I borrowed this from the AOL.com report on his passing: "After three years at Oklahoma, the 6-foot-9 Tulsa native spent 12 seasons in the NBA with the Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns, then became an award-winning jazz musician, with several of his albums making the top 10 on the Billboard charts. The famously upbeat Tisdale first learned he had cancerous cyst below his right knee after he broke his leg in a fall at his home in Los Angeles on Feb. 8, 2007. He said then he was fortunate to have discovered the cancer at an early stage. "Nothing can change me," Tisdale told The Associated Press last June. "You go through things. You don't change because things come in your life. You get better because things come in your life." His leg was amputated last August and a prosthetic leg that he wore was crimson, one of the colors of his beloved Oklahoma Sooners. He made a handful of public appearances in recent weeks, including on April 7 at an Oklahoma City Thunder game, at which he received the team's Community Hero Award. Also within the past month, Tisdale was honored in a ceremony at the Greenwood Cultural Center in his hometown and presented with the Legacy Award. During the ceremony, he spoke about his fight with cancer, saying "In my mind, I've beaten it." Last month, Tisdale also learned he had been chosen for induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. "
Billy Tubbs loathed the free press garnered by the powers of the conferences of the East Coast. Our coach took great pride in taking his "renegade" program to face the powers of the ACC and Big East, the "darlings" of the media. And so it was on March 3, 1985, a day after defeating Nebraska in Lincoln to seal up another Big 8 Championship, the Sooners welcomed the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to the Lloyd Noble Center. The Sooners were Wayman's crew, but the Jackets featured two future NBA stars in Mark Price and John Salley. Tech led all day, but the Sooners rallied in front of a frenzied crowd and a vast national TV audience. A follow slam by Anthony Bowie put the Sooners in front and eliminated what had been a double-digit deficit mere moments earlier. The Sooners kept coming and kept coming.........and the lead grew. Tech had the ball down 85-80 with just a few seconds to go when they turned it over again. The ball was tossed back down to the South end and into the waiting hands of Wayman Tisdale. He roared toward the goal and nanoseconds before the clock expired flushed down a reverse slam that sent the Lloyd Noble Center into orbit. 87-80, final. The Sooners and their superstar, Wayman Tisdale, were for real.
I was at that game. for me, the greatest, best sports fandom i've ever experienced was for the mid 80's OU teams with Billy. Not so much the 88 and 90 teams, but the Tisdale, Chucky Barnett, David Little to T-Mac, Choo, and DJ teams that put OU into the tournament, making some noise (one hoop away from the Final Four), and squarely on the national map (as others have noted, much to the chagrin of the "blue blood" hoops and Big East/ACC humping somewhat nascent ESPN honks: "they'll never win, they don't play defense"). and Wayman was THE guy. edit: and Billy loved to beat those ACC teams.
ESPN with some good coverage going on...Avery Johnson just referred to him as an "American hero"....Avery is saying some great things
I was on the wall as the Human Alphabet for the last time in 1982. I do remember Wayman. RIP! You will be remember for a very long time. This one's for you! O - K - L - A - H - O - M - A! Oklahoma Oklahoma Oklahoma Yeah!
I was doing fine. I really was. I mean I was really, really sad, but I was doing OK. You begin to brace yourself for news like this when you hear someone has cancer. But when I saw this picture below I cried like a little baby.
Been fighting the waterworks myself, all day. The ESPN video that goes with Anna Clemmons' story will likely make you "lose it" no matter how hard you fight it. What a profile in courage he was! http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-40-83/Anna-K--Clemmons-Remembers-Wayman-Tisdale.html
In the fall of 2002 I began interning in the Channel 9 sports department. Thursdays weren't so bad because there was high school football to watch, chart and edit. But Tuesdays were brutal. So, about three weeks into my three month, twice a week internship, I began to spelunk around the department's video archives. I watched Abe Lemons get tossed in a game against Oklahoma Christian. I watched Stan Chase, the sports department's cameraman, go deep into the reasons why the US Open bowling conditions at Boulevard Bowl in 1988 would be far different than what the house bowlers were used to. But what I really loved was watching Wayman. The Georgia Tech game in '85? Check. Syracuse in '84? Check. The two meetings with the Mailman and La Tech during the '85 season? Check. But the one that blew me away was the 55-point game against Southwestern Texas. Wayman would come down the floor, post up, and score. There was absolutely nothing to it. It was like watching some sort of bionic scoring machine. He'd make a move and score. Next time he'd fake the first move and go to another move to score. Then the turnaround. Then the fadeaway. The great ones make it look effortless. Wayman looked like he was in a rec league back home in Tulsa. I'd wear those tapes out. Defenses would throw the kitchen sink at him and it was useless. Once he got the ball down in that block you might as well start jogging back down the floor because it was money. WAYMAN TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISDALE! I saw Blake Griffin go for 40 and 23 against Texas Tech in Norman. As we left the arena I heard all these people talking about how they'd just witnessed the greatest performance in Sooner history. I smiled, but I didn't nod. I let them have their thoughts, but I knew better. Why? Because I'd seen better. I saw Wayman Tisdale.
Arizona Republic (in Phoenix) has a story on its site, with a condolences link below it: http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/2009/05/15/20090515obittisdale-ON.html
one of the coolest things ever was watching him, jeff webster and brent price jacking around at huffman one hot july day in 1990. they were in constant chatter, laughing at everything while hitting every thing that they threw at the hoop. i just sat on the steps watching them for 20 minutes in awe.
I also will never forget the quote from Blake Griffin when he was asked about getting to wear #23 at OU. He referred to Wayman as "Mr. Tisdale." There's another kid who was raised properly.
every kid i grew up with, we all practiced emulating that sweet turn around J with the soft, effortless trademark release.
