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Oklahoma Board of Regents Approves Patty Gasso Statue

Regents gave the OK to a new statue of the Sooners' legendary coach, and it'll sit right outside brand new Love's Field.

John E. Hoover

Oklahoma made it officially official on Tuesday.

The OU Board of Regents approved a vote to begin the process of erecting a statue of softball coach Patty Gasso outside the Sooners' brand new Love's Field. 

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OU athletic director Joe Castiglione said last year, after Gasso won her seventh national championship and third in a row, that the planning stages had already begun to put up a statue to the coach with nearly 1,500 career victories.

Castiglione reiterated on March 1, at the formal Love's Field dedication ceremony, that the statue was imminent.

"It’s extremely humbling," Gasso said after OU's pair of games against Tarleton State on Tuesday night. "And I actually have been able to see it and talk about humbling. Like, I look like that? It’s really surreal. It’s really — I don’t even know what to say. 

"I’m honored. I’m humbled. I was shocked when it was announced. I wasn’t expecting that at all. But it’s kind of cool that it will be there for a while."

The Board of Regents on Tuesday made it official, with noted sculptor Brian Hanlon of Toms River, NJ, reciting the contract. Hanlon is the same sculptor who created the Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray statues in OU's Heisman Park as well as the bust of former player and coach John Blake that's on display in the Switzer Center.

The statue will stand outside Gate 1 at Love's Field, where Gasso spoke to the crowd at the March 1 dedication.

The athletic department has already received private funding toward the project. 

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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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