OU head coach Patty Gasso 'honored, humbled' by statue
OU athletic director Joe Castiglione surprised everyone by announcing last June the plans for a Patty Gasso statue.
It had been talked about like crazy among the fans, but nobody had a real idea how close it was to happening. The Sooners softball program had just wrapped up winning their third straight national championship and seventh under Gasso.
“So, we do things. We try to keep them a secret for a while, but you just won’t let us keep a secret,” Castiglione said back in June. “So tonight? I’m just breaking it out. We’re going to have a statue for Coach Gasso next year.
“We have built a program for the ages on the rock that Patty Gasso brought to Oklahoma,” Castiglione said. “So it’s only going to be fitting that we’re gonna have a statue for Coach Gasso next year.”
Castiglione took another step two weeks ago at the opening of Love’s Field. He talked about the statue and said it will be on the main concourse by Gate 1.
And now? It’s as official as official gets. The OU Board of Regents approved the statue Tuesday morning, the final checkmark.
“It’s extremely humbling,” said Gasso 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.”
It has just been a whirlwind year for OU softball. From the 71-game winning streak to the national championship to Love’s Field, softball has never been at a higher profile.
And a lot of that, absolutely, is because of Gasso and what the program has accomplished.
“She deserves it,” said super senior Kelly Maxwell, now in her first year at OU.
It’s not just Gasso, but it does speak a bit to Gasso that Maxwell, who might be an all-time great for Oklahoma State, decided she wanted to spend her last year in Norman.
Maxwell is not the first transfer to go that direction. And she won’t be the last.
“I say hard work pays off,” said first baseman Cydney Sanders, also a transfer addition for OU. “That’s all I’ve got to say about that.”
The statue, at long last, is coming.
