Collier11
8/22/2010, 11:42 PM
For health's sake, Stoops says he won't push future at OU
By DAVE SITTLER World Sports Columnist
NORMAN - The glass-enclosed case sitting on a coffee table inside his office on the third floor of the Switzer Center tells the success story of Bob Stoops' college football life.
It's overflowing with watches and rings for conference and national championships and bowl game appearances that Stoops has achieved as a player and coach.
One of his most cherished rings is missing, however. And the story behind its location tells you about everything that's important in the OU coach's past and also could define his professional future.
Stoops received the ring for playing in the Jan. 1, 1982, Rose Bowl. He was a junior cornerback for an Iowa team that ended a streak of 19 straight non-winning seasons and laid the foundation for coach Hayden Fry turning the Hawkeyes into consistent winners.
Six years later, Stoops placed the ring inside his father's casket. It was Ron Stoops Sr. who instilled the love of the game in his son, along with the attributes Bob needed as a player and coach to help build programs that had no history and rebuild tradition-rich ones like the Sooners.
Ron Stoops Sr. was only 54 when he died of a heart attack on Oct. 7, 1988. He was stricken during a game when he was defensive coordinator for Cardinal Mooney High School in Youngstown, Ohio.
Toughness, loyalty, work ethic, coaching defense and love of family aren't the only things Bob inherited from his father. Ron also passed along the heart disease gene to his second-oldest son.
"We all have it," Bob Stoops said of his five siblings. "I just have it the worst."
Five days after the first game of his 12th season at OU, Bob Stoops will turn 50 on Sept 9. It's one of those milestone birthdays for everyone, but especially for Stoops when he projects how long he'll coach.
"There are no guarantees," he said. "It's not that I have any doom or gloom, but I don't have a great family (health) history."
His mother, Evelyn "Dee Dee" Stoops, is in her mid-70s and going strong. But Bob also has relatives on his father's side who died young from heart disease.
So, while seated on a leather couch in an office that also includes everything from treasured photographs to a surf board and an autographed helmet from NASCAR superstar Jimmie Johnson, Stoops gave a rare interview about his future.
"I don't feel, with my family history, that I'm going to push it (coaching) too far because I've got young kids," he said. "I've got to make sure things are right for them."
Stoops got married when he was 28. He didn't start a family with his wife, Carol, until he was in his mid-30s, so he has a teenage daughter and twin sons who were born a few months after he took the OU job in December 1998.
He may live and breathe football, but like his father, his family comes way before anything else. So he intends to do everything possible to make sure he's still around to enjoy life if he eventually becomes a grandfather.
One thing Stoops has working in his favor that his father didn't is the medical advancements made in the early detection of heart disease. Ron Stoops Sr. was in such excellent physical shape that he played competitive baseball into his early 50s and never had any warning about heart problems.
Medication has controlled the high cholesterol count Stoops first discovered when he was a young assistant at Kansas State. His workouts are as religious as the visits to his cardiologist.
"Hopefully that's the case, and I'm planning on it," Stoops said of the medical options now available. "But there are too many things that affect what you do that can always change."
In addition to good health, Stoops' stay with the Sooners also depend on the plans of university President David Boren and athletic director Joe Castiglione. They have been Stoops' only bosses throughout a head coaching career that includes a national championship, a remarkable six Big 12 championships and a gaudy 117-29 record.
"To work for President Boren and Joe Castiglione, and their great leadership and support, is not something I take for granted," Stoops said. "So you don't know from time to time what life brings you, what your situation is and what you feel for your family."
Stoops, who said at a press conference before the 2008 national title game that "I don't know if I'll make it (coaching) to 60," recalled a recent conversation he had with his close friend, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier.
The 65-year-old Spurrier was Florida's coach when Stoops helped the Gators win the national championship as Spurrier's defensive coordinator in 1996.
"I told (Spurrier) this summer that there is no way I'll be coaching when I'm 65," Stoops said. "And he said, 'Yeah, I said that too when I was 50.'
"So, I get it. As you go through time, your perspective changes."
If Stoops sticks around OU another 15 years, chances are good he'll need a bigger display case for his rings and watches.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextr...2_NORMAN497413
By DAVE SITTLER World Sports Columnist
NORMAN - The glass-enclosed case sitting on a coffee table inside his office on the third floor of the Switzer Center tells the success story of Bob Stoops' college football life.
It's overflowing with watches and rings for conference and national championships and bowl game appearances that Stoops has achieved as a player and coach.
One of his most cherished rings is missing, however. And the story behind its location tells you about everything that's important in the OU coach's past and also could define his professional future.
Stoops received the ring for playing in the Jan. 1, 1982, Rose Bowl. He was a junior cornerback for an Iowa team that ended a streak of 19 straight non-winning seasons and laid the foundation for coach Hayden Fry turning the Hawkeyes into consistent winners.
Six years later, Stoops placed the ring inside his father's casket. It was Ron Stoops Sr. who instilled the love of the game in his son, along with the attributes Bob needed as a player and coach to help build programs that had no history and rebuild tradition-rich ones like the Sooners.
Ron Stoops Sr. was only 54 when he died of a heart attack on Oct. 7, 1988. He was stricken during a game when he was defensive coordinator for Cardinal Mooney High School in Youngstown, Ohio.
Toughness, loyalty, work ethic, coaching defense and love of family aren't the only things Bob inherited from his father. Ron also passed along the heart disease gene to his second-oldest son.
"We all have it," Bob Stoops said of his five siblings. "I just have it the worst."
Five days after the first game of his 12th season at OU, Bob Stoops will turn 50 on Sept 9. It's one of those milestone birthdays for everyone, but especially for Stoops when he projects how long he'll coach.
"There are no guarantees," he said. "It's not that I have any doom or gloom, but I don't have a great family (health) history."
His mother, Evelyn "Dee Dee" Stoops, is in her mid-70s and going strong. But Bob also has relatives on his father's side who died young from heart disease.
So, while seated on a leather couch in an office that also includes everything from treasured photographs to a surf board and an autographed helmet from NASCAR superstar Jimmie Johnson, Stoops gave a rare interview about his future.
"I don't feel, with my family history, that I'm going to push it (coaching) too far because I've got young kids," he said. "I've got to make sure things are right for them."
Stoops got married when he was 28. He didn't start a family with his wife, Carol, until he was in his mid-30s, so he has a teenage daughter and twin sons who were born a few months after he took the OU job in December 1998.
He may live and breathe football, but like his father, his family comes way before anything else. So he intends to do everything possible to make sure he's still around to enjoy life if he eventually becomes a grandfather.
One thing Stoops has working in his favor that his father didn't is the medical advancements made in the early detection of heart disease. Ron Stoops Sr. was in such excellent physical shape that he played competitive baseball into his early 50s and never had any warning about heart problems.
Medication has controlled the high cholesterol count Stoops first discovered when he was a young assistant at Kansas State. His workouts are as religious as the visits to his cardiologist.
"Hopefully that's the case, and I'm planning on it," Stoops said of the medical options now available. "But there are too many things that affect what you do that can always change."
In addition to good health, Stoops' stay with the Sooners also depend on the plans of university President David Boren and athletic director Joe Castiglione. They have been Stoops' only bosses throughout a head coaching career that includes a national championship, a remarkable six Big 12 championships and a gaudy 117-29 record.
"To work for President Boren and Joe Castiglione, and their great leadership and support, is not something I take for granted," Stoops said. "So you don't know from time to time what life brings you, what your situation is and what you feel for your family."
Stoops, who said at a press conference before the 2008 national title game that "I don't know if I'll make it (coaching) to 60," recalled a recent conversation he had with his close friend, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier.
The 65-year-old Spurrier was Florida's coach when Stoops helped the Gators win the national championship as Spurrier's defensive coordinator in 1996.
"I told (Spurrier) this summer that there is no way I'll be coaching when I'm 65," Stoops said. "And he said, 'Yeah, I said that too when I was 50.'
"So, I get it. As you go through time, your perspective changes."
If Stoops sticks around OU another 15 years, chances are good he'll need a bigger display case for his rings and watches.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextr...2_NORMAN497413