A procession of players and coaches slowly took each step on the ladder, stepping higher and higher toward the numerous banners that adorn the Gallagher-Iba Arena rafters, reached up and snipped off a piece of history.
With each slice of the scissors, the raucous crowd grew louder and louder, savoring 39 years of waiting for the Oklahoma State men’s basketball team and its fans.
An outright conference basketball championship had finally come to Stillwater.
Meanwhile, more than 500 miles away in Ames, Iowa, the Oklahoma State wrestling team was in the process of earning yet another Big 12 Conference Championship by sending eight wrestlers into the finals of the Big 12 Championship.
The two Big 12 Championships would come less than 12 hours apart for Oklahoma State.
The wrestling team has become accustomed to winning Big 12 titles, with Saturday’s marking the sixth time in eight years the team has won the title, but the basketball team earned its first Big 12 conference championship with a 70-41 win over Texas A&M.
Oklahoma State guard John Lucas doesn’t plan to stop on this Big 12 Championship, or any championship for that matter.
“It’s my first time,” Oklahoma State guard John Lucas said about cutting down the nets. “But I know I want to keep doing it again and again.”
The mood in Stillwater was celebratory, but OSU wrestling coach John Smith was disappointed to come away with only four individual Big 12 champions despite placing eight in the finals.
“I thought we could get seven or eight (individual champions) to tell you the truth,” Smith said. “I think once you get the team title wrapped up like we did coming into the finals, that’s behind you. You look at individual champions and four was less than I thought we’d get.”
Combined together, however, the two Big 12 Championships represented a significant achievement for Oklahoma State athletics, OSU athletic director Harry Birdwell said Sunday.
“It was pretty special to have two in 12 hours,” Birdwell said. “That was a good day.”
Oklahoma State has won three Big 12 Championships this year. The women’s soccer team captured the tournament championship in San Antonio for its first-ever Big 12 Championship as well. Combined with a showing in the Cotton Bowl for the football team and the men’s cross country team’s 16th place finish at nationals, Birdwell said OSU has seen a large amount of athletic success this year.
“What I like about it is that we’re not done yet,” Birdwell said. “This could be one of the special years in the university’s athletic history.”
The focus Saturday, however, was on the Oklahoma State basketball team and its venerable coach, who finally got to ascend the ladder in the house that his mentor helped build.
Sutton pushed all the attention on his players, who defied what the media predicted for them at the beginning of the season, but admitted that Saturday had the makings of something special in OSU athletic history.
“It was a very special day,” Sutton said.
The fact that 500 miles away and eight hours later in Iowa, the OSU wrestling team would add to its storied success was just icing on the cake.
“You just don’t have enough days like that one,” Birdwell said.
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