Statue brings to life the legend of Sooner great Billy Vessels
Statue brings to life the legend of Sooner great Billy Vessels
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By Jenni Carlson
Published: August 31, 2007
CLEVELAND, OK — Billy Vessels came home to Pawnee County on Thursday.
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Larger-than-life gift
Now, his likeness stands outside the entrance to the Cleveland Event Center, a gift of the Oklahoma Centennial Commission and a product of a small bug-a-boo.
The statue originally was unveiled and dedicated two years ago at OU. As the first of the Sooners' Heisman winners, Vessels was the first to join the school's Heisman Park. But when Steve Owens' statue was added a year ago, there was a problem.
Vessels was about two-thirds the size of Owens.
Due to a miscommunication with the sculptor, the Vessels statue was smaller. Rather than remake Owens, Billy Sims and Jason White — the last two of which will be added this season — the decision was made to commission a bigger Vessels statue.
The next question was what to do with the original one.
Lee Allan Smith, who coordinates the centennial projects, made a phone call to the Cleveland alum he knows best. Watkins is the director of the Oklahoma City National Memorial, and her path had crossed many times with Smith's.
"Do you think Cleveland would want this?” he asked Watkins.
"Oh, my,” she said. "It would be unbelievable for Cleveland to have this.”
Small town, big legacy
Cleveland is like many small towns — its Main Street struggling, its landscape changing.
The difference: The five-and-dime has given way to a Wal-Mart Supercenter. It's only 21 miles from main street Cleveland to downtown Tulsa. That has lured young families and fresh faces. Not everyone knows about Vessels.
Thursday, his story came to life again.
Glenn Johnson played four years at Cleveland High with Vessels, but they knew each other from the time they were in fifth grade.
One morning, Johnson went to math class. Vessels was supposed to be there, too, but was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Billy Dale?” the teacher asked. "They were on a fishing trip, but I know they're back.”
She scanned the room and locked on Johnson.
"Will you go down to the house and check on him?” she asked.
Johnson walked the two blocks from the school to Vessels' house, where he found him still in bed.
"It was the only time I was ever in the house,” Johnson said. "I didn't want to go back anymore.”
The house was cluttered, dirty, trashy. Vessels lived there alone, his parents having moved out several years before and leaving him there alone.
All along the way, there were people in Cleveland looking out for him. Teachers. Coaches. His senior year at Cleveland, he even moved in with the town's pharmacist. And yet, much of the credit for Vessels' success goes to Vessels.
He refused to allow where he started to determine where he finished.
‘Do anything you want'
"Bud Wilkinson told me himself that he was the best player that he had ever coached,” Switzer told a crowd of 1,500 in a town that only has a population of 3,200. "‘Both sides of the ball,' he said, ‘He would've been a superstar.'”
With the Vessels statue coming to Cleveland, his example has been shared with a new generation.
"It definitely personalizes the vision that kids can have,” Cleveland Athletic Director Paul Kellert said. "If they want to stay here in Cleveland, great. But if they want to do other things that extend them, they can get it done.”
Wearing their maroon football jerseys, Thomas Hodson and Matt Brown helped pull the velvet drape off the statue Thursday afternoon. The senior captains on the football team have long known of Vessels — his name adorns their stadium, after all — but now they know about him.
"You can come out of Cleveland ... ” Brown said.
"... and do anything you want,” Hodson finished.
Related Topics:
Sports, Football, Athletic Awards, College Athletics, College Football, Football Awards
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