The Personality

Ihave to admit upfront that Pat Jones was my favorite Oklahoma State head football coach. There are several reasons I still feel that way today. I worked beside Pat for 11 years. He was a heck of a football coach and, to those of us who really knew him, a great friend.

After Johnson bolted for Miami, the coaching search lasted just a matter of days. Players and fellow assistants were almost unanimous in their feeling that the next Oklahoma State head coach already had an office in the football complex. A defensive coach by nature, Pat also had the homespun way to communicate with fans and media. While entertaining to say the least, his 62 wins stood for the longest time as the most of any Cowboy head man. Ironically, Mike Gundy, one of his star pupils, has since taken over that honor.

Some of the greatest gridiron accomplishments in OSU history were under the watch of Pat Jones. Three 10-win seasons, four bowl appearances, national rankings in four of his first five years at the helm and the recruiting of OSU greats Barry Sanders , Mike Gundy, Hart Lee Dykes and Leslie O’Neal, just to mention a few, highlight his resume.

Pat and I did well over 200 radio and television shows together. My office for many years was just around the corner from his. We talked football, baseball and life in general on a daily basis. And all had that signature Pat Jones take when conversation came to an end.

There are too many memories to relive here. Being left after a road win at Wyoming might be one of my all-time favorites. Former Sports Information Director Steve Buzzard and I are still grateful for the ride we hitched that allowed us to get to the airport before the team plane left. Practice every afternoon when we’d see Pat “fire for effect” when he wasn’t pleased with the effort or execution. His reaction to phone calls when we actually took some on radio. He even played a huge role in highlight tapes that we produced all those years.

But those were behind the scenes memories. Winning 45-3 in his head coaching debut at Arizona State after some had predicted the Sun Devils to be national title contenders, the 31-17 win to open year two at No. 12 Washington, the 21-14 comeback Gator Bowl win over South Carolina for OSU’s first 10-win season. And so many others: the thrilling 35-33 Sun Bowl victory over West Virginia, the lopsided Holiday Bowl romp over Wyoming (Sanders, Gundy and Dykes put on a sensational offensive display). The list goes on and on.

Probation and lack of facilities took a bite out of the last six years. Even then, OSU battled on even terms with most of the big boys. Perhaps no head football coach at OSU endured more heartbreaking losses to Oklahoma. Half of those 10 losses were by two touchdowns or less, and then there was the 15-15 tie in ’92.

What makes Pat Jones an engaging radio host today made him a highly successful head college coach and longtime NFL assistant in years past. He was a throwback football coach with a unique personality. That combination, in my mind, was hard to beat.

Although he called Oklahoma State home for six years, took the Cowboys to the Alamo Bowl, won 30 games and, in my opinion, turned the Bedlam Series culture around in Stillwater, Bob Simmons might have been the most underappreciated head football coach in OSU history. I know that’s a pretty bold statement when you consider he was 30-38 overall and just 16-31 in conference play. The Cowboys were 13-20 over his final three campaigns, and that led to a change at the top.

So how could I use the word underappreciated when describing Simmons’ contribution to OSU football? Well, let me take you back to Nov. 9, 1995. OSU had just put the wraps on the final practice of the week. In less than 24 hours, the Cowboys would bus to Norman for a Saturday meeting with Oklahoma.

Oklahoma State was 2-7 on the season (1-4 in the Big Eight). OU was looking forward to another Bedlam win. Simmons stood before his team in the old Varsity Room and delivered this simple message, “You do what we’ve practiced all week, and we’ll win the game. I’ve gone against these guys a lot as an assistant at Colorado. We had success there. You can have the same success on Saturday.”

I recall thinking he must not realize that OSU had not beaten Oklahoma since 1976 and had only a tie during that span. To be honest, I thought he was doing everything he could to create a positive pregame mentality.

Well, we found out that Simmons knew what he was talking about.

Oklahoma State 12, Oklahoma 0.

The drought was over. OSU fans celebrated from border to border throughout the Cowboy nation. Stillwater looked like Times Square on New Year’s Eve as the party lasted well into the wee hours. The team was welcomed back like national champions.

As it turned out, this win was a preview of things to come. Under Simmons, OSU went 3-1 in his first four meetings with the Sooners. Two of those wins were posted in Norman, which made the accomplishment even more dramatic. Oklahoma had to battle to the end to nail down a 12-7 win in Stillwater in what turned out to be Bob’s last year and a national championship season for OU.

Bedlam Bob

Bob Simmons

OSU Head Football Coach

1995-2000

In 1995, after the win in Norman, as the players, coaches and support staff filed into the locker room, it was pandemonium. I arrived long before to get ready for the postgame radio show. I’ll never forget the exchange I had with Simmons, who looked as if it was just another day at the office. I said “Thanks for all us long suffering Aggies. We’ve waited for this forever.” He smiled and simply nodded. “The kids really played well.” And, with that short analysis, he joined the team to sing the fight song.

In the media get-together, someone asked Simmons if he would call recruits that night to tell them the final 12-0 score. “No. You all will do that for me the next few weeks,” he offered. And with that, the man who went 3-3 against Oklahoma, left the interview room and began his journey into Bedlam history.