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Eli Lederman, ESPN Employees Author
STILLWATER, Okla. — Within the 60 years since Lou Watkins graduated from Oklahoma State, she has held numerous roles across the college, seen almost all 250 video games Mike Gundy has coached, and, at one time or one other, held the destiny of his skilled future in her palms.
Solely just lately, nevertheless, has Watkins been capable of ask Gundy what was actually on her thoughts:
“What was he considering benching the quarterback on Saturday?”
Watkins, an 82-year-old resident of Legacy Village of Stillwater, was within the stands to see Cowboys quarterback Alan Bowman throw two interceptions and full simply 48.1% of his passes in Oklahoma State’s 22-19 loss to Utah on Sept. 21. Two days later, it was all everybody was speaking about contained in the halls of Legacy Village, a swanky senior residing neighborhood situated 4 miles from Boone Pickens Stadium.
That is as a result of Gundy’s weekly go to was approaching.
“I’ve seen him on tv. I have been to all of the video games,” stated Sharon Brown, an 84-year-old resident who earned her diploma from Oklahoma State in 1962 and has considerations concerning the Cowboys’ dormant operating sport. “However for him to return to our home? It is surreal.”
Sparked by a one-off vacation radio particular in December, Legacy Village is the brand new house of Gundy’s coach’s present this fall, drawing almost 100 residents to the ability’s fourth-floor ballroom each Monday, each hanging on each phrase from the coach. In the neighborhood of retirees — some with connections to Oklahoma State relationship again 70 years — they really feel as shut as ever to their faculty.
“It is among the best issues we have ever completed,” Gundy instructed ESPN.
THE HOTTEST COMMODITY on fall Monday nights at Legacy Village is a seat with an excellent view of the ballroom stage. This week, Joyce Wuetig, 86, is the primary resident within the room simply after 5 p.m., almost a full hour earlier than the published begins. By 5:30, the room is brimming.
“I am arduous of listening to, so I at all times attempt to sit up shut,” says Wuetig, who invitations her son-in-law to attend the radio present every week. “I like to listen to Coach Gundy converse — I like his voice.”
Legacy Village sits on 55 acres of land with a view of a golf course and affords unbiased residing, assisted residing and reminiscence care providers. The neighborhood opened in March 2020. Gary and Nancy Franklin, a pair of retired accountants from Stillwater, moved in that month, three days after their fiftieth marriage ceremony anniversary.
“There’s at all times been an OSU spirit right here,” Nancy says. “However the present being right here has upped it a couple of notches.”
Gundy arrives at 6 p.m. on the dot, 90 minutes after the neighborhood’s dinner buffet. The residents cheer and pump black and orange pompoms into the air as he walks in. About 50 confirmed up for the primary stay broadcast in Week 1; one other 70 or so got here in Week 2, prompting the Legacy Village workers to alter the ballroom format and start limiting attendees from the skin public solely to friends with invitations from residents.
On this Monday, about 100 chairs face the stage, and few are empty. Every of Gundy’s first 4 visits to Legacy Village got here after an Oklahoma State win. However now, on the heels of the Cowboys’ first lack of 2024, the 57-year-old coach prepares to get grilled as a producer passes round a microphone for residents to ask questions in the course of the first business break.
“Absolutely after that sport you’ve got acquired some ideas,” Gundy says. “Y’all cannot be that good now.”
The questions are pointed however pleasant. The residents right here spend their Saturdays watching the Cowboys within the theater room. It is a plugged-in crowd. In the course of the week, they sustain by way of the pages of the Stillwater Information Press and different native newspapers.
Minutes in, one man will get as much as ask a query on many residents’ minds.
“What’s up with this example the place Ollie Gordon cannot get out of the pocket and run?” he asks.
“Nicely, it is going to be robust on him,” Gundy replies earlier than repeating an unsatisfying reply about defenses loading the field in opposition to the Cowboys. “It’s totally disappointing that there is actually not quite a bit we are able to do about it.”
Later, a resident asks concerning the thought course of when Gundy benched his beginning quarterback at halftime in opposition to Utah, then threw Bowman again into the sport within the fourth quarter. One other needs to learn about Gundy screaming at a referee and is inquisitive about what sparked the offended second.
“I am normally actually good about that,” Gundy replies. “Officers are like lecturers and law enforcement officials — they’re individuals you may’t management. So that you need to be actual good to them…”
Gundy has joked that Legacy Village is likely one of the few locations he can stroll into confidently with none enemies. Facility officers estimate not less than 75% of the residents maintain some form of connection to Oklahoma State.
On his first go to, Gundy was surprised by what number of faces he acknowledged.
“I feel it is arduous for me to appreciate it, however I am type of at that age the place I do know so many individuals that will be right here,” he says.
WES AND LOU Watkins moved into Legacy Village the identical week the ability opened in March 2020, 64 years after Wes first enrolled at Oklahoma State in 1956.
Wes served as scholar physique president, then launched a prolonged political profession that included 20 years within the U.S. Congress. The Wes Watkins Heart for Worldwide Commerce Growth sits immediately throughout from Boone Pickens Stadium, and Wes and Lou nonetheless stay closely concerned on the college, often attending soccer video games and different occasions on campus.
“I have been in additional homecoming parades than anybody else,” says Wes, who’s 85.
As Gundy speaks a few Cowboys offense that floundered in opposition to Utah, Wes is positioned within the entrance row sporting a visor just like one Gundy might need worn in his first decade in cost at Oklahoma State. Throughout a business break, he grabs the mic and makes a pitch, simply in case Gundy is trying to change his offensive coordinator.
“You see this hat I’ve acquired on?” he quips. “I am for rent.”
A number of rows behind him is Althea Wright. She arrived in Stillwater in 1953, again when the college was known as Oklahoma A&M, and later married a basketball participant named Mel Wright, who famously sank a last-second jumper over Wilt Chamberlain to beat Kansas in February 1957.
Whereas Mel performed basketball and baseball, Althea was a cheerleader.
“We wore much more garments than [cheerleaders] put on now,” says Althea, who’s 89. “And we did not should do any of these athletics methods you see them do now. I can not even think about.”
Jack Nasworthy, 84, hangs on each one in every of Gundy’s phrases. His father, Elmer, wrestled in Stillwater from 1933 to 1936, and Nasworthy adopted the identical path as a member of Oklahoma State’s nationwide champion wrestling groups in 1959 and 1961. He tried out for the U.S. Olympic staff forward of the 1960 Summer time Video games.
Dave Hunziker, the radio voice of the Cowboys, has in-laws in Legacy Village. Throughout the ballroom are the mom of Oklahoma State soccer energy coach Rob Glass and Lou Watkins, who realized easy methods to handle the noise round Gundy within the turbulent moments of his tenure throughout a part of her 23 years on the college’s board of regents.
“We type of had to determine what storms to climate [with Gundy],” she says.
Inside a neighborhood so deeply related to Oklahoma State, there are a handful of Oklahoma followers. Regularly, they’re beginning to floor for Gundy’s weekly visits, too.
“We’re all associates, and some of them performed soccer for the Sooners,” Lou Watkins says. “After we’re watching Bedlam within the theater, we’re not at all times as variety as we needs to be.”
ONE OF COLLEGE soccer’s most singular and long-held traditions, the coach’s call-in radio present started as a weekly alternative for a coach to attach on to his fan base, and sometimes vice versa. However whereas coaches are extra insulated than ever, and as packages have a mess of the way to get their message out to the world, the call-in present has grow to be outdated.
Michigan, as an example, is among the many newest packages to maneuver its weekly radio present from a public setting to a studio inside its staff facility. And fewer coaches are fielding weekly questions from followers in 2024. This fall, Clemson notably joined the record of faculties the place the pinnacle coach is not taking calls from followers throughout his radio present (see: Tyler from Spartanburg).
But in Stillwater, in a room of 70- and 80-year-olds, Gundy’s weekly radio session has by no means felt extra alive.
The thought to convey Gundy’s present to Legacy Village got here late final yr. Hunziker had at all times wished to host an Oklahoma State Christmas particular and thought the retirement neighborhood may very well be a perfect place for a festive occasion, bringing coaches and athletes to Legacy Village to mingle with the residents.
The vacation present drew rave opinions. The expertise left Kristi Lester, Legacy Village’s gross sales and advertising director, eager to do it extra typically.
Lester’s timing turned out to be good. Gundy’s radio present had known as a number of locations house lately — native Chick-fil-As and Slim Chickens eating places amongst them — however most just lately a Rib Crib close to Boone Pickens Stadium.
The contract with Rib Crib expired on the finish of the 2023 season, and Lester and the management at Legacy Village have been enthusiastic about including Gundy’s present to their resident programming. However they did not count on the affect it might make this fall.
“It used to simply be game-day Saturdays that will get individuals excited,” Lester says. “However now you see it all through the week. There is a true spirit. It is given them one thing new and significant to sit up for. I am starting to surprise if they’ve the rest to speak about.”
The present is contracted to stay at Legacy Village for the subsequent two seasons past 2024. There’s additionally a brand new wrinkle within the present. Every week this fall, an Oklahoma State soccer participant joins for the ultimate 20 minutes of the published.
For the residents, the athlete appearances peel again one other layer on the staff they watch on Saturdays. The postshow picture ops are widespread, as properly. Althea Wright just lately turned a great-grandmother, and she or he scrolls previous images of her new child great-grandchild to seek out the image she took with Gordon, the Cowboys’ star operating again, a couple of weeks in the past.
For a former athlete equivalent to Nasworthy, the visits are additionally a window into the subsequent technology of Cowboys, who will signify his college lengthy after he is gone.
“As you grow old, you recognize quite a lot of that stuff,” Nasworthy says. “As a result of they’re the individuals developing. That is individuals which are going to be right here one other 50 years. Which means quite a bit to us. To see good individuals, those that need to do good for the college. Loyalty issues.”
STAR OKLAHOMA STATE linebacker Nick Martin was one of many first gamers to look for the closing segments of the radio present. When Bowman, Oklahoma State’s 25-year-old, seventh-year quarterback visited, he instructed the group he was glad to lastly be in a room the place he felt younger.
The athletes arrive at Legacy Village immediately after the Cowboys’ Monday night apply and obtain title, picture and likeness funds for his or her appearances. After the Utah sport, the visitor was veteran broad receiver Brennan Presley.
“You see that they are greater than a soccer participant,” says Nancy Franklin, 79. “You see that they’ve targets and a life. They’re not one-dimensional.”
As with Gundy, the residents ask questions in the course of the business breaks whereas Presley is onstage. They need to learn about his string of athletic siblings who all went by way of native highschool energy Bixby. They ask concerning the crunching shot he took to his ribs within the loss to Utah.
Later, Presley acquired a query about his relationship life and a previous relationship with the daughter of offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn.
“What’s your relationship like with the offensive coordinator?” the resident wonders. “How about his daughter?”
“We’re off-air, proper?” Presley replies, a nervous smile spreading throughout his face.
“As we speak’s program is delivered to you by Frigidaire,” Hunziker cuts in.
The group laughs and Presley’s first go to to Legacy Village continues easily. Afterward, he takes photos with each resident who needs one — and there are various.
“Generally you may undervalue what it means to different individuals,” he says. “I do know what it felt like once I was a child seeing my favourite faculty soccer participant in particular person. It was actually cool to get out right here. I acquired to fulfill those that I’d have by no means in any other case met.”
As Presley leaves Legacy Village, one other coach’s present is within the books. It is a vibrant neighborhood of retirees, and the neighborhood’s programming consists of yoga, bingo and film nights, however Gundy’s visits have been one thing extra.
“That is by far the very best setting we have completed this from,” Gundy says. “I find it irresistible.”
For one hour every Monday, the OSU world involves Legacy Village. And after the radio present wraps and Gundy departs, the vitality contained in the neighborhood stays, permeating the remainder of the week, fueling the residents’ game-day “table-gates” and lingering all over to the subsequent Monday night, when Gundy returns and the fourth-floor ballroom is packed once more.
“When Mike Gundy is right here, we really feel like we’re a part of the dialog,” Brown says. “We simply need to be shut with the issues we love essentially the most. For many people, that is Oklahoma State.”
