Norman, Oklahoma USA

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Tommy

Tommy has 10 articles published.

Tommy: Longing for the days of reliability

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I recently passed the Catlett Music Center on the OU campus in Norman, and it stirred memories of a music appreciation class I took there nearly 50 years ago.

I wasn’t remembering the music. It was a classmate. Lyndle Byford.

We were both from small Oklahoma communities. We were the same age. Lyndle was a wide guy who played on the OU football team’s offensive line.

We sat close together in a cluster of desks assembled in a big room made for concerts or whatever. The building was way across campus for me. I often arrived late — or not at all.

But officially, I had nearly perfect attendance. The reason? Lyndle.

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Remembering Charley North

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RIP: A great coach and a great guy

My Uncle Ed Deerinwater had a habit of taking me along on his adventures. Along the way, I met some influential people.
Uncle Ed was a 45th Infantry major who took me to his National Guard weekend camp in Oklahoma City and let me fire an M-16. I was only about 10!

He also took me to my first OU football spring game, where I was introduced to journalism as a career. I couldn’t believe people were paid to watch a football game.

Uncle Ed also was a member of the football booster club in McAlester. On Friday nights in grade school and junior high, I ended up at McAlester High football or basketball games.

One evening, my mom told me Uncle Ed was dropping by and taking me to a football game in Wewoka. When he pulled up, I got into his Chevy Impala and said hello to his passenger.

It was Charley North, an assistant coach at McAlester High.

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Tommy: The Ticket’s DFW radio Sooners

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You might expect a Dallas-based sports talk station to go on and on about the Texas Longhorns.

But in The Ticket’s world, Oklahoma football isn’t the enemy; it’s family.

For marketing and metric purposes, The Ticket (KTCK AM1310, 96.7 FM) defines itself as a sports talk station, but it’s not really that.

It’s been around for about as long as I’ve lived in Texas. I’ve always dreaded sports talk because I’m not a hardcore sports fan (although I was a former Heisman Trophy voter and a sports journalist for about half my 40-year career. Also, my wife Brigitte was a longtime editor at a rival station in Dallas and, at first, didn’t like my fascination. She’s come around.)

The Ticket and some of its hosts are refreshing voices of reason in a state that is often defined by Texas pride. They don’t talk over one another and scream like The Sports Animal or any similar shows. You spend half your life on the D-FW freeways commuting, and when you turn on the Ticket, it’s like they’re in the car with you.

The heart of OU fandom on the Ticket starts with Corby Davidson.

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