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Former ORU coach Ken Trickey dies BY JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer Tuesday, December 04, 2012 12/4/2012 12:45:55 PM Former Oral Roberts University coach Ken Trickey, one of the most influential and colorful characters in this state’s basketball history, died Tuesday morning. He was 79. Trickey served two tours of duty at ORU, including a five-year stint in the 1970s in which his run-and-shoot teams went 118-23 and scored 100 or more points 55 times. The glory years period was climaxed by a 1973-74 season in which ORU finished one win away from a Final Four. The Titans (that was ORU’s nickname in a pre-Golden Eagles era) lost in overtime to Kansas in an NCAA regional championship game at the Mabee Center. During a 2008 interview, Trickey said he had the time of his life at ORU. “It was just unbelievable,†he said. Current ORU basketball coach Scott Sutton was informed of Trickey’s death and called it a sad day for the university and its athletic department. “It’s amazing what he accomplished in such a short time to go from... 10 years from the time the university was founded (in 1963) to playing for the Final Four and playing at your home arena,†Sutton said. “Without him, there wouldn’t be a Mabee Center probably. I always tell people -- and people have said this -- that (All-American player) Richard Fuqua built the arena. But Ken Trickey recruited Richard. Without Ken, ORU athletics certainly would have taken a lot longer to get on the map.†Trickey created waves that went beyond 81st and Lewis. Other basketball programs in a football-crazy state were essentially guilted into keeping pace with the new kids on the block who gained national publicity. (Sport magazine, a one-time competitor to Sports Illustrated, wrote an article titled “Praise the Lord and pass the ball to Fuqua.â€) If not for Trickey’s success, would Tulsa have hired Nolan Richardson? Would Oklahoma have hired Billy Tubbs? Former Tulsa World sports editor Bill Connors once wrote that ORU’s surge inspired Tulsa, Arkansas, OU and OSU to commit to better things. “I’m not sure Ken Trickey was ever given the credit for the impact he had on basketball in the state of Oklahoma,†former ORU and Tulsa coach Ken Hayes said Tuesday. “We all grew up in the Henry Iba era and, if you coached basketball in Oklahoma, you did everything Mr. Iba’s way and why not? Mr. Iba was, is and always will be the godfather of basketball in the state of Oklahoma. He put together two national championships back-to-back and, besides being a great coach, he was a great human being and everybody that ever met him will always hold him in awe. But when Ken Trickey came in... and said we’ve got to put up 100 shots a game, he introduced an exciting brand of basketball.†Former Oklahoma State coach and Iba disciple Eddie Sutton said Trickey was “unorthodox†in the way his teams played. “But he was very successful,†Sutton said. “He did things a lot of other coaches probably weren’t teaching at the time and now there are coaches who are teaching basically the same way he did things.†Trickey grew up in Cairo, Ill., and knew he wanted to be a coach because the coach in his hometown “was the best-looking guy I had ever seen. He was like a father to me. I had been able to have chosen my father, I would have picked him.†Trickey became a multi-sport athlete at Middle Tennessee State and finished his basketball career as the program’s all-time leading scorer. He became a coach in Cairo and MTSU during a period when both schools integrated athletics. Trickey wasn’t trying to break color barriers. He just wanted to play the best players. ORU founder Oral Roberts wanted to use athletics to spread his ministry and hired Trickey. Roberts and Trickey (who wasn’t in awe of the evangelist) became friends and the coach got everything he asked for, including the use of an airplane to go recruiting anywhere and everywhere during a time when there was no such thing as a “dead†period. “It was big-time,†Trickey said in 2008. Knowing that he was on Iba turf, Trickey made a splash at his introductory press conference by saying he wanted to score 100 points a game. He once told a national writer that he didn’t mind giving up 120 points as long as his team scored 140. Subsequent words and actions earned Trickey a maverick label. Trickey scoffed at coaches who fancied themselves as great tacticians or strategists. “They like to think they are Patton,†he said. He admitted he would rather play games four or five times a week than practice. He gave media carte blanche access, letting reporters come into the locker room at halftime. Eccentric? “He was a breath of fresh air,†Hayes said, adding that he and Trickey were friends when they were crosstown rivals. Trickey’s maverick behavior continued at the peak of his success. Near the end of his Elite Eight season, he announced he was stepping down and, in 2008, he said he did it because some people on campus were getting too meddlesome (they wanted him to coach a different way) and “uppity.†The announcement came before he was pulled over for suspicion of DWI. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of careless driving and said he could have stayed at ORU, if he chose to do so. Trickey became the head coach at Iowa State and immediately realized he didn’t fit. He lasted two seasons. He also coached at Oklahoma City University and the junior college level before returning to ORU for a second tour of duty from 1987-93, when he shepherded a temporary drop from the NCAA to the NAIA. Trickey also coached at Muskogee High School and was an observer of officials for the Big 12 until a car accident led to impaired vision. After his career ended, he remained pleasantly contrary, saying if he was coaching today, he might scrap his preferred style of play and recruit suburban kids to run a Princeton offense. He was different until the end. “I never understood why everybody wanted to be like everybody else,†Trickey said. Trickey was like nobody else. In this March 14, 1974 file photo, Oral Roberts (left) with Ken Trickey during the NCAA tournament at Oral Roberts University. Tulsa World File Copyright © 2012, World Publishing Co. All rights reserved

Conference RPI, as of 12/3: Southland Conference: #23 Summit League: #24 Conference RPI 12/3 Conference Strength Of Schedule RPI, as of 12/3: Southland Conference: #6 Summit League: #26 Conference Strength of Schedule RPI Yes, it's early in the season. But, it's plain to see that the Summit is not about to produce a #13 Seed without Oral Roberts (and its non-conference schedule) propping up the league RPI anymore.

I don't mean to hi-jack the Men's Basketball Board for a non-basketball topic, but I know it's often the only one visited. The ORU Alumni Board is currently holding a election and I have the pleasure/honor of being a nominee for the Board for the years 1980-89. If you graduated in the 80's, and are interested in having a strong supporter of ORU Athletics on the Alumni Board, I'd welcome your support - and any networking you can provide with other alumni from the 80's to promote my candidacy would be greatly appreciated. To vote, please visit alumni.oru.edu, click on the “Vote Now†link, and log-in to the ORU online community. Voting ends December 5th. If you have any questions, feel free to message me. Thanks! Joel Barker aka TrueBlue82

Sad news: Jimmie Tramel of the Tulsa World is reporting that legendary former ORU basketball coach Ken Trickey has passed away. Trickey had recently celebrated his 80th birthday, and was battling throat cancer. Tramel will be writing a story soon, and as a long-time friend of Trickey's, he is just the man to do it. For all his foibles, Trickey was a groundbreaker in a lot of ways, and many credit him for launching big-time basketball in the state back in the 70's. He was a true original, a maverick who's sort is seldom seen in today's buttoned-down college basketball scene. RIP, Coach - and thanks for the memories.

Ken Trickey's death was #1 trending item on yahoo tonight. When I first saw it I thought it had to be someone else. Just that moment this evening shows how widespead ORU, Oral Roberts, Ken Trickey and those names are in this society. Someday we may find out we were all a part of history.

TheEagleman was at the game where that photo above was taken and I was sitting just on the other side of the photographer that day......this is a very sad day....ORU owes a lot to Ken Trickey....a fine coach and always a nice guy to TheEagleman when he was a reporter for the Oracle....the statue idea of Oral and Trickey together is a great idea....those are the two guys who built ORU basketball.....those years from about 1970-74 were magical....I was there in 72-73 and 73-74.....frankly, ORU could have won the NCAA title in 73-74...it was there for the taking...the Kansas game still haunts TheEagleman to this day.....give me the sweats just to think about those last two minutes of regulation....two nights before when we beat Louisville at Mabee Center in the NCAA 2nd round was one of the most exciting games in ORU roundball history....and arguably one of our biggest wins....but I will always remember Coach Trickey....great guy and a great coach...RIP....

It may be a pipe dream, but how cool would it be to cast a statue of Oral and Coach Trickey and place it in front of the Mabee Center? This photo brought that to life for me.

I don't remember where I heard him tell this story - it must have been the interview that I mentioned above, because I really didn't hear him speak any other time that I can remember - Trickey claimed that in the midst of declining university revenues in the 80s Oral was ready to drop athletics completely (may have just been basketball, but I think it was all sports). Trickey told Oral that he thought that if they dropped down to NAIA that he could run the athletic program in a manner that would be affordable to the university, and did so, overseeing the department during those lean NAIA years. Had he not convinced Oral to make the move to NAIA rather than drop the program completely, we might not have the program that we have today. I think I've got that right - any thoughts or corrections on that, OT?

I'm glad that the bridges were mended and Trickey was around to be inducted into the ORU Hall of Fame, before he passed. He put ORU on the map.