Sooner Caravan (Dallas)

[HateTheWhorns]

Just got back from the Sooner Caravan near Love Field and thought I would share a few tidbits from this evening:

On a personal note, I sat at a great table tonight with one of my childhood heroes, Joe Washington. We were also joined by Whitney Hand's father, Rich.

Jeff Capel did not make the trip due to a flare up he experienced today following a wisdom tooth procedure.

Coach Coale was awesome and spent much of her time raving about her prized recruit, Whitney Hand. Said she that Whitney is the real deal and will make a tremendous impact THIS season. An awesome shooter and one of the best offensive rebounding guards she has ever seen. She has a passion for the game.

Coach Stoops' talk was not very enlightening except for this. He said something to the effect that the secondary play during Spring ball is the best he has seen since coming to OU. He also raved about Sam Proctor and Keenan Clayton.

Courtney Paris, Gerald McCoy, and Cade Davis fielded questions from the emcee and all of them represented the university well. Mr. and Mrs. Bubba Paris were also in attendance.

One of the auction items was a round of golf with Joe Washington on the Friday of Red River Shootout weekend; 2 prime tickets to the game; get to stand in the tunnel as the teams run out; and 2 sideline passes to a home game with Joe Washington. I made it to $3,600, but a friend of mine ended up getting it for $3,700. I'm still ****ed, but I wimped out as I started thinking about what my wife's reaction would be -- Joe who?

All in all it was a fun evening. Hope some of you made it.

[Jay C. Upchurch]

Hope you enjoyed your complimentary copy of Sooner Spectator's new 2008 Football Preview Issue at the Dallas event...

We'll be in Tulsa on Thursday nite when the caravan hits town... subscriptions only $29.95 that evening!

[HateTheWhorns]

Hope you enjoyed your complimentary copy of Sooner Spectator's new 2008 Football Preview Issue at the Dallas event...

We'll be in Tulsa on Thursday nite when the caravan hits town... subscriptions only $29.95 that evening!

I have it, but I'm afraid to read it now since Joe W. wrote a nice note to my boys on the front cover and then signed it. Think I'm going to frame it. :D

[badger]

So... how large was attendance there?

I have heard on other sites (THAT I DON'T VISIT REGULARLY!) that people were not planning to go this year because of a price hike from a normal $10 fee to $30 or $40. As it is NP's and mine's first Caravan, aside from that one-time pep band I had to do out of guilt, it wasn't a big deal to us.

What do you think, Hate the Whorns? How long were lines for autographs?

[Jay C. Upchurch]

It was an enthusiastic crowd of 400, which kept the autograph lines down and made for a more intimate atmosphere compared to the Tulsa and OKC events....

[swardboy]

So I guess we can safely say there are no issues from the report here a while back of Joe W. being hospitalized.....and sorry if I missed an update.

[HateTheWhorns]

So I guess we can safely say there are no issues from the report here a while back of Joe W. being hospitalized.....and sorry if I missed an update.


If I remember correctly, I think the hospitalization was in relation to his son. Regretfully, I did not ask Joe about the his status in fear that the news might not be good. Jay is right, the crowd was about 400. It was my first Sooner Club of Dallas meeting since the 1970s. It was a far cry from the Fairbanks and Switzer led meetings of yesteryear when the program was very impromptu and there was a lot of Q&A that took place. I remember one year that the staff forgot to bring the movie reel highlights from the prior season. They called Jerry Pettibone in Norman and told him to get in his car and bring it down. Jerry made the drive in his Corvette in 90 minutes. He averaged close to 100 mph on the trip. There was another year where Coach Fairbanks was so innebriated that he could not finish his talk and Jimmy Johnson took over in the pulpit. My, how things have changed.

[badger]

I read past stories where autograph lines were an hour and a half long and was kind of worried about it. It's not for eBay, it's for a gift :D

Any reports on Capel? Is he doing better? Get well, "K-PRO" ;)

[goingoneight]

Is it just me or did Stoops seem a little bit pizzed off about OSU and the Fiesta Bowl tonight? :D I have to admit it was awesome hearing him talk about the defense against aggy. That was hilarious... he said "we did great against the best offensive elague in the country bar none. We beat Missouri twice decisively and heck I don't REMEMBER how much OSU had... like 14 or something?!?"

Ahh... you had to see it. Needless to say WVU is still not setting well with him. Good, IMHO. A pizzed Stoops is a good Stoops.

[HateTheWhorns]

Is it just me or did Stoops seem a little bit pizzed off about OSU and the Fiesta Bowl tonight? :D I have to admit it was awesome hearing him talk about the defense against aggy. That was hilarious... he said "we did great against the best offensive elague in the country bar none. We beat Missouri twice decisively and heck I don't REMEMBER how much OSU had... like 14 or something?!?"

Ahh... you had to see it. Needless to say WVU is still not setting well with him. Good, IMHO. A pizzed Stoops is a good Stoops.

Stoops' talk did seem a bit defensive. It is clear that he has little tolerance for those who focus only on the negative and ignore the positives of a player, game and/or season. We did accomplish a lot of great things last year which tends to get overlooked when you develop a severe case of "red a$$" on the final game of the season.

When you're a kid a day seems like a year and when you get to my age a year seems like a month. In "old man years" its been less than 12 months since Stoops took over so I can still put the negatives in perspective and be thankful for overall body of work that Coach Stoops has put together.:D

[badger]

I didn't stand for Stoops like some did, because nobody stood for Coale. It was a matter of fairness :)

I also saw some bypassing Coale's sig after getting Stoops. I felt bad about that, but then again, she might be used to it, considering women's sports and all.

It is good to see all of our coaches getting along and supporting each other's programs. Not that it's helped Phil Fulmer anymore than another dozen Krispy Kremes would, but it's worked out well for their basketball programs and it's good to see them representing OU at each other's games.

I also thought Stoops was overly defensive - and why is the MEDIA always the enemy? I think we can all agree that winning the Big 12 is wonderful and shutting Missouri up twice was also cool, but the Fiesta Bowl will remain ON NOTICE until it is beaten and that oversized overugly trophy is ours! :D

On that note, here is my new ON NOTICE list...
http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/5131/onnoticephpqg5.jpg

[recemp]

The Sooner caravan doesn't make it to Chicago too often (we got Merv up here a couple of years ago) so I consider you all fortunate.
This is third hand and through the filters of rumor but...I heard that Bob was upset that the fans are too demanding.
Well, I took a deep breath. We aren't here to be satisfied with #2 or #15. This is Oklahoma. I could get on the train and follow Northwestern if I could find happiness squeaking into the BCS every 25 years or so.

Thanks, I feel better now

[southern sooner]

I was just 2 tables over from your table I was at the center 2ns table. I was lookign for Joe W after to get an autograph, I didnt see him leave for the plane with the coaches and players, did he stick around? I guess I was a little disappointed that Spencer wasnt able to be the host, the guy did good but Spencer is GREATNESS.... Very funny how people were asking Cade for his autograph thinking he was Sammy..

[southern sooner]

After Sherry was done, tell me you werent ****ed that you didnt get the chair...300 bucks not much.

[HateTheWhorns]

After Sherry was done, tell me you werent ****ed that you didnt get the chair...300 bucks not much.

In hindsight, I would love to have had the chair. I did not go to the event with the live auction in mind. It wasn't until the Joe W. auction item that I became interested.

Joe took off right when Bob finished. He was in the group headed out the door to catch the plane.

I was bummed about both Spencer and Capel.....oh well!

[badger]

Jay's magazine made an Air Force recruit stuck in Virginia very happy. So did the autographed Stoops picture. :D

[TheUnnamedSooner]

I wanted to go but had a conflict. It sounds like a good time. Hopefully I can make it next year.