Donkey Kong? Pranks? These are feel-good times for Mike Gundy
Published: 8/5/2012 11:46 AM
Last Modified: 8/5/2012 11:46 AM
I was doing an interview with a radio station in Kansas and one of the hosts wanted to know if Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy was the sort of coach who attempted to intimidate questioners during press conferences.
I suppose that’s the conclusion you jump to if the only press conference footage you ever saw of Gundy came from his infamous “I’m a man, I’m 40” rant.
But the truth is that Gundy doesn’t take a combative tone in press conference settings and, in fact, seems to be more laid-back and comfortable in his own skin than ever before.
Perhaps winning 23 games in a two-year period and winning a conference championship and ending a Bedlam hex and playing in a BCS bowl and getting a lucrative new contract can calm you like a sack of trilling Tribbles. (Gundy might appreciate an old-school “Star Trek” reference. His satellite radio leans hard toward the “70s on 7” channel.)
You shouldn’t do any job if it’s not fun and I wondered if Gundy was having any fun when he was dealing with stuff like the Chris Collins issue from a years ago and the rant and whatever else you want to unearth.
Gundy is having fun now. He conspired with the media on the first day of practice to submit an impossibly long list of interview subjects to OSU football publicist Gavin Lang, who has to keep the list short for logistical purposes. He has to be able to track down all the interview subjects as they, sometimes en masse, exit the practice field.
Gundy suggested to put about 40 names on the list. When Lang got the list, it had the names of the entire offensive line, two former OSU assistants, a quarterback from the 1990s, sports information director Kevin Klintworth, off-limits-for-interviews freshman quarterback Wes Lunt and a platoon of other current players. When Lang saw the list, he immediately knew he was being punked, so the prank quickly ran out of juice.
One day later, after Gundy’s media day press conference wrapped, he playfully jabbed an Oklahoman reporter (a former OSU beat writer) by saying he couldn’t believe the writer drove all the way to Stillwater and didn’t ask a question. The comment drew laughs and the writer (this often happens in the print media biz) chose to save his questions for a more private interview session in a hallway outside the press conference room.
Gundy seemed to put up walls early in his head coaching career and, gradually, the walls have come down. Honestly, he’s more enjoyable to be around than he once was. Reality? Or just my perception?
Sometimes coaches are so busy being the ruler of their kingdoms that it’s easy to forget they are humans.
Last week, before Gundy’s Tulsa appearance at the Cowboy Caravan, I watched him tell his two youngest sons he would teach them how to play the retro video game Donkey Kong. (And they seemed pretty intrigued by a game that featured a barrel-dodging gorilla.)
Like many other folks from his generation, Gundy dropped a lot of quarters in arcade games when he was a kid. That makes him one of “us.” He’s a human. And I think you’ll continue to see more of his human side even though he is, of course, a man.
Written by
Jimmie Tramel
Sports Writer
