The OSU community remembers the 10 men killed in the 2001 plane crash. The men were returning to Stillwater from an OSU basketball game in Colorado. Flowers laid at the memorial (above) stood out brightly against the black granite walls inscribed with the likenesses of the 10 men. A 2nd Annual Remember the10 Run will be held April 19 to pay tribute to the men.
Kendall Durfey always made his friends watch the last credits of every movie the group went to see.
“He would say, ‘Some day, my name is going to be on the screen, so I want you all to wait and see that,” said Shelli Meadows, who graduated from high school with Durfey.
Durfey’s name may never make it to the big screen, but it is forever etched in the history of Oklahoma State University.
Many students may not recognize Durfey’s name, for they were in high school when he and nine others died in a plane crash on their way back from an OSU basketball game in Colorado.
On Jan. 27, 2001, a chartered plane carrying eight team members, trainers and broadcasters along with two pilots crashed about 6:35 p.m. in a snowstorm about 40 miles east of Denver after taking off from Jefferson County Airport.
The OSU community paused Sunday to remember these men, observing moments of silence at the two basketball games and the wrestling match.
And Sunday, at 6:37 p.m., as the library carillon tolled 10 times, anyone within hearing distance was reminded of the legacy that OSU players Nate Fleming and Daniel Lawson, Coordinator of Media Relations Will Hancock, OSU Director of Basketball Operations Pat Noyes, Athletic Trainer Brian Luinstra, Student Manager Jared Weiberg, Broadcast Engineer Kendall Durfey, Oklahoma City Broadcaster Bill Teegins and pilots Denver Mills and Bjorn Falistrom left behind.
After the women’s basketball game against Kansas State, Meadows and many others paused to look at the memorial, three black granite walls inscribed with the likenesses of the 10 men, words chosen by the families and a kneeling cowboy statue titled “We Will Remember.” The statue is set beside a medallion featuring OSU’s Spirit Rider surrounded by 10 stars.
The smell of flowers wafted through the arena’s lobby, bouquets and wreaths placed at the foot of the 10 men’s photos.
Meadows, an OSU alumna, said it was her first time to see the memorial.
Looking at the memorial, Meadows thought back to the memories she had with Durfey, her classmate at Coweta High School.
“I just remember he was always super funny,” he said. “He had a crazy sense of humor.”
Keith Conrady, of Augusta, Kan., remembered coaching Luinstra in high school.
Conrady was an assistant football coach at Augusta High School, and Luinstra was not only a member of the football team but also a wrestler.
“He was a very good leader on the football field,” he said. “He was also ornery. Sometimes he would give his teachers fits. When it came time to be serious, though, he got the job done.”
Along with a memorial at both Gallagher-Iba Arena and in Colorado, the 2nd Annual Remember the 10 Run also pays tribute to the men.
The run will be held April 19. More information on the run is available at http://www.remembertheten.com/.
Harry Birdwell, former athletic director, said he was impressed with the dedication the community has shown in remembering the men.
Birdwell said the tragedy had a life-changing effect for many throughout the university administration, faculty and in the student body.
“Any time you have a major tragedy on a university campus, it doesn’t matter what it is that happens, whether it’s an incident like at Virginia Tech or whether it was 30 years ago, a plane crash that killed the entire football team from Wichita State, or the incident when the Marshall University football team was killed — each time you have an incident like this that happens within a community, it just brings the entire campus to its knees.”
Birdwell said a tragedy like the plane crash brings Oklahoma together like nothing else.
In times of stress, in times of tragedy, Oklahoma rallies together extraordinarily well, he said.
The tragedy as a whole made OSU a more caring and compassionate university, he said.
Birdwell said it was just surreal for the people who knew the 10 men, especially those in the administration, the basketball program and the Athletic Department “to grieve while helping to lead the university through this tragedy was just life-changing.”
“When you have a tragedy, everybody goes through different stages,” Birdwell said. “First, they deny. Then, they get angry, then they accept, they get angry again. Just dealing with the range of emotions on and off campus and with the families was a process that really took years. I guess, bottom line — it’s seven yeas later now. Healing has occurred, but you never get completely away from the incident.”
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