National Collegiate Athletic Association
NCAA News Archive - 2001
« back to 2001 | Back to NCAA News Archive Index
|
The NCAA News
College athletics had to deal with the worst kind of loss January 27 when eight members of the Oklahoma State University athletics staff, including two men's basketball players, were killed in a plane crash near Denver.
The 11-seat passenger plane crashed at about 5:35 p.m., shortly after Oklahoma State had dropped an 81-71 decision at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The plane was one of three that Oklahoma State had chartered for the return trip to its campus in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Published reports say the plane crashed about 40 miles outside of Denver after taking off from Jefferson County Airport in snowy conditions.
Killed were Oklahoma State basketball student-athletes Daniel Lawson and Nate Fleming; Pat Noyes, Oklahoma State's director of basketball operations; Brian Luinstra, one of the university's athletic trainers; Will Hancock, coordinator of media relations; student manager Jared Weiberg; Kendall Durfey, engineer for the Oklahoma State radio network; and Bill Teegins from KWTV and the voice of Oklahoma State football and basketball. The two pilots, Denver Mills and Bjorn Falistrom, also died in the crash.
The other two chartered planes, which took off earlier, returned safely to Stillwater.
Oklahoma State's men's basketball game scheduled for January 30 at Texas Tech University was postponed indefinitely by the Big 12 Conference. The Cowboys' games against the University of Missouri, Columbia, and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, also were moved to later dates.
"This is indeed a very sad day for Oklahoma State University," said university President James Halligan shortly after the crash. "We have ensured that our counseling staff is available to all the players to try to address their psychological needs."
It was the worst air tragedy involving college student-athletes since 1985 when six members of Iowa State University's women's cross country team were killed in a plane crash near Des Moines, Iowa.
The university conducted a memorial service January 31 to recognize the contributions each member had made to the school's athletics program. More than 11,000 mourners gathered inside Gallagher-Iba Arena, home to the Oklahoma State basketball teams. Halligan described the tribute as "one of the greatest assemblies of caring individuals in school history."
Other speakers at the ceremony included Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, Oklahoma State men's basketball coach Eddie Sutton and men's basketball student-athlete Andre Williams.
"I'm grateful I knew and worked and grew to love these 10 people," Sutton said. "It will be difficult and seem impossible, but we will get through this. To the families of these 10 men, please know how much I loved them."
Lawson, a junior from Detroit, played in the loss at Colorado, but did not score. He was one of the Cowboys' main reserves, playing in every game this season and averaging about two points. He came to Oklahoma State from Mott Community College in Michigan. He played in two of the first three games last season at Oklahoma State, then sat out the rest of the year as a medical redshirt. Fleming, from Edmond, Oklahoma, was a walk-on last year who played in four games. He did not play in the Colorado game.
Noyes was in his second year as the Cowboys' administrative assistant. He spent the 1998-99 season at Georgia State University as an administrative assistant under coach Lefty Driesell, but before that had served on Oklahoma State's manager staff for five years, three of them as head manager.
Hancock was in his fifth year as coordinator of media relations after joining the staff in October 1996. He previously served two years as director of communications at the Midwestern Collegiate Conference. He also worked as sports information director at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, as an assistant SID at the University of Evansville and as a student assistant at the University of Kansas. He was the son of Bill Hancock, director of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.
Luinstra joined the Oklahoma State program in December 1999 after four years as assistant athletic trainer at Wichita State University. He also served as a graduate assistant athletic trainer at Wichita State during the 1994-95 and 1995-96 academic years while working on a master's degree in sports administration, which he completed in August 1996. He previously served as student athletic trainer for two years at Kansas, where he graduated in 1994 with a degree in sports science.
Teegins had been a broadcaster for KWTV in Oklahoma City for the past 13 years. He was the play-by-play announcer for Oklahoma State basketball.
Durfey was a producer and engineer for the Oklahoma State radio network. He graduated from Oral Roberts in 1984 with a communications degree and earned a master's degree in communications at Oklahoma State.
Weiberg was a student manager and nephew of Big 12 Commissioner Kevin Weiberg.
© 2010 The National Collegiate Athletic Association
Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy