See You on the Lake
A person must be in proper uniform when participating in sports
Woody Cooper

Western Oklahoma is like no other place in the world. t is hot in the summer with the temperature often going above the 100 degree mark. The winter months often see that same temperature reach below freezing. It is almost dry during the entire year. Even so there are people who would not leave it for all of the rest of the world. There are no mountains nor lush forests to brag about but there are some things that is braggable by the residents. A small town named Gotebo has a yearly goat roping contest that draws hundreds of fans and contestants each year. Have you ever been to a goat roping? FUN. Mountain view Oklahoma has the only triple bridge in the world. There was a bridge crossing a creek, a bridge crossing that bridge with a highway and a railway bridge spanning both of those. It was something to brag about then The American Indian Exposition at Anadarko is world famous when I was a kid it was simply called the "Indian Fair" but some thinking folks turned it into a world wide drawing card over the years. The miles and miles of ripe wheat rippling in the wind is a beautiful sight each year.

What Oklahoma may have missed on the front pages of national newspapers was never missed on the sports pages of our nation. Oklahoma State has won national championships in football, basketball, baseball wrestling golf and track. The University of Oklahoma has the longest winning streak in football and has six national championships to go with that. Most high schools and smaller colleges play top notch football and are unsurpassed in wrestling. The wrestling programs in the state schools were copied by most every one and a youngster who finished from first to sixth in the Oklahoma state high school tourney could look toward to offers from a dozen or more colleges outside the state. Oklahoma coaches were hired at Army, Navy, Pittsburg, Iowa, Auburn and Oregon while I was in high school. I don't think that any of those schools have to hire Oklahoma coaches anymore because they have their own programs up and running and have their own folks to do the coaching. I did know many of the coaches who went out of state especially those who coached at Navy, Army and the Air Force Academy, several were wrestling in college while I was in high school doing the "grunt and groan sport."

My school hired a new football coach when I was a sophomore in high school He replaced a man who had doubled as football and wrestling coach. The new coach knew absolutely nothing about wrestling and came to me to announce t1 that I would do the teaching to the team. I had been fortunate my first year in the sport and had made the first team in football so it was easy for him to ask me to help him. Of course I was delighted and flattered to be the one chosen and hit it with a ban. We all loved the new coach because he was so good as a coach and he also was the fairest man I have ever known. He went out of his way to help all of his athletes and we knew it.

One of the first things that he did for the wrestling team was to get us into new uniforms. We had been wrestling in stuff that must have been twenty years ol and we were more than ready to get into some new togs. He had called around for information about uniforms and had also talked to the Homemaking teacher to see if she could help. She assured him that she

could make any sort of uniforms

he desired just bring me the material and sizes and we can do the rest. She had measured all the wrestling team and was ready to go. The coach loaded me up in his old Chevy and we set sail for Oklahoma city about sixty miles away. He let me pick the red corduroy for the ankle length robe and the red flannel for shorts. We took them to the teacher and she got on the job right away. There are ten men on a wrestling team and for some reason there was only enough material for nine pair of shorts. To keep from going back to the city I told the coach that we could make do with what we had for the first couple weeks while the rest was shipped. My idea was for the team to wrestle and when the first six had finished the one who had wrestled last would walk into the dressing room with our non dressed shorts and give him his to wear. Since we were completely covered with the long robes with the giant screaming eagle n the back 'no one would ever know about it A wrestling team consisted of ten young men with the weights starting at 103 pounds and graduating up to heavyweight. We always weighed in before each bout. The two teams sat on each side of the wrestling mat facing each other. The only ones on their feet were the two wrestling and the next one to wrestle. He and the captain of the team would be warming up and getting loose for the next bout. I. was the captain so I was pretty well up on my feet all night. I would talk the up guy to the corner of the mat, give him a final pep talk, shake hands and take his robe and go back to the next man to warm up and get ready for the bout. We had a good solid four man middle team; we had four boys that won most of the time by a fall. A fall or a pin was when a lad put his opponent's shoulders to the mat and held them there for three seconds. When you won by a fall you won 5 points for your team. Our four middle guys almost always got those twenty points for our team. Now if none of our other six lost by a fall we could win a team even by the score of twenty to eighteen because a team only got three points for a win by decision. During our daily training sessions I would threaten to kill any one who got pinned in practice. If one or more won a bout for the team then we would take an easy win from the opponent.

There was only one bout left and our team would win if our heavyweight did not get pinned and give up five points. I firmly believed that not only would he not get pinned, I thought he would win. I had worked him hard and he showed a lot of improvement. I shook his hand, took his robe and turned to sit down. There was a gasp, a scream and a roar of laughter from the crowd. It got worse and all I saw was my boy running for the dressing room WITH NO SHORTS ON. Yes, we had forgotten to change; we lost. Buckle Up, Drive with Care, Put on a Life Jacket and I'll see You on the Lake.