Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy speaks on pregame parade accident
Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy addressed the tragic pregame accident at the school’s homecoming parade that has left four people dead.
After the Cowboys’ 58–10 win over Kansas, Gundy took questions from reporters and opened with a statement paying respects to the victims.
Before the game, a car crashed into a crowd of spectators, with the driver, Adacia Chambers, taken into custody on suspicion of DUI. In addition to the four deaths, 34 people were injured, with at least seven in critical condition, according to police.
“I just want to start by saying how sorry our staff, the Oklahoma State family and our team is about the incident earlier today,” Gundy said, according to Tulsa World’s John E. Hoover. “I don't know a lot of details. At one time, there was some discussion, because of the impact on the families and the people involved, of whether to play the game or not. Those decisions are made kind of higher than me. I was willing to support whatever direction they wanted to go. I don't think that that's something that's up for discussion at this point, but it was really difficult for our coaching staff, our team and myself, being an Oklahoma State alum. It was a very unfortunate situation, so our thoughts and prayers from all of us go out to the families.”
• MORE: Four dead, others injured after parade accident
Gundy told reporters that he informed the team of everything that happened prior to the game.
“We told them the truth. That's the way we handle situations in our group, with good news, bad news or any news at all,” Gundy said. “There's really no comparison to a tragic incident like this morning, but we told them the truth in our pregame conversation before we came to the stadium. Part of the development of young people in our organization is knowing that there are things in our lives that we can control, and there are things that we can't control. Today's incident was something we couldn't do anything about. There was certainly not anything we could do if we were going to play the game. Our players understand that. My message to them was that a decision was made to play the game so we need to play the game. After that, we need to do everything we can to help the people and the families involved.”
Gundy also said that Kansas head coach David Beaty reached out before the game and offered his support.
- Jeremy Woo
