‘I Will Never, Never Let Their Memory Go Away’: Lutz Talks Remember the Ten

STILLWATER — During the past 36 hours, Steve Lutz has consumed just about every piece of Remember the Ten media he could get his hands on.

Lutz is in his first year at Oklahoma State. As the Cowboys prepare to play Colorado at 2 p.m. Saturday in the annual Remember the Ten game, Lutz has been studying.

On Jan. 27, 2001, the Cowboys were heading back from a game against Colorado when a plane carrying Kendall Durfey, Bjorn Fahlstrom, Nate Fleming, Will Hancock, Daniel Lawson, Brian Luinstra, Denver Mills, Pat Noyes, Bill Teegins and Jared Weiberg crashed. All 10 passengers died.

When Lutz got the OSU job in April, he attended a luncheon that spring with the families of the Ten, but with so much going on in those opening few weeks of his tenure, he said he didn’t get to truly soak it in. So entering this weekend’s game, Lutz said he started reading articles and watching videos about the tragedy. He’ll have another luncheon with the families ahead of Saturday’s game, and the research he has done in recent days will help him put names with faces.

“I’ve just been consumed for the last 36 hours with watching all of those, and after watching all of those, the gravity hits you,” Lutz said. “There’s tears in my eyes to watch Coach (Eddie) Sutton have to address everybody in Gallagher-Iba when they had that memorial. Like, I don’t know how the heck he did it. Anybody that ever says a bad word about Coach Sutton is crazy because nobody prepares you for that. Nobody prepares you for that.

“I just know that when it’s all said and done as the ambassador for this program, I will never, never let their memory go away. We will always represent them to the highest degree. We’ll never forget them, and their memory will carry on forever. That is my promise to everybody at Oklahoma State and our alums and the families of the Ten.”

Eerily, the Cowboys had some plane issues ahead of their trip to Utah last weekend. The team was set to depart at 1 p.m. Friday but didn’t take off until 10 p.m. As frustrating as that was, this tragedy helped put things in perspective that it’s better to be safe.

Saturday will be Lutz’s first Remember the Ten game, and it’ll also be the first for many of his players. Ten of the team’s scholarship players are new to the program this season. The team met at the Remember the Ten memorial in Gallagher-Iba Arena on Thursday to learn a little more about their new school’s history.

A part of our history, a part of our story. #RT10 pic.twitter.com/Cco3xpAnxs

— OSU Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) January 16, 2025

As the Cowboys are still trying to put it all together on the floor, Lutz said this experience should be good for team cohesion with the players feeling closer to OSU’s history.

“I thought it was a great educational opportunity for our guys,” Lutz said. “We have good guys, so they understand and they know that Saturday’s game will be a much bigger cause than us getting to 2-3 in the Big 12 and us beating Colorado. It’ll be a much bigger cause. We’ll be playing for something much higher than just a win on Saturday afternoon. I think our guys, they’re gonna give more. They’re gonna give everything that they have to win that game on Saturday.”