Top 5 OSU Moments

This week I have decided to write about something near and dear to my heart.  OSU Athletics.

I know I don't mention it very often, especially on here, but I do love OSU sports (catch the sarcasm).  As a group, us OSU fans have been through some rough times.  Growing up I always heard my grandfather and uncle talk about since losing builds character we have more character than most other fans in the country.

Today is different.  We have a football in the Top 10 who just beat Texas. I figured I would would recollect some of the grand memories over my life time of OSU sports.

5. There are so many, but I think I have to start here with #5.  I know our basketball wins over KU have become so frequent they are almost boring, (KU hasn't won in Gallagher-Iba Arena in 5 years), but the game in 2008 was very special.  It was a year where OSU was under performing with the Jayhawks coming into town.  I was working my job in media relations, which meant I had front row seats while taking stats to the upset.  KU was ranked in the top 5 that year, on their way to a NCAA Championship.

The Jayhawks were handed their 3rd and final loss of the season on February 23rd, 2008.  13,905 crazy fans in orange rushed the court due to the Cowboy victory.  It was a coming out party of sorts for junior point guard Byron Eaton, who handled the Hawks with 26 points.

4. For the second year in a row (you will hear about the year 1 in a minute) the Cowboys knocked off the Sooners in football while heading to a big time bowl.  In 2002 I was able to witness (for the only time in my life thus far) OSU beating OU in football in Stillwater.  And that was for the second time in two years.   What I remember to actually be a rather dull game (other than the 40,000+ Cowboy faithful screaming for 4 straight hours), turned into a 38-28 victory for OSU at was then Lewis Field.

After OU lost two games in a row to OSU Bob Stoops wouldn't sign a contract to play OSU on Thanksgiving weekend for the next two years.  I have a feeling he won't be so happy the weekend after Thanksgiving again this year.

3. Number 3 on my list is special because of how much involvement I had with the team.  It was the Big 12 Tournament two years ago when junior James Anderson took over the game against the favored OU in Oklahoma City.  OU had narrowly escaped the Cowboys in their two meetings during the regular season, but there was no way Big Game James was going to let Cry Baby Blake Griffin and his even uglier brother steal a third win.

This game was so cool to me for a few different reasons.  1) I had been working with the basketball team all year and knew a lot of the players.  2) I was sitting right next to the bench because I had been asked to do stats for the Big 12 Tournament (coolest thing ever).  3) The game was in OKC, so the place was absolutely packed with orange and maroon.  4) I was able to travel with the team the next week to Dayton, OH to the NCAA tournament where they almost (and should have) knocked off the number one seed Pitt.  5) As time expired there was a clock malfunction.  Blake Griffin thought he hit a game winner about 5 seconds after the gall was inbounded, but there was only 1.7 seconds on the clock (nobody ever accused him of being very smart).  When this happened the three refs (and me) gathered around the monitor.  I am not making this part up at all.  As the official stat inputer (not that this had any real bearing on what was going on) when the officials came over to check out the monitor I bolted from my seat right into their huddle and watched the clock with them.  I was there when the 4 of us decided to call the game in favor of OSU.  (Shortly after I got a warning from the Big 12 that I could show any bias....it was worth it).

2. As mentioned earlier, the Cowboys beat OU in football twice to start off the coaching career of Les Miles. The first one came the year before where all OU had to do was defeat the lowly Cowboys the last week of the regular season to advance to the national championship.  Josh Fields and Rashaun Woods had other plans.  Woods caught a TD pass from Fields with under a minute and a half to go up 16-13, the rest was history.  I was watching the game on TV that night and (as always) I was wearing orange from head to toe.  Literally......Orange hair gel, shirt, pants and shoes.  I was so excited I kept all my clothing on to go to the WSU basketball game that night.

1. Being a basketball guy my self, and OSU being a basketball school, I had to have a basketball memory at number 1.  This was an easy one.  In 2004 OSU had one of the best teams in the country.   The Graham brothers, Tony Allen, Ivan McFarland, Daniel Bobik and of course John Lucas.  OSU had dominated all season winning the Big 12 and dominating its way to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament.  This is where they ran into St. Joseph's and Jameer Nelson, one of the top point guards in the country.

The game was back and forth the full forty minutes.  On the last play of the game the co-(Shared with his teammate Tony Allen) Big 12 Player of the Year, Joey Graham, took the ball at the top of the key.  On what seemed to be a broken play he took one dribble to the left and slipped.  On his way to the ground he found John Lucas for a contested 16 footer to win the game.  The image of Lucas running to hug his dad still makes me tear up.  That was the happiest moment in my life.