Thanksgiving Day: Memories (Includes Scott Sutton)

[ORUTerry]

Thanksgiving Day: Memories

By MIKE STRAIN AND ERIC BAILEY World Sports Writers

11/23/2006

Local sports figures talk about what makes the holiday special

TERRY SCOTT

Central High School boys basketball coach

Terry Scott grew up in a little house with plastic on the windows and no bathroom inside. ?I came from a poor background,? said Scott, who?s going on 21 years as Tulsa Central High School?s boys basketball coach.

But every Thanksgiving, the Scott family lived like kings at his grandmother?s house.

?We?d have two or three different tables set up in the living room, the dining room, the kitchen,? said Scott, recalling those boyhood days from the early 1960s in Cleveland, Tenn.

This was no small Thanksgiving gathering ? ?about 30 people or more? from all over the country, Scott said. And this was no small feast.

?The meal . . . the whole thing would consume the whole kitchen,? Scott said. ?We?d have a big prayer, and then we?d have dinner.

The dinner would be humongous.

You?d have a cafeteria type dessert.

?We?d start in the morning at 8 or 9 o?clock, and it wouldn?t end until 8 or 9 at night. You?d eat all night.?

SCOTT SUTTON

Oral Roberts? men?s

Tulsa World Sports Extra

basketball coach

Sledding and cross country skiing in Alaska: Sounds like a good Thanksgiving to Oral Roberts basketball coach Scott Sutton.

?Growing up with a basketball coach as a father, Thanksgiving was different every year,? said Sutton, the son of longtime coach Eddie Sutton and the brother of Oklahoma State coach Sean Sutton.

?I spent two Thanksgivings in Alaska, a Thanksgiving in Hawaii, a Thanksgiving in New York City.

I?ve kind of been to a lot of different places.?

Sutton loved Alaska. The most recent trip was last year, when ORU played in the Great Alaska Shootout. He took his wife, Kim, and oldest daughter, Hallie, 5. In Alaska, players and coaches are divided into small groups, and they spend Thanksgiving with different host families.

?I remember going cross country skiing during one Thanksgiving,? said Scott Sutton, who described last year?s trip with his family as ?wonderful. We were able to go to a host family?s home and have a Thanksgiving dinner.

We took my daughter sledding.?

CHARLES RAMSEY

University of Tulsa football player

Turkey, wild boar meat and venison can be found on Charlie Ramsey?s Thanksgiving dinner table in rural Owasso.

The Tulsa tight end is a selfdescribed country boy, with this holiday serving as a centerpiece to family get-togethers.

?It?s traditional with a little country bliss to it,? said a smiling Ramsey with a slight drawl. Ramsey will spend the holiday eating with teammates before the Golden Hurricane takes on Tulane at 2 p.m. Friday.

He added that senior tight end Aaron Roupoli?s family, which is from California, will spend the day with the Ramseys.

Ramsey said his father is a mad cook during this time of year.

?We have a ton of food and my dad loves to cook,? Ramsey said.

?He?ll roast one turkey and deep-fry another. He definitely gets after it.?

JILLIAN ROBBINS

Tulsa women?s basketball player

Jillian Robbins will eat Thanksgiving turkey with her family at a San Antonio hotel. Sitting on her lap will be her son Jordan, old enough now to feast. ?This is his second Thanksgiving,? said Robbins, an All-America candidate on Tulsa?s basketball team. ?This time, he gets to eat.?

TU is playing No. 9 LSU in a holiday tournament on Friday. Instead of a family trek to Tulsa, much of Robbins? family will spend the holiday eating with their athletic daughter and niece.

Growing up, Robbins always spent Thanksgiving in Tulsa, where her grandmother lives.

?We?d go to Grandma?s house in Gilcrease Hills,? Robbins said.

?She?d kick us all out of the kitchen and we?d have to stay in the living room.?

?Grandma? is going to spend the holiday in Dallas with a daughter, while Robbins will break bread with much of her family at the team hotel.

?I think my mom?s glad that she doesn?t have to get in on any of the cooking,? Robbins said with a laugh.