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After cheering for OU, OSU, Byford family switching to ORU
Published: 11/28/2012 2:37 PM
Last Modified: 11/28/2012 2:37 PM

Corbin Byford’s dad is switching allegiances again.

Byford is a freshman basketball player at Oral Roberts University. His father, Lyndle, was an All-Big Eight offensive lineman at Oklahoma in 1981. Tonight, Lyndle is expected to make the trip to Tulsa to watch his son play against his alma mater.

Do the Byfords bleed crimson and cream?

“We were raised diehard OU fans to be honest,” Corbin said. “Just growing up, OU football was the thing in the house. On Saturdays -- game days -- we all gathered around the TV and watched together. It was definitely a big thing, growing up to be an OU fan in all sports -- not just football, but every sport.”

So, how does Corbin feel about playing against the Sooners?

“It’s a great opportunity to just be able to go out there and be able to play against a good program like OU,” he said. “Being that my dad graduated from there and it’s his alma mater and everything, it gives it a little special edge to the game because of the fact that he did play there and this time he will be rooting against them instead of for them.”

It won’t be Lyndle’s first time to be in this predicament. His daughter, Megan, played basketball at Oklahoma State.

“He cheered against (OU) and for a rival team at that too, so he had to wear orange,” Corbin said. “He always joked that after he took off the OSU shirt, his body always itched really bad when he had that shirt on, but he got used to it eventually.”

Corbin also said an older brother played baseball at OSU for a season. So, because of the kids, dad keeps having to switch sides.

“But deep down OU football has got a special place in his heart,” Corbin said. “He watches them every Saturday and we talk about the games all the time. I like to watch OU football myself because we don’t have a football team here. You kind of have a team that you support a little bit and OU would be my team. But in basketball it’s all about strictly business, going out there and playing the game.”




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ORU Sports

Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. Since 2001, he has been honored more than 30 times in Associated Press and Society of Professional Journalists contests for sports reporting, sports columns and sports features. He is the Oklahoma State football beat writer and the Oral Roberts basketball beat writer. In 2007, he wrote a book about OSU football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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