Change of address
After 22 years at 81st and Lewis, Scott Sutton is looking for a job
S cott Sutton used to say he didn’t want to coach. When he was playing for his dad at OSU from 1992-94, that was Scott Sutton’s mantra. His brother, Sean, absolutely was always going to coach. But not Scott.
Sounds funny now, considering that for 22 years Sutton drove to 81st and Lewis Avenue in Tulsa to coach basketball at Oral Roberts University. That’s almost half his life.
Sutton no longer goes to 81st and Lewis every day. ORU fired him in April after 18 seasons as the head coach. And the once-reluctant coach now can’t imagine doing anything else.
“I can’t imagine life the last 22 years” without coaching, Sutton said Friday. “It’s been a great ride.”
He’s ready to keep riding. Sutton, two weeks shy of his 47th birthday, wants to keep coaching.
Sutton knows it won’t be next season. ORU, in another sign that it really doesn’t know what it’s doing, waited until seven weeks after its final game to fire Sutton. By then, most coaching jobs were filled.
Sutton knows he’ll have to leave Tulsa, where he arrived 22 years ago as a single man and now has a wife of 18 years, Kim, and three daughters ages 16, 14 and 10 who never have lived anywhere else.
“Scary to think about doing something else,” Sutton said. “It will be difficult. We’ve had chances to go different places. We’ve always chosen to stay here. We loved this community. Tulsa’s home. I’ve lived here almost half my life.
“So yeah, it’ll be difficult to move. But I think we’re excited about the opportunity. Hopefully there will be an opportunity next spring. Kim and the girls, they’ve been great about it. They’re excited. We understand we’re going to have to move, if want to stay in this business. We’re OK with that. We hate it, because I think this is a special community and I think Oklahoma’s a special place. I feel blessed we were able to stay in the same city for 22 years.”
It’s hard to think of Scott Sutton as a veteran. Hard to believe he was head coach at ORU longer than his father was head coach at OSU. Eddie spent 16 seasons with his alma mater.
But it’s true. Scott Sutton spent two years as an assistant coach for Bill Self, two years as an assistant for Barry Hinson and then was promoted to head coach in May 1999, five months after OU hired Bob Stoops to coach football. If Sutton had returned
for the 2017-18 season, he would have ranked 10th among the 351 Division I head coaches in tenure on the job.
Sutton fashioned a record of 328-247 in 18 Oral Roberts seasons. But he fell victim to ORU’s identity crisis. Tulsa World reporting showed that school president Billy Wilson seemed intent on establishing a Bible college culture. Which is fine. Except ORU long had been a Christian liberal arts university.
Nothing wrong with either course. But each comes with ramifications. Christian liberal arts schools can compete in NCAA Division I. Bible colleges, almost impossible. Sutton was compelled to recruit inferior athletes, and ORU went 22-39 combined the last two years, after 14 straight winning seasons.
“I’m doing good,” Sutton said. “Disappointed in how things ended. I have nothing but great memories and proud of what we accomplished. Proud of the teams. Cherish relationships with players and assistant coaches and so many people at ORU. It’s a wonderful place.”
Of course, adding to the stark change is that another Sutton was affected. Sean Sutton, Scott’s younger brother, has been his assistant coach for six years, which revived Sean’s career after he was fired as head coach at OSU and pleaded guilty to charges of unlawfully obtaining and possessing prescription drugs for non-medical use.
Scott said Sean wants to keep coaching, too.
Eddie Sutton and all three of his sons live in Tulsa. Eddie, 81, is retired. Steve Sutton is in banking.
Scott said his dad “was very disappointed how things went down. At the same time, he’s been in this business forever. Ninety percent of what the Suttons have seen in college basketball has been great. We’ve also seen the side that’s not so great.
“All three of us have been fired now. That happens. I guess in any profession, you come to a place, you get to a situation, where your boss or bosses don’t like you or feel like you’re not a great fit. We understand that’s part of this business.”
So now Scott Sutton is out of a job. But he’ll be paid for two more years, so he can be judicious about his future.
“In the long run, it may be good to sit out,” Sutton said.
He said he’d love to go around and watch other coaches conduct practice. Maybe go up to Kansas, see how Self runs things, 20 years after Sutton worked for Self at ORU. “Go out and see some guys that I respect and can learn from,” Sutton said. “Always trying to get better.”
This is the slow time of the year for basketball coaches. Recruiting is finished. Camps haven’t started. When July arrives, Sutton probably will feel the itch more.
For now, he’s staying busy spending time with his daughters and his dad, playing golf, planning some travel with his wife. Coaches’ wives can sacrifice much. Including landing in a new port.
“It saddens me to think we’ll most likely have to move, but we understand that’s part of the business,” said the man who in younger years never thought he’d coach but now can’t imagine life without it.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at (405) 760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok. com/berrytramel.