Neat story about Golloway.

Ardmore_Sooner · Feb 22, 2006

Pretty neat story I ran into.

http://www.soonersports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=300&ATCLID=242354

Dying of cancer, sister of OU Coach Sunny Golloway asks for special favor ...
The dying wish of a sister can be a powerful force. Six years ago in December of 1999, the sister of University of Oklahoma baseball coach Sunny Golloway’s passed away after suffering for 3 ½ years from breast cancer.

It was an absolutely horrible ordeal for Catherine and Sunny as chemotherapy and radiation was performed as she withered away to a shell of her normal weight and suffered day after day trying to beat this deadly disease which affected more than 200,000 women in the United States alone in 2005.

“Several months prior to her death, everyone realized there was not much hope,” said Sunny.

“Cancer had spread into my sister’s lungs, bones and ultimately into her brain. As cancer continued to spread, she was in tremendous pain and doctors ordered special morphine patches which could only be applied to her back with double gloves because the medication was so strong.

Collegiate Baseball Newspaper | Kaiser Bio | Golloway Bio

“I still vividly remember my birthday on Nov. 19 as I drove to her home. I put on the double gloves to place the morphine patches on her back. From that day, I prayed for God to take my sister if that was His will. She was in such pain. It hurt so much watching the most special person in my life being ravaged by this horrible disease.

“I loved her so much. She passed on a month later and is now in a much better place in heaven.”

Her love of Oklahoma baseball and her brother never wavered. For nearly every baseball game he coached when he was an assistant coach with the Sooners, she was there in the stands. She knew every player and was almost like the team mother.

She was also supportive of his career when he accepted the head coaching position at Oral Roberts University.

She was fortunate to raise a wonderful son named Kody who is an extremely gifted baseball player.

As he went through Little League, youth baseball and the start of high school baseball, she always hoped that one day he could play for Uncle Sunny.

That is why the day she passed on in December of 1999 is so important to this trio of people.

Catherine’s dying wish to Sunny was to have her son play for him.

At the time, Kody was hardly a huge prospect that every college wanted. But in time, he would turn into a tremendous ball player who was coveted by many.

Sunny was the head coach at Oral Roberts University at the time of her death and served as skipper at that program from 1996-2003. Prior to that, he was an assistant coach at OU from 1992-1995.

Prior to the 2004 season, he came back to Oklahoma as an assistant.

This is where divine intervention stepped in.

Kody was now a force on the high school baseball scene at Santa Fe H.S. in Edmond, Okla. He registered a team-best and school single-season record .435 batting average his senior year. He led the team with 48 RBI from the leadoff spot and cracked 19 home runs, including four in the state tournament.

If that wasn’t enough, he swiped 31 bases. He made the All-State team and was drafted in the 24th round by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

He was pursued hard by Oklahoma and other schools. But it was a natural fit with Uncle Sunny at Oklahoma with the opportunity to fulfill the dying wish of his mother.

In his freshman season with the Sooners a year ago, the talented centerfielder hit .305 with 10 homers, 15 2B, 34 RBI and was 13/14 in stolen bases.
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Neat story about Golloway.

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Neat story about Golloway.

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