TRANSFORMATIVE IMPACT

Holliday looks back fondly on waiting out the weather for that College World Series opener in Omaha.

“Best rain delay I’ve ever been a part of,” he said.

The Cowboys coach, a former OSU baseball standout who grew up literally around the ball yard that is Allie P. Reynolds Stadium, where his dad Tom served as a coach, dreams about the future in O’Brate Stadium. It will be a sprawling complex that will offer many amenities catering to the team and its fans.

Allie P. served the program well, but time has relegated the old facility to the bottom of the Big 12. Cecil O’Brate, and others, are changing that.

“I don’t think you can put it into words,” Holliday said. “It’s funny, last year at the time of the announcement (the stadium was finally funded), our team was struggling, maybe below .500, just trying to jumpstart ourselves. From the day of the stadium announcement, it created an energy among our group, coaches, players, fans. I saw a noticeable change in the way people felt about where we were headed.

“To drive by every single day and dream about what the future holds, the way Cecil said to give kids a chance to learn, to better the environment and give them an opportunity to become great, he’s made that opportunity for us.

“Such a special, special thing, to have a place you call home every day that will be the finest in the country. It’s going to pump pride through your veins every single day. It’s going to motivate you to chase excellence. And it’s going to make it a reality for us to be the very best. And that’s a gift.”

It took a while for OSU to reveal Cecil O’Brate as the catapulting factor in pushing the stadium forward, because, again, he prefers operating out of the spotlight. O’Brate even had to be convinced the stadium should carry his name.

“The more time Cecil spent in Stillwater, the more I grew to respect and admire him as a person and the more he connected with OSU,” Holder said. His gift was inspired by the way our people made him feel on game days. In the end, the gift was great, but his friendship and what he stands for is much more important than the money.

“My only regret is that we didn’t meet decades ago,” he added. “Leaders like Cecil are rare, and many opportunities were missed because he was spending his time in places other than the OSU campus. There is a lesson there for all of us.”

At age 90, O’Brate continues to work and work hard. But he’s taken some time to enjoy things, too, especially back home at OSU.

“I like to come to these games,” O'Brate said, “because I never got to do it when I was younger.”

One game in the future now looms extra special, when the Cowboys open their 2020 baseball stadium — in O’Brate Stadium.

“First one,” O’Brate said. “I'll be here.”