MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Hall of Fame adds seven new members
NORMAN — Bob Stoops and Patty Gasso's careers were linked.
Both won their first national championships at Oklahoma in 2000.
In June 2017, when Gasso won her fourth championship with the Sooners, Stoops retired a day later.
Then Monday night, both were inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame at t he Riverwind Showplace Theater.
“He always reminded me of John Wayne, his style and the way he talks ,” Gas so said of Stoops. “I just liked his style because it was very real. He's just a real guy. I'm honored to be able to be in the same class with him.”
Gasso and Stoops were inducted along with Kendall Cross, Lou Henson, Mike Moore, Will Shield sand Mickey Tettleton.
St oops said one of the things he was most proud of in his career with the Sooners —after his relationships with his players — was the consistency.
His teams made a bowl in each of his 18 years as head coach, winning at least eight games each season after his first season. During that stretch, 14 times the Sooners won 10 or more games.
“There were very few bad years and there were a lot of championships,” Stoops said. “That consistency was there for all 18 years and that's not easy to do when you compare it to other places.”
That consistency, Stoops said, is also what he admired most about Gasso.
“Constantly excellent,” Stoops said of Gasso. “That's not easy to do. That's Patty's mentality. Patty's been able to reach them to a point where she gets them to playing to that level.”
Gas so leaned heavily on Stoops for help in recruiting, often bringing recruits by Stoops' office on the day
before football games.
“Coach Stoops always had an open door, would always help us with recruit sand always would give me some great advice,” Gasso said.
Neither Stoops nor Gasso grew up in Oklahoma. Stoops is from Ohio and Gasso from California.
But both said Oklahoma is now home.
“I've been here 20 years —longer than I've been anywhere in my life ,” St oops said.
Gasso visits her home state regularly on the recruiting trail and said she' s always eager to get back to Oklahoma.
Gas so wasn' t the only inductee with a close relationship with Stoops in this year's class.
Tettleton lives in Norman and his son, Tyler, returned home to work on St oops' staff after finishing college at Ohio.
Tyler Tettleton is now an offensive quality control coach with t he Cleveland Browns. St oops said he planned to visit Browns practice Tuesday and visit with Tyler Tettleton.
Stoops is back in coaching football with the XFL's Dallas franchise.
He said Monday that his time away from the sport was “extraordinarily strange, not good and awful.”
But that doesn' t mean stepping away was the wrong decision.
“I knew that,” Stoops said. “That doesn't mean it was wrong. That doesn't mean I didn't know it was coming. When that's all you've lived all these years and then you're not there, you don't just adjust to that.”