Tramel: OSU First Gentleman Darren Shrum is quite the Cowboy football fan
Berry TramelOklahoman
STILLWATER — Calling Darren Shrum OSU’s “First Gentleman” doesn’t seem quite right.
Oh, old offensive linemen can be courteous and cultured and refined. And Shrum goes to his share of concerts and musicals on campus.
But in his new role as an OSU ambassador, Shrum is most comfortable at football practice. And he likes to watch the lines.
Back in August, Shrum gave an early scouting report on the Cowboys, mentioning he thought they were pretty good up front.
Turns out, Shrum was prophetic. The OSU defensive line has helped turn the Cowboy into one of America’s stingiest teams, and the offensive line has turned the Cowboys into a run-first squad that chews up yardage and time.
And OSU’s new No. 1 fan has enjoyed the ride.
“Nice to be a part of something,” Shrum said the other day after returning from an OSU function in Houston. “This group is special.”
The university community seems to feel the same about the Shrums. Kayse Shrum became president on July 1 and has engendered good will campus-wide. Her husband has done the same.
Mike Gundy famously told the story of watching an August scrimmage sitting alone in the grandstands of Boone Pickens Stadium, only to notice the Shrums a section or so over, doing the same. Soon enough, the Shrums joined him, and they talked football and conference realignment for an hour or so as the Cowboys drilled and Gundy conversed with staff via walkie-talkie.
It’s a pleasant change for Gundy, who over the years constantly collided with then-athletic director Mike Holder, benefactor Boone Pickens and, by association, then-president Burns Hargis.
It’s got to be comforting for a football coach to know his president is sleeping with a former football player.
Shrum started on the offensive line for Central Arkansas’ NAIA national championship teams of 1984 and 1985. He coached the offensive line at Muskogee High School 2007-10. Shrum knows that even in the wide-open 21st century, the trenches can determine football games.
That’s why Shrum likes to attend OSU’s Tuesday and Wednesday practices. That’s when the grunt work gets done.
The Shrums also try to make it to Sunday evening practices, a light workout in which they mostly are there to support and encourage players and coaches.
“The O-line guys, right?” Shrum said. “I try to encourage Josh Sills and Hunter Woodard and some of those guys to be their best. You look forward to seeing your guys on Sunday. It’s encouraging to me. You just want to be a part of it.
“We missed a couple of days last week, and Coach Glass said, ‘Where you been?’”
Football is most high profile. But Darren Shrum said he and his wife have done the same with the OSU baseball and softball teams (Kayse Shrum was a pitcher at Connors State College before attending OSU).
The Shrums attend all the various campus activities, “but sports have been a huge part of our lives,” he said. “Just getting to be a part of that (football) team, it’s just been something special. I’ve gotten to meet a lot of the kids. Developed a relationship with several of the boys.
“It’s one of those things, kind of a natural fit. We have grown really fond of the team. She wanted unity with the team, to understand we were going to support Coach Gundy and the football team 100 percent.”
To pirate an old phrase, for a school president, happy football coach, happy life.
Darren Shrum grew up on a farm in Greenwood, Arkansas, just outside Fort Smith. Shrum said his father gave him the worst jobs on the farm, like the chicken coup, to ensure that Darren would be motivated to go to college.
“He did a really good job of that,” Shrum said.
Shrum was a good athlete who drew some recruiting interest from the University of Arkansas but never received a scholarship offer. When Central Arkansas invited Shrum to play both football and baseball, he was hooked.
But UCA was out of scholarship money.
“We can afford to pay for one semester,” Shrum’s father told him.
Shrum went to UCA, in Conway, and after a semester told Central Arkansas football coach Harold Horton that he would be leaving, unless scholarship help came through. Horton offered a scholarship but required Shrum to give up baseball.
“Good with me,” Shrum said. “I need a scholarship. Football it is.”
In Shrum’s final three seasons, the Bears went 29-5-1 and won two national titles.
“I think back about football,” Shrum said. “The games were great, but I remember the locker rooms and the camaraderie with the players. It’s a lasting memory. Best time of your life. Didn’t get any better than that, honestly.”
Shrum got a kinesiology degree from UCA. He thought he might coach; Shrum spent a year as a graduate assistant at UCA. But the money crunch was daunting.
So Shrum entered Wal-Mart's management training program. He was first assigned to Muskogee, then to Broken Arrow. At the latter location, Shrum said he and the store manager were chatting near the entrance — “we’re really just checking out girls” — when he noticed a tall blonde walk in.
“I’m going to marry that girl,” Shrum told the Wal-Mart manager.
A few years later, Darren Shrum and Kayse Donnelly indeed were married. Today, he still jokes that you can get anything you need at Wal-Mart.
Kayse Shrum began building her medical and academic career, and Darren Shrum worked for Wal-Mart, Zebco and Abbott Laboratories. Along the way, they had three children, a son and two daughters, then adopted three more boys, from Ethiopia.
Darren Shrum opened his own fitness center in Muskogee, then eventually sold the gym and in 2010 opened his own garage in Coweta (Kayse’s hometown), to help keep the huge and busy family functioning.
Kayse Shrum had joined the OSU Center for Health Sciences faculty in 2002, soon enough became an administrator and eventually became the medical school’s president.
The Shrums began attending every OSU home football game in 2004, and Darren was hooked.
“I grew an affinity for the campus,” Darren Shrum said. “Just the environment. It was hit and miss on winning. It wasn’t about that.
Growing up in Arkansas, you’re never an OU fan at all. I grew up to not like OU or Texas. Kind of natural for me not to be an OU fan.
“I fell in love with the people here. Liked their attitude, they were a lot like me. Lot of farm kids like me. Have been a die-hard ever since.”
Shrum has become a part of the team. He works out with the likes of staff members Jamie Blatnick, Jordan Burton and Jon Johnson. Shrum has become fast friends with Glass.
“They’re my kind of people,” Shrum said. “Being an athlete, developing a relationship. Kayse’s an athlete, loves athletics. Both of us, all the sports, anything competitive, we’re all about it.”
On those light Sunday evenings, the Cowboys have come to expect to see the school president and first gentleman.
They’ll wander over and offer a high five or knuckles.
“They like to see you there,” Shrum said. “I just love the game, love the kids.”
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