In the early 70’s I was one of a group of Eagle Scouts which was invited to present the colors at the Oklahoma State Republican Convention. I was 15 or 16 years old at the time, as were the other Scouts with me on the Color Guard.
Of course political conventions seldom start on time and this one was no exception. It got later and later… and later and still no sign that the delegates would be seated and the convention would start anytime soon. Boys will be boys, and the later it got, the more bored we became.
It wasn’t long before we began to get a little unruly. We began to horse around and roughhouse. We got louder. Several adults nearby gave us the eye. Our Scout Masters asked us to settle down. We tried.. we really did… but we were teen boys bored to tears waiting for adults to get their act together. After more than two hours of waiting we were pretty much beyond hope.
That is when it happened.
A tall, distinguished looking gentleman walked towards us, saying, “Boys, come here a minute, I want to talk to you.” Each of us, I am sure, got that feeling in the stomach, the one you get when you KNOW you are in trouble now. We stopped horsing around and slowly walked towards him as he walked forward towards us.
“Boys, I just want to meet you and thank you for being here to do this tonight,” the man said, no hint of scolding in his voice. Then he said, “I’m Bud Wilkinson.”
There we were, at least a couple of decades before Wayne and Garth first bowed and proclaimed, “We’re noy worthy! We’re not worthy!” But I am sure that that is exactly what each of us said in our minds. I know I did. We stood there in awe with the great coaching legend not just in front of us.. but talking to us!
Mr. Wilkinson shook each of our hands, asked us each our name and then repeating our name thanked us each personally for being there that night. A great man taking time to talk to a group of kids. A real class act.
I don’t know how much longer we had to wait to present the flags after that. But I know we didn’t make another sound or disturb any one around us. We were speechless!
Have you had a close encounter with an OU coach? Met one of the Trinity (Wilkinson, Switzer and Stoops)? Share your story too!
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Great story! Thanks for sharing.