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| Photo courtesy of Oklahoma State Athletic Department |
By Robert H Kelly
Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved
SOUTH TULSA, OKLAHOMA (May 24, 2020) Former Arkansas Razorback and OKlahoma State Cowboys head basketball coach Eddie Sutton, who won 806 games in his career, died on Saturday of natural causes at his home in South Tulsa. He was 84. He took four different schools, Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Creighton, and Kentucky, to the NCAA tournament, and two Final Four appearances (Oklahoma State in 1999 and 2004).
As a young teacher and coach, I received a telephone call from Sutton in the spring of 1981. I was working at Killeen (Texas) High School and had a young basketball player, Keenan DeBose, in class that he was recruiting for Arkansas. His call lasted about 10 minutes and we discussed how the player was doing in my mathematics class. He asked me to contact him if the player was having any problems or issues in class.
At the time, and still today, I thought it was a big deal. A famous collegiate basketball coach calling a "still wet behind the ears" teacher. I never had to contact him, as the player was doing fine and having no issues.
So that was my 10-minute "relationship" with Eddie Sutton. When I heard he had passed away on Saturday night, it brought back this long-forgotten memory.
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