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Alumni sightings
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The first ever “Pride of Oklahoma Scholarship Golf Tournament will be held at the OU Jimmie Austin Golf Club, Saturday afternoon, June 21, 2008. This event will provide Pride staff and students the opportunity to interact with band alumni, supporters, and friends, while raising funds for the band scholarship endowment. A wide array of participation and sponsorship opportunities are available to fit virtually everyone’s interest and availability. Space is limited so act now to ensure you have a spot for this terrific event. Click here for more information.
Why a golf tournament? From the brochure:
Due to the time demands of band membership, as well as ever increasing academic responsibilities, Pride of Oklahoma members find it difficult if not impossible to work outside jobs during fall semester. As a result, scholarships are an essential resource to sustain the quality of the Pride.
Presently, The Pride of Oklahoma is able to offer scholarships to approximately one third of our members each year from existing endowed funds. Our desire is to increase both the number and size of these awards to offset increasing educational costs. Achieving this goal will allow us continue to attract and retain the best collegiate band members in the nation. Your participation in this event as a sponsor, a golfer, or both, makes it possible for us to grow the endowed funds necessary to support the band scholarship program.
Thank you for helping us continue the tradition of excellence for which The Pride of Oklahoma has become known throughout its 104 year history. See you on the course!
Additionally, plans are being made for a “Dance Band Reunion” to be held in the evening following the tournament. OU Band Alumnus Joe Windes, and OU Band Alumnus/OU Jazz Ensemble Director, Jay Wilkinson are heading up this event. Stay tuned for more details!
[From the webmaster: we've also added the event and the registration deadline to our Events calendar, so if you're subscribed to that, you'll see it all in place for June 21. Who can resist the chance to whack the bejeebus out of some golf balls to raise money for the next generation of alumni?? If you play golf at all, sign up today!]
Posted by Brian Britt on 5/2/08; 12:47:44 PM
from the Alumni sightings, Pride of Oklahoma dept.
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There's a nice article on SoonerSports.com today about The Territory, the new golf community in southwestern Oklahoma:
NORMAN, Okla. -- All things considered, it's not that far from Norman to Duncan, Oklahoma. It might seem like a good distance driving down state highway 81 to the southwest, but the small towns along way have a charm that just can't be found on interstates and superhighways.
Once the path ventures off the highway in Duncan and heads west, one might really wonder if the journey ended up far, far away. There, at the entrance to The Territory golf community is Oklahoma at its very best.
The Territory is the product of Rick and Barbara Braught's vision and is a jewel on the southwest Oklahoma landscape. Aside from golf, The Territory has created its own community, boasting residential homes, a resort-style pool and activity center and two owners committed to first-class service and a sense of family.
"The whole focus has been on service, trying to take care of people and making them feel like they're on vacation while they're out here," said Rick Braught ('84 BBA, '89 MBA).
Even with a quick glance, it's hard not to think about vacation upon arrival at The Territory. The two primary buildings, the Golf House and Prairie House, sit in front of all the community has to offer, including 18 holes of championship golf which have already drawn national tournaments and some impressive accolades.
Since its June 2004 grand opening, the course has hosted the Oklahoma State Amateur, Senior State Amateur and an NCAA Division II Super Regional. Next year, the Halliburton Southwest Oklahoma Championship, as part of the Adams Golf Pro Tour Series, will be staged there.
And after reminding myself that not all readers instantly recognize why this is relevant:
Barbara was born into the McCasland family, a staple in the Duncan area and at OU (her grandfather, T.H. McCasland, was the first man from Duncan to attend OU). Rick's father, Gene, served as director of the Pride of Oklahoma from 1962-1970, giving him a childhood filled with bicycle rides through campus and kicking practice on an unlocked, non-alarmed Owen Field.
Later, both attended the university and were highly active on campus. Barbara was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority, while Rick was a member of the Pride of Oklahoma under his father's successor, Gene Thrailkill.
In the fall of 1982, Rick started a two-year stint in one of OU's most prestigious positions, drum major of the Pride. In the role, he was handed the reins to the world-famous "strut" which features the major leading the band down the football field with his back bent so his eyes are often facing the opposite direction. He freely admits that he can't replicate the move today, but shares a bit of humor from when remembering his college days.
And it is funny—but you'll have to go read the article for the rest. Congratulations to Rick and Barbara!
(Via SoonerSports.com.)
Posted by Webmaster on 3/13/08; 1:16:03 AM
from the Alumni sightings, Pride History dept.
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Dr. Linda Reavis Williams, 50, of Bartlesville, OK, passed away November 13, 2007 in Fort Smith, AR. She was a Chemical Engineer for Phillips Petroleum. Linda received her Btchelor of Science degree from the University of Oklahoma, her Masters in Science from the University of Houston, and her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Rice University.
Linda was preceded in death by her husband, James Williams.
She is survived by three sons: Ben and his wife Christina Williams of Enid, OK, Brian Williams of the U.S. Army, and Bradley Williams of Oklahoma City, OK; her parents, Elmer and Lois Reavis of Roland, OK; One sister, Dianna Locke of Jackson, MI; and one brother, James Reavis of Fayetteville, AR. Linda is also survived by two grandchildren, Mikala and Ryan Williams.
Funeral Services will be 11:00 A.M. Saturday, November 17, 2007, at Edwards Funeral Home Chapel with burial at Roland City Cemetery, in Roland, OK. Pallbearers will be: Brad Van Winkle, Alan Witt, Bob Livingston, Paul Beavers, Ben, Brian, and Bradley Williams.
The family will visit with friends Friday, November 16, 2007, from 5:00 P.M. to 7:30 P.M. at the funeral home.
Edwards Funeral Home
201 North 12th Street
P.O. Box 3
Fort Smith, AR 72902
(479)782-8203
Memorial Contributions may be sent to:
American Cancer Society
P.O. Box 8006
Fort Smith, AR 72902
The funeral home offers an online guestbook and place for tributes.
Linda had such a hard struggle for a long time—nearly seven years—and made such a valiant effort to beat her cancer to see her boys grow up. Linda and James have three boys - the youngest child is 21 now. She also has two grandchildren. Linda was predeceased by her husband James about eight years ago.
We have heard from Linda's son that he thought Linda would be really be happy if any of us wanting to send flowers would instead send a contribution to a band scholarship fund in her honor. The boys know that the Pride has always been very special to Linda.
The band office said the best way to donate to a scholarship account for Linda would be to make a check payable to the OU Foundation with a memo for the Gene Thrailkill Scholarship fund in honor of Linda Reavis Williams. Mail the check to:
University Bands
500 W. Boyd
Norman, OK 73019
[Webmaster adds: Please note that you can also contribute online at this Web page. To designate your gift appropriately, scroll down to the "Gift Information" section and click the checkbox that says "My Gift is restricted" and choose "University Bands" from the pop-up menu (it's the 14th choice from the end of the menu). In the "Other Restrictions" field, type "for the Gene Thrailkill Scholarship fund in honor of Linda Reavis Williams" to direct your donation appropriately. There's also a place to designate if your company will match your donation, as many companies will when donating to the OU Foundation, and for other comments about your memorial.]
Posted by Rita Heath on 11/15/07; 10:22:40 AM
from the Alumni sightings dept.
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…to Chauvin Aaron, drum major for the 2007 "Pride of Oklahoma!"
Perseverance really pays off, especially for University of Oklahoma music education senior Chauvin Aaron, four-year Pride of Oklahoma marching band member.
After spending three years among the finalists for drum major, Aaron finally heard his name announced last weekend at the Pride’s annual year-end banquet.
…But the third time was a charm for Aaron, even though he admits the thought of being the next drum major strutting down Owen Field hasn’t sunk in yet.
(The author may know a bit about the subject, too!  )
Update: Hometown newspaper article with picture here.
Posted by Webmaster on 2/1/07; 1:36:51 AM
from the Alumni sightings, Pride of Oklahoma dept.
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Many of you know Jeremy Gossett, the young man who's been the announcer for the Pride of Oklahoma for the past five years. (Due to scheduling conflicts, he wasn't at homecoming this year - that was our old friend John McCormick stepping back in, but Jeremy did the others, including the Centennial halftime in 2004.) He also produced and directed the 58-minute film Legacies and Friends: the 2005 Pride of Oklahoma that was announced here last August and available on video. It was also shown this past weekend at the Trail Dance Film Festival in Duncan.
If you follow the Fox television series American Idol, you may also have seen reports about the "Oklahoma Five" - five OU students who traveled to the San Antonio auditions for the show last August (about the same time Legacies and Friends was being shown!) and who all made it to final auditions in front of judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson. Due to agreements with Fox and 19 (the producers of Idol), they're not allowed to say how those auditions went until the show with that day's auditions.
[Update: Fox has now, for reasons known only to Fox, moved the San Antonio audition show to Tuesday, February 6, at 7PM CST ("Auditions No. 7: San Antonio"). The show on as I update this (Wed 31 Jan, 8 PM CST) has auditions from Los Angeles. Dang!]
And you're probably already ahead of me - the link in this article takes you to a Duncan Banner newspaper article pointing out that our Jeremy Gossett is the brother of recent OU vocal music education alumnus Laura Gossett, who is one of Idol's "Oklahoma Five!"
So if you're watching Idol on Wednesday night, there are five OU music students to root for: Heather Appel, Grant Fisher, Tony Foster, Michael Preston, and Laura Gossett. My news spies are good, but I can't tell you if any of the other four are or were in The Pride (cross-overs at OU between vocal and instrumental performance are reasonably common), but I still thought this was a fun family connection worth sharing! Yay Gossetts!
Posted by Webmaster on 1/29/07; 2:21:50 AM
from the Alumni sightings, OU Music, Pride of Oklahoma dept.
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Our Pride of Oklahoma leaves this week for the Fiesta Bowl trip. Those of you who were in the band in 1983 (the last time OU went to the Fiesta Bowl!) may recall that this particular bowl trip is full of performances, so if you're headed to Arizona, there are plenty of chances to see and support the 2006 Pride - and there's another chance in Midland, TX, too!
Here's the full schedule of 2006 Pride of Oklahoma rehearsals and performances on the trip. Read more in the full article.
Posted by Webmaster on 12/24/06; 1:31:41 PM
from the Alumni sightings, Gameday, Pride of Oklahoma dept.
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Looking for something to read this holiday weekend? Try this Oklahoman article about OU football player Jacob Gutierrez (and others) coming to read in Pride alumnus Regina Bell's Norman classroom!
Posted by Webmaster on 12/24/06; 12:27:46 PM
from the Alumni sightings dept.
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Because the next best thing to sports are sports updates, right?
Basketball: As many of you may have learned via E-mail, Showmen Alumni are invited to play at one of two games next week while The Pride and its staff are on the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl trip. Trent Davis is again leading the alumni opportunity for these two games:
Thursday, Dec 28:
OU Men's BB vs. SMU, Lloyd Noble Arena (tip-off time: 7:00 PM) Saturday, Dec 30:
OU Women's BB vs. New Mexico, Cox Convention Center, OKC (tip-off time: 2:00 PM)
If you're interested in performing at either or both BB games, contact Jeff Jahnke or Trent Davis to confirm or ask any questions.
Football: Today, the Big 12 Conference released the football conference schedule for 2008-2015. Some of the dates may be changed for television, of course, and all eight OU vs. OSU games are listed for a two-day span, as they could be played on either the Friday or the Saturday after Thanksgiving in any given year. There are a couple of glitches on the page, too (they have OU hosting Colorado two consecutive years, and the November 2013 game at Nebraska has no date, although they mean "November 2, 2013").
Nonetheless, we have entered these games and their locations on our online calendar. To view it online in your Web browser, click here; to subscribe to it in a program like iCal, Now Up-to-Date, or Windows Vista calendar, click here instead. (Subscribing is better if you can do it, because that way, your own calendar program automatically picks up any changes we make to the schedule.)
The 36th Annual Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, in which BCS #8 Boise State takes on BCS #10 Oklahoma, is on the FOX Television Network (not Fox Sports Network, the regional cable/satellite stuff, but the broadcast one where you find 24 and The Simpsons) on January 1, 2007. Coverage begins at 7:00 PM CST, and will be available nationwide in high-definition. We'll post opportunities to see and hear The Pride of Oklahoma in Arizona as we're aware of them.
Boomer Sooner! and a happy intersession to you all.
Posted by Webmaster on 12/19/06; 3:05:03 PM
from the Alumni sightings, Gameday dept.
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Former Pride announcer Ryan and OU music professors Rath and Matlick earn local honors next week:
[The honorees] all are involved in making art a bigger part of our lives in Norman and all will be honored Thursday at the annual Fall Arts Luncheon, hosted by the Business and the Arts Committee of the Norman Chamber of Commerce.
… Ryan served as the PA announcer for The Pride of Oklahoma and later OU football games at Owen Field. He is an audio engineer, mixing and making sure the audience can enjoy the performances, whether it is a sporting event broadcast by ESPN or Fox Sports, musical theatre from the Lyric or the sounds of the OKC Philharmonic. Anyone who has been to a concert or musical in the Oklahoma City-Norman area or watched a Sooner football or basketball game on ESPN has experienced the purity of sound by Ryan.
He has begun teaching classes at OU in the Weitzenhoffer College of Fine Arts, passing his talents on to the next generation of audio engineers. He continues his teaching schedule despite travel all over the country to work for the networks of ESPN and Fox. He also has volunteered his talents since the beginning to do the audio production at the annual Sullivan Family Concert.
Rath, an associate professor of bassoon at OU, is the founding member of Midlife Crysis. He also is the principal bassoon for the OKC Philharmonic. While he dreamed of bringing The Beatles to his classes, he has been bringing 1964 - The Tribute to Norman for 15 years.
Another OU professor of music, Matlick developed an interest in art as a 15-year-old. When he was a senior in high school, he began to get calls to play as an extra horn with the Louisville Orchestra. He spends his time these days teaching at OU and performing with the OKC Philharmonic, the Oklahoma Brass and Woodwind quintet and solo recitals in addition to his gigs as the bass guitarist with Midlife Crysis.
(Via the Norman Transcript.)
Posted by Webmaster on 9/30/06; 11:23:56 AM
from the Alumni sightings, OU Music dept.
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Posted without comment (though feel free to post your own comment):
Elmer "E.Z." Million, a Norman resident since 1957, has announced he will run for lieutenant governor as an Independent.
A longtime Republican, Million changed his registration in 2002. With three Republicans and three Democrats already in the race, the chances for a third candidate are favorable, he said.
"My No. 1 priority is to make sure that the OU-Texas football game is played here in Norman on Oct. 7, 2006," Million said.
"The Big XII Conference football schedule calls for 'Texas AT Oklahoma' in the even-numbered years. Mr. Boren has sent OU's home game with Texas back to Dallas five times (1996, 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2004) and is trying to do so again in 2006," he said, adding, "The OU Regents meet on May 12. If they refuse to order Mr. Boren to follow the Big XII schedule, then I'm going to ask the Legislature for a one-sentence amendment to the Higher Education Appropriations Bill:
"All taxpayer-supported Oklahoma colleges and universities must play their Regularly Scheduled Conference Home Games within the state," Million said.
"As four of the six lieutenant governor candidates are in the Legislature, I'm very confident that they will take this action. I expect the issue to be settled by May 26," Million said.
A graduate of Weatherford High School, Million came to OU in 1957 on a Vocational Rehabilitation Scholarship. He had been totally paralyzed by polio at age 4 in 1945 and had made a miraculous recovery to enable him to march in the OU Band while playing a baritone horn, he said.
[…] Million formed the Sooner Chamber of Commerce in 1993 to promote tourism in general and bring the OU-Texas game out of Dallas, in particular.
"This is the year. No more sending $25,000,000 of Oklahoma's dollars southward. In 2006, we'll have 20,000 Texans coming here during Oct. 6-8, and bringing their wallets and purses for us to empty. There will be no need for Boren's TIF. We'll let the out-of-state money cover it," he concluded.
(Via The Norman Transcript.)
Posted by Webmaster on 4/29/06; 2:07:37 AM
from the Alumni sightings dept.
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From an article in Saturday's paper:
He might not direct the Pride of Oklahoma in "Boomer Sooner" anymore, but when the show's host asked him about being a drum major, those were two of the first words out of his mouth.
Kyle Wiemar, 2003-2005 drum major of the Pride and music education senior, had one more chance to be in the spotlight by competing on "Wheel of Fortune." The show aired St. Patrick's Day, but it was the culmination of waiting for a call and watching the show for years.
[…]Wiemar waited to hear back from the audition, but was disappointed when he heard he would not be part of the Big 12 week shows. The show also offered him the chance to appear in July or October, but he had to turn down both because of work and drum major duties.
However, after his drum major term ended following the Holiday Bowl victory in San Diego, Wiemar set off for California once again for a Jan. 12 taping. His patience to be called and playing the game from home for years paid off. He won more than $40,000 in cash and prizes, including a new Jeep Wrangler, a Grand Cayman Island vacation and $11,000 in cash. To top things off, he had one more victory over the University of Texas for his record, beating a Longhorn contestant by a mere $256 before the final puzzle.
Kyle was the Pride's drum major for the past two seasons (2004-2005), but it's a forgivable mistake. We'll see if we can get a couple of clips posted next week for those of you who missed the show.
Posted by Webmaster on 3/25/06; 2:58:55 AM
from the Alumni sightings dept.
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 Kyle Wiemar, the 2004-2005 drum major for the Pride of Oklahoma, appeared on the March 17, 2006 airing of the syndicated game show Wheel of Fortune, taped on January 12, and won $42,226 worth of prizes, including a Jeep Wrangler worth $23,970, and a vacation in the Cayman Islands!
Kyle made it to the bonus round by beating a University of Texas student by only $256!
I wish we'd had advance warning; the show aired at 6:30 PM on KOCO-TV/DT in Oklahoma City tonight. You can go here to read Kyle's "contestant diary" on the Wheel of Fortune site and see how it all came about.
Trivia: Kyle's friend in the audience, Eric Shannon, was elected as drum major for the 2006 Pride of Oklahoma this fall, succeeding Kyle - but since the show was taped on January 12, before the band banquet, they didn't know that yet!
Congratulations, Kyle!
Posted by Webmaster on 3/17/06; 7:06:37 PM
from the Alumni sightings dept.
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From the Ada Evening News:
With the largest ever gift to Ada City Schools already in the bank, a challenge has been issued to Ada fans and supporters to collectively match the $300,000 donated by 1956 graduate Archie Dunham and his wife, Linda. The gift is earmarked for a proposed state-of-the-art indoor practice facility for all sports, band and any other school activity in need of practice area during inclement weather.
How big will it be? Picture this, enclose the playground/football field at Ada Junior High. It will be 90 yards long with the 20 yard line to 20 yard line area needed for band practice for haltime performances.
The “Big Top” will be located on the Ada High campus off the southwest corner of the Craig McBroom Football Complex building.
Dunham, former president and CEO of ConocoPhillips, is retired and lives in Houston with high school sweetheart, Linda Burns, class of 1958.
[…] After graduating from Ada High in 1956, Dunham became the first member of his family to attend college when he enrolled at the University of Oklahoma.
He worked his way through college, spending his summers on a highway construction crew earning $1 per hour. He also was in ROTC at OU.
In college he not only performed in the “Pride of Oklahoma” marching band, but was on the Marine Corps drill team as well.
Dunham was one of the honorary drum majors at Homecoming 2003, too!
Posted by Webmaster on 2/12/06; 1:50:24 AM
from the Alumni sightings dept.
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This Page was last updated: Friday, May 2, 2008 at 12:47:44 PM
This page was originally posted: 5/2/08; 12:47:44 PM
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