As the Olympics approach, we hear of the glory of the original games and the purity of sport. The NCAA has always claimed a role as the protector of the integrity of sport and the welfare of the combatants. Yet, we really don't see a great deal of that idealism in sports as owners and players struggle for money, and ego displaces honor.
Then, there is the rise of women's sports which have become the sheperds of the hopes of sport as the founders cooperated in order to build an identity within a hostile world. Most of the followers of women's sport do not follow it because it represents the best in athletic achievement, but rather the best of human endeavor.
It is the University of Oklahoma program that has risen above the mediocre to define what has always been supposedly true of sport. It is an attempt to stand for something more than just a gambit for wins and losses, but rather an aspiration of what sport and man should be. While some aspects of sport stuggle for money and ego, the University of Oklahoma women's basketball team has used its efforts to build homes for Habitat for Humanity, to minister and comfort the ill children in the area, and spent its summers helping to rebuild the ravages of Haiti. While others seek to rule what is, the University of Oklahoma program has sought to search for what the best within us can be.
While some have coaches which may embarass the program, the University of Oklahoma has a coach who paints word pictures of the human existence and the search for an excellence of spirit. The broad brush strokes upon the canvas that is her program are as identifiable as the forceful strokes of Van Gogh, leaving no doubt as to meaning or of intent. Whatever a student-athlete accomplishes during her journey, she will become a part of that portrait of the pride of human existence. Rather than a collector of points and rebounds, she will learn to leave her imprint on the canvases of life with brushstrokes that she learned while at the University of Oklahoma.
When we look behind the curtain of the program, we can only be proud. As the coach says, we will get those who we should get. Some have demonstrated that they don't fit well in the portrait, and they have moved on, usually not because of points and rebounds, but because they just didn't fit within the portrait. It is something worthy of a university, that defines what a university should be, the search for higher levels of existence.
The program is respected because it endeavors to be what we have always claimed that sport should be. The portrait may get us to the Sweet Sixteen or the Final Four. But, more important are those victories that are won after the season is over and life begins.
