Grandpa Sutton

So I was wrong. This is real tough to swallow. So it's true, a mixture of alcohol and pain killers were the cause of Eddie's accident on Friday night. I'll still stand by him though. I still give him all the respect, praise, and trust he deserves. He's earned it. His reputation stays the same with me. Nothing is tarnished. Nothing has changed. I view him the same as I did 2 hours ago before this news hit the presses. And you know, I still think he'll be back. Maybe I'm in denial, but I honestly don't care. I still believe. I love you Eddie. You'll always be coach to me, always.

The 13th Disciple

The 1930's was a hellish decade for our great nation. . The Great Depression seemed endless. Its effects were seen everywhere from New York to Los Angeles. 15 million people were unemployed, nearly a quarter of the nations workforce. Multitudes of people were selling their family farms and herding across the vast mid-west toward California searching for work. Children were starving. People were dying. Tom Joads could be found in every major city, on every backroad, and on every eternal mile of route 66. Would this time of economic failure and moral depravity ever end? Hope was as plentiful as dollar bills in billfolds. It looked like the strongest, most powerful country in the world was on the verge of destruction. But then in the year of 1932 on the morning of March 12, a savior was born. The 13th disciple was born. Eddie Sutton was born.

During the heart of America's most tragic chapter, the solution to all her problems climbed out of the womb. Many tall tales have been told about that fateful day in a rural Kansas town. One witness said that Eddie didn't climb out of the womb, he leaped, ripped off his umbilical cord in mid air, dunked it in a nearby trashcan, and then calmly climbed back into his mothers arms like nothing had ever happend. Another eye witness said that Eddie walked out of the womb without any assistance from the medical staff, looked a doctor square in the eye, and slowly raised his lower lip above his upper lip. Exactly 26 seconds later the doctor dropped dead with a cause of death doctors could only label as "pure fear." A young nurse on her first day of duty said that right before Eddie was conceived, all the lights in the hospital shut off, a quick laser light show happend, smoke started coming out of the canal, and a man on PA system emphatically shouted, "A 1 ft 11 inch, 9 ounce point guard, straight out of his mother's womb..... EDDIEEEEE SUTTOOOOOOON!!!!!" "Then Eddie walked out, high fived his dad, and bumped chests with one of the doctors," said the nurse, "I stood there in awe, everyone was clapping and hollering 'EDDIE, EDDIE!' I didn't know what was going on. I was absolutely shocked." One account said that Eddie dribbled a basketball out, mouthed the words "screen right" to a doctor, crossed over the nurse in front of him, and drained a 3 in the basket hanging above the door. He then ran back to his mothers arms and told the nurse to go run sprints in the parking lot and not to come back in until she threw up. These stories, as well as many other stories, have been told about Eddie Sutton's birth. None have been proven fact, but none have been proven false either. You don't have to believe these stories (personally I think the 4th story is true, but I wouldn't be surprised if all of them happend). You don't have to agree with any of these tales, but you do have to agree that regardless, Eddie Sutton was born to teach the game of basketball. Eddie was a young, promising, and energetic 8 year old by the time the Great Depression was over. Years later, with the Great Depression in the past, Eddie would meet, marry, and raise a family with his wife Patsy, attend Oklahoma State University, play and learn the art of basketball under Henry Iba, and then start his own legandary career as a high school and college basketball coach.

The hall of famer started teaching this game on the hardwoods of high school gyms. "I was sure high school was where I would always be," Eddie Sutton said in an interview. That all changed when Eddie got a call from College of Southern Idaho, a young university looking to establish a basketball program. Eddie couldn't resist, he took the job, and thank God for it. Eddie's name was out. People started discovering that this man just wasn't any ordinary man; he was extraordinary. In 1969 the University of Creighton made a phone call to Eddie. Eddie answered. In 1969 Eddie made his debut in division 1 basketball. Eddie coached at Creighton for 5 seasons, leading the Bluejays to a winning record each season, and all the way to the regional finals of the NCAA Tournament in his final year there. After Creighton, Eddie packed his bags, and headed for Fayatteville, Arkansas. This is where it gets real good by the way. Eddie coached the Razorbacks for 11 seasons coaching the team to 9 tournament appearances, and his first final four, where they fell in a tight game to UCLA. Eddie was snatching victories faster than Nolan Ryan fastballs. He was quickly becoming a household name. Before dinner each night my grandfather said that they would bless the food in his name. (Okay, so I made that up, but still he was getting pretty big.) He was getting so big that after Arkansas he headed off to Kentucky to coach one of college basketballs most prestigious programs. His 4 year tenture with the Wildcats was mared by controversy. In his third season there serious NCAA rules were broken. Nothing went on Eddie's permanent record, but his team was unable to compete in the big dance. Eddie resigned from Kentucky in 1989. One year later the greatest thing since the birth, death, and ressurection of Jesus happend: Eddie was hired as head basketball coach at his alma mater, Oklahoma State University. That's what I really want to talk about people. What he's done at this place, for these people, the players, the students, the fans, for me.

I had to put this in here somewhere. A blog with come soon just on this picture alone. I'll be disecting it frame by frame, pizza by pizza. Thanks for making this possible Rachel.

Now a lot of crap has been said about Eddie in the last couple of days. A friend from Texas A&M texted me on Monday after Eddie had been issued a DUI after his car accident on Friday night that instead of saying "Eddie Sutton Court" said "Jack Daniels Court." Moments later I recieved another text that said "Maybe Eddie shouldn't have been riding his rascal so fast." I'll admit I laughed, I thought they were funny. Too bad Eddie wasn't drunk or drinking when he got in his wreck or else those jokes could have been funny and true. Eddie was found with a bottle of pain killers for his back pain in the seat next to him at the scene of the wreck. DUI means driving under the influence of anything, including pain killers. Eddie isn't an alcoholic anymore, he's put that behind him. I believe in him with all my heart. Regardless of what you think about the recent events of this past week, you can't disrespect what the man has done for college basketball. It's unbelievable; hard to imagine one man doing so much for a game and for this school, but Eddie made it fathomable. In 12 years he's fashioned some of the finest athletes and young men ever to play this game. He's taken this school to the final four twice, sweet sixteen 3 times, the elite eight once, and only misssed the big dance once. He's the only coach ever to take 4 different teams to the tourney, and one of the 3 who have taken 2 teams to the final four. He's had twenty-five 20 win seasons and three 30 win seasons. At OSU, he won conference 4 times, at UK he won it once, and at the U of A he won it 5 times. Quite a resume isn't it? F-ing right it is beeches. He is without a doubt one of the greatest coaches ever to coach this game. He's tied for number 4 on my all time list. He's only 6 wins away from 800. Only 6. Six. S-I-X. Only four others have reached that mark. I think he's earned more than your respect, he's earned your praise. Worship him. Get on your knees and pray to him right now. He is the Jesus of college basketball. A holy, anoited, and prodigal one. I heard God was thinking about revising the Bible and putting his name at the end of the list of the disciples, making him the thirteenth. And I'm positive he'll replace Judas at some point. So give it up to the man. He's on medical leave for the rest of this season right now, some say he'll hang it up after the Baylor game, and pass the torch onto Sean. Right, and Mormonism is the way to heaven. Don't feed me that crap, Eddie will be back. He's got more class than that, more stamina too. He's got more coaching to do. He won't back down to this. He'll be back. Guranteed. I bet my virginity on it, my virginity to a man on top of that!

Don't worry Eddie, that won't be the last net you cut down. It freakin better not be, I don't want to lose my v-card to a man.

In the year 2008...

Two days in a row. Shocking I know. This is no times for jokes though, I'm more mad and blood thirsty than Denzel Washington's character in Man on Fire. And I'm in more pain than Mel Gibson at the end of Braveheart. I've got a lot of fuming to do. Here's the deal: I came here to Oklahoma State for 4 reasons...

1. God called me here
2. The Oklahoma State Cowboy Basketball Program
3. Eddie Sutton called me here
4. Thunderstorms

God's been nothing but faithful. I find His blessing and His conformation all over this place. My spiritual life is healthy, pull of promise, freedom, mystery, and sometimes it's chilling. It's right. God's brought me to a very special place in my walk that I could never ever begin to properly explain to you through blogging. God's too big for a blog. But this isn't a blog about God; not about reason number 1. This one's about reasons 2 and 3.

The past month has been real tough for me, but the past 6 days have been the worst. We lost to Oklahoma, lost in a buzzer beater to A&M, and lost to Kansas. On the third day, the worst news of all, the Jesus of College Basketball was involved in a car accident. Isn't ressurection supposted to happen on the third day? Not in Stillwater. Today Eddie said he would be on medical leave for the rest of the season because of it and his chronic back pain. The ultimate defeat. I've held it in, I've kept silent. No more. I can't keep my mouth shut about this pain anymore. My therapist said that the best way to get over stuff is to let it out. So this is me "letting it out." (I don't really have a therapist). We all know I'm a huge sports fan, especially when it comes to the sacred game of college basketball. I've watched this game since I was freed from the womb, probably watched it while I was in the womb, but I'm not sure. I don't really remember the womb, but that's irrelevant. So when I made my decision to come to Oklahoma State, when I decided that I wanted to make myself an official OSU Cowboy; when i decided it was time to graduate from "fan" to "student-fan," I was more than just excited, I was already prepared. My heart, my soul, my spirit; they were all ready. I was ready to experience what I had only seen on TV- Oklahoma State Basketball. November 8th couldn't have gotten here sooner. And when it came, it came. It was beautiful, unexplainable almost. I stepped foot into a hallowed hut built by the great spirits of this sacred game. I stood, screamed, cheered, laughed, and cursed at times inside a holy temple; inside the mecca of college basketball, inside the the tabernacle of the NCAA's round rubber ball. The temple, Gallagher Iba Arena, a place so hallowed that shoes shouldn't be worn in there. I took it in; breathed better air than I ever had before. Everything was bliss. Lets fast forward to January 7, 2006 and relocate to some joke gymnasium in Columbia, Missouri. The Oklahoma State Men's basketball team had earned itself a 10-4 record. They were on the verge of becoming a member of the nations top 25 teams, a place that the Cowboys had been very familiar with in the past. I was ready, my friends were ready, the team was ready, the school was ready. We all were ready. Then conference play came and screwed up our young, hopeful dreams. What happens next is terribly difficult more me to write, so please, bear with me. A Dove was wounded, and so went our dreams. We clung to our wounded dream, held onto like a 4 year old does a teddy bear. Tonight, about 2 hours ago, I let go of my teddy. I grew up and faced reality. The past month has sucked for an OSU basketball fan, for college basketball fans unless youre one that goes to school about 40 minutes southbound on 35 from Stillwater. I don't even want to talk about you dirty STDs. You aren't worth my words. It's been real hard to watch this season go down the way it has. Losses against Gonzaga and Captian Stache, Colorado, Nebraska, Texas Tech, and Texas A&M, all by two points or less, in the final seconds, or in overtime. We suffered a humiliating loss against Texas, bullcrap against OU, and then tonight against Kansas bringing us to an uncomfortable, unfathomable 13-12 record. Eddie was supposed to win 800 this year. We were supposed to atleast make the big dance. We were atleast supposed to finish 3rd in conference. After all, didn't we have the top recruting class in nation? I don't understand. I'm full of mixed emotions right now. Don't get me wrong, I love this team. I'm head over heals for everyone of them, even Luke the lone white kid. It's just for so long I've looked forward to making memories at this school, inside that temple, with this basketball team: with Eddie, Jameson, Coop, Byron, Torre, Mario, you know, all the guys. All i want know is to forget everything that's happend to us so far this season. I'm ready to look forward into the year 2008. Let me tell you something about destiny. Destiny is always better when it blossoms from the mud. That's the way our story will go. Destiny is on our side. It will dust itself off from the dust and muck its covered itself in this year. It will look clean again next year, but it will look holy in 2008. Destiny holds up the roof of Gallagher Iba. It is there inside that sacred place, inside our hearts, our souls, inside the places where we make our dreams come true. That's what destiny does, it makes our dreams come true. So I will ride this train down this bumby track because I believe in destiny; because I believe in Oklahoma State's destiny. I believe in hope. Hope is a beautiful thing. Hope is on our side. It won't be next year that this world will see destiny at its finest, but the year after. You'll see, 2008 will be the year of the Cowboy. This school, this team, and yes even you Eddie will ride a beautiful black and orange horse into the National Championship game where we will walk away with a trophy that reads: 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball National Champions. And Eddie will hop off after that, he'll desaddle from that stallion. But we'll keep riding till the end. You'll see that destiny has a name in the year 2008, and its name is Pete. I leave you with one of the best movie quotes of all time... "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." -Andy Dufresne

Your 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball National Champs.

The Truth and His Bride

Art History 1603, that's what should be getting my attention right now, but my heart's to heavy. It's to weighed down by something bigger, by something filled with more wonder, mystery, beauty, and determination; something whose own art is best exemplified through us, man and woman. In fact, He goes as far to call us His masterpiece even though we look more like a Picasso painting 99% of the time; messy, unorganized, lost, and with little direction. The heart is heavy with something that Art History 1603 could never teach me about; something with more brushstrokes of beauty than any piece of art that we'll look at in that class or any other class. Frankly, I could careless who I offend with this blog. Sometimes the truth sucks. (For those of you who are used to my senseless banter, please try to bear with me through this one. Child Ryan will be back soon. He promises.) I use the word "truth" because that's what is filling my soul right now. Not the truth of this world, not of people, not the truth of textbooks, and definitely not of Hollywood. My soul, my spirit, my bones, my heart; they are filled with a truth found in the chill of a winter night, the glow of a midnight moon, the newness of spring, the aggression of a lion's roar, or the gentleness of a newborn baby. Ezekial said that when he ate of this truth it tasted sweeter than honey. When Ezekial put this Word to his lips, when he digested it and let it settle, things changed for him. He went from child to to man, from man to follower, from follower to prophet, and from prophet to nation shaker. This truth that fueled Ezekial, this truth that fuels the billions of stars that hang by threads each night, this truth that fueled Paul, that fueled Job, that fueled Peter, this truth... this truth is fueling me now. I write this not to tell you that i'm being fueled, but instead what i'm being fueled with. And yeah, I could write this in a personal journal. I could write this in the little brown leather binding sitting on my bookshelf, but this truth is for us all, not just me.

Truth has taught me something about itself in the past week. It's taught me something about His home, the church. I see and I hear about truth spreading all throughout this world, what i don't see or hear about is truth spreading all throughout the church. And my heart is broken. The bride, the beautiful bride laced in all its purity and perfection, is being treated like a whore. Let me be the first to admit my neglegance of the church. I'm guilty of believing that the doors of the church are open for me, and my filling, not for the Spirit, and His spreading. I have forgotten to love the church. I have forgotten how crucial the body is to the individual. I'm so tired of cabel Christianity. Christianitys become commericialized. You can find it on bumper stickers, t-shirts, TV, Radio, the internet, Washington, and even in Hollywood. Since when has this faith become something you can sell? Since when has it become something you can play politics with? Since when has it become something we can judge by how high its raitings are or how high its income is? We can probably find it in our ipods if we looked hard enough. And where is the church in all this? The answer- right in the middle of it. And im sick of it. We've got secondhand carsalesmen on every other channel and in our own pulpits telling us that if you send a dollar here, if you send a dollar there, eternity is yours! Eternity is free people, free. It doesn't cost a dollar, you don't get it cause you bought a t-shirt that says "jesus is my homeboy" printed on it. That crap doesn't make you a christian. That crap doesn't make you a member of the body. How is it that the greatest story EVER told, how is that this truth has been hijacked by these fools? Seriously? How is it that the church has been hijacked by these fools? The church is full of religion, and its getting in the way of God. There are churches for baptists, southern baptists, methodists, penacostals, charasmatics, catholics, roman catholics, lutherans, and prysbeterians. Christianitys been labeled like a piece of clothing. Christianity isn't american eagle, it isn't abercrombie and fitch, and it's not polo. Christianity is a faith, not a religion. Bono, lead singer of the greatest rock band ever U2, said last month that "religion often gets in the way of God." A rock star said this. A rock star, who happens to be a believer. God doesn't care about what church we attend. He doesn're care if it has United Methodist, Saint Marys, or First Baptist somewhere in its name. He doesn't care about the bumper sticker on our car, or the version Bible we read. He doesn't care about the tradition of His home. He doesn't care about how liberal or how conservative it can be either. He doesn't care. What He cares about is the condition of our hearts. What he cares about is how hard we are chasing after Him and not a religion. What He cares about is us. What he cares about is his body. What He cares about is His church and its elegance. What he cares about is His beautiful wife. I'm praying for my heart to feel the same. I'm praying for yours to feel the same too... Open your hearts. Let the Spirit do some damage. Let Him work on His masterpiece. Let go of religion, and grab hold of faith.