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Pennies for your thoughts
Published: 1/8/2007 11:20 PM
Last Modified: 1/8/2007 11:20 PM

My guess is the Louisville job interested Steve Kragthorpe for reasons other than dollars and cents.
I remember going to lunch with Kragthorpe prior to his first game at TU. We went to a dining establishment right across the street from campus. Maybe you've heard of it. It's called Taco Bell. Coach K ordered two or three items -- I forget which ones -- for a grand total of two or three bucks and chowed down while discussing a pending trip to Minnesota. This is not, I thought, a guy who puts Grey Poupon mustard on his sandwiches.
I remember making a remark about his comp car, some sort of nice SUV, and he mentioned that he would be just as comfortable with something more modest. And I believe him.
Of course Kragthorpe is interested in money because who can really have enough of it, especially when you've got kids.
But he wasn't charmed by Louisville because of cash. If greenbacks were the ultimate goal, he could have chased all the other jobs that floated his way.
The things which made the Louisville job attractive? A reunion with an old tag-team partner, Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich. Who wouldn't want a friend for a boss?
And Kragthorpe can legitimately pursue a national championship at Louisville. The Big East ain't what it used to be. Get past West Virginia, Pitt and Rutgers and you've got a spot in a BCS bowl.
Every football coach wants to mold boys into men during the course of fall semesters, but every college football coach also wants a chance to win championships. Louisville is closer to the brass ring than Tulsa.



Reader Comments 2 Total
Chris (6 years ago)
There is one thing Kragthorpe can now do to show how much he cared about Tulsa: play us. He should get us on their football schedule and do his darnedest to get us on the basketball schedule too. Once a coach leaves Tulsa, there is not many ways he can contribute. This is definitely one way. I applaud Nolan Richardson for putting Tulsa on Arkansas' schedule. I never expect the same from the likes of Bill Self. But I think Kragthorpe is definitely capable. And if the Louisville is such a good buddy of his, it should be an easy to get TU on the football and basketball schedules.
Chris (6 years ago)
That last sentence should read:


"And if the Louisville AD is such a good buddy of his, it should be an easy to get TU on the football and basketball schedules."

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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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