On Saturday, the Oklahoma football coach will celebrate his daughter Mackenzie's 11th birthday.

To Stoops, the decision was easy. Being a good husband to his wife Carol and a good father to his daughter and twin sons, Isaac and Drake, is more important than the result of any game Stoops coaches.

"It's not hard for me. My job (at OU) comes behind all that," he said. "In the end, I hope to be old and gray some day and not care too much what my record is. I'm hoping I'll have my wife beside me with healthy kids with great marriages and a bunch of grandkids. In the end, that's really what's going to matter."

Stoops and ESPN's NFL reporter Chris Mortensen were the featured speakers at Friday night's In The Zone event at Mabee Center. In The Zone is a four-hour seminar for men dedicated to uniting them on a spiritual level by appealing to their love of sports.

Stoops was warmly received by the nearly 700 people in attendance, many wearing OU attire.

Maintaining a proper balance between his profession, family and faith is not easy for all men, Stoops said. Former OU football player and Edison High School graduate Spencer Tillman agrees.

"It's a full-time job, and I'm not so sure I maintain it all the time," said Tillman, who moderates panel discussion for the events. "Balance is the key. It's a constant monitoring of where you are. It's easy to filter out the things that are not relevant to what your objective is.

"But what we're trying to do is extract values from Coach Stoops or Chris Mortensen and help men utilize them in their lives."

Mortensen admits he has the ultimate guys job in reporting on pro football. Before arriving Friday night, he spent the majority of the day reporting on Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick.

While saying the Vick dogfighting story has "ruined my last week of vacation," Mortensen said he is not alone in juggling the aspects of work, family and spiritual life.

The opportunity to talk about it to men of all ages and backgrounds is something he is proud to do.

"The chance to show that Bob Stoops, the great coach at Oklahoma, and Spencer Tillman and Chris Mortensen, men you see on TV, that we as Christian men all have the same issues in the workplace and in the home that they have," Mortensen said.

"Everybody has struggles and at the same time, there are triumphs. We get to share that with them. If it were all sports, all the time, maybe it wouldn't be as exhilarating. This is about not being afraid to admit we are human and make mistakes."

Matt Doyle 581-8316
matt.doyle@tulsaworld.com