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Breaking news: Hall of Fame football coach is a "real human"
Published: 8/7/2012 5:20 PM
Last Modified: 8/7/2012 5:27 PM

Everybody has a Pat Jones story. “Or think they do,” Jones said. “One of the two. Same difference.”

The former Oklahoma State football coach was inducted Monday night in the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, so that’s a good enough reason to relay one of those stories, courtesy of KRMG’s Rick Couri, a current TU radio analyst and a former OSU sideline reporter.

Jones, always a willing provider of information, agreed to do sideline interviews during Cowboy games. Couri remained on stand-by and, any time Jones felt like there was something he wanted to comment on, the coach would walk over to Couri and start firing away. Said Couri, “I learned by his mannerisms when he was going to come down and say something.”

It’s 1993 and OSU is playing at Missouri on a cold, rainy, miserable day. Jones, crouched on the sideline, kept turning around and looking at Couri. Then Jones bolted over and grabbed the top of Couri’s shirt with both fists, like you might do if you are going to fight someone. Couri was puzzled. “I figured he’s going to put me in. I’m going to play nose guard for awhile,” Couri said.

“But he grabs me and says ‘are you cold?’ It shocked me. I said ‘what?’ And Pat says again ‘are you cold?’ And I said, ‘yeah, I’m kind of cold.’ So Pat yells (to equipment manager T. Joe Breaux) ‘get Rick a jacket. It’s cold out there.’ ”

Breaux gave Couri a brand new jumbo-sized OSU Starter jacket. Couri put it on. “Is that better?” Jones asked. “Yeah, thanks coach,” Couri said. “And then Pat turned around and watched the game and didn’t say another word.”

After the game, Couri tried to give the coat back. Jones told him to keep it. To this day, the jacket is still in Couri’s closet. “I will never get rid of that jacket because of the way Pat gave it to me. It was the middle of the the second quarter and they weren’t playing very well and that’s why I thought he was going to put me in the game.”

Can you imagine? In the heat (or cold) of the moment, while a game was going on, a major college football coach decided his immediate priority was to help someone locate a coat.

“He wasn’t distracted,” Couri said. “He knew exactly what was going on. He saw a big, fat guy soaking wet and freezing and his compassion came out. He was thinking ‘I can’t go out there and throw a pass, but I can fix this situation.’

"That’s Pat. Pat’s a real human. Some coaches, when you meet them, you never get past that facade. They are Jackie Sherrill or whoever and you never get past that. You didn’t have to worry about that with Pat. Pat was Pat. He didn’t change who he was to be a head football coach. He (took football seriously, but understood it was just a game). We weren’t saving babies. We weren’t removing brain tumors.”

Jones, informed he had been tagged as a “real human,” responded this way: “I have always had a problem with hypocrites and still do, with anything. I had always wanted to be kind of viewed as what you see is what you get. We’ve got a little bit of B.S. about us. All of us do. But as far as somebody saying ‘he is totally full of you-know-what,’ that would disappoint me because I don’t try to come across that way.

"And that has caused me some problems too, at times. I will say some things (trying to give an honest opinion). It’s not just trying to please everybody. I don’t just necessarily tell people what they want to hear. It’s what I understand (to be true) and what I have experienced and all that kind of stuff.”

Like many "real humans," Jones also has a sense of humor.

That same season, Couri boarded a team plane for a postgame flight. When he got to his seat at the back of the plane, he saw that he would be sitting between two “hulking” security guys. In a nearby row, radio partner Joe Riddle was squeezed between two big linemen and had about six inches of seating capacity, according to Couri.

Couri said Jones walked to the back of the plane and caught a glimpse of the seating arrangement. There was no compassion this time. “Pat said ‘you all comfortable?’ Then he turned around and walked back.” Probably, the coach was smiling.


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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. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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