Excellence Sought Sooner

I've come to realize I never worked just for a paycheck. Nope, I've sought excellence all along.

     Right out of OU my goal wasn't just to cover the high schools in the Ardmore paper's circulation area, but to expand it by covering outlying teams better than their hometown newspapers.

     I asked initially for an assistant, but my boss said I first had to show my plan was working. More than covering AHS like a college with a column and sidebar as well as a game story and picture page, I gathered and wrote game stories for the 10 high schools in my area. 

     After a year of excellent coverage, I earned my assistant, and we covered from Purcell north to Thackerville on the Red River, west to Duncan and east to Broken Bow -- pretty much southern Oklahoma. Outlying readers loved it, asking for handfuls of our papers to be made available in their towns. 

     That's when my boss told me enough excellence. "Stop it now!" he barked, because it was costing the company for extra drivers, trucks and gas just to deliver a small bundle to each little town. You can be too excellent? Who knew? Go figure.

     At the innovative "Daily Oklahoman" we were all committed to greater excellence in sports content and page design that at the time was the envy of the industry. And I took that excellent blueprint first to Phoenix and then Albuquerque as sports editor -- where I encountered nay-sayers and foot-draggers only looking for a paycheck and a lazy job.

     I left newspapers after refusing an order to print fake news, and worked for electric utilities seeking excellence in their communications before God called me to a pulpit, where I found serving the Lord should be nothing but excellence. 

   And then at the Tea Party's think tank, our sole goal was excellent candidate campaigns and handling of political issues. Hmmm, seems everything I learned while working behind the curtain of politics, laughed off back then as conspiracy theories, is turning out to be true after all. Most people are shocked at today's revelations of government corruption and sedition, but not me.

     Now I smile as I see this administration striving for and achieving excellence over the violent objections of today's nay-sayers and foot-draggers. Divisive politics are not welcome here, so that's all I'll say, but excellence has always been my goal at whatever I'm tasked. 

     And I strived to be an excellent husband who lovingly kept his marriage vows until death did us part. My 50-ish children both praise me as a father -- a role I embraced rather than hang out with coaches and players like most sportswriters do to strengthen their careers. No, I parked my press pass at my front door and watched what the family wanted on TV, which often didn't include sports events -- except for OU of course.

God has guided my life from one crazy but successful venture after another.

     I still wonder why I was such a dismal student who failed several classes in school. No excellence there, but in my five seminary classes I not only made straight A's but all 100s. Yes, I didn't miss a single question on all those tests! But I give God full credit for that.

     And as I look back over 79 trips around the sun, I recognize His hand for the excellence I've enjoyed. Thank you again, Yeshua, for watching over and directing me. He and His angels did an excellent job.

     Now I seek excellence among Sooner Nation to better support OU sports, seeking to inspire our fans to CHEER like a champion.

     Excellence has been a hallmark ever since Bud Wilkinson notched national championships and won 47 straight games. OU's lady  gymnasts won a national title last year, and Patty Gasso's dynastic softball program captured a fourth natty the year before. What's more OU's women made the basketball's March madness. One of my goals with Senior Sooners is to generate greater support of women's sports, which have proven more than worthy by winning national championships that any other school would love to celebrate.