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He is known as the public-address voice of games played at Boone Pickens Stadium and Gallagher-Iba Arena, but Larry Reece’s everyday gig is working to score donations for the Oklahoma State athletic department.
A business card indicates that he is Larry Reece, Senior Associate Athletic Director/Development.
As it pertains to fund-raising, he is OSU’s offensive coordinator.
Reece is an Ottawa County native, an OSU grad, a cancer survivor and a connected guy who uses Bill Self-level people skills to build and sustain alumni relationships.
After having been on the Stillwater campus several times since January – and having talked with various athletic department personnel – it was my perception that a lot of healing seems to have occurred since the end of a rough and consequential football season.
That’s why I contacted Reece during the weekend – to get a feel for the current pulse rate of a fan base that during the 2024 football season seemed to graduate from disappointed to angry.
Reece’s report was surprisingly positive, and I use the word “surprisingly” because circumstances were stacked against OSU having this kind of early success on football season-ticket sales.
Those circumstances:
Because the 2023 home schedule included the final Bedlam game matching the Cowboys and Sooners as conference rivals, football season tickets sold at a big rate.
Before the start of the 2024 season, OSU sold every ticket for all six home games.
After the smashing success of the 2023 and 2024 sales campaigns, how would the OSU people respond after a losing season, after the head coach made disparaging remarks about fans in November, and after a price increase?
Interviewed before Saturday’s Orange-White spring game at Boone Pickens Stadium, Reece shared this: OSU is ahead of its football season-ticket sales pace of 2023.
“Coming off of a down season — we are very excited about that,” Reece said. “We had to raise ticket prices and we are still ahead of where we were at this time two years ago — when we were selling tickets for the final Bedlam game on our field. That’s unbelievable.”
OSU currently is behind its 2024 sales pace, but the ticket office, POSSE and marketing staff members still have more than four months to match that every-ticket-sold standard.
“My (team members) made a lot of calls to a lot of people, just making sure they were going to renew,” Reece stated. “I loved the responses: ‘You think one down season is going to keep me away from Cowboy football? I’m all in. We’re renewing.’ I got a lot of that.
“I think it’s because our fans understand the importance of buying football season tickets. That drives the whole train for Oklahoma State. If you love softball or baseball or soccer or wrestling, then get Cowboy football season tickets. Our fans understand that’s important to buy football tickets, more than at any other time in our history.”
As the 57-year-old Gundy prepares for his 21st season as the head coach, he seems refreshed. On Friday, he was present for two Legends of the Gridiron reunion events: a round of golf and an evening party that brought together former OSU football athletes from a 70-year chunk of the program’s history.
“Coach Gundy is reinvigorated and focused on getting this thing turned around,” Reece said. “Nobody wants to win more than coach Gundy. I do sense he is fired up and feels good about his (rebuilt) staff.”
Also, Reece added: Gundy has been “great about going to meetings with top donors — helping Chad Weiberg when it comes to fund-raising.”
There was mysterious drama on Feb. 3, when popular OSU President Kayse Shrum resigned.
Six weeks later, there was the tragedy of the Stillwater wildfires that destroyed about 100 homes.
Stillwater and OSU were due for something good, and instead there was something great — the recent four-day “Boys of Oklahoma” concert series at Boone Pickens Stadium.
Overall attendance is estimated to have been about 200,000. Nearly everyone behaved. Over the four days of Red Dirt music and partying, Reece reports, there were fewer than 10 arrests.
Some of the money generated by the “Boys of Oklahoma” event will be forwarded to OSU’s revenue account for athletes. That amount should be announced at some point this week.
“I’ve been told that those shows were attended by people from all 50 states and six countries,” Reece said. “The Eskimo Joe’s people told me that (customer traffic) was like having four Bedlam home football games. Every hotel room and every Airbnb was booked. It was incredible.”
“The most important thing is that we proved we could do it,” Reece added, alluding to the possibility of a major, annual music situation at the stadium.
As of April, Reece’s summary of the Cowboy football program and the Cowboy culture aligns with my perception — that everything feels better today than it did during the winter.
“Our people have always been resilient,” Reece said. “We’re all galvanizing because we didn’t like what happened last year.
“Our plan is to get it fixed and get the Cowboys where they’re supposed to be — back in a bowl game.”
Bill Haisten: Surprise report from OSU shows football tickets moving at a strong pace
- 11 hrs ago
Bill Haisten
Tulsa World Sports Columnist & WriterHe is known as the public-address voice of games played at Boone Pickens Stadium and Gallagher-Iba Arena, but Larry Reece’s everyday gig is working to score donations for the Oklahoma State athletic department.
A business card indicates that he is Larry Reece, Senior Associate Athletic Director/Development.
As it pertains to fund-raising, he is OSU’s offensive coordinator.
Reece is an Ottawa County native, an OSU grad, a cancer survivor and a connected guy who uses Bill Self-level people skills to build and sustain alumni relationships.
After having been on the Stillwater campus several times since January – and having talked with various athletic department personnel – it was my perception that a lot of healing seems to have occurred since the end of a rough and consequential football season.
That’s why I contacted Reece during the weekend – to get a feel for the current pulse rate of a fan base that during the 2024 football season seemed to graduate from disappointed to angry.
Reece’s report was surprisingly positive, and I use the word “surprisingly” because circumstances were stacked against OSU having this kind of early success on football season-ticket sales.
Those circumstances:
- After 18 consecutive winning seasons and bowl appearances, Mike Gundy’s 2024 Cowboys were 3-9 overall and 0-9 in the Big 12. The misery ended with a 52-0 loss at Colorado, extending the OSU program-record losing streak to nine games.
- During the weekend of Dec. 6-7, university regents apparently discussed the possibility of a coaching change. Gundy ultimately would accept the terms of an adjusted contract and a pay cut. Gundy also replaced nearly all of the members of his coaching staff.
- OSU doesn’t really know what it has at the quarterback position. TCU transfer Hauss Hejny seems the frontrunner.
- Because of the university’s need for revenue to be distributed to athletes, athletic director Chad Weiberg announced that there would be a price increase on football season tickets. Across all levels of the stadium, the increase appears to be about 20%.
Because the 2023 home schedule included the final Bedlam game matching the Cowboys and Sooners as conference rivals, football season tickets sold at a big rate.
Before the start of the 2024 season, OSU sold every ticket for all six home games.
After the smashing success of the 2023 and 2024 sales campaigns, how would the OSU people respond after a losing season, after the head coach made disparaging remarks about fans in November, and after a price increase?
Interviewed before Saturday’s Orange-White spring game at Boone Pickens Stadium, Reece shared this: OSU is ahead of its football season-ticket sales pace of 2023.
“Coming off of a down season — we are very excited about that,” Reece said. “We had to raise ticket prices and we are still ahead of where we were at this time two years ago — when we were selling tickets for the final Bedlam game on our field. That’s unbelievable.”
OSU currently is behind its 2024 sales pace, but the ticket office, POSSE and marketing staff members still have more than four months to match that every-ticket-sold standard.
“My (team members) made a lot of calls to a lot of people, just making sure they were going to renew,” Reece stated. “I loved the responses: ‘You think one down season is going to keep me away from Cowboy football? I’m all in. We’re renewing.’ I got a lot of that.
“I think it’s because our fans understand the importance of buying football season tickets. That drives the whole train for Oklahoma State. If you love softball or baseball or soccer or wrestling, then get Cowboy football season tickets. Our fans understand that’s important to buy football tickets, more than at any other time in our history.”
As the 57-year-old Gundy prepares for his 21st season as the head coach, he seems refreshed. On Friday, he was present for two Legends of the Gridiron reunion events: a round of golf and an evening party that brought together former OSU football athletes from a 70-year chunk of the program’s history.
“Coach Gundy is reinvigorated and focused on getting this thing turned around,” Reece said. “Nobody wants to win more than coach Gundy. I do sense he is fired up and feels good about his (rebuilt) staff.”
Also, Reece added: Gundy has been “great about going to meetings with top donors — helping Chad Weiberg when it comes to fund-raising.”
There was mysterious drama on Feb. 3, when popular OSU President Kayse Shrum resigned.
Six weeks later, there was the tragedy of the Stillwater wildfires that destroyed about 100 homes.
Stillwater and OSU were due for something good, and instead there was something great — the recent four-day “Boys of Oklahoma” concert series at Boone Pickens Stadium.
Overall attendance is estimated to have been about 200,000. Nearly everyone behaved. Over the four days of Red Dirt music and partying, Reece reports, there were fewer than 10 arrests.
Some of the money generated by the “Boys of Oklahoma” event will be forwarded to OSU’s revenue account for athletes. That amount should be announced at some point this week.
“I’ve been told that those shows were attended by people from all 50 states and six countries,” Reece said. “The Eskimo Joe’s people told me that (customer traffic) was like having four Bedlam home football games. Every hotel room and every Airbnb was booked. It was incredible.”
“The most important thing is that we proved we could do it,” Reece added, alluding to the possibility of a major, annual music situation at the stadium.
As of April, Reece’s summary of the Cowboy football program and the Cowboy culture aligns with my perception — that everything feels better today than it did during the winter.
“Our people have always been resilient,” Reece said. “We’re all galvanizing because we didn’t like what happened last year.
“Our plan is to get it fixed and get the Cowboys where they’re supposed to be — back in a bowl game.”
