Steve Owens still active in the Norman community

A statue of Steve Owens was commissioned for Heisman Park outside Memorial Stadium in 2004. Photo by Taylor Bullard.

After a career as one of the great players in University of Oklahoma football history most would expect a player like Steve Owens to live out the rest of his life in relaxing fashion, but that is not the case for the Oklahoma native.

Oklahoma’s second Heisman winner has been a founding member of both Norman and Miami Public School Foundations. He has also been a spokesman for the Ronald McDonald House, given his time to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and created the Steve Owens foundation, supporting Oklahoma youth with mental health issues.

After speaking with Owens, it is easy to see that his personality will not allow him not to be a big part of the city of Norman

"I love Norman, it suits me," Owens said. "The things I do for this community with the school system and such, it's all I can do to give back to a town that has given me so much."

The Oklahoma native has big plans to expand the Steve Owens foundation to reach more Oklahomans in need, as well as continuing to be an ambassador to the Ronald McDonald house in the state, and Norman public schools.

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OU receives commitment from Pflugerville offensive lineman

Tyrus Thompson told OU coaches Sunday that he has commited to playing football at Oklahoma. Photo by Rivals.com.

Sunday, February 22nd, Bob Stoops and company received big news from the UT friendly city of Pflugerville, Texas when offensive lineman Tyrus Thompson committed to Oklahoma.

After visiting OU last weekend and coming off a visit to Baylor just days ago the 6-foot-6, 290 pound run-blocker chose to make his decision early and put the recruiting process behind him.

Thompson said that his decision came down between Baylor and Oklahoma. In the end the high school junior chose the Sooners over the Bears and says he is totally committed to OU, no matter who comes knocking.

"I don't want to be rude or anything but I'll let them know that I'm already committed and I'm 100-percent committed to Oklahoma," Thompson told Rivals.com. "I'm going to try and treat it like a relationship, if you get married you don't keep dating around."

With Oklahoma running short of offensive lineman, Thompson will ensure that the Sooners will reload in 2010. It also looks like OU has a great chance to pick up two more offensive lineman prospects in Chad Lindsay and Dominic Espinosa. Both are friends of Thompson and have showed high interest in OU.

Future Sooners headed to Miami for McDonald's All American game

In each of the past two years the University of Oklahoma basketball team has had no trouble recruiting a McDonald's All-American. But, for the first time in the Jeff Capel era, two Sooner recruits were chosen for the All-American game.

Keith "Tiny" Gallon and Tommy Mason-Griffin were both named to the team Wednesday evening. The initial list of potential names by Sports America, Inc was narrowed down to include the 6'8, 290 pound center, Gallon and 5'10, 206 pound point guard Mason-Griffin among other high profile recruiting names.

The McDonald's All-American game will be played Wednesday, April 1st, at the Bank United Center in Miami, Florida and will also include local area star Xavier Henry of Putnam City high school.

"[Tommy] has the chance to be a superstar," one source told Rivals.com. "When he gets hot there ain't a person alive who can slow him down."

The pedigree of the McDonald's All-American game should make the Oklahoma faithful feel good about to future of OU basketball. With past names that include Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, and Michael Jordan, as well as current Sooner stars Black Griffin and Willie Warren, it is an understatment to say that the game has a knack for producing superstars in the basketball world.

With the projected departures of Blake Griffin and Willie Warren, as well as the graduation of point guard Austin Johnson and forward Taylor Griffin after the 2009 season, Oklahoma will be in need of big talent and it looks as though Gallon and Mason-Griffin will be able to provide.

University of Oklahoma Students received emergency text messages Friday that would have been too late to help. Photo by Taylor Bullard.

A suspect was arrested Friday in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma after fleeing the University of Oklahoma that morning when it was realized that he might have posed a threat to university students.

According to The Oklahoma Daily, former University of Oklahoma student Michael Joseph Childress, 27, allegedly attacked Mano Yasud, a Japanese professor at the college early Friday morning in Kauffman hall.

Although President Boren took action quickly, many students set to receive emergency text messages from the university didn't get messages until well after the situation had already been defused.

"I had a class in Kauffman right after it happened and I could have unknowingly walked into a dangerous situation," University of Oklahoma junior John McCoy said." "I didn't get the text message until after 6 p.m., but if I did I wouldn't have been walking into Kauffman right then."

A university wide e-mail was sent out by Jay Doyle, and assistant to President Boren, explaining the situation, but unfortunately students are not always in a position to check their e-mails while on campus. One of the many reasons the university has begun using text messaging for emergency situations.

OU lacrosse hoping to bounce back this weekend

The University of Oklahoma men's lacrosse team will be playing two very important conference games this weekend against Oklahoma State and North Texas.

The Sooners need big wins against the Cowboys and Mean Green in order to keep in the hunt for the LSA (Lone Star Alliance) title. OU dropped two games last weekend in Norman against SMU and TCU and are currently on life support, hoping for a quick turn around this weekend against the Cowboys and Mean Green

Oklahoma was baffled with their bad play last weekend after opening the season in dominant fashion with two wins over Stephen F. Austin (16-2) and Sam Houston (19-9)

"Last weekend was tough but we're looking to bounce back with a few wins," Team captain Alex Perry said. "We've played State well in the past, but we've never beaten North Texas so who knows how successful this weekend is going to be."

If the Sooners take two this weekend they will be in decent shape to make a run at a bid to the LSA tournament and a shot at a conference title, two feats never accomplished by any Oklahoma lacrosse team.

IFC finishes successful spring recruitment

The University of Oklahoma Inter Fraternity Council kicked off Spring recruitment Monday night with 75 new rushees looking to become part of the OU greek system.

The number of Spring rushees was originally down about 50 percent from last Spring, but Monday more students than expected met in the Frontier Room of the Union ready to begin the recruiting process.

Those involved in Spring rush said they were just as excited about the 2009 Spring class as they have been any other year, even if numbers were down slightly

"Everything went as well as we could have planned," IFC Rush Chairman Michael Nash said. "These guys are excited to sign a house and become part of the OU greek system."

Now that Spring rush is officially over with, the IFC recruiting efforts can be turned to promoting OU Greek like to students coming to OU in the Fall

OU fails to sign big play receiver

After a long recruiting season the University of Oklahoma will be welcoming 23 new football players to the OU football family, but will be missing one key component.

This OU recruiting season revolved around two vital aspects that would ensure success on the gridiron. Defense and big play receivers were on the menu for the 2009 recruiting class, but Bob Stoops and the rest of the coaching staff came away from National Signing Day without the latter.

Hard and fast recruiting practices came into play with big names like Rueben Randle, Terry Hawthorne, Jheranie Boyd, and Bryce McNeal, but the OU football team couldn't land one.

Listening to Head Coach Bob Stoops you would never know that OU had any troubles with recruiting this year. "The caliber of these players will allow us to continue to compete at a high level," Stoops said.

The defense was clearly the highlight of this recruiting class. Defensive playmakers like Ronnell Lewis, Gabe Lynn, and Jamarkus McFarland, along with an offensive minded 2008 class, should ensure success for the Sooners in the near future