I wanted to share an experience our family had yesterday with the OU athletic department and specifically, Coach Groce.

My wife and I are alums and we have two young kids that we are rearing to be future Bobcats.  We decided to make the trip from Cleveland to see the OU v Kennesaw State game.  Two days before we left, I emailed the athletic department to see if we could take our family on a tour of the Convo and Peden stadium.  With school on break (and with short notice) I thought it was not likely we would get a response to our request.  But to my surprise, an intern in the Sports Ad department contacted us right away to meet with us.

So yesterday, after touring Peden, we came back to the Convo right as the men's team was finishing up their pre-game practice yesterday.  We quietly sat in some seats to watch the final two minutes of practice.  Coach Groce saw us and walked over and introduced himself.  He said that practice was ending in soon and he would be happy to take our family photo with the entire team.  The kids (and me) thought it was really cool, and I was shocked that he would initiate something like that when we clearly were invading a private moment with the team. He talked to us for a couple minutes, and we wished the team good luck. 

We had a great time at the game. After the win, I was pleasantly surprised to see how Coach Groce personally approached the fans after the win to thank them for coming and he again shook our hand as we were in the front row.
Kudos to the Athletic Department for being some accomodating to us, and for Coach Groce for just being a really nice guy.  

+1 good stuff

Not surprised!

What she has done and what her predecessors failed to do is get involved in the community.  Whether it's entering her chili in the annual Chili Bowl cook off or serving as one of the host homes for the Athens Foundations Key event fundraiser  (host homes were matched with a local chefs to raise over $30,000), she has been very visible since they rolled into Athens.  The same can be said for the other coaches wives too.  This was a very good hire for OU.

Good to also see the Sports Ad program involvement, one of OU's best programs.

Must be a little bit of  that Hoosier hospitality we are raised with. Coach, wife and AD all grew up here in the heartland.... I even think a lil bit of it must have rubbed off on oldkatz while he was here.