Jay C. Upchurch

ESPN’s “College GameDay” crew didn’t have to go very far between stops this week. After setting up shop in Norman over the weekend for the Oklahoma-Texas Tech game, it made the 80-mile trek north up I-35 and then east to Stillwater. There’s a fairly important game on tap there this Saturday, as Oklahoma and Oklahoma […]

Patience, please. There’s still a long row to hoe this NBA season, and we all knew the Oklahoma City Thunder’s initiation was going to be anything but easy. 1-9 OVERALLNOT ENOUGH CONCERN So don’t go putting your season tickets on eBay just 11 games into an eight-month, 82-game journey that more than anything is going […]

Long before Tiger Woods began attracting enormous galleries with his record-obliterating victories and negotiating $100 million endorsement deals as a result of those performances, corporate America’s marriage to professional sports and the athletes who play them was doing just fine. ENDORSEMENT PIKEPUBLIC STAGE Sports heroes have become public icons over the years. It’s nothing new, […]

By the time you read this ” barring another hanging chad fiasco down in Florida ” this country will have officially elected its 44th president. And barring some unforeseen shift in the momentum that carried Barack Obama’s campaign to the brink of victory over the last few weeks, that president will be a black man. […]

By the time you read this ” barring another hanging chad fiasco down in Florida ” this country will have officially elected its 44th president. And barring some unforeseen shift in the momentum that carried Barack Obama’s campaign to the brink of victory over the last few weeks, that president will be a black man. […]

With Oklahoma’s centennial statehood celebration so prevalent in the local news cycle over the past couple of years, there have been plenty of stories written about famous Oklahomans, ranging from politicians to athletes to actors and astronauts, and just about everything in between. DENVER PIGGLY WIGGLIESJUMPING JACK No one can question the widespread popularity and […]

Oklahoma State’s football squad is on a mission this season. It’s central focus is gaining national respect. So far, so good. PILING UP ‘W’s’ SOURCE OF MUCH CONSTERNATION The Cowboys have opened up with seven straight victories, including a 28-23 upset of second-ranked Tigers in Columbia, Mo. During that stretch, OSU topped the 55-point mark […]

Losing sure brings out the ugly in people. The Oklahoma-Texas game from Oct. 11 produced the ideal example of unsightliness. The Longhorns scored to take a 45-35 lead with 4:02 left in the game, and before the two teams’ respective kick units could get lined up, thousands of Sooner fans started lining the aisles to […]

It wasn’t all that long ago the North Canadian River more resembled a cavernous ditch filled with sandbars, rocks and weeds, and an occasional trickle of murky water than a flourishing waterway. By all accounts, the river was a hard-to-ignore eyesore that distracted from any attempts downtown Oklahoma City made to redefine itself as a […]