Tramel: Mack a goodwill ambassador
coach.
Marvin Mack is as fine a goodwill ambassador as our great state offers.
“He was taking care of people he didn’t even know,” Morris said.
For Elyse Morris’ 14th birthday, her dad got her a trip to the World Series. The whole family had attended last year. This time, father and daughter traveled from their home in the far-Los Angeles suburb of Claremont for games Friday night and Saturday.
Flights to OKC were booked, so they flew into Tulsa and drove the Turner Turnpike.
The skies grew darker as they traveled west. But the Morrises didn’t think much of it. They had softball on their minds.
“I never thought, oh my goodness, we’re in the middle of something,” Morris said. “Drove to the stadium, thinking a game was going to be played.”
But the Hall of Fame Stadium parking lot was mostly empty when they arrived around 6 p.m.
That’s when Coach Mack noticed them. Since retiring a few years ago as Douglass High School’s girls basketball coach, Coach Mack has served as an usher at Thunder games, where he works the hallway just outside the locker rooms, and volunteering at a variety of events, including the World Series. This year, Coach Mack worked the bus gate.
Both places, he’s always ready with a big smile and a friendly word.
Which is what the Morrises needed when they stepped out of their rental car.
You remember the weather that night. Crazy-shifting tornadoes. Dangerous straight winds. Flooding all over Oklahoma City.
Coach Mack told the Morrises they really need to take shelter. He led them to the bowels of Hall of Fame Stadium, where workers and officials had gathered when the games were delayed.
Over the next four hours, Coach Mack occasionally would have someone check on the Morrises.
“He did a great job making me feel comfortable,” Morris said. Which in turn made Elyse feel comfortable. “With Coach Mack keeping us informed, we felt like we were in really good hands.”
And when the threat had cleared, long about 10:30 p.m., and the crowd dispersed from the safe room below the stadium, the Morrises once again bumped into Coach Mack.
Morris invited Coach Mack to dinner, Morris’ treat, to thank him for his kindness. Coach Mack gently informed the Californians that nothing would be open. Most places in the metro probably had shut down, to brace against the weather.
So Coach Mack had another idea. Come on over to his house for a bite. The Morrises were starving; they hadn’t eaten since landing in Oklahoma.
Coach Mack lives over in Forest Park, not far from the softball complex. His wife wasn’t home; she was out trying to reach their daughter, who, too, had been caught in the storm, and the freeway logjams had made travel difficult.
So the Morrises feasted on sandwiches made from smoked bologna, prepared by Coach Mack’s sister on Memorial Day.
“Delicious,” Morris said. They don’t smoke a lot of bologna in Greater Los Angeles. “My daughter said, ‘I’ve never had anything like this.’”
So in between Coach Mack’s phone calls to his wife and munching on smoke bologna, a friendship was born.
“In California,” Morris said, “people are not as hospitable. You don’t get people to open their home to you to that extent.”
By then, it was getting late. So Coach Mack gave the Morrises directions to their hotel, the Four Points Sheraton at Quail Springs, and then decided that might not be good enough, considering there was a rainstorm and the roads might be a mess.
So Coach Mack drove out himself, asking them to follow. They arrived at the hotel after midnight, only to discover the Four Points had lost all power.
The Morrises were dead-dog tired, so they wanted to stay anyway. Coach Mack was ready. He had a flashlight and led them down the pitchblack hallway to their room, where they finally crashed to end a day in which they started out looking for some softball and instead found a port in the storm.