By JOHN E. HOOVER Sports Columnist on Aug 18, 2012, at 4:51 PM Updated on 8/18 at 4:51 PM
LANGSTON — I came here to write a column for Sunday’s Tulsa World on Langston University’s new athletic director, college football legend Mike Garrett.
But I return from my first trip to this little school on the prairie struck by the Lions’ staggeringly good athletic facilities.
Equally impacting was the enthusiasm with which Garrett and new president Dr. Kent J. Smith Jr. want to combine Langston’s proud tradition with an exceedingly bright future.
“We’ve sort of stepped out on faith together,” Smith said Saturday of he and his legendary AD. “Because we both believe that Langston’s best days are ahead. It certainly has a storied history, but we believe the best is yet to come.”
As for history, well, just go back one year. That’s when 12,000-seat W.E. Anderson Stadium (and its shiny new AstroPlay surface and sparkling new pressbox and luxury suites) started hosting preseason high school football scrimmages. On Friday night, they hosted another one, this time a three-way between Bishop Kelley, Guthrie and Oklahoma City Douglass.
Smith said some 800 people turned out.
“Phenomenal,” he said.
Smith’s next goal is to host Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass in a regular-season non-district matchup. How cool would that be? Two great schools, named after two black history icons, with two dynamic student bodies in an annual football showdown at a historically black college.
“Go figure,” Smith said. “Makes a lot of sense.
“I told the Douglass coach last night, if you guys want to play that game at Langston, as long as we can get it approved through the high school athletic association, consider it done. We just need to agree to a date.”
Smith also wants Langston to host high school track meets (the brand new eight-lane track is as good as there is in the state), high school basketball tournaments (C.F. Gayles Fieldhouse is gorgeous and certainly big enough) and eventually some high school football playoff games.
“And because of our centrality, in terms of location, it’s a perfect place,” Smith said.
Indeed, Langston is 45 minutes from Oklahoma City and 90 minutes from Tulsa, 30 minutes south of Stillwater, 30 minutes north of Edmond.
“I want to have a conversation with the high school athletic association about hosting,” Smith said. “We have great facilities, and it’s almost like a best-kept secret in that in Langston, Oklahoma, we have great facilities. We’re gonna start to sell that.”
As Smith and Garrett try to bolster the athletic and academic reputation of the school, discussions have begun to explore a potential move out of the NAIA and into the NCAA. That’s all extremely preliminary, though, what with both men beginning their third month at LU.
“That’s the big question a lot of people ask: ‘You hired Mike Garrett; what does that mean? Will you go to such-and-such?’ ” Smith said. “What I’ve said to Mike is, evaluate where we are and whatever we do, whatever we decide, it has to make good academic sense for the university and it has to make good financial sense for the university.
“I’m not after joining whatever conference or going to the NCAA if it doesn’t make sense for us as an institution. And we’ll figure that out. Obviously there will be conversations about where we’re going to go or where we are, do we go NCAA or not. But the most important question is why and what impact will it have on the university as a whole.”
Investments made by OSU's Board of Regents in brick and mortar in recent years means Langston, like Oklahoma’s other regional universities, has a realistic chance to jump to NCAA Division II. What Smith wants to do is get the high school athletes on his campus, and he believes they’ll be sold on Langston.
U.S. News and World Report’s 2011 data shows LU’s in-state tuition is second-lowest among the state’s regional schools at $3,827, and ranks No. 1 in lowest in-state per-credit-hour cost at $132.45.
“First of all, we put high school students in great facilities,” Smith said. “Second of all, Langston University starts to recruit those young men and young women to this campus. We have great academic programs on this campus that we also have not sold. If I can just get them here — I’m finding in two months (on the job that) a lot of people have never set foot on the Langston University campus."
Guilty as charged.
“If I can get them here," he said, "they’ll start to see this is an incredible place.”
Only active print or digital subscribers of the Tulsa World are allowed to post comments on stories posted to Tulsaworld.com. After you fill out the form below and click submit, your comment will be published instantly online along with your screen name.
By clicking "Submit" you are agreeing to our terms and conditions.
