“Hey, Josh, I’m sorry.” I lost track right then and stared at him with a puzzled look. I had known him since I came here in 1999, and this was an easy one: He didn’t owe me an apology for anything.
But I could tell because his voice was softer than normal that this had been bothering him.
“I said a few things about you after your column Friday, and if word gets back to you, I regret saying it and did not mean it.”
And that is how I am going to remember Will Hancock. I never asked what he said, and even if I knew, I would not have taken it personally. Getting cut down is part of this job.
But Will, OSU’s basketball media relations director who was one of 10 people killed in Saturday’s plane crash on a return trip from Boulder, Colo., was the kind of person that wanted to look everyone in the eye, even if it meant making an unnecessary apology.
That’s also how I will always remember Stillwater. It is full of people like Will, whose hearts are bigger than anything else — big enough to overcome another tragedy that has hit Oklahoma.
This state has shown it has the heart to overcome anything. It overcame race riots, the Dust Bowl, floods, the bombing and the tornadoes.
Natural disaster, evil-spirited people or just an accident, it never matters here.
Oklahomans can handle any punch. That has been proven.
What still amazes is how this state does it. All you have to do is look around Stillwater to see how it gets done.
It starts with hugs and tears. I have given hugs this weekend to people I’d never hugged before. I have cried in front of people I had never met before. I am not alone.
From there, people just start to listen. I have told my story of almost joining Will and the team on the trip to Colorado, as O’Collegian writers do about once every two years or so, to hundreds of people.
All they did was listen. That’s all I had hoped they would do.
In coming days, I will try to do the same. It started today, when I took every story and ad off of this issue’s main sports page in the only way I knew to honor our fallen Cowboys.
Like the rest of OSU, I am just trying to put things in perspective.
One thing that is in perspective is that Stillwater is still the best town in the best state in America.
We know that in our hearts.
And our hearts know what they are talking about.
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