 "Photo: N/A")
Three of Oklahoma State University’s favorite sons came home Saturday, to the place where their paths to notoriety and greatness took shape.
Garth Brooks, Barry Sanders and Robin Ventura were officially inducted into the OSU Alumni Hall of Fame and served as Grand Marshals for OSU’s 2009 “Branded for Life” Homecoming celebration. They had a hectic day of honors and accolades, which started when they led the Sea of Orange parade. Brooks jokingly recalled one instance during the parade where a woman’s adoration was almost misread.
“This woman was yelling from the crowd ‘You’ll always be number one,’ ” Brooks said. “So I lifted my arm and just as I am starting to turn to wave to her, she finished with ‘Barry Sanders.’ ”
OSU held a press conference before the football game against the University of Missouri. OSU President Burns Hargis asked each of the honorees what it meant to them to be a Cowboy.
“It’s part of my identity,” Sanders said. Sanders won the Heisman Trophy in 1988 and still holds the NCAA Division-I average yards per game in a season with 238.9, which he set in the same year.
OSU baseball great, Robin Ventura, talked about his memories of Oklahoma State fans.
“They are the nicest people,” Ventura said. “It never mattered what stadium I played in, college or pro, I could always look up in the stands and see a couple of people in orange. They’re not hard to find.”
Ventura still holds the all-time collegiate baseball record for the most consecutive games with a hit, which he set in 1987 with 58.
Brooks’ showed his passion for OSU and sent a statement to any potential recruits looking for a university to attend.
“OSU means common sense,” he said. “This was where I spent those first four formidable years away from home right out of high school. It has everything the kids want, and everything the parents want. They will be surrounded by common sense.”
The new hall of inductees were announced in a ceremony during halftime of the football game. After the OSU marching band honored each with a song fitting their particular field, the honorees helped pass out the student Homecoming awards.
Though he has won many awards in his lifetime, Brooks said being inducted into OSU Alumni Hall of Fame really hit home.
Brooks summed it up by referencing the recently dropped football spirit song.
“No matter how you feel about that song that they just got rid of before the football games, that guy stumbled upon something,” he said. “‘Cowboys Forever,’ that’s what I am and that is what I became today.”
1 comments