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Every now and then, and sometimes when we least expect it, we have to detach ourselves from sports.
Oklahoma State has been reminded of that much too often.
The latest reminder came in the form of a woman who crashed into a crowd of spectators during Oklahoma State’s homecoming parade on Saturday morning, taking the lives of four people — including a toddler — and injuring almost three dozen others. Adacia Chambers, 25, of Stillwater, was arrested on a DUI charge.
Oklahoma State University president Burns Hargis said there was discussion about canceling the game, which was quickly approaching with a start time of 3:30 p.m. ET against Kansas.
Some didn’t like the decision to play, pointing to its insensitivity and our propensity to prioritize sports ahead of life. After all, fans who lined up to shower their unbeaten No. 14 Cowboys with love and support in Stillwater were forced to slowly file into Boone Pickens Stadium in a much different mood just hours before kickoff.
Less than three blocks away, dead bodies remained in a chaotic scene — along with a crushed car, a mangled motorcycle, strewn lawn chairs and other items — as the National Guard, Red Cross and state medical examiner’s office all did their jobs.
However, while deplorable events like this force us to separate ourselves from sports, we’ve found that sports can quickly connect us again. The fans donning orange and black on Saturday know that better than most.
Unfortunately, Oklahoma State sports programs have endured tragedy before. In 2011, women’s basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant Miranda Serna were among four killed in a plane crash in Arkansas while on a recruiting trip. In 2001, 10 people, including two men’s basketball players, were also killed in a plane crash on a return flight from a game in Colorado.
Same as then, and same as the aftermath of 9/11 and other horrific moments, sports provided fans the opportunity to gather as a community to heal and overcome.
There’s no rationalizing the carnage that happened. Even if investigators find drugs or alcohol from the results of blood tests, that won’t spare any lives, and it won’t help those in the hospital with critical conditions.
All we can do is mourn and cope. We can lower the flag at Boone Pickens Stadium to half-staff. We can remember the victims with a moment of silence before kickoff. We can take a knee on the sideline to pray. And then we can gather, like the 59,486 that did so while clumped together in Stillwater.
“We knew we still had our jobs to do, and we touched on it in our prayer before the game, that God was giving us this opportunity to shed a little light in some darkness,” quarterback J.W. Walsh said after the 58-10 victory against the Jayhawks. “We were able to do that, and to maybe lighten the mood, just kind of take everybody away from it for a couple of hours.”
We love sports because they’re a microcosm of life. You can say most things are, but sports reflect that better than anything.
It’s the arena of desire. We gravitate to athletes because their actions inspire us. Not to make a game-winning touchdown or game-saving tackle but, for most of us, to tackle our daily lives the best way we can in our own personal gridiron, keeping in mind that all days range from good to terrible.
And unfortunately, that can seemingly be decided by the flip of a coin.
Born and raised in Gainesville, Talal joined SDS in 2015 after spending 2 years in Bristol as an ESPN researcher. Previously, Talal worked at The Gainesville Sun.
