SARGENT AT ARMS

BY KEVIN KLINTWORTH SENIOR ASSOCIATE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

At Oklahoma State, that guy is senior associate athletic director Marty Sargent. Sarge, as he is known around the athletic department (we aren’t terribly creative), spends time thinking about worst possible scenarios involving fan safety, student-athlete safety and team travel. If he could, he would devote time trying to solve world famine, global warming and maybe he would squeeze in some hand-wringing hours contemplating how the sun is due to burn itself out in about a kazillion years.

Marty Sargent played linebacker at Iowa State for Johnny Majors and Earle Bruce. He began his career coaching football at his alma mater (where he was on a staff that included former Oklahoma athletic director Donnie Duncan, current Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll and former Texas head coach Mack Brown). He arrived at OSU in the 1980s in an administrative role, and has worn many hats at OSU.

These days he oversees game day operations. His Wednesday afternoon meetings during game weeks are legendary (take our word for it, but don’t actually attend one). And no one knows the OSU travel policy better than Marty Sargent. If an OSU team is flying out of Stillwater, Sargent is there to see them off at the airport. When the OSU team charter arrives to pick up the Cowboy football team for its bowl trip, it hits the Stillwater skies with a single passenger on board. That person is of course Marty Sargent, who met the charter in Houston to assure smooth flying.

Sargent is deeply involved with bowl planning, which might be the least stressful part of his job – even if it does become an 80-hour week. He works hand in hand with law enforcement on game days where his concerns run the extremes from where to park the visiting band to possible terror threats. And don’t ever ask him about potential weather problems. He has more apps on his phone than Meryl Streep has accents.

Sargent is OSU’s one-man secret service agency. He does everything but talk into his wrist.

What does he do during the spring? Well he sees virtually every inning at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium. Some people think it’s because he’s a fan. And while I’m sure he likes Josh Holliday well enough, most of us are absolutely convinced he hangs out at Allie P. because college baseball is the sport of choice for local meteorologists. Rain, snow, lightning, high winds, constantly changing in-game conditions … That sport has it all.

The truth, though, is Marty Sargent has to think about things that make the rest of us uncomfortable. A weather delay at a football game is nowhere close to the worst possible scenario, which paints a tiny picture of the responsibilities Sarge carries around each day. Among the senior administrative staff now in place in OSU Athletics, only athletic director Mike Holder, senior associate AD for development Larry Reece and Marty Sargent were around for both air tragedies that OSU has endured this century. He has lived worse-case scenarios. Maybe because of that, he is always thinking – for all of us.

We’re lucky.