OSU football players showered with appreciation since last season's success

Everywhere Bassett went — to Tuttle High to show off his Big 12 championship ring to coach Philip Koons; to the breakfast joint; around the old neighborhood — the Oklahoma State senior said he experienced nothing short of a hero's welcome.

“What I love about playing in my home state and what I love about playing for Oklahoma State is the love and support you get is unmatched,” Bassett said. “The OSU fan base is tried and true. Like our alma mater says, ‘Ever You'll Find Us, Loyal and True.'

“That's spot on.”

In the months since beating Oklahoma to clinch the Big 12 title and then adding a Fiesta Bowl conquest of Stanford, the Cowboys have been showered with congratulations and love and hearty thanks.

For as good as 2011 was for the team, OSU's patient fan base was rewarded, too, going along for a ride that produced a school-record 12 wins, the program's first outright conference championship since the 1940s and the Cowboys' BCS bowl debut.

“We've had a lot of fans come out and congratulate us,” said offensive lineman Lane Taylor. “They'd been waiting for a year like that, especially the older fans who had been here a while. It was great to please the fans and give them a part of history.”

And, oh, how they appreciate it, in some cases to the point of tears.

“Whenever we beat OU and won the Big 12 championship,” Bassett said, “we had people come up and say their 60-year-old parents were boohooing after the game because it meant so much to them.

“And it's neat because it's genuine. It's not bandwagon, it's not the newest flavor, it's people who genuinely care about it and care about you.”