During the past week the world of sports lost another icon when former Oklahoma State basketball coach Eddie Sutton passed away. Once I heard the news, I didn’t wonder long about the topic of my next column.

In reality, I am not a good candidate to write about the legendary coach. I had never met the man and had only seen his teams play once in person. But I have been a fan going back to his days when he was the head coach at Creighton. When I was working on the Decatur, Ill. newspaper, a sportswriter friend of mine covered a game between Bradley and Creighton played in Peoria. He interviewed Coach Sutton and after the story was published a note of thanks from the young Creighton coach came in the mail. My friend posted that note on the office bulletin board. I was impressed because it wasn’t often that any of us received such a gracious “thank you.”

I continued to be a fan and followed the pursuits of Coach Sutton as he moved from Creighton to Arkansas, then Kentucky and then to his Alma Mater at Oklahoma State. I don’t remember when I first learned that he and I had something in common--we are native Kansans. Our origins in the state weren’t geographically close. He grew up in Bucklin, not terribly far from Dodge City in the southwestern part of the state. My origins were more in the North Central part of the state. It didn’t matter, he had Kansas roots and that was all that mattered to me.

I had always been impressed with his coaching accomplishments, but when I moved to Oklahoma in 2001 I became more intensely aware of his prominence in his chosen field of endeavor. Here I rubbed elbows with lots of folks who had a Coach Sutton story to tell.

By what I learned was that although he was a great coach, one of the most notable things to know was that he and his wife, Patsy, had reared a quality family. Two of his sons, Sean and Scott, coached at the Division I level, Sean at OSU and Scott at Oral Roberts. Son Steve is in the banking profession. A number of years ago, one of the Sutton grandchildren played in a middle school game in Ponca City. I wasn’t there, but I was told that there was a huge contingent of Suttons in attendance. My impression was that Eddie and Patsy had made the trip from Tulsa to watch the game.

There have been many tributes to Eddie Sutton that can be found on the internet. One of the most moving was written by Doug Gottlieb, a former OSU player.

I had the opportunity to talk with Gottlieb a number of years ago. He was in Ponca City as a player in an exhibition game which featured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as a coach. Abdul-Jabbar was coaching a semipro team based in Enid and to promote the team they played a game here. As I remember Gottlieb had a lot to say, which isn’t too surprising to those who follow his sports commentary these days.

In reading the tributes, I was reminded that just a short time ago, Coach Sutton was voted into the Naismith Hall of Fame. At the time I interviewed Ivan McFarlin, the Ponca City boys’ basketball coach. McFarlin was a part of the 2004 Oklahoma State basketball team that went to the Final Four, one of three Sutton teams to earn that distinction. The following is part of that interview:

When news of former Oklahoma State basketball Coach Eddie Sutton’s election to the Naismith Hall of Fame became public this past weekend, there was a lot of celebrating going on, especially in the Stillwater environs. Sutton won 806 games in a coaching career that covered 39 years. He was the coach at Oklahoma State, his alma mater, from 1990 to 2006.

Among those celebrating the honor bestowed on the legendary OSU coach was Ponca City boys’ basket ball Coach Ivan McFarlin. McFarlin played for Sutton and was a member of the 2004 Cowboy team that made it to NCAA’s Final Four.

“With so much bad news going around right now, it was really good news, for the Sutton family and for Oklahoma State as a whole,” McFarlin said. “He worked so hard for this program, as a player for Coach (Henry) Iba, and later as a coach. I am really happy for him, his family and for OSU. It is really a good moment.”

“He stood out to me from the very first time he came on a visit to me as a high school player. He welcomed me with open arms

“He told me to work hard, to carry myself well and do the best I could. He stressed ‘Work hard’ and we knew he wanted the best for each of us. He was a father figure for us,” McFarlin said.

McFarlin played for OSU and Coach Sutton from 2001 to 2005. The Cowboys went to the Final Four in San Antonio in 2004 where they were beaten by Georgia Tech by a basket in the final seconds. McFarlin is one of four OSU players to score more than 1,000 points, get more than 700 rebounds and more than 100 blocks in their college careers. He is among celebrated company as the others are Byron Houston, Leroy Combs and Bryant “Big Country” Reeves.

What kind of coach was Eddie Sutton?

“He was the kind of coach that after practice would invite you into his office checking to see how things are going. He would ask ‘What is Plan B or Plan C for your life?’ just in case a career in basketball wouldn’t work out. He was a great man in terms of giving you different tips about how to be successful in life,” McFarlin said.

“He was a psychological coach,” he added. “He made you try to understand why a mistake was made, would try to get us to think about the situation so that we could improve the next time the opportunity came up.”

Coach McFarlin indicated that his approach as a coach is modeled after his college mentor’s.

“I don’t like to raise my voice. Instead it is helpful to get the player to think about the mistake that has been made and study the situation to try avoid repeating it in the future

“Coach Sutton made me think, ‘you can’t make that mistake again.’ He may have raised his voice on occasion, but rather than yell he would have us think things out. ‘Why are we doing this? Why are we doing that?’ Yelling takes away from the approach to the game. You don’t see yelling that much on the sidelines.”

“He would stress, ‘just run the play. If it is successful, we all get the glory.’ If it didn’t work he’d take the heat. We were asked to do our part in running the play. He was a great father figure for us.”

When asked about favorite memories of his OSU years, McFarlin paused.

“I have a lot. I guess it would be the Final Four going to San Antonio and playing there,” he said.

“But another great moment was when Coach Sutton won his 700th game and we were all there for that special moment. And for me when we won our first Big 12 Championship was important for him and for the whole program. That was special.”

Returning to the election of Coach Sutton to the Hall of Fame, McFarlin said “It is about time. I wish it was a little earlier so he could cherish the moment more. I am very happy for him and for his family. He couldn’t have been in a better class (of inductees).”

That was Coach McFarlin’s reflection of Coach Sutton when the latter was voted into the Naismith Hall of Fame. Eddie Sutton would have been formally inducted in July.