Oklahoma State community endures another senseless tragedy

George Schroeder | USA TODAY Sports

Show Caption Hide Caption Oklahoma State calls for strength after car hits crowd Four people were killed and dozens were injured when a woman drove her car into Oklahoma State University's homecoming parade. Video provided by Newsy

STILLWATER, Okla. — They bill homecoming here as “America’s Greatest Homecoming Celebration,” and if that’s hopeful hyperbole, at least one gauge is the sheer numbers. Each year for the celebration, as many as 80,000 visitors flood this small town on the Oklahoma plains, which is why the crowd was thick near the end point of the annual “Sea of Orange” parade.

Geoff Haxton and his family were there Saturday morning, positioned just south of the intersection of Hall of Fame Avenue and Main Street. There’s nowhere else the 2001 Oklahoma State graduate would rather have been.

“It’s an excuse for you to get together with your Oklahoma State friends,” said Haxton, who describes the event as something more akin to a family reunion. “You know when this weekend is happening, there’s gonna be a lot of friendly faces around you. I love seeing my kids’ faces at the parade. It’s one of my favorite things to do.”

But then — just a few yards from Haxton and his family — homecoming turned to horror. At 10:31 a.m., a 2014 Hyundai Elantra traveling southbound on Main plowed through barriers and a parked police motorcycle before barreling through the intersection and into the crowd. Four people were killed, including a 2-year-old who died at an Oklahoma City hospital several hours later. According to Stillwater police, 34 more were injured, several critically. Seven were airlifted to hospitals. Adacia Avery Chambers, a 25-year-old Stillwater resident, was arrested for driving under the influence.

The investigation is ongoing. But “there are no words,” Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said, for a university and community all too familiar with tragedy.

“There’s just nothing you can say,” he added. “It just has to be the absolute worst thing that can happen to a family and loved ones.”

Haxton had just tweeted a photo of his daughter Cameron, 7, and son Perry, 4, watching the parade, and taken Perry to the restroom. They returned to their viewing position along the curb on Main Street — and “all hell broke loose.”

He couldn’t hear anything; a fire truck, part of the parade, was passing by, blaring its horn. But there was a sudden disruption, white smoke and what seemed like a wave of people running everywhere, screaming.

“It was a massive fluctuation of madness,” Haxton said.

And then the sound returned. And fear. Haxton stepped into the street, saw bodies lying in the intersection, and told his wife Jennifer: “You’ve got to get everybody out of here. Let’s get away.”

Hours later, the aftermath. A somber scene. pic.twitter.com/EGGTsimU2Z — George Schroeder (@GeorgeSchroeder) October 24, 2015

While she took Perry and Cameron to his parents’ house on the north side of town, Haxton and his father Paul stayed behind. For maybe a half-hour, Haxton — a former radio news director who is the radio broadcaster for Oral Roberts University’s men’s basketball and baseball teams — tweeted chilling updates from the parking lot of a CVS pharmacy on the southeast corner of the intersection.

“Something horrible has happened at osu parade.”

“Nightmare scenario here.”

“Shock, tears and just an awful scene at Main and Hof in Stillwater.”

“Another helicopter landing. My guess this is 6.”

For Haxton, as likely for many others, Saturday’s tragedy dredged up unwanted memories.

In 2001, 10 people associated with the Oklahoma State men’s basketball program — two players, six staff members and broadcasters, the pilot and co-pilot — died in a plane crash on the high plains of Colorado while returning from a game. Not quite four years ago, in November 2011, Oklahoma State women’s basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant coach Miranda Serna were among four killed when their small plane crashed west of Little Rock, Ark., while on a recruiting trip.

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin conducted a news conference in Gallagher-Iba Arena on Saturday afternoon, just steps from a memorial for “The Ten” who died in the men’s basketball crash. Behind a statue of a grieving cowboy is the message “WE WILL REMEMBER.”

How could anyone forget? Haxton considered Bill Teegins, the Cowboys’ radio broadcaster and an Oklahoma City television sports anchor who died in the first plane crash, to be a mentor. Teegins had taken an interest in a student with aspirations — and then he was gone. As Haxton sat outside the drugstore at the intersection of Main and Hall of Fame, he kept flashing back to “‘Plane Crash 1’ and ‘Plane Crash 2.’”

“It took me a long time to get over Bill and ‘The Ten,’ " Haxton said. “And now, this happens to one of the coolest things — to the coolest thing you can do. It just makes me ill. It’s just sickening.”

Or, as Gundy put it a few hours later: “We’ve had some tough situations here at Oklahoma State. This one was as difficult as any we’ve ever had. When it gets to a certain point, how is one any worse than the others?”

Gundy learned of the crash while in pre-game meetings at the team’s on-campus hotel. He immediately placed a call, trying to learn where the whereabouts of his wife and three sons (they weren’t at the parade).

“Football all of the sudden doesn’t become very important,” Gundy said. “You’re talking defense, you’re talking offense, you’re talking special teams. From our standpoint, we need to play well, we need to continue to improve, we need to win the football game, but when you hear of an incident like that, football is a non-factor.”

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But the homecoming game was played as scheduled — just as in 2011, the Cowboys football team played at Iowa State the day after what Haxton called "Plane Crash 2." Oklahoma State president Burns Hargis said officials considered postponing, but decided “to remember the victims at the game.” Gundy, who said he would have supported the decision either way, wasn’t involved in the discussions.

“We have to trust that they’re gonna do what they think is best for all parties involved in a no-win situation,” the coach said. “That’s one of those situations that, how do you really win?”

Beautiful sunset in Stillwater after a difficult day. pic.twitter.com/IaEDFq3sPw — George Schroeder (@GeorgeSchroeder) October 24, 2015

It led to a strange juxtaposition by mid-afternoon. The crash scene was quiet, but as bodies were loaded into a black van, occasional cheers could be heard from Boone Pickens Stadium three short blocks away.

Before the game, the football team gathered, took a knee and together recited the Lord’s Prayer. And then Oklahoma State won big over Kansas, as expected. The final score was 58-10. “It’s more than just us,” senior receiver David Glidden said. “It’s about the name on the jersey that represents the school and the whole town.”

Attendance was announced as 59,486 — third-largest in the school’s history. But Haxton couldn’t bring himself to go to the game. When he finally left the scene, he drove to a nearby park, sat in the car and listened to the Oklahoma State radio pre-game show. Haxton said he knew his children had seen far more than they should have. But he was also thanking God, “that he guided our steps somewhere else.”

Later in the afternoon, he was in his parents’ yard, throwing the football around with the kids.

“It’s the best thing I can do,” he said.

PHOTOS: OKLAHOMA STATE HOMECOMING PARADE CRASH