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When Switzer Speaks, People Listen
Published: 10/2/2007 11:27 PM
Last Modified: 10/2/2007 11:27 PM

This blog was written after a trip to Norman to interview Barry Switzer, who is turning 70 this week.
After about an hour of questions and answers at Switzer's home, it struck me that it must be darn near impossible to walk away from a Switzer interview with boring information.
Besides the fact that he's not shy about speaking his mind, he's got intangible characteristics that make him bigger than life and incredibly human, all at the same time.
Instead of writing a story based on the interview, the idea is to publish an unfiltered Q-and-A transcript that will appear in Sunday's paper. My guess is anything that appears in print about Switzer will have guaranteed readership.



Reader Comments 5 Total

Thomas (5 years ago)
Switzer is King.
Danny (5 years ago)
Hey! What happened to my post about Switzer, the adulterous, gun-totting, backstabbing OU headcoach that allowed his program to end up with the athletic dorm doubling as a drug store complete with gun blazing ganstas having forced sex with unwilling females?
What part about that post was false?
None of it. That's probably why it was never published.
OU fans want to worship a rotten man because he won some national championships.
That's a terrible sacrifice of your integrity, Sooner fans.
Danny (5 years ago)
The only people that listen to Barry Switzer are stupid Sooner fans and other idiots.

Anyone that cares about class, dignity and integrity wouldn't waste their time of this Arkansas redneck.
Coach Bob Simmons (5 years ago)
Wow Danny,

Ease off the hatred a bit. I'm sure Barry may not have been a perfect saint, but he sure did a lot of good for athletes and for the state of Oklahoma. I think you must be a jealous fan of another team that had to regularly suffer through a Switzer led beating.

I think the yardstick you use to measure class, dignity and integrity are different from what most normal people would use.
FAN (5 years ago)
DANNY: Are you an OSU fan by any chance? I hope not for their sake. If so, let me jog your self-righteous memory. Do you remember a drunken coach by the name of Eddie Sutton who left the basketball program in disgrace? Do you believe he set such a great example that he left a legacy of drunken players?
Shall we talk about all of the OSU footballs and their legal problems the last few years? Let's see . . .
Marcellus Rivers, Alvin Porter, J.B. Flowers and Evan Howell raped a woman (OSU settled out of court to make the terrible publicity go away).
Linebacker Alex Odiari was arrested on allegations he was in a bar while underage and violated an emergency protection order for threatening to kill his ex-girlfriend.
Linebacker Chris Collins indicted for sexually assaulting an intoxicated 12-year-old girl at a party.
Prentice Elliott the gang member, threatened to shoot an OSU student on campus at a student function. Elliott had many run-ins with the law and many disciplinary problems in school.
Byron Houston who is a registered sex offender was arrested for indecent exposure.
If you desire, I can give many more incidents that are relatively recent.
We won't talk about the reasons Coach Gundy kicked a bunch of players off the team as soon as he became coach. However, it is good to know a coach like Gundy or Stoops will send them packing if the situation calls for it.
I do not like bringing up these past incidents, but it seems to be the only way to bring you around to proper thinking.
Bottom line is . . . there are more than four hundred athletes on the OU campus. I am sure the numbers are close on the OSU campus. At times people do wrong. However, it does not and should not cast a dark cloud over the accomplishments of these athletic programs and the wonderful people who are involved. Schools cannot be Big Brother to all of these individuals around the clock. For the most part, the kids who are involved in athletics become very productive citizens. It makes me very thankful that schools of higher education invest in these young people with scholarships, assistance, and mentor-ship.
It certainly is not meant to give a platform to people like you to voice ignorance and make simple-minded statements that sound “Holier Than Thou.” Let me ask you one something else. . . do you enjoy spewing venom?
You need to grow as a person because at this time you appear to be a real piece of work.
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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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