Wayman memories Thread

[Dave4OU]

bump

 

[w0lfe]

I had met Wayman a few different times. One of the times he was promoting his bigtime brand of clothing at the old athletic village. I had went home and got all my basketball cards of Wayman (around 50 of them) and brought them to him. He went through each one of the cards signing them and telling a story about each. I still remember his favorite card was one where he was in a sacremento jersey that was this baby blue powder color. He laughed at that one a few times. Great man with a great smile.

 

[WaymanFan]

I never actually met Wayman, but saw him play twice - once in college and once in the NBA. The one in college was the most special because I brought my dad with me when OU played at Syracuse in January of 1984. My dad is not a huge college hoops fan, and his only knowledge of Wayman Tisdale was through my seemingly endless bragging of him. I'll never forget my dad's reaction when Wayman performed a reverse dunk which mezmerized the entire crowd. My dad just sat with amazement, and confessing: "He is incredible. I thought you (meaning "me") were exaggerating." Wayman went on to score 33 points in a 98-91 OU victory.

BTW, that Syracuse game was the real start of OU becoming a national power for the next seven seasons. We were not in the top 20 (there was no top 25 back then) until after that game. We were never again absent from the polls in the WWT era.

 

[Sooner Quick]

Great stuff, SQ. Thanks. I love that quote by Stacey.

I loved it too BT. ldwt356:

 

[kbsooner]

Sometimes the light shines a little bit brighter for some...

I don't have any personal stories of Wayman bc I was still young, but I am sure some of my first memories of Sooner basketball are listening to radio broadcasts with the folks during Wayman's days at OU. I definitely remember listening to one of the La Tech games. I'm sure he is the hook that set my love of Sooner Hoops.

If you haven't seen the collection of pics the DOK put out, its a must...

ONE OF DOK'S BEST PHOTO COLLECTIONS EVER

 

[jmizzy4ou]

This has been a great thread to read. I wrote the following the day WWT died, and I thought I'd share it with you fine folks:

Good stuff 04. That was the thing that seperated Wayman, from Blake, Stacey, Alvin A., etc. he was a scoring machine who night after night, scored with ease against junk defenses and all kinds of ploys and plots to contain him.

I remember games where Wayman would be surrounded by 4 players all night in the post. They would allow our guards to practically dribble uncontested to the rim, and shoot a lay-up, rather than letting Wayman catch the ball in the post. He struck total fear in everyone that we played against. He still scored at will, even against the constant diet of junk defenses that he faced.

I have never seen a college post man be so dominant on the lower blocks as WWT was while at OU.

 

[SoonerNorm]

Good stuff 04. That was the thing that seperated Wayman, from Blake, Stacey, Alvin A., etc. he was a scoring machine who night after night, scored with ease against junk defenses and all kinds of ploys and plots to contain him.

I remember games where Wayman would be surrounded by 4 players all night in the post. They would allow our guards to practically dribble uncontested to the rim, and shoot a lay-up, rather than letting Wayman catch the ball in the post. He struck total fear in everyone that we played against. He still scored at will, even against the constant diet of junk defenses that he faced.

I have never seen a college post man be so dominant on the lower blocks as WWT was while at OU.

He was very dominant but so was Alvin Adams. Both were outstanding college players.

 

[Looking4#8]

Easily my best memory of Waymon, my brother and I were sitting in the Lloyd Noble - in the second row of the student section - watching OU play Georgia Tech with Mark Price and John Salley and an amazing array of talent. There were about 12,500 there that day, Tubbs had the heat turned WAY up and the crowd was way out crazed. Tech got up about 12 points, as I remember, in the second half BUT THEN WAYMON got going. He had 2 seven footers surrounding him and a guard tripling down on him but Tubbs had our guards jam the ball into him. With an array of his beautiful turnaround jumpers and dunks (one behind the back dunk - brought the house down), Waymon rallied OU to win that day. After the game with that Big Ol smile he shook hands with everyone in sight.

To this day, that was the loudest the Lloyd Noble has ever been. My ears rang for 2 days after that, just like being at a rock concert.

I will never forget that day or the great 3 years he gave OU. What a great man!!!!!