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Report: Oklahoma State Coach Says Bedlam Baseball Will Continue

Josh Holliday literally grew up in Bedlam, and while other coaches have been noncommittal, he said it's "sensible" to have OU scheduled "for years to come."

John E. Hoover

Report: Oklahoma State Coach Says Bedlam Baseball Will Continue
Report: Oklahoma State Coach Says Bedlam Baseball Will Continue /

Amid all the consternation over continuing the Bedlam series or killing it, it was Oklahoma State coach Josh Holliday who offered a clear vision of the future — of baseball, at least.

“We are continuing to play,” Holliday told The Oklahoman Tuesday night after OSU crushed the Sooners 14-5 in Norman.

“We’re on the schedule for years to come.”

OU and OSU are scheduled to play in baseball for one final time: April 5-7 in Stillwater for a three-game Big 12 Conference series.

OU is moving from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference — it becomes official on July 1 — and while it seems the schools certainly won’t play on any kind of regular basis in football, there has been talk of doing the obvious: continuing the series in every other sport.

It just makes financial sense, as well as scheduling sense, for baseball, softball, soccer, tennis and even men’s and women’s basketball to continue playing.

But almost none of the coaches involved have been even remotely committal about it.

“I don’t control that,” OU’s Skip Johnson said Tuesday night. “That’s the biggest thing. I’m just the baseball coach, that’s for higher people to do.”

Holliday, on the other hand, talked openly about the multitude of reasons for continuing the series he literally grew up in.

“It’s not baseball’s responsibility to carry on the Bedlam tradition,” Holliday told The Oklahoman’s Scott Wright. “We’re choosing to play because Coach Johnson feels like it’s a good game for the Sooners, I think it’s a good game for the Cowboys to play a high-level midweek game against a really good team that’s drivable, that the fans like, that the kids like.

“That’s why we’re playing it. It’s sensible. It’s hard to find good midweek games. We’re playing because we think it’s in the best interest of college baseball and Cowboy baseball and Sooner baseball, not because we’re trying to carry the torch for Bedlam.”

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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