Oklahoma Insiders Share Their Personal CWS Perspective on the Sooners' National Championship

After 32 years, the Sooners' postgame celebration at the College World Series revealed a number of full-circle elements of family, loyalty and trust in coach Skip Johnson.

Oklahoma Sooners pitcher LJ Mercurius (22) celebrates with teammates after the win against the North Carolina Tar Heels at Charles Schwab Field. | Steven Branscombe-Imagn Images

COLUMN

One of the greatest gifts is the perspective that only time can give.

Winning championships is certainly a rewarding experience. It’s too bad we can’t all feel something like that every year.

But it’s the years in between championships that make winning special. It’s the struggle, the strife, the losses, the shortfalls, the down periods, the runner-up trophies, that make a championship truly priceless.

For Oklahoma baseball, it’s been 32 years of waiting, of trying hard and coming close, of almost but not quite.

On Wednesday night in Norman, the Sooners will celebrate their first national championship since 1994. 

Here are the stories of three people who were either central figures on that 1994 OU squad or would become central to the 2026 championship run — or both — and their ongoing legacies with OU baseball.

Ryan Gaines

Finally, Ryan Gaines got to experience that feeling.

Now the Chief of Staff for Oklahoma’s baseball team — he’s basically Skip Johnson’s point man for all the planning and logistics that go into a college baseball team’s five-month journey to winning a national championship — Gaines has been working toward that feeling, and patiently waiting, for 32 years.

“It’s a surreal moment,” Gaines told Sooners On SI moments after the Sooners finished off a 13-2 victory over North Carolina in the College World Series and won the program’s first national title since 1994. “It's everything that you dreamed of.”

Gaines was a student athletic trainer when OU won its last CWS crown, but ironically, he wasn’t part of the baseball team that season because OU had a rule limiting student trainers to no more than two seasons of service — and he was part of the team in 1992 and 1993.

So Gaines was putting together Sunny Golloway’s Alaska League team in 1994, and was actually in Canada, and he watched his friends dogpile at Rosenblatt Stadium.

So yeah, Monday night at Charles Schwab Field was pretty special for Gaines and his family.

The Oklahoma Sooners celebrate after defeating the North Carolina Tar Heels to win the 2026 NCAA Men’s College World Series Championship at Charles Schwab Field. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

“I’m so happy for the players,” Gaines said. “I’m happy for Skip. Happy for all the support staff. There's a lot of people — a lot of people — that put a lot of hard work in behind the scenes that no one even knows to make this happen. I'm happy for all of them, because a lot of people have invested a lot of time.”

One of those is Director of Player Development Britt Bonneau, who played for Cochell and the Sooners in 1992, when they made their first CWS run. He’s been an OU volunteer coach, an assistant and now, after 22 years as head coach at Abilene Christian (he won 756 games and led the program’s transition to Division I) is in charge of Oklahoma's player development.

“I mean, my gosh, he puts in countless hours,” Gaines said. “I was a freshman whenever he was here in 1992, and every year we've been here together. It’s just awesome stuff.”

Gaines and everyone around the OU program — and their families — pour themselves into what Johnson has built in Norman, and Monday’s win, the postgame party and especially Wednesday night’s celebration certainly put things in perspective.

“Yeah, I mean, this makes it all worth it, for sure,” Gaines said. “And I'm glad that my family was here to be able to celebrate all of this with us. Because, I mean, the reason why we're here is because everybody is family, and it's all all Skip's doing, to be honest. I mean, he preaches family, he includes our families, he's great to all of our families, and this is what the end result of it is.”

Aric Thomas

Aric Thomas was the starting left fielder and leadoff hitter for the 1994 Sooners, but to the guys on this year’s roster, he ’s just Chloe’s dad.

Chloe Thomas, a recent OU grad, is Gaines’ assistant as director of baseball operations.

Her dad — now the recruiting coordinator at Florida for 1994 Sooner baseball alumna Tim Walton — had been bouncing back and forth between Oklahoma and Texas recruiting the Gators’ next great softball players as the Sooners pushed through the NCAA regionals, super regionals and bracket play of the CWS.

But once OU returned to the championship series, Thomas (and Walton and so many other ’94 alumni) found his way to Omaha.

Oklahoma will attempt to capture the program’s 3rd National Championship tomorrow afternoon (1951, 1994)

This was the Sooners’ starting line up the last time that Oklahoma won the National Championship: https://t.co/8mgxW8FtHf pic.twitter.com/vbgDJXBxtp

— College Baseball Archives (@collegeplayers9) June 21, 2026

“I drove up Friday night,” Thomas said on the field during the postgame celebration. “My games got over, last game was at 2:30 p.m. … So I got in the car, drove up, got here at like 1:15 (a.m.).”

Thomas’ legacy at OU goes well beyond the ’94 dogpile. He actually, unknowingly, played a key role in assembling this year’s champion squad.

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As an OU assistant coach under Larry Cochell, Thomas was the lead recruiter in landing a couple of current OU coaches, Russell Raley and Reggie Willits.

Willits, of course, went on to play and coach in the Major Leagues and eventually became dad to Jaxon Willits, MVP of this year’s College World Series.

Florida softball assistant and former Oklahoma outfielder Aric Thomas | Florida Athletics

“Reggie's my favorite baseball player that I ever coached and recruited,” Thomas said.

In all, the weekend became a baseball reunion 32 years in the making.

“Some of us could stay the whole time. Some of us were here and had to go home,” Thomas said. “So it was like, every day, I would say, on and off, there was about 12 or 13 of us.”

Hey, that’s 12 or 13 guys, pulling on the same rope.

Greg Tipton

In 1994, Greg Tipton was an OU student finishing up his college career that began in Norman in 1991. Now he’s the deputy athletic director in charge of OU baseball, working closely with Skip Johnson and athletic director Roger Denny to empower the program in all areas.

In between, Tipton seen just about everything college baseball can offer.

But he’s never been on the field for anything like Monday night’s national championship celebration at Charles Schwab Field.

Oklahoma's 1994 CWS dogpile | OU Athletics

“I've been the sport administrator for 15 years,” Tipton said in the middle of the postgame chaos. “It's a dream come true, and I could not be more happy for that man (Johnson) and the direction this program is going right now.”

Like Gaines, much of Tipton’s personal life has revolved around OU baseball. From late-night conversations with the head coach to interruptions during dinner or family events to any number of crises arising literally out of nowhere, Tipton’s position can lean toward either turmoil or pure joy on any given day.

But this time, it's all joy.

“We’ve got a family text — they've all lived this,” Tipton said. “They were all here in ’22. They were just crushed that they couldn't be here this week — one kid's in Tucson and one’s just started dental school, so it's a little tough. But they're thrilled. I mean, I've raised those guys, my son and daughter, on OU baseball — all OU sports. But they know how much this one means to our family, and it's incredible.”

Oklahoma baseball Chief of Staff Ryan Gaines (right) and OU deputy athletic director/operations Greg Tipton. | John E. Hoover / Sooners On SI