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Goodbye to an icon
Published: 5/15/2009 5:15 PM
Last Modified: 5/15/2009 5:15 PM

Many people from this state can be called great athletes. Few sports figures in this state can be called icons. Wayman Tisdale was an icon.
Put Tisdale up there with Jim Thorpe, Mickey Mantle and Jim Shoulders -- and there are more, I'm sure -- as men who came to represent more than just the games they played. They became almost mythic figures.
In 2003, I completed a research project that only a fool would attempt. I tried to pick the best athlete, male or female, from every town in the state and every high school in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.
Tisdale's alma mater, Booker T. Washington, has about a million worthy candidates. I didn't pick Tisdale. I picked wrestler Kenny Monday because, flawed logic or not, Monday snagged two Olympic medals. Tisdale captured "only" one.
But, between the two, I would pick Tisdale as the more iconic figure because he put both Tulsa high school basketball and OU basketball on the national map.
I can come up with a few more state sports icons.
Who are yours?





Reader Comments 2 Total
dcood (4 years ago)
The true meaning of the word icon is of course way over-used and misrepresented in the high visibility world of athletics today. You hear it almost everyday on ESPN and thats way too much. As far as Oklahomans who might be in Wayman's class, there are none. No one from our state has ever been blessed with the combination of athletic skill and love for his fellow man as Wayman Tisdale was. Other athletes who maight make the list of all-time greats would have to include Lee Roy Selmon and Johnny Bench. We have a great history of super athletes in Oklahoma but there is a significant drop off after the ones you listed and the two mentioned here. Someday, maybe Sam Bradford. After all, he might win 2 Heisman trophys. The difference with Wayman Tisdale was we all knew Wayman would be an Oklahoma legend when he was 20 years old...
bownhand (4 years ago)
dcood... no truer words were ever spoken, you hit it right on the money! As we all know, Wayman was a class act, a FAMILY man, a gifted athlete and musician. Wayman definately was the mold of what makes a man. My wife and I layed in bed the night before he died and praised him while channel 8 aired a special about him. It was sure sad news the next morning. He will be missed!

Wayman Tisdale.. The True Role model.
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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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