GOT it!

(Brett is a contributing author to PFB and grew up in Oklahoma City listening to Cowboys hoops game on the radio. He recounts those days in this piece).

Bill Teegins.

Most people who didn’t grow in in the metro that is Oklahoma City and it’s surrounding suburbs or those who aren’t familiar with Oklahoma State hoops in the late 1990’s won’t recognize the name. But every time I see or hear Bill Teegins mentioned it floods my mind with memories of adolescence. Bill Teegins made OSU basketball games come alive on the radio.

Roughly once or twice a year, I’d get lucky enough to darken the doors of legendary Gallagher-Iba Arena (pre-extreme home makeover, arena edition) with my dad for an Oklahoma State men’s basketball game. Once inside, it always looked and felt like there were way more people than seats. We were all crammed in to that tiny 6,000 seat “arena.” There were times I remember sitting on the very top row and being able to touch the ceiling and thinking that Heaven had to be very much like every visit to GIA. It was magical to me. Watching men like Byron Houston and Bryant Reeves who were larger than life to me as a kid transported me to another world almost. I left my grade school bubble and had entered this land of giants. And everyone loved these men more than their own lives almost. I was captivated from the very first day. Those visits were memories that are etched into my brain – cherished memories with my father and the Oklahoma State family.

However every other night the Cowboys, were playing when we weren’t lucky enough to be in attendance, I’d always listen to it on the radio with my dad. And every time we switched on the radio and I heard Bill Teegins voice, I was instantly transported back to Stillwater and those tiny seats, the land of men. Bill Teegins had the ability to make every listener feel like they were there, at the game, a part of the action almost.

He owned my all-time favorite catch phrase ever – no matter the broadcaster or the sport or era – when one of our guys nailed a 3 pointer (and with Rutherford and Joe Adkins that was frequent) he’d exclaim, “GOT it!” so emphatically that every listener knew that he loved Oklahoma State just as much, if not more, than they did. You could practically see his eyes get big and see him pump his fists. I could feel how badly he wanted the ‘boys to win. And he made me feel it too.

So the majority of my childhood and early adolescent memories of Oklahoma State hoops consist largely of the late “Voice of the Cowboys”, Bill Teegins. He was one of us. He is and will continue to be missed.