It was my good fortune to be a student member of the Pride of Oklahoma from 1983-1986 and to serve as the Percussion Graduate Assistant in 1987. During that time I made friends for a lifetime and traveled the country supporting the Sooners during a golden age for Sooner Football and the Pride of Oklahoma. All of us were very proud to be among the very first collegiate marching bands to receive the Sudler Trophy in recognition of the long-standing tradition of excellence for which the Pride was known dating back to the years of Prof. Wehrend, Mr. Haug, Dr. Braught, and of course Coach Thrailkill. Thanks to the efforts of both Coach and Roland Barrett, we consistently sounded and looked great on the field and were held to the highest of standards for representing the university on and off the field. We were relentless in our support of the Sooners, rain, shine, or ice (thanks for the late ’85 Bedlam kickoff ESPN). More importantly, I always felt that both of these men cared about all of us as human beings. I am grateful to both Coach and Roland for the opportunities they gave me to develop as a leader, teacher, arranger and as a person. I am also grateful specifically to Coach for making sure we always knew when Thursday was (“People it’s Thursday!”) and for always identifying what “half our problem” was. To this day I still cannot identify the other half! ☺ All this to say, for those of you who wore the uniform of the Pride before me, alongside me, after me, or under my direction, you have my sincere respect and gratitude for your role in creating the culture of excellence for the Pride of Oklahoma. As disagreements over the current state of the Pride continue, I ask that you try to understand how much it means to me too. We may have differences of opinion on how best to effect positive change for the Pride, but I truly believe we can find points of commonality to do so. Some may choose instead to be really angry and bitter and cast aspersions on one another. I certainly wont deny anyone that right, but I’m going to focus my energy on supporting the current students instead. If you’re interested in supporting the current students, I’ll see you October 18. Boomer Sooner!
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 16:16:45 +0000
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