Here's a recruit OU would love to have had
Published: 1/28/2009 2:38 PM
Last Modified: 1/28/2009 2:38 PM
Saw where Myron Rolle, the Florida State safety-turned-Rhodes Scholar was recognized by the Florida governor and cabinet the other day. Remember when the Oklahoma Sooners were after him?
And how great would it have been for them to get him?
It's not every day a bigtime college football program can boast of sending a player to England to study medical anthropolgy. Rolle is headed to Oxford after compiling a grade point average that nearly matches his 40 time.
It's not every day a starting player for that bigtime program puts off a shot at the NFL, and doesn't speak in terms of a lucrative pro future. Here's what Rolle once told ESPN.com about his future: "I want to be a neurosurgeon. And I want to help impoverished nations build up their vaccination programs."
No wonder that the day Rolle stood on the sidelines during an OU scrimmage a few years ago, there was more buzz about him than anything happening on Owen Field. Barry Switzer introduced himself, and the two ended up talking for a half hour.
How badly did the Sooners want this young man? Recall this passage from a story written by ESPN.com's Bruce Feldman, in which he detailed Rolle's trip to OU's summer camp as a high school sophomore-to-be:
"As Myron leapt over and ran past every 10th grader, the coaches asked his folks if they could move him up to play with the seniors. Myron dominated them, too. Stoops pulled Myron aside on the last day and said, 'Come to my office.'
"Inside the shrine to all things Sooner, Stoops let Myron try on anything out of a box of championship rings and watches. 'I've never offered a kid this early,' the coach said, 'but we're going to offer you a scholarship.'"
Stoops knew what kind of talent Rolle possessed, no doubt. Just as important, though, he knew what kind of man Rolle would become. Or was already becoming.
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
