DALLAS — For one of the most powerful people in collegiate athletics, the beauty of going for a run, even with an Apple Watch strapped to his wrist measuring his progress, is getting lost in the wonder of new cities he’s visited.
In the early morning of July 1, Greg Sankey’s planned 3-and-a-half mile jog around the University of Oklahoma’s campus turned into a 4-and-a-half mile adventure due to his admiration of the Southeastern Conference’s latest addition. The SEC commissioner of nine years, a past avid marathon runner, was getting in a workout before a day that would kick off with a welcome press conference and end with a late-night celebration in a tuxedo on Owen Field.
While he hadn’t visited the college grounds before initial in-person meetings with officials in December 2021, Sankey was familiar with the area.
His sister-in-law lived south of Oklahoma City in the 1990s. His father’s stepfather, who he calls his grandfather, was raised in eastern Oklahoma town Chouteau and was a proud member of the Pipeliners Local Union 978 out of Tulsa. Sankey made the trek from his native upstate New York to Chouteau as a 5-year-old in 1969 to visit his grandfather, an avid New York Yankees fan, though not because the Sankeys lived in New York, but for Mickey Mantle.
Mantle retired one year before Sankey’s visit, capping a career as one of baseball’s greatest for a team that was a blueblood of its sport. Mantle carried the same working class ethic throughout his playing days that was central to OU football’s mantra throughout the next decade under Barry Switzer.
“That meaning is not lost on me personally today,” Sankey said, sitting between university president Joseph Harroz Jr. and athletic director Joe Castiglione, a few hours after his prolonged lope.
Sixteen days later at SEC Media Days in Dallas, one of…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/greg-sankey-leadership-best-positions-100437991.html
Author : The Oklahoman
Publish date : 2024-07-25 10:04:37
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