Lincoln Riley: on Baker's statue

Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley has coached a couple of Heisman trophy winners at OU. Now he's figuring out how to honor them with their statues in Heisman Park, starting this spring with Baker Mayfield.

John E. Hoover|

Oklahoma's annual spring football game has become a big event for both Sooner fans and OU recruits. But it gets even bigger this year.

Sooners coach Lincoln Riley said Monday that he's planning to up the ante at this year's extravaganza by unveiling Baker Mayfield's Heisman statue during the game - and inside the stadium.

"I think the thought is," Riley said, "instead of a ceremony outside the stadium, why not include all 50-60-70,000, whatever’s there, why not include all them in that moment? So going to be a pretty cool historic moment for this program and just add to all the great things we’re going have going on around our spring game."

Riley said more details on the unveiling as well as other elements of the scrimmage, such as entertainment, will be announced later.

The Sooners' spring game is scheduled for 5 p,m. on April 18.

Published Mar 11, 2020

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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