In the first nine months that I’ve been here in Ohio, several folks, knowing that I am an alumnus of Oklahoma State University, have said to me (in reference to Ohio State), “You are now in the home of the
real OSU.” It ramped up again when people found out that Danielle, Wyatt, and I were going to “The Horseshoe” to the Ohio State versus Miami of Ohio football game. “Now you’re going to experience the
real OSU.” This post is to make the point that there is no
real OSU. There is
your OSU and there is
my OSU. In order to make my point, I need to tell you how important
my OSU is to me. This may not be a very spiritual or biblically based post but it will, at least, help you to know me better as your pastor and your friend. In fact, you cannot truly know me without knowing about what
my OSU means to me.
I did not begin my college career at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. I began at the other major university in Oklahoma, the 25,000 student University of Oklahoma in Norman, an affluent suburb of Oklahoma City. I went there as a member of the President’s Leadership Class, which was a huge honor. Also, I had family who lived in Norman so it was nice to be close to them. The University of Oklahoma, which we call OU, has a beautiful campus and is a very good school, one of the best public universities in the country. But from the first day I moved into the dorms, through my first two years of college, I never felt like I belonged there. My
perception was that most of the students fell into one or several of the following categories: suburban, wealthy, fine arts, a legacy, fraternity, and sorority. I was from a tiny agricultural town. I was paying my own way through school and was completely broke without a car. I didn’t really know what my major was going to be. Neither of my parents even went to college let alone OU, and I had no interest in getting involved in “Greek” life. Can you see why I never felt like I belonged?
During my freshman year, I started to visit my former high school classmates eighty-two miles away in Stillwater, where they were students at Oklahoma State University. Stillwater is a 45,000 person town that is about an hour from anywhere. Since Oklahoma State, or
my OSU, is the agricultural university in Oklahoma there are farms associated with it. When you drive in from the west you can smell the pig farms before you ever get to town. Stillwater is the kind of town that if
my OSU wasn’t there Stillwater wouldn’t be there.
My OSU also has a beautiful campus with a more unified architectural theme than OU.
All of Oklahoma State’s buildings are in the Georgian style. Unlike OU in Norman, on the campus of
my OSU in Stillwater I would see people in cowboy hats, tight jeans, and boots, especially on the west side of campus where Ag Hall is. I would see kids from the other small towns in my area of Oklahoma, kids I’d played against in sports in high school. So as I fell in love with the campus, I also fell in love with the students and the overall atmosphere. It was so friendly and even though it had 25,000 students it felt like a small school. I felt like I
belonged there. By the end of my freshman year at OU, I had fallen in love with
my OSU and wanted so badly to transfer. But I still had one year left on some scholarships I had at OU so I suffered through my sophomore year, filling out my application to transfer to
my OSU as soon as I could. When I went back to college for the fall of my junior year, I went to Stillwater, not Norman. I regret a lot of things in my life, but
never have I regretted that.
Oklahoma State University isn’t just where I earned my Bachelor of Arts degree; it is a part of who I am. If you were to travel along with me to the
my OSU campus in Stillwater I would take you to one of the two largest Student Union buildings in the country. Coincidentally our two OSUs fight it out every year to see who has the largest Union. I would take you to the beautiful Edmon Low Library.
We could look around the immaculate new T. Boone Pickens Stadium, where the Oklahoma State Cowboys football team plays. It may not hold 105,000 like Ohio Stadium, but the 60,000 fans in “The Boone” are right on top of the field and it gets deafeningly loud.
And I know that
your OSU has the only two-time Heisman winner in Archie Griffin, which is awesome, but
my OSU has the best single season
ever by a college running back. In 1988, Oklahoma State’s Barry Sanders ran for a record 2,628 yards during the regular season and another 222 yards in the bowl game for a single season total of 2,850. He also scored 44 touchdowns in that one season! Archie Griffin, as amazing as he was, had his best season in 1974 with 1,695 yards with 12 touchdowns. I would have loved to have seen if Barry Sanders would have won two Heisman Trophies had he not been the back up for his first two years to future Pro Football Hall of Famer Thurman Thomas in the Oklahoma State backfield. So while
my OSU may not have the long winning football tradition of
your OSU, we do have some tradition. The present is looking pretty good as well. Actually, over the last three seasons, in football,
my OSU Cowboys are 32-7 and
your OSU Buckeyes are 29-10.
After we go through the football stadium we could go into “The Rowdiest Arena in the Country,” Gallagher-Iba Arena, where the basketball teams play, stopping to spend a quiet moment at the emotionally moving memorial to the ten members of the men’s basketball program who died in a 2001 plane crash on the way home from a basketball game at the University of Colorado.
Then we could walk outside to the Spirit Rider statue, which depicts “Bullet,” the horse that runs out onto the football field with every score. Bullet must have been exhausted after
my OSU beat the hapless Savannah State University 84-0 this past Saturday using the third string players for much of the game.
Maybe we’d run into Pistol Pete shooting off his revolvers, as we climbed the stairs of Morrill Hall, where my love for creative writing was planted and cultivated. Then we could cross the street for some cheese fries and beer at Eskimo Joe’s, billed as “Stillwater’s Jumpin’ Little Juke Joint.”
Even more importantly than all of those OSU landmarks, I would take you to the lobby of the Kerr-Drummond dormitory where Danielle and I met for the first time, then to the table at Hideaway Pizza where we sat for our first date. I would even take you to the parking spot where Danielle and I kissed for the first time. (Get your minds out of the gutter—we were standing
outside the car). I could take you by the building where I had my first real job as a management trainee at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Stillwater is also where I first began to sense a call to ministry as a vocation. Then we would go right down the street to First Presbyterian Church, where you could meet my beloved mentor Rev. Dr. B. Gordon Edwards. Then we would go to Danielle’s aunt and uncle’s house where we have spent several Thanksgivings with all the cousins. I
love Stillwater and I
love Oklahoma State University.
My OSU is very, very important to me, just like
your OSU is to you. It isn’t just where I went to school. It is a part of who I am and always will be. Every Saturday this fall I will fight the temptation to drive the fourteen hours to wear my orange and black, tailgate, and sing the OSU fight song and the alma mater, and to lift my arm up to be a part of the "waving wheat" after every Cowboy score.
If you want to see a little more of my OSU, watch the following 2011 video. It is only a few minutes long:
So there it is. It wasn’t spiritual or biblical in any sense and it would have been a little hokey for me to try to make it that way. My point is that there is no
real OSU. There’s
my OSU and
your OSU. But please know that I will root for y
our Buckeyes with all my might (unless they ever meet up with
my Cowboys) and I will enjoy every chance I have to see them play in person. Thanks to the Walls I have an Ohio State hat and thanks Dr. Heiny I now have an Ohio State T-shirt, and I will happily wear both of them and plan to buy many more over the years.
And even more than that, I’m excited for my sermon series that begins this Sunday called “The Gospel According to Brutus” with all the illustrations coming from Ohio State football history. I’ve read more than 500 pages of Ohio State football history in preparation for this sermon series. I’m doing this for
you because
you mean so much to
me. So I hope you not only enjoy the coming weeks but that you grow deeper in your faith through the series. Don’t forget to invite the football fans in your life to join us.
I like
your OSU. I really do. But I love
my OSU. However, even more than that, I love
you as my church family.
So go Bucks! And Ride ‘Em Cowboys!
Peace,
Everett
