John Rohde, sports columnist
OU history? Ray Thurmond has seen it all
Front-row seat
By John Rohde
Comments 
6
Published: April 24, 2009
NORMAN — Here’s how long Ray Thurmond has been hanging around the University of Oklahoma campus:
→He used to pick the brain of Hall of Fame basketball coach
Bruce Drake a few years after Drake retired in 1955. Now OU women’s basketball coach
Sherri Coale playfully flirts with Thurmond every chance she gets.
→Thurmond coached against Oklahoma State when its golf team featured a lineup that included
Doug Tewell,
Mark Hayes and
Mike Holder. Now an autographed hat from
Anthony Kim adorns Thurmond’s wall.
→He helped develop
Clifford Ray and
Garfield Heard while serving under
Sooner basketball coach
John MacLeod inside the OU Fieldhouse. Ray has called Thurmond his inspiration. Up until last year, Thurmond watched from the mezzanine inside the
Lloyd Noble Center and persistently told Coale her team would go places if it could just cut down on the turnovers.
→Thurmond attended his first game at Owen Field shortly after the north end zone was enclosed in 1957 and grandstand bleachers were added to the south end zone. Now upper decks adorn both sides of the stadium.
Thurmond began as a special instructor on the OU physical education staff. In 1967, athletic director
Gomer Jones named Thurmond as the school’s golf coach and its freshman basketball coach.
He later served as the play-clock operator at old Memorial Stadium, the man behind the press box window taped with an "X.”
Thurmond attended OU football games for nearly 50 years, but last season he was physically unable to do so.
He now resides in Room 109 at
Brookhaven Extensive Care in Norman.
To help Thurmond’s blood circulation, room temperature resembles
Louisiana in mid-August, yet Thurmond’s legs are still covered by an OU blanket. The milkshakes he longs to drink melt well before their time.
For those who visit his room, the nursing staff kindly supplies bottled water after the first 30 minutes.
On May 15, this former golf coach will turn double-snowman — 88.
"He’s got so many stories, you’d think he was 200,” said former OU golfer
Kelsey Cline, who met Thurmond in 1996.
Thurmond grew up in
Macon, Ga., and any potential career in football, basketball or baseball came to an abrupt halt the morning of Dec. 7, 1941.
This World War II vet spent four years in the service, two years aboard the UCV6
USS Enterprise. After attending
North Texas State, Thurmond coached five different sports — football, basketball, baseball, golf and tennis — at the high-school level in
Texas,
Georgia and
California before arriving in Norman in 1960.
"He’s an amazing guy,” said longtime Sooners football assistant
Merv Johnson, who has been at OU a mere 30 years himself.
Cline noticed Thurmond hanging out inside the pro shop at the Jimmie Austin-OU Golf Course on every day but Sunday. That’s also where Coale got to know Thurmond when she arrived 13 years ago.
Former Sooners basketball coach
Billy Tubbs said he can’t remember a time he was at the OU course and didn’t see Thurmond there.
"Good guy,” Tubbs said of Thurmond. "He’s a talker, that’s for sure.”
Last August, Thurmond’s health began to deteriorate, and he soon was admitted into Brookhaven.
Cline sensed Thurmond’s spirits needed some uplifting and orchestrated a 7:30 p.m. gathering last Tuesday.
First to enter was
Carl Albert High School junior
Talor Gooch, one of the nation’s top amateur golfers who has orally committed to play at
Oklahoma State.
Gooch was fresh off a second-place finish at the Southern Oklahoma Invitational that day at The Territory in Duncan. (The following day, he won a 36-hole tournament at Rose Creek.)
At 7:30 sharp, in walked
Heisman Trophy winner
Sam Bradford, who sat in the room’s only available seat — Thurmond’s wheelchair.
Thurmond has met the five Heisman winners from OU and insists Bradford is his favorite.
"He probably says that to each one (of us),” Bradford whispered.
A bulletin board in Thurmond’s room is crammed with newspapers clipping of Bradford. The other side of the room has war medals and numerous photographs on display.
Nearly every photo has people flashing the upside down Hook ’em Horns sign.
Steve Owens,
Billy Sims and
Jason White are doing precisely that while standing alongside Thurmond.
Coale sashayed into the room carrying a team photo with the inscription, "Who is that handsome man?” Coale gave Thurmond the photo and a hug.
For years, Thurmond harped for Coale to go recruit "a big one.” After Coale landed the 6-foot-4
Paris twins, "He told me to go get another big one,” Coale said.
Last Christmas, the women’s basketball team dropped by Thurmond’s room and sang Christmas carols. "Nyeshia (Stevenson) is the only one who can really sing,” Coale admitted.
Coale noticed Bradford sitting in Thurmond’s wheelchair and pleaded, "Good Lord, don’t take a picture of Sam right now. Don’t want all sorts of rumors flying around.”
A few minutes later, Christian Heritage junior point guard
Meagan Henson arrived with her father, Keith. Thurmond playfully has proclaimed Meagan to be the best 5-foot-and-under basketball player he has ever seen. She orally committed to TCU three years ago.
You would be hard-pressed to find three more impressive kids than Bradford, Gooch and Henson, who spent 90 minutes visiting a man more than four times their age, waiting for Thurmond to share a story they probably have heard many times before.
Cline, who now coaches the nationally top-ranked Oklahoma Christian men’s golf team, invites those closest to him to spend time with Thurmond.
Bradford’s mother, Martha, taught Cline in elementary school and he has known the Bradford family since Sam was 3. Cline considers Gooch and Henson to be the little brother and sister he never had.
Details in Thurmond’s countless stories have become sketchy in recent months.
Thurmond has his good days and his bad days, but don’t we all.
Cline said Tuesday qualified as a great day.
"He was so excited to see everybody,” Cline said. "He just took it all in.”
Though he has known Cline for 13 years, Thurmond lately has referred to him as "Bob from
Tulsa,” and Cline couldn’t care less.
"You know that question everybody gets asked: ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ Well, I want to be just like that man in there,” Cline said, pointing at the legendary man in Room 109.
John Rohde: 475-3099.
John Rohde can be heard Monday-Friday from 6-7 p.m. on The Sports Animal Network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1.
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Mark, Maysville
I recall an argument we had in the old field house, disagreeing about player-positioning in a baseball situation. I may have been right (maybe not), but I sure as hell didn't win the argument.
Hang in there, coach. You've touched a lot of lives.
Boomer Sooner
RSB
And it makes me think.....there are a LOT of kids out there who do good and thoughtful things who probably don't get any recognition (not that they want it) but the press seems to focus on the "seatbelt arrests" or unpaid fines.
I would guess Sherri Coale and Sam Bradford would rather not get any attention for doing this.....they do it because they have character and genuinely care about people other than themselves. Hopefully it will serve as an example for others to live their lives in the same manner. I wish I could sit down with Ray Thurmond myself and hear these stories of his life.....WW II....OU history, etc. We need more and more of this generation spending time and learning and emulating the lives of the older generation.
missed.