Enriching our lives for 20 years and counting
The story hit The Oklahoman's website one night in 2010. Morgan Myers was in her first year at the University of Central Oklahoma, and Jenni Carlson's column on Scott Myers had just posted.
Morgan sat down in her UCO dorm with her roommate and cried as they read the story of the Moore High School football coach fighting cancer. Two years later, Morgan's father died.
“She was very thoughtful in how she put everything together, to not make him feel like he was a project or a charity case or anything like that,”
Morgan Myers says of my colleague. “It just always has meant a lot to my family that she cared enough to do a story on a man that was my hero.”
Over the years, the writer I call JackO followed up with pieces on Scott Myers' son choosing a college (UCO) because Broncho coach Nick Bobeck reminded Mason Myers of his dad and on Morgan Myers' book about her father.
“She kept us on her brain,” Morgan Myers said. “She didn't have to contact me after I wrote a book about my dad. Didn't have to sit down with me for coffee, but she did. Made that little personal project of mine feel like a big deal.”
JackO has made a lot of us feel like a big deal. Twenty years ago this week, Jenni Carlson wrote her first column for The Oklahoman. She came here to write about us Okies. And soon enough, she became one herself.
Twenty years is a long time in the volatile partnership of sports and newspapers. Especially these days, where media seems to change by the hour. But for two full decades,
JackO has enriched our lives. She's told our stories and chronicled our games. She's made us cry and she's made us shout. And she's had the courage to make us mad, and I'm not just talking about Mike Gundy. The Oak Tree crowd was livid when JackO called for the 16th hole hangman's noose to be removed, but 15 years later, Oak Tree's protests haven't aged so well.
JackO is short for Jackie O., a comparison that has everything to do with being the American embodiment of style and grace and nothing to do with the sunglasses she wears that have lenses the size of garbage can lids.
JackO arrived in August 1999 at age 24 from the Kansas hamlet of Clay Center, via KU and the Kansas City Star. The knuckleheads said she wouldn't last. But she was tougher than they were.
She's a Steel Magnolia, and for 20 years, her personality has charmed us and her writing has refined us.
“Nobody told our story better than Jenni did,” said Keith Sinor, former athletic director
for Oklahoma City Public Schools. JackO's columns about Fields & Futures have helped that organization build momentum to transform the facilities at OKC schools.
“Through her storytelling, we were able to radically transform not only our school system, but our city. People began to realize our schools were a huge part of the city. She understood the bigger picture … I think our city should be thankful for her.”
Our department, our paper, our city, our state. All should be thankful for her.
“I would say she brought an entirely different perspective to The Oklahoman,” said Keri Watkins, executive director of the Oklahoma City National Memorial. “She's been great to look at the human element in a way that brings sports to life.”
The Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon, which annually benefits the Memorial and honors the 168 victims of the bombing, has been a pet project of JackO's. When a cynic like me spouts that I'd rather run a marathon than write about it, JackO is there to remind us all of the significance of the event.
“She's helped us tell our stories in ways we could never have done,” Watkins said. “Stories behind the scenes that people would never see. She's willing to listen and walk in their shoes with them.”
JackO long ago became a staple at Owen Field and Gallagher-Iba Arena, at the Big House and Thunder games, and now she's a staple with your morning coffee. Along the way, she's won over most of those knuckleheads from 1999, who learned what most of us should know, that women make anything better, and a woman like JackO makes everything a lot better.
In 20 years, we've had to fight off the likes of Minneapolis and Seattle and Nashville to keep her here, where she married and gave birth and is raising a family. We're all fortunate that she stayed. Here's hoping she stays another 20 years.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-7608080 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 FM-98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok. com/berrytramel.