Ex-Pride director withheld endorsement of Stolarik, Boren says criticism from ‘small organized campaign’
In email correspondence to OU President David Boren, former long-time Pride of Oklahoma director Gene Thrailkill withheld his endorsement of recent band director hire Justin Stolarik, according to e-mail correspondence sent to OU President David Boren and obtained from an open records request by The Oklahoma Daily student newspaper.
Thrailkill was a member of the university’s search committee commissioned to find a replacement for departing director Brian Britt.
The emails also show that Boren characterized complaints about changes Stolarik has made to Pride traditions as coming from a “small organized campaign”, not representative of most fans attending OU football games, the newspaper reported.