Gundy was a great high school quarterback at Midwest City. He was much sought after but decided to go with Pat Jones at O-State. As it turns out one of my friends who was best man at my wedding was a Midwest City guy who played sports in Gundy’s circle. Another one of my friends covered Gundy at O State when he became head coach.
Small world. Go figure.
Let me be clear. This story isn’t a diss of Gundy. Not at all.
Look into the eyes of that kid in the photo above. That little baby-faced motherfucker toppled the King of Oil who leveraged companies with Carl Icahn.
Aubrey McClendon didn’t survive Carl Icahn. Mike Gundy not only survived T Boone…he beat him.
That is what this story is about.
This is the story of that cute kid above who in his pre-mullet days never gave a clue he’d turn into The Mullet King.
I was seriously concerned if the NHL was going to complete their season. This would have been tragic for me because the Stanley Cup Tournament is the best post season tournament of the four major league sports.
There is an inherit beauty to the game of hockey which the masses in this country unfortunately don’t connect with on a greater level.
It’s a sport of speed, skill, smarts, and at times brutal toughness. The intensity in each shift is what makes it special. There’s no loafing or cruising. A standard shift on the ice is forty-five seconds. It’s a beautiful game.
Anyway…NHL commish Gary Bettman above gives a detailed explanation of the league’s return plan this summer.
I’m a Boston Bruins fan so this is great as the Bruins were the No. 1 seed in the East when play was halted. The defending champion St. Louis Blues were the No. 1 seed in the West.
Last season’s Finals were classic as the Blues won their first ever Stanley Cup with a Game 7 road win in Boston.
So slowly but surely the world of sports are getting back in place. The little golf thing this past week-end with Tiger, Phil, Tom, and Peyton was fun. I believe on June 11th or so the PGA Championship will take place in an inverted order of the four majors being played.
As we watch all of this slowly get back in place only one person in the country fails to display the appropriate smarts and caution. For crying out loud even Sean Hannity got on the idiots of the Ozarks for their stupidity this past past week-end. What were they thinking?
Is anyone holding their breath to see if Donald Trump will even mention the tragic murder of the unarmed black man in Minneapolis by the four white police officers? He can’t do that. His base wouldn’t tolerate it.
White people who voted for Trump should be ashamed because Birtherism and racism whether you want to admit it or not is a very inherit theme in his whole act.
So it always kind of amuses me when people in Oklahoma or the SEC fully embrace blacks when they’re helping their football and basketball teams win games for their schools.
Didn’t see many blacks in that swimming pool in the Ozarks. Just sayin’.
I don’t know who this young man is, but this is the dude I want singing on our Netflix film as the credits are running. I can feel his passion in the vocals.
I wrote my first country song today to this music titled ‘I Saw A Mullet’.
I’m not putting the whole thing on here yet. But this is how it starts:
‘I Saw A Mullet’ by el prez (my recording name) From the film ‘The Mullet King’.
Up in Payne Country…there’s a strange little man
People who know….. call him Mullet Man.
His hair is all long now and slick in back
But he looks like a lion… Boone could never hold back.
Well….I saw a mullet and he saw a man
I saw Gundy…. now I understand.
Now he’s well past forty…..
But even Jenni knows… he’s still a man.
Boone is up in heaven… with his Big 12 title towel
Very interesting. Five coaches from the SEC on the list. Two each from the Big 10 and Big 12. One from the ACC in Clemson. Four alone from the brutal SEC West where real football is still played. Not one PAC 12 coach in the top ten. The SEC West will be even more intriguing this season with my crazy boy Mike Leach at Miss State now in the division. Leach vs. Saban…OMG.
Since Baylor is a private school I’m not totally sure what the package is for new head coach Dave Aranda who was the defensive coordinator for defending national champion LSU.
Within the Big 12 it goes salary-wise top four 1 Herman, 2 Riley, 3 Mike Gundy, and 4 Gary Patterson.
Is Mike Gundy being overpaid? I would say yes for three reasons:
1 Mike Gundy fought with both Mike Holder and Boone Pickens over the O State non-conference portion of the schedule. They both wanted at least one premier national marquee game like OU and Texas do every year. Gundy prevailed after he threatened to take other jobs if he didn’t have control over the schedule.
That’s bullshit. If you want to be paid top ten elite money you should be playing good national competition in your non-conference schedule. One big boy, one solid team, and one cupcake. Not three cupcakes every season.
2 Mike Gundy’s bowl record of 8-5 is misleading because other than the 38-35 win over Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl they haven’t won a bowl game against a good football team in the Gundy era.
3 Texas after Mack Brown became an easy game for a period of time. It didn’t take all that much to beat Texas.
So for these reasons I think Mike Gundy’s salary is somewhat top heavy. Why should Mike Gundy be making more than Gary Patterson at TCU? I’m not sure why that is so.
I think this is a very big season for Mike Gundy as to where he stands as a coach not only nationally, but in the Big 12.
I’m not a huge country music fan, but I do enjoy some on Memorial Day and the Fourth of July.
I saw this yard sign yesterday in an affluent area of Edmond with about twenty American flags dotting the lawn with a large yard sign which read:
‘We Proudly Support Our Brave and Courageous Commander in Chief Donald Trump-God Bless President Trump’.
I took a picture with my cell and sent it to a friend.
My friend replied, “You must be in front of either Terry Neese or Jim Traber’s home.”
Anyway…don’t want to be political on a day in which we should be honoring those who gave up everything for our freedoms which we should never take for granted.
I’m crying right now. I loved Eddie Sutton. He and my father could have been brothers. My father’s life and some of his challenges mirrored those of Eddie Sutton. There is a place in my heart for Eddie Sutton which is very special.
It wasn’t just the fact he was the best basketball coach I’ve ever observed. It had more to do with how after Eddie Sutton’s fall from grace at Kentucky he didn’t give up. Instead, he became a better man and a better coach. A better human.
The same journey my father had to travel in mid-life.
There was a human element in Eddie Sutton which transcended Bedlam for me. I’m an OU guy, but quite frankly I came to respect and love Eddie Sutton more than any coach who’s ever coached football or basketball at OU.
Abe Lemons once told me, ” Eddie Sutton is the toughest son of a bitch I’ve ever coached against and I hated him at times when I was at Texas. But if I had a son and wanted him to learn about basketball and life…I’d send him to that son of a bitch Eddie Sutton. Sutton would make him a better man.”
So the first year the Thunder are here…by sheer luck my son and I had seats on the floor the night the Detroit Pistons came to town. Lo an behold… Eddie and Patsy Sutton with some of their grandchildren were next to our seats. I pushed my son aside and said, “I’m sitting next to Coach Sutton.”
So we start talking hoops and were at times interrupted by several of his former players from O State who came by to greet Coach. So as we were winding down our conversation as tip got near I said, ” Coach Sutton…Abe Lemons and I had a talk about you and he said you were the biggest son of a bitch he ever came across as a coach.”
Patsy Sutton then kind of gives me this WTF look. So I then quickly finished the story about Abe Lemons sending his son if he had one to Coach Sutton. Eddie started laughing and put his around me. It’s something I’ll always treasure.
The biggest mistake Sam Presti made wasn’t the Harden trade. No…the biggest mistake Presti made was not hiring Eddie Sutton to be Russell Westbrook’s life and basketball mentor for at least five years.
The notion of Russell Westbrook with Eddie Sutton is one which would have changed the way all of this went down in Oklahoma City. Eddie would have put an end to all that babysitting bullshit nonsense with both Russell and Kevin.
I’m not talking head coach at that point for Coach Sutton, but more along the lines of what Mo Cheeks tried to do with Russell. Don’t take that as a diss of Maurice Cheeks because I love him almost as much as I love Eddie Sutton. But there was an edge, yet a genuine human warmth with Eddie Sutton which I think would have resonated with Russell Westbrook as a young man.
In fact…I’m almost certain Russell Westbrook would have come to regard Coach Sutton as a second father of sorts. Not a doubt in my mind Russell would have fallen in love with Eddie Sutton the man. Just like I did.
I hope people in Oklahoma today realize what a great coach and person Eddie Sutton was beyond just the wins. He was a bona fide legend as a coach, a father, and a man.
Thank you, Coach Sutton. You made a difference for me and I wasn’t even one of your players.
I want to add another thing or two on here. People don’t realize what a great job Eddie Sutton did at both Arkansas and O State. O State was a hoops graveyard before Coach Sutton came back to Stillwater. Arkansas wasn’t much either before Eddie and Nolan as well.
Not trying to be snarky here on Coach Sutton’s obit, but since his departure from Stillwater the program has won ‘one’ NCAA Tournament basketball game. ONE…as in one. While the football school down the road got to an Elite 8 with Jeff Capel and a Final Four with Lon Kruger while producing three different NPOTY winners in Blake, Buddy, and Trey. Mike Holder as an AD has had virtually nothing to do with basketball success at O State. As in nothing.
Mike Holder will be front and center in my Netflix story The Mullet King. You can bet your ass on that one.
What Eddie Sutton did at O State to me rivals what the U.S. hockey team did in 1980. Well…almost.
Ask Bill Self if you doubt me. Ask Bill Self why he stayed at Kansas.
Below is Coach being honored with his great ’78 Arkansas Final Four team with the triplets of Moncrief, Delph, and Brewer. If you don’t know who those three were then you should be reading the Daily Thunder while contemplating what color underwear Darius Bazely is wearing today.
I saw this ad and cringed. This is why Oklahoma will continue to languish near the bottom in education, in innovation, and pretty much in all categories in which you don’t want to be a bottom dweller.
I don’t think Terry Neese will be the eventual GOP nominee in Oklahoma’s 5th Congressional race, but the fact of the matter is this is how a large slice of Oklahoma views the world in which we live.
Charles Barkley was right way back when. Oklahoma in reality never should have been awarded an NBA team. An NHL team…perhaps. And I write this despite the fact the Thunder has been a very solid success. I’m not dissing Clay Bennett. I admire the fact he and Aubrey gave this a roll.
I admire their vision and passion. I really do.
But the fact of the matter is you can’t put lipstick on a pig and make her something she’s not.
I’m not openly describing Terry Neese as a big fat ugly typical Oklahoma redneck. But I’m just making my own private observation on my little blog from Deer Creek, Oklahoma.
This frontline is looking somewhat serious out here in Deer Creek. I’m all over it. Pauli is of little help. She’s passed out on her bed with all her toys littered around her. I bought her a little stuffed Joe Exotic squeaky tiger and she had it in her mouth all day shaking it in her mouth. She’s done.
Storms about to roll into the Deer Creek Weather Station. I’m in an introspective mood. My second girlfriend in high school looked quite a bit like Carly Simon. I wonder if Carly Simon got her full place in history in the world of pop music?
What a brilliant artist. Hope Tiger brings his A game to the golf match tomorrow.
Don’t set yourself on fire during your cookouts. That would be really sad to live thru the coronavirus and then torch yourself on Memorial Day Week-End. Be safe.