a quiet child, but he loved his sports,” Candace Hubbard , Chuba’s mother, said about her son. “He had done track since he was six and was still motivated to be the very best that he could when he started playing football. It was stressful for him at times trying to do sports, get good grades and still be a child all at the same time.”

Chuba’s support system helped him immensely throughout his time growing up in Canada, and that rings especially true for his mother’s influence on him. Candace’s guidance helped shape her son, and no moment better illustrates that influence than when Chuba, a “cocky little kid” as he described himself, visited Hershey, Pa., to display his immense track and field talents at the North American Final.

“I was one of the fastest in Canada and went there thinking I was going to win this event and blow it out of the water,” Hubbard said. “I thought I was invincible, and I went there and got smoked. I started crying to my mom. She said I had to work hard, and that when you fail you’ve got to keep going. I told her that I was going to come back and win. In 2012, I did go back and ended up winning.”

“He’s a very humble young man, and he works so hard for what he achieves,” Candace said. “He doesn’t always want the recognition that comes from his success; he just does the best he can all the time. Chuba is a wonderful young man, and we always just tell him to stay humble and to be true to himself.”

Chuba Hubbard used that work ethic to his advantage, and others took notice of his success on the track and the gridiron, including the Ogbongbemigas.

“(Amen) came home one day — it was the first time he had played against Chuba — and he said, ‘Wow. I just played against a guy who has got it. They both have it,” Alex said. “After I watched Chuba play, I reached out to him and tried to share with him the same things that I did with Amen.”

Little did Chuba and Amen know that the connection between the two had only just begun that day on the football field, as their futures would be intertwined.

The Road to Stillwater

Chuba Hubbard sat in his 11th grade physics class not knowing what his immediate future held. All he knew was that the big exam was coming up, and he needed to focus.

His concentration was interrupted, however, when he received a Twitter message from Colorado State football coach Mike Bobo asking him to give him a call.

“I went into the cafeteria and called him,” Hubbard recalled. “He offered me a full-ride scholarship to Colorado State. It was everything that I’d ever dreamed of and was really exciting. After that, it was Oklahoma State and a bunch of other schools that came calling.”

When the Cowboys came calling, they were one of many programs putting on the fullcourt press to land the four-star prospect’s signature. It was a wild time for Chuba and family as the phone kept ringing and the offers came pouring in.

“It was overwhelming because it all happened really quickly,” Candace recalled. “We always knew Chuba was amazing so when it happened we stuck together as a family and counted down the ones that he was actually interested in.”

“It definitely took some months to decide where I wanted to go. I had to take an official visit before I knew Stillwater was the right place,” Hubbard said. “Amen was already here, and he told me that it was a good school. He said it would be the right school for me. All of the people in Oklahoma were really nice, and I just prayed over it.”

When Hubbard finally did make his decision, he saved his announcement for a special day.

“It was on Mother’s Day (May 8, 2016) when he surprised me about committing to Oklahoma State,” Candace said. “It was scary for us as parents to have an 18-year-old go down there

by himself, but the coaches reassured us that it was like a family and that OSU would take care of him. That was important to us.”

It was a legitimate concern as Stillwater is 1,720 miles away from Calgary.

Amen Ogbongbemiga’s residence in Stillwater at the time was also a key part of the Cowboys landing their second Canadian recruit in as many years as the relationship between the two helped solidify Hubbard’s decision.

“Amen was a big part of it for me because it was program insider I already knew,” Hubbard said. “He told me what OSU was all about and kept it straight with me. I liked what he was saying and knew that it was the school for me. He and I are like brothers now, and I’m glad that I ended up here.”

For Ogbongbemiga, recruiting was a bit different, as he was the first of the current Canadian Cowboys to find his way into the Lower 48.

“I started going to camps after I made my highlight tape and some schools started calling wanting to see me in person,” Ogbongbemiga

said. “I got my first offer from Nevada. After that, I came down to Stillwater for a camp, performed well and got the offer from our coaches. Schools still recruited me hard, but I wanted to go to OSU and I made the decision a couple of days after camp.”

The former first-team all-district star at Notre Dame High School knew Stillwater was the right fit for him and his goals in life. Ogbongbemiga embraced the challenge of moving back to the states, but it also provided him a chance to still be within reach of family due to his ties that remained in the city of Houston.

“Moving around showed me to never be afraid of change and coming to Oklahoma State was obviously a big change,” Ogbongbemiga said. “I was ready for it though because I had already done it. It has been beneficial (to be at OSU) because people I know in Houston are able to come to my games when we’re playing in conference or in Texas.”

Awesome for Alberta

Both Cowboys have embraced the warmer weather and other aspects of life in the United States, with Ogbongbemiga finding it much easier to drive to classes when there’s not a foot of snow covering the roads early in the morning. The transition to life in Stillwater didn’t come without its challenges for all parties, however. And those changes are things that still impact their respective lives.

For the Hubbards, it is something they deal with daily.

“I know for sure the number one thing I miss is my mom’s cooking,” Chuba said. “I don’t miss the cold at all, but I miss my family, my friends, the mountains and all that stuff. I like it here though, and this is my life now.”

“The biggest thing for me has been adjusting to life with him gone,” Candace said. “I’m still adjusting. It’s still strange to not have him around all the time, but we’re so proud of the young man that he is and how he continues to work so hard for his dreams while staying true to himself.”

While the Ogbongbemiga and Hubbard families continue to miss their star student-athletes, they, along with the province of Alberta, continue to proudly watch as both Cowboys chase the highest levels of success in the sport they love.

“Coming from Calgary, they both impact a lot of kids in Calgary and Alberta as a whole,” Alex said. “Amen was the first kid ever from his high school to go Division I. There’s a lot of kids who know who he is because when you’re the first to do something that’s not normal, people always want to know. There’s all these kids that look up to both of them now.

“They have a heavy impact on the sports community in Alberta.”

The impact that both Amen Ogbongbemiga and Chuba Hubbard have had on their respective home, the OSU football family and beyond has been immense. They have been strong representatives of their families in the classroom, on the field and in the world. Their work ethic, determination and continuous effort to

succeed has helped them reach a level only a select few ever do, and it will serve them well as they continue to chase success at the highest levels of football and life when their time in Stillwater is done.

“I want to make it as far as I possibly can,” Ogbongbemiga said of his goals. “I don’t want to set limitations on myself. You’ve got to reach for the highest goal, and where life takes me I’m going to put in the work to chase those goals.”

“I really just want to succeed at the very best level I can,” said Hubbard, a sports management major. “I want to compete in the Olympics, and I’ve got a bunch of other dreams and goals, outside of sports. I want to own my own business someday, have a successful life and a good family. Right now though, I’m just trying to work my butt off for this program and my family.

“I just want to make my family proud in everything that I do."

I just want to make my family PROUD in everything that I do.

— Chuba Hubbard

TRAVEL WITH THE POKES TO PORTLAND!

COWBOYS vs. OREGON STATE

STORY BY WADE M c WHORTER

KIM RODRIGUEZ

had no idea what she was getting into. Neither did her parents, Rigo

But the casual choice made by Roxana Rodriguez just over a decade ago set in motion a path for her daughter that created countless unforgettable opportunities and the hopes and dreams of even more.

and Roxana.

Kim Rodriguez’ introduction to soccer came as an eight-year-old in Porter, Texas, where she remembers not liking the heat or the amount of running involved in the sport. Neither of her parents had played the game – her dad had competed in basketball, baseball and football but “didn’t even like soccer.”

But Rodriguez soon began to develop an affinity for the sport — and it helped that she possessed a skill level that set her apart.

“I didn’t even know what soccer was — my mom just signed me up and put me in it,” Rodriguez said. “I started playing and the coach went up to my dad and said, ‘She’s really good!’ I was a chunk (laughing) so my dad was like, ‘What?!’

“I didn’t really think I was going to go anywhere with it — I just thought it was something to do. But once people started telling me I was really good and I realized how much I enjoyed playing, I got really serious with it.”

Now, Rodriguez can’t imagine her life without soccer and the opportunities it has and continues to afford her. It’s taken her all over the globe, including to Stillwater, Okla., where she stars for Oklahoma State and coach Colin Carmichael’s Cowgirls.

OSU is but one stop on Rodriguez’ soccer journey.

Early in her career, as Rodriguez began to shine at the club soccer level for Texas Rush, she was spotted at a showcase event by a scout for Mexico, who liked what he saw and told the 14-year-old she needed to try out for Mexico’s youth national team.

Rodriguez made the most of the opportunity as she traveled to Mexico City for a tryout and earned a spot on Mexico's U-17 National Team.

“I was really nervous, but I guess I did good,” Rodriguez said. “I’d been to some U.S. camps and never gotten called back, but I knew I wanted to do it. My dad told me to keep working hard and go try out with Mexico, and it worked out great.”

Thus began Rodriguez’ ascent through the Mexico Women’s National Team system. She made her debut at the Youth Olympics in China in 2014 and was a starter for Mexico at the 2014 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup; she had a breakout year in 2016 as she was selected to the CONCACAF U-17 Women’s Championship Best XI and once again played in the U-17 World Cup.

After progressing to Mexico’s U-20 team, where she played in the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup and helped the team capture its first-ever CONCACAF Under-20 Women's Championship title, Rodriguez got the call everyone wants to hear earlier this year when she was selected for a full national team camp in January. As has become the norm, Rodriguez impressed and secured a spot on Mexico’s national team for

the 2019 Cyprus Cup, where she earned her first caps as a starter on a team that finished 2-1-1 at the tourney.

“Probably what most young soccer players dream of is representing your country at the highest level, and being able to achieve that at the age of 20 is really phenomenal,” Carmichael said. “I know one of Kim’s goals is to play for Mexico at the Olympics or the World Cup, and she’s really driven to get there. This is the next step in her progression after playing with the U-17s and U-20s. It’s a big jump from U-20 to full team — you’re now playing with full-time, professional women as opposed to under-20 girls. But she’s certainly capable of doing it.”

Mexico Women’s National Team head coach Chris Cuellar said the sky is the limit for Rodriguez.

“Kim is a player we’ve had plans for and been developing from the beginning,” Cuellar said. “She’s a left-footed player who’s always been very technical with the ball so she really fit in with what we want to do with the ball from her position.

“Being in the program for so long, she understands what we try to do, our system of play. It’s really important that she’s able to find her options and play out of the back; we’re a team that likes to play possession. She’s also very good in the air. She scores goals off of set plays and can mark set plays. She reads the game and anticipates extremely well so she’s able to steal a lot of balls by being in great position.”

Those are the types of skills that made adding Rodriguez to the OSU program a priority for Carmichael and his coaching staff, and Rodriguez was an easy sell.

“Whenever you have a kid playing at that level, that’s obviously the level of talent you’re trying to recruit to your program,” Carmichael said. “Recruiting-wise, it’s great that your program is recognized where a kid that plays at such a high level considers your school.

“Kim felt like Oklahoma State was a place that could help her develop to get to where she wants to be with the Mexico National Team, and I’m glad we’ve played a small part in helping her get there.”

“Honestly, I didn’t know much about the team (at OSU), but just when I visited everyone was so friendly and nice that I just felt comfortable and knew it was a place I wanted to be and play,” Rodriguez said. “Then when Colin talked to me about the style of play and how he wanted to use me, I knew it would be a great fit.”

And it has been.

Rodriguez helped lead OSU to a Big 12 Conference championship and was named to the Big 12 All-Freshman Team in 2017, and she followed that by earning United Soccer Coaches All-Midwest Region and All-Big 12 honors as a sophomore last season.

Rodriguez led OSU with over 1,600 minutes played in 2018 and tied for the team's leading scorer as she tallied 14 points on four goals and six assists. Three of her goals came via penalty kick, while her six assists ranked as the seventh most in the Big 12. She also led the Cowgirls with 41 corner kicks, and 12 of her 20 shots were on goal.

“Her reading of the game and her technical ability has always been top notch, and her ability to strike a ball with her left foot is world class, without question,” Carmichael said. “Her delivery on free kicks and corner kicks and being able to strike a long pass is amazing.

“One of the areas we talked about improving is her mobility and her athleticism, and she’s made huge strides there. I would say that went from being a weakness to being an area that she’s actually good with still the ability to get stronger. She’s worked very hard with our strength and conditioning coaches and nutritionists to maximize what she can do physically. That’s the biggest area I’ve seen improvement from Kim.

“She’s always been composed, she’s always been very good on the ball and now her mobility is improved, and that’s helped her.”

Along with her physical skills, one intangible sets Rodriguez apart, according to both her head coaches.

She’s just one of those

THAT’S VERY COMPETITIVE, NEVER WANTS TO LEAVE THE FIELD, WANTS TO PLAY THE FULL TIME EVERY GAME.

That’s Kim.

“She really loves competing, and she’s very conscious of when she plays well and when she doesn’t; she’s always working to get better,” Cuellar said.

Mexico’s coach recalls a moment revealing Rodriguez’ competitive nature during a U-17 qualifying tournament in Granada in a match pitting Mexico against the United States.

“Kim went up and headed a ball on a corner kick, and she hit her teeth on the back of the head of one of the U.S. players and her tooth was bent back into her mouth,” Cuellar said. “It was right before halftime so the doctor came over and said that we had to take her out, and she said, ‘No way, I’m not coming out of the game!’ She ended up playing the whole game with the broken tooth.

“She’s just one of those that’s very competitive, never wants to leave the field, wants to play the full time every game. That’s Kim.”

Carmichael concurred.

“You see her laid-back demeanor off the field, and you can see that in certain aspects of her game — she’s very composed, she doesn’t get rattled, she doesn’t get flustered, when she’s under pressure she doesn’t give the ball away easily,” Carmichael said. “But she does have that competitive streak that you probably wouldn’t realize if you sat and talked to her — she’s just a very humble, quiet, easy going kid. But on the field, in that environment, she’s trying to win.

“If we’re playing a four vs. four game in practice and she’s in there, she’s getting after it. She wants to win — she does not like losing! Some kids yell and scream and act like they really care, but you can tell it means a lot to Kim.

“That drives you — when you’re that competitive, it shows when you play.”

That need to succeed is also what makes Rodriguez capable of competing at a high level for both the Cowgirls and Mexico while also juggling the demands of college academia. Soccer training is nearly year round at OSU while the requirements of the national team call for numerous training camps and tournaments throughout the year. Throw in a full college course load, and it all seems daunting.

“I don’t know how some of these kids do it — it’s got to be a really difficult grind,” Carmichael said. “They get great support from Agatha (Adams) and her staff (in OSU Athletics Academic Services), and most of the professors are very supportive when they hear what they’re doing — they understand how big a deal that is athletically. And nowadays with online classes, it makes it a lot easier than it was 15-20 years ago to keep up with school work.

“There’s no doubt you have to be organized and manage your time properly to make sure you can keep up with everything and do school and soccer at a high level.”

“Having that culture of being able to combine studying and playing soccer at a high level is very impressive,” Cuellar said.

“It’s something that people need to notice more — that level of commitment it takes to succeed in both areas is not easy.

“And now for Kim entering into the full national team and the level that will be at, it takes even more commitment from her.”

For Rodriguez, the hectic soccer/student-athlete life is something she simply takes in stride with her usual ho-hum, unflappable attitude and demeanor.

“It’s definitely not easy, but this is what I want to do so you just work at focusing on what you need to do on and off the field and get it done,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez has lofty goals and aspirations. With two more years at OSU, she wants to lead the Cowgirls back to the top of the Big 12 and deep into the NCAA Tournament. Beyond that, ideally a professional soccer career awaits. And most of all, continued growth within the Mexico National Team, with sights on World Cups, Olympics and international success.

One of Rodriguez’ biggest joys is playing for Mexico, and the pride it brings herself and her family. While her mother hails from Costa Rica and her father, like Kim, is a native Texan, Rodriguez’ paternal grandparents are from Mexico.

“All my family loves it — they think it’s so awesome to see me out there representing Mexico, and there’s a lot of pride there,” Rodriguez said. “I consider myself Mexican so I feel like I’m playing for my country.

“It’s a special feeling to put on that jersey. You get excited and nervous when you start singing that national anthem knowing what it means to be a part of that.”

While Mexico missed out on this year’s World Cup, Rodriguez is part of a transitioning national team with a strong nucleus of younger players who have climbed through the ranks of the Mexican youth system and are poised to put the country on the international soccer map.

“Our goal is to try and make it better — we want to play in the World Cup, the Olympics, get Mexico on the highest stage with the best teams in the world,” Rodriguez said.

To that end, Rodriguez is chasing the dream of being next in the line of OSU standouts to make a name for themselves at the women’s national team level, a list that includes AD Franch (United States), Courtney Dike (Nigeria), Kathrin Lehmann (Sweden) and Coumba Sow (Switzerland).

“It’s amazing, just as a soccer fan … every kid dreams of putting on your national team jersey,” Carmichael said. “Kids like Kim are getting to live out their dream and when you get to see that, you’re just so happy for them because they’re so excited. And as a coach, you like to think you gave them a platform to showcase their skills. You feel a lot of pride that their pathway came through Oklahoma State and if you played any sort of small part to get them to where they want to be, you’re just so happy for them.

“I’ve become a huge Mexico fan now — I want them to go to World Cups and Olympics, and if Kim could be part of that, it’d be pretty special.”

DIFFERENCE MAKER

STORY BY JOHN HELSLEY

YVES BATOBA MAINTAINS A NOTES FOLDER ON HIS CELL PHONE, ONE HE CAN DIVE INTO DURING THOSE RARE OCCASIONS WHEN HE MIGHT NEED A PICK-ME-UP OR MAYBE JUST CONFIRMATION THAT HIS WORK REALLY MATTERS.

The folder contains messages and emails and screenshots sent from others offering appreciation for Batoba’s guidance, which is provided consistently now as the Miami Dolphins’ coordinator for player engagement.

The folder’s title, “The Real Paycheck,” reveals much about Batoba, an Oklahoma State graduate and former Cowboy football player.

THE REAL PAYCHECK

Yes, Batoba is thriving, to no one’s surprise, earning multiple promotions and pay raises in a frenetic four years with the Dolphins. But it’s the moments carved from personal relationships, Batoba said, that truly matter. Those times represent the real paycheck.

It’s understandable, too, considering Batoba’s journey, which saw his family flee the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo and later a post-apartheid South Africa for a new life in Texas. It was a journey that saw him rise from OSU walk-on to locker room and campus leader. It was a journey that led to him impressing so many people on the way to landing an underrated, yet vital, role with the Dolphins.

For Yves Batoba, work — like life — is personal.

“Anytime I receive a message or an email from somebody showing gratitude or somebody articulating how something I did was able to impact their life for the better, I take a screenshot of that and I put it all in this one folder,” he said. “It reminds that whenever times get tough, this is what I’m actually doing it for. It’s about being able to serve others.

“More than anything, I feel like I’m in a world of service and leadership. If I’m able to do that effectively, I know that I can always just be rewarded by keeping that as my Why.”

THE STRUGGLE WAS REAL

To understand Yves Batoba today, it’s necessary to understand his path to this point. It’s a path that nearly ended before it began, marked by danger and tragedy and upheaval.

When civil war ravaged the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Batoba’s family sought to escape the bloody conflict, even if it meant leaving behind their home country and all possessions.

His parents had gone ahead and were waiting in Kinshasa, across the Congo River, but the children followed — Yves, a brother and three sisters — led by an aunt and uncle and family friend.

Yves was only six, but the incident remains stained on his memory.

“I remember all of it,” he said. “Whenever the war broke out, we were just kind of refugees for a while. We had nowhere to go. It was so violent near where we were.

“A friend of the family helped us actually navigate through the war zone. We had to military crawl, on our elbows and knees, through the war zone. Bullets and everything were flying over our heads while me and my brothers and sisters were getting through the war zone. People were dropping dead, left and right. By the grace of God we were able to make it out of those circumstances and get across the Congo River.”

They made it, somewhat surprisingly.

“Whenever we got there we were reunited with the rest of our family,” Batoba said. “I don’t know that they were actually expecting to see us again. I just remember the tears, and they threw a celebration. It was emotional, but it was only by the grace of God that we made it out of those circumstances.”

More danger remained ahead, however, once the Batoba family reached South Africa. That country had just emerged from apartheid, with Nelson Mandela in the early stages of working to direct South Africa on a new path.

“There was still a lot of tension in the air,” Batoba said. “The white people didn’t like us because we were black, and the black people didn’t like us because we weren’t from South Africa.

“It was tough.”

Yves was in the second grade and had no friends. And that was the least of the family’s problems. Their house was broken into and robbed, there were death threats on his one-year-old brother and his mother had been beaten.

“All of these things were going on,” Batoba said.

Fortunately, an uncle in the Dallas-Fort Worth area offered yet another chance at a better life.

“We actually had a family vote, whether we wanted to stay in South Africa or we wanted to leave,” he said. “Because of all those things stacking up, we just kind of packed up some stuff, left everything behind — again — and moved to Texas.”

The Lone Star State provided new hope, not that there weren’t challenges and issues initially.

“Whenever I got there, I didn’t speak any English,” Batoba said. “So you’re that foreign kid, and you hear all the jokes. I’ve heard all the jokes there are. African jokes. Black jokes. Non-English-speaking jokes. “It was tough.

“I took English as a second language class when I was going to school. Wasn’t fluent in English until I was nine years old; French was my first language.

“Once you learn the language, though, you get more comfortable.”

Comfort eventually came. And with it came success.

A friend of the family helped us actually navigate through the war zone. WE HAD TO MILITARY CRAWL, ON OUR ELBOWS AND KNEES, THROUGH THE WAR ZONE . Bullets and everything were flying over our heads while me and my brothers and sisters were getting through the war zone. PEOPLE WERE DROPPING DEAD, LEFT AND RIGHT. By the grace of God we were able to make it out of those circumstances and get across the Congo River.

ON TO OSU

Batoba played football at Keller High in Texas but wasn’t quite a star. He played at OSU, too, not starring, yet moving from walk-on to scholarship player as much for his influence in the locker room as for his contributions on the field.

“Yves just had such strong character,” said OSU director of football operations Mack Butler.

Batoba made an impact off the field, too, far and wide.

He thrived in the classroom, making various honor rolls, became involved around campus and with Fellowship of Christian Athletes, speaking his faith at high schools in Oklahoma and Texas, and became a voice locally, regionally and nationally through the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, a group serving athletes within the NCAA structure. That’s where he found his calling — and a career path.

“The dude is the personification of ambition,” said Justin Southwell, a teammate and roommate of Batoba at OSU and a close friend still. “He may not always know exactly what he wants to do, but whenever he had an idea for something, he’ll put together a plan and attack it and get what he wants out of it.”

Elected as OSU’s representative for the Big 12 Conference SAAC, Batoba was able to see the organization’s influence throughout the league’s other schools. The best of what he found, he worked to bring to Stillwater and to his teammates.

“I go to the conference meetings, and I hear about what Kansas is doing and I heard about what TCU and West Virginia are doing,” Batoba said. “I think to myself, ‘Holy crap, if we could really invest into the holistic development of our student-athletes from a career standpoint and a from a leadership standpoint …’

“So I come back and I’m telling everybody what this is all about, and I said, ‘This is what I really want to go and do.’”

Immediately, he took action.

“I kind of took it upon myself to start having meetings with Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Oklahoma and different organizations there locally in Stillwater, bringing them to campus to do different events with our team,” Batoba said. “We hosted mixers within our athletic department so athletes from different sports could meet each other and interact, just understanding the importance of support from other athletes.”

Batoba enjoyed his four-year run on the football team. He rode along with some of the best teams in program history from 2009 to 2012.

Still, it’s not the wins or losses that linger.

“The most valuable part of my football playing days were the relationships within the locker room,” Batoba said. “Three of the guys in my wedding party were teammates in college. More than anything, I was able to figure out how football directly correlated to life. I always felt like Coach (Mike) Gundy did a great job of tying in life lessons to what actually went on on the football field or as a result of a game.”

The best lesson, it turns out, came from a crushing loss, when the Cowboys were upset at Iowa State in 2011. The setback came just hours after the plane crash that took the lives of OSU women’s basketball coaches Kurt Budke and Miranda Serna stunned the campus.

“We lost to Iowa State and the next game when we go on to beat OU 44-10, I remember Gundy in the locker room afterward saying, ‘Hey, if it wasn’t for what we experienced last week, who knows if we would have been able to rally the way we did to win Bedlam,’” Batoba recalled.

“It was a valuable lesson for me at the time. Really what it taught me was, hey, things may happen that are unforeseen and may hurt at the moment, but they’re only going to catapult you toward what’s next in life.

“The football playing days, more than anything, taught me how to overcome adversity in life. It sped up the maturity process for the things I was going to go on in life and encounter.”

A RISING STAR

After graduating from OSU with degrees in business administration, sports management and marketing, Batoba kept charging ahead.

He continued serving out his time as Big 12 rep for SAAC, even impacting legislation near and dear to his heart as a former walk-on. In a conversation aimed at full cost of attendance at NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis, Batoba suggested that meals for athletes should extend to walk-ons. The thought was added to the discussion and later adopted.

“That was really cool, seeing not only that I had a voice, but to have it heard and to see it implemented,” Batoba said.

There was a mission trip to Kenya with Athletes in Action, an opportunity with the United States Olympic Committee spent working with Olympians, Paralympians and hopefuls, and continued outreach through FCA.

Batoba’s work with SAAC led to an internship at Notre Dame, where he served in student welfare and development. There he advised more than 70 representatives on the school’s ambitious committee, coordinated community service and career opportunities for student-athletes and also took on some multimedia duties.

The relationships formed there ultimately led him to the Dolphins.

Batoba’s work, and his life, have taken off in Miami. In March, he married Dawn Taylor in Fort Lauderdale, with family and friends in attendance. His brothers, Lionel and Nathan, were groomsmen, and OSU roommates and teammates Southwell, Elliott Jeffcoat and Christian Schroeder joined the wedding party.

“That was really cool, seeing not only that I had a voice, but to have it heard and to see it implemented.”

MOLDING MEN

Every NFL team features a player engagement department. But they don’t all look or act alike.

“The general manager (Chris Grier) doesn’t call our department player engagement, he calls it our secret weapon,” Batoba said.

Batoba brings much of the secret sauce.

His personality, his charisma, his intelligence and his Christian example are all at play in the effort to mold men, some younger and some older.

“The whole goal — I say our mission — is to engage, educate and empower the players to reach their full potential both on and off the field,” Batoba said.

“We have this vision that 30 years from now, a player will be inviting us to their homes and saying, ‘This is what I’m doing now. I’m having more success in this than I was even having playing football.’ They introduce me to their wife and their kids, and we see that they’re a holistic man, more than anything, by the comprehensive development of the player.”

Last year, the Dolphins had 76 players on their roster. Along with the 53-man active roster, there were another 10 on the practice squad and 13 more on injured reserve.

Many of them need guidance. Some are new to the league and to money. Some are struggling to stay in the game. Some are staring down temptations that come with wealth and fame.

All, at some point, will leave the game. So there are difficult transitions to navigate, both entering and exiting the NFL.

Batoba’s job — he calls it his calling — is to be their shepherd, not in football, but beyond it.

“I had a relationship with every single player in our locker room,” he said. “I always say trust is the No. 1 factor in my job. If I don’t have the trust of the player, if I don’t have the relationship, I can come up with the best program in the world, but they’re not going to care if they don’t trust me, if they don’t feel I have their best interest at heart.

“I always go by the quote, I think it was Theodore Roosevelt: ‘People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.’ That’s kind of what I go by on a daily basis.”

Southwell knows how much Batoba cares, having seen it and shared it since they first became pals back at OSU. And he’s not at all surprised that Batoba is impacting the Dolphins.

“He’s the guy for the job,” Southwell said. “He will strike up a conversation with anybody, literally, about anything. He’s just got something that people want to open up and talk to him. He’s a very welcoming person. He’s a very personable guy.

“Yves has that servant heart, and he’ll go out of his way to help you out and leave you better off than you were before.”

The Dolphins’ player engagement team works with players on everything from financial literacy to dealing with injuries or family issues that may be creating stress in their lives. They deal with various personalities and problems.

“There are times I see things I don’t want to see,” Batoba said. “I hear things I don’t want to hear.”

Still, that favorite cell phone folder grows bulkier all the time. And there are special stories, like the one involving Dolphins offensive lineman Isaac Asiata, a native of Spanish Fork, Utah, who was raised in a family with little money and earned more than $1 million through his first two seasons in the NFL.

Batoba worked with Asiata on understanding and managing his finances. Upon seeing his savings and credit score rise, Asiata wanted to share what he’d learned with his family back home.

“When he started to see his savings go up, his credit score go up, he realized that a lot of people in his family had never heard any of this stuff, none of these lessons,” Batoba said. “And they were all reliant on him to be able to provide for them.

“We sat down and came up with a budget for his family and put it on an Excel spreadsheet.”

When he returned home, Asiata presented and explained the budget to his family, hoping they understood. His next time back in Spanish Fork, Asiata found the budget sheet posted on the refrigerator.

“Isaac takes a picture of the budget sheet,” Batoba said, “sends me the picture with a message: ‘Hey, man, look what I just found on my mom’s fridge! If it wasn’t for you, I don’t know if anything like this would be taking place. Thank you so much.’

“I remember, I took the screenshot, and it went in my folder right away. That’s where the real paycheck is. That’s where the value comes from. That’s one of my favorite stories.”

“Yves has that servant heart, and he’ll go out of his way to help you out and leave you better off than you were before.”

— JUSTIN SOUTHWELL

I Nike 2-Button Baseball Elite Jersey S-3XL | $80 J Nike Aero True Baseball Fit Cap $35

K Nike Women’s Tri Fan Crew XS-XXL | $35 L Mini Bat & Ball $13.95

M OSU Silicone Sport Band For Apple Watch $29.95 N Nike H86 Arch Cap $25

O Nike Women’s Tri Vault Tee XS-XXL | $35 P Nike Women’s NP Tight $60

A Nike Badge Baseball Tee S-XXL | $31 B Nike Fly Rush Jacket S-4XL | $120

C Nike Youth Long Sleeve Baseball Tee S-XL | $27 D Nike Dry Visor $24

E Nike Women’s Warm Top Half Zip XS-XXL | $75 F Nike Tri Blend Wrestling Tee S-XXL | $35

G Orange Throwback Sunglasses $20 H Nike Youth 100% Cowboy Tee S-XL | $22 F

OSU ATHLETICS POSSE POINT SYSTEM

The Priority Point System provides a fair, consistent and transparent method of providing benefits to donors in exchange for their financial investments in OSU athletics.

Donors gain points three ways:

Contributions

All current and lifetime contributions (cash or stock) are worth 3 points per $100 donation. Planned (deferred) gifts in the new Leave a Legacy Endowment Campaign will receive 1 point per $100.

Commitment

Donors will earn one point each year for purchasing season tickets (one point per sport annually), as well as one point for each year of POSSE donations.

Connection with the University Donors (or their spouses) who are OSU Alumni receive a one-time 10 point bonus, as do OSU faculty/staff and letterwinners.

Points never diminish and will carry over to subsequent years. Donors retain all previously earned Priority Points in their giving history. For questions about the POSSE Priority Point System, email posse@ okstate.edu or call us at 405-744-7301.

HOW DO MY POINTS RANK?

1959 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of Oklahoma State’s baseball national championship, teammates from that 1959 season gathered at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium and were presented championship rings. Those in attendance were (left to right): Jim Mihura, Mike Mulvihill, Robert Andrew, Connie McIlvoy, Lew Wade, Dr. Tim Smalley, Ben Bancroft, Roy Peterson and Dick Soergel.

PHOTO BY BRUCE WATERFIELD

PHOTOS BY BRUCE WATERFIELD

04/20/19

COWBOY CHOICE AWARDS

OSU rolled out the orange carpet for the inaugural CCA's, an event produced by the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, to celebrate fellow Cowboys and Cowgirls and their accomplishments throughout the past year.

WORTH THE INVESTMENT

An OSU education really pays off.

68% $1M

On average, Oklahomans with a bachelor’s degree earn 68% more than high school graduates.

TOP 10

That’s $1 million more over a lifetime.

Encourage the high school students you know to apply early for admission and scholarships. Applications open July 1.

And options ranging from OSU’s award-winning Freshman Research Scholars program to our Top 10-rated Honors College curriculum give our students an advantage starting the minute they graduate.

COWBOYS

SWEEP TEXAS

Head coach Josh Holliday and the Cowboy Baseball team anticipate a walk-off victory to complete a sweep of the Texas Longhorns at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.

PHOTO BY BRUCE WATERFIELD

THE HONOR ROLL

When OSU announced its scholarship endowment initiative, the athletic program was last in the Big 12. Now, more than halfway through the 10-year program, OSU leads the conference.

But we’re not finished yet.

OSU awards 229 full scholarships to studentathletes each year at a cost of $4.5 million. Each dollar freed up through endowed scholarships goes back into our programs. Better equipment. Better facilities. Better support. Each dollar has a direct impact on the lives of our student-athletes.

“Each scholarship we endow secures the future of OSU athletics and provides more opportunities for our student-athletes on and off the field,” says Mike Holder, Vice President for Athletic Programs and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics.

This is the list of all the generous supporters who have helped to provide a bright Orange future.

They are our Honor Roll.

Baseball

10.25

FULL SCHOLARSHIP

Dennis and Karen Wing (2) | Hal Tompkins

Sandy Lee | Jennifer and Steven Grigsby

Mike Bode and Preston Carrier (2)

David and Julie Ronck

HALF SCHOLARSHIP

Sally Graham Skaggs

QUARTER SCHOLARSHIP

Bryant and Carla Coffman

David and Grace Helmer | Jill Rooker

Martha Seabolt | Dr. Scott Anthony

John and Beverly Williams

Richard and Lawana Kunze

Equestrian

1.25

FULL SCHOLARSHIP

Baloo and Maribeth Subramaniam

QUARTER SCHOLARSHIP

David and Gina Dabney

Football

33.0

FULL SCHOLARSHIP

Bob and Kay Norris

Bryant and Carla Coffman /

The Merkel Foundation

David LeNorman | Dennis and Karen Wing (2)

Dr. Mark and Beth Brewer

Jack and Carol Corgan Football Scholarship

Jim Click | John and Gail Shaw

Ken and Jimi Davidson | Leslie Dunavant

Mike and Kristen Gundy

Mike and Robbie Holder

Ron Stewart | Ross and Billie McKnight

Sandy Lee | Tom and Sandra Wilson

Wray and Julie Valentine

James and Mary Barnes

HALF SCHOLARSHIP

Cindy Hughes | Donald Coplin

Doug Thompson | Ed and Helen Wallace

Greg Casillas | Ike and Marybeth Glass

Jim and Lynne Williams / John and Patti Brett

Mike and Judy Johnson | Sally Graham Skaggs

State Rangers | Tom Naugle | Nate Watson

QUARTER SCHOLARSHIP

Al and Martha Strecker

Arthur “Andy” Johnson, Jr.

Arthur Couch | Barry and Roxanne Pollard

Bill and Ruth Starr | Brad and Leah Gungoll

Brian K. Pauling

Bridgecreek Investment Management LLC

Bryan Close | David and Cindy Waits

David and Gina Dabney | Dr. Berno Ebbesson

Dr. Ron and Marilynn McAfee

Eddy and Deniece Ditzler | Flintco

PHOTO / BRUCE WATERFIELD

Fred and Janice Gibson | Fred and Karen Hall

Howard Thill | James and LaVerna Cobb

Jerry and Lynda Baker

Jerry and Rae Winchester | John P. Melot

John S. Clark | Ken and Leitner Greiner

Kent and Margo Dunbar | Paul and Mona Pitts

R. Kirk Whitman | Randall and Carol White

Roger and Laura Demaree | Shelli Osborn

Steve and Diane Tuttle

Tony and Finetta Banfield

General

1.25

HALF SCHOLARSHIP

Terry and Martha Barker

QUARTER SCHOLARSHIP

David and Judy Powell

Kenneth and Susan Crouch

Sally Graham Skaggs

Graduate Athlete

0.75

QUARTER SCHOLARSHIP

Bob and Joan Hert | Neal Seidle

Tom and Cheryl Hamilton

Men's Basketball

23.25

FULL SCHOLARSHIP

Baloo and Maribeth Subramaniam

A.J. and Susan Jacques

Bill and Marsha Barnes

Brett and Amy Jameson

Calvin and Linda Anthony

Chuck and Kim Watson

David and Julie Ronck (1.25)

Dennis and Karen Wing (2)

Douglas and Nickie Burns

Griff and Mindi Jones

James and Mary Barnes | Jim Vallion

Ken and Jimi Davidson

Kent and Margo Dunbar | KimRay Inc.

Sandy Lee | Mitch Jones Memorial

HALF SCHOLARSHIP

David and Julie Ronck

Dr. Mark and Susan Morrow

Jay and Connie Wiese | Sally Graham Skaggs

Stan Clark | Billy Wayne Travis

QUARTER SCHOLARSHIP

Dr. Scott and Lynne Anthony

Gary and Sue Homsey | Holloman Family

Michael and Heather Grismore

Rick and Suzanne Maxwell

Robert and Sharon Keating

Steve and Suzie Crowder

Terry and Donna Tippens

Men's Golf

5.25

FULL SCHOLARSHIP

David and Julie Ronck

Dennis and Karen Wing

Jack and Carol Corgan Men’s Golf Scholarship

Baloo and Maribeth Subramaniam

HALF SCHOLARSHIP

Simmons Bank

QUARTER SCHOLARSHIP

Bob and Elizabeth Nickles

Garland and Penny Cupp

Richard and Joan Welborn

Men's Tennis

0.25

QUARTER SCHOLARSHIP

Tom and Cheryl Hamilton

Men's Track

0.75

QUARTER SCHOLARSHIP

Dr. Mark and Susan Morrow

Susan Anderson | Ken and Leitner Greiner

Soccer

1.0

FULL SCHOLARSHIP

James and Mary Barnes

Softball

0.25

QUARTER SCHOLARSHIP

Tom and Cheryl Hamilton

Women’s Basketball

6.5

FULL SCHOLARSHIP

Brad and Margie Schultz

Ken and Jimi Davidson

Mike Bode and Preston Carrier

HALF SCHOLARSHIP

Baloo and Maribeth Subramaniam

Don and Mary McCall

John and Caroline Linehan

Calvin and Linda Anthony

QUARTER SCHOLARSHIP

Bill and Roberta Armstrong

Bill and Sally Cunningham

Donald Coplin | Jill Rooker

Richard and Linda Rodgers

Jo Hughes and Deborah J. Ernst

Women’s Golf

2.0

FULL SCHOLARSHIP

Baloo and Maribeth Subramaniam

HALF SCHOLARSHIP

David and Julie Ronck

QUARTER SCHOLARSHIP

Amy Weeks | Kent and Margo Dunbar

Women’s Tennis

0.25

QUARTER SCHOLARSHIP

Jamie Maher

Wrestling

10.75

FULL SCHOLARSHIP

A.J. and Susan Jacques

Bruce and Nancy Smith

Chuck and Kim Watson

Lon and Jane Winton

OSU Wrestling – White Jacket Club / Gallagher Endowed Wrestling Scholarship

OSU Wrestling – White Jacket Club / Myron Roderick Endowed Wrestling Scholarship

OSU Wrestling – White Jacket Club / Ray Murphy Endowed Wrestling Scholarship

OSU Wrestling – White Jacket Club / Tommy Chesbro Endowed Wrestling Scholarship

The Cobb Family

HALF SCHOLARSHIP

Mark and Lisa Snell

Bobby and Michelle Marandi

QUARTER SCHOLARSHIP

Danny and Dana Baze / Cory and Mindy Baze

John and Beverly Williams | R.K. Winters

To learn more about scholarship opportunities and how you may contribute, please contact Larry Reece (405-744-2824), Matt Grantham (405-744-5938) or Shawn Taylor (405-744-3002).

SAME PEOPLE DIFFERENT PLACE

STORY BY ROGER MOORE

DURING THE 1980s, FANS OF OKLAHOMA STATE FOOTBALL USUALLY HAD A GOOD TEAM TO WATCH, EVEN IF THEY WATCHED IT IN A NOT-SO-GREAT FACILITY.

LESLIE O’NEAL AND MARK MOORE WERE DISRUPTING OPPOSING OFFENSES, AND THURMAN THOMAS WAS GIVING BIG EIGHT DEFENSES FITS. IT WAS 1985.

A year prior, Pat Jones’ first OSU squad beat South Carolina in the Gator Bowl, clinching the first 10-win season in program history. Most loyal and true Cowboy fans recall Barry Hanna’s never-give-up touchdown catch to seize victory.

The decade started with Jimmy Johnson as head football coach and included some of the great names in OSU athletic lore: Heisman Trophy winner Barry Sanders. Olympic wrestling gold medalist John Smith. Baseball home run slugger Pete Incaviglia Golf ace Scott Verplank . Softball Olympian lefty Michele Smith and baseball hit-streak king Robin Ventura

Except for the newly-opened Allie P. Reynolds Stadium, where the first pitch was thrown in April of 1981, the settings were not new and shiny. It was before the major college athletic facilities race took off, when there were plenty of good teams playing on and inside aging buildings often in need of repair — Lewis Field included.

Take a short walk to the other side of the OSU campus and just to the south side of University Avenue sits the infamous “Strip,” a three-block stretch of South Washington Street that owns many memories for Stillwater locals, OSU alumni and visiting sports fans.

Very few Strip establishments remain from the 1980s, but a few, like DuPree Sports Equipment, Willie’s Saloon and Coney Island, continue as part of the local landscape that changes almost daily. Generations of students pass through Stillwater and most can recall a time or two when they uttered the phrase: “Can I get a couple cheese coneys, fries and a coke?” Perhaps they shot a game of pool, had a cold beer, then walked to the old stadium via Hester Street.

Gary and Claudia Humphreys remember those early 1980s. Just a couple of college kids — one from Pond Creek and the other from Ardmore — enjoying their college years. Now, more than 35 years later, the two can look back at what Oklahoma State was, what it is and what it can possibly become. The Humphreys are among many from the ’80s who have seen and been a part of a transition that keeps the OSU campus evolving into one of the finest in the country, and more recently, have added The Strip to their list as well.

“It’s pretty hard to believe how this place has changed just in the last 10 or 15 years,” Gary Humphreys said. “And to be a part of it, to be able to contribute, it feels good to be in a place where we can do that.”

That journey started on a Stillwater dance floor.

A high school girl from Ardmore, Claudia Embry headed to Stillwater with classmates for a tour of the campus. Meanwhile, OSU sophomore Gary Humphreys was not going to many Saturday football games because he was working a few jobs to pay his way through school. It was 1983, and his neighbor had a little sister who was visiting.

“My brother told me the only guy I could not date was that ‘Gary Humphreys guy’ next door,” remembers Claudia. “It was my spring break, I just turned 18 and we went dancing.”

They danced, trying to figure out who was leading, in a building that now houses Outlaws. Like many others on “The Strip,” it has gone through various ownership changes and styles. Over the next two years, Claudia, the better dancer of the two, decided that Gary might make a good permanent dance partner, and the two were married in August of 1985.

Gary, working in Amarillo, Texas, after graduating in 1983 from OSU, had accepted a job in South Dakota, much to Claudia’s surprise.

“Gary said we were moving to South Dakota in December,” Claudia said. “It was a bit of a surprise.”

The couple moved 11 times in eight years, starting in Sioux Falls. The long-distance relationship with their alma mater, through AM radio and a lot of phone calls, also got started.

“We lived on 40 acres so at times that AM signal could be weak,” said Gary, who was finding his business acumen about the same time Eddie Sutton returned to Stillwater in the early 1990s. “We had about 20-or-so OSU graduates working for what was then Tyson Foods so there would be some road trips back during football season or a trip to Omaha for the College World Series because it was an easy drive.”

“THE SCHOLARSHIP WAS THE FIRST THING WE DID GIVING BACK TO THE UNIVERSITY. EACH YEAR, WE’VE TRIED TO LOOK INTO DIFFERENT WAYS TO CONTRIBUTE.”

CLAUDIA HUMPHREYS

“I just remember Gary pacing up and down that cow pasture during some of those games,” Claudia said. “It was cold and very windy a few times up on that hill, but we had to try and listen to the games. We had blankets, and as cold as it was, we made it work.”

Claudia gave birth to the couple’s second son, Jake, in December of 1994. A tire company founded by the Humphreys was in its early stages so things were chaotic and money wasn’t exactly growing on trees in the back yard. Meanwhile, Sutton’s basketballers were having a great season with hopes of a trip to the 1995 Final Four in Seattle in late March. With Gary’s birthday in February, Claudia thought a trip to Seattle would make for one of those trips that are never forgotten. Organizing the trip — tickets, hotel, plane tickets — was not as easy as today’s handful of clicks on the Internet. How to pay for it was another matter.

“I got everything but couldn’t pay for it,” Claudia said. “We didn’t use credit cards, not then, but Gary said put it on there because we are going to the Final Four! We’ll figure that out later.”

The couple missed the infamous Bryant “Big Country” Reeves backboard-shattering practice dunk, but the trip was a memorable one.

“It was a great trip, but one of the things I most remember is sitting on a picnic bench in Seattle just taking everything in,” Gary said. “There were a couple of college kids hanging around talking about a bunch of things and one mentioned this new email technology. I asked Claudia what was email? That was 1995.

“You go through periods. Before we had Eric (now 29) and Jake (24), it was easy to jump in the car wherever we were and road trip to Stillwater or someplace to watch OSU,” added Gary. “Then you are raising kids so you don’t make it back as much. Then they reach high school age, and you start to come back more. We’ve been tailgating (for football) for 15-straight years now.

“Your perspective of giving changes when you are not broke. Backing up, I wished we would have been more educated and had people to help us along. When you are in your 30s and struggling, $500 is a big deal. Oklahoma State does a lot better job now working with the alumni. When we got on our feet we got more involved, started to look into the things we could do to give back.”

“Gary and Claudia have watched this campus develop into what it is today. They are part of that transition, part of a lot of people who went through here in the 1980s,” said OSU senior associate athletic director Larry Reece . “And they are part of future development as well, in and around campus.”

The first gift came when Eric, who suffers from dyslexia, began attending OSU just over a decade ago. Dyslexia is a learning disorder that involves difficulty in reading and with processing language. At the time there were no scholarships or aid for such students. A short discussion and the Humphreys helped set up the Eugene Embry Scholarship for Students with Dyslexia, named in honor of Claudia’s father, who also suffered from the disorder. The gifts have continued since.

“It is not a matter of if, but when,” Claudia said. “The scholarship was the first thing we did giving back to the university. Each year, we’ve tried to look into different ways to contribute.”

Since 2004, Gary, a self-made serial entrepreneur, has been CEO of Vista Proppants and Logistics, LLC, a company he founded. For the last two decades, in excess of 30 companies have had Humphreys’ influence. Some of that success can be seen at Boone Pickens Stadium in the form of a giant video board that was installed during the summer of 2018.

This giant addition is not the first in the stadium’s long history. Five renovations into its history, in 1971, there was the addition of AstroTurf, and the running track moved to north Hall of Fame Avenue across from the Colvin Center.

Wooden stadium seats were ripped out and permanent seating added as capacity rose from 39,000 to 50,440. The addition of stadium lights was put on hold at that time due to a lack of funds, although those came along in the mid-1980s.

The facility’s major facelift began in 2004, first with the south side suites and club, followed by the north and then the completion of the west end zone in 2009, all jump-started by Boone Pickens’ $165 million gift (and several other less publicized gifts he made along the way). The stadium was rededicated and renamed after him on Sept. 5, 2009.

That day, like Seattle and the Final Four in 1995, will not soon be forgotten.

Jake, who was 10 at the time and would eventually work at Coney Island, was hanging with Pistol Pete Pride, the family pet, at the massive tailgate before the Cowboys hosted Georgia and their well-known mascot, UGA, the white bulldog.

Pride (wearing a white sweater with “Real Bulldogs Wear Orange!”) and Jake thought Pride might enjoy “The Walk,” the traditional stroll from the Student Union to Boone Pickens Stadium a couple hours before kickoff. Jake had plans on giving Pride to head coach Mike Gundy for a little pre-game fun. But Madeleine Pickens took the leash and later, during the ribboncutting speech, the Humphreys’ bulldog was in the middle of the festivities.

A decade later, a massive video board continues the stadium’s evolution.

“We had talked about doing something with the Stillwater Airport, helping with some upgrades and looking at naming rights,” Gary said. “I thought it would be nice for those OU, TCU and Texas fans to fly into Stillwater and see my name (some of them co-workers). I thought that would be funny.”

But Director of Athletics Mike Holder had a better idea. Why not let those friends see your name inside the stadium or every time we play on television?

“(Holder) asked if I wanted to put my name inside the stadium on a giant television,” Gary said. “We kind of laughed about it; he showed me a number, and I said ‘That is a really big TV, huh?’ I ended up pacing up and down my office thinking about it. I ended up calling Claudia and telling her I just bought a big TV from Mike Holder. She laughed and said it must be a really big TV!”

Claudia got the last laugh.

The first game the video board was up, their two sons — one in Atlanta and the other in Washington D.C. — sent messages to their mother asking if their dad knew that the only name they could see on the television was hers.

“I laughed and said he knew because 20 of his best friends have been texting him to let him know,” Claudia said. “We have fun with it. Everyone yells ‘field goal Claudia’ during our games.”

Real estate development is also part of the Humphreys’ many endeavors, including flipping houses in Stillwater. When Gary received word that Coney Island was going to be purchased and possibly torn down to make room for something new, he thought the old hangout that opened in 1969 was worth saving.

“Forty-nine years of grease … it certainly needed some cleaning up,” Gary admitted. “But it’s one of those places that needed to be saved. Something that just had its 50th year in business needs to be kept.”

Already upgraded with more seating and a new look, the Humphreys plan on making Coney Island “the place to be” with outdoor patio seating and many other accoutrements.

Within walking distance of the McKnight Performing Arts Center, set to open in October 2019, Coney Island will be nothing like those days in the early ’80s when two young college students had no idea they would be attending a Final Four in Seattle or seeing their names on a massive video board inside a futuristic football facility.

2019 NCAA Men's Golf Individual Champion

PHOTO COURTESY NCAA

Matthew Wolff.

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THE COWBOY LIFE

Cowgirls and Cowboys are tough. In the Wild West they had to be.

Individuals who didn’t possess that particular quality had to find another profession. There was no time for weakness. It was hot. It was cold. It was dangerous. It was hard.

Driving cattle in and through Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado or Wyoming in all kinds of weather conditions meant you had to be ready for almost anything. Risking life and limb represented more than just a wage at the end of the trail. It meant you rode for the brand, and all it stood for, whether the chips were up or the chips were … cow chips.

Every day there were small victories and small defeats. A metaphor for life. And then there were the people. Some you didn’t care for and some that didn’t give a care. When you rode up on a camp or a town for the first time, cowboys used caution if they were smart. Cowpokes couldn’t afford to judge a book by its cover. Smarter to set back a spell and take in all of your surroundings. No sense in rushing into anything.

Tough is defined as “of a substance strong enough to withstand adverse conditions; able to endure hardship or pain.” Cowgirls and Cowboys found that if they were riding through difficult situations, it was usually best to just keep on ridin’. Stopping to feel sorry for yourself wouldn’t do anyone any good. There is a reason the first five words to the Oklahoma State fight song — all five of them — are “RIDE.” You don’t get ’em rode in just one ride.

Even today in the professional rodeo world, you can tell when a cowboy is about to notch a good ride in rough stock competition. When his balance and countermoves to the bull or bronc are effective, you can tell before the eight-second buzzer sounds that success is imminent. In fact, you can hear other cowboys yell out, “you got ’em” as they watch.

OSU Cowgirls and Cowboys are tough. Even when the seasons of life are, too. Learning how to be victorious and how to come up short is important for groups of fans and for individuals. Show me a fan base that doesn’t know how to win and lose with dignity, and I’ll show you a bunch of folks who haven’t learned the lessons sports should teach us. As fans, we root for our teams because they are part of the family, not because we get some warped sense of personal identity boost from winning.

You win some. You lose some. And the next morning, cowboys saddle up and view the promise of a better opportunity in a new sunrise … A BRIGHT ORANGE ONE.

KYLE WRAY Vice President Enrollment & Brand Management

Kyle Wray OSU @KyleWrayOSU

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