How Oklahoma AD Roger Denny Developed a Love for Sports, and Why His Mom Saw This Path Long Ago

NORMAN — Walking around the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis on April 4, 2005, Debi and Roger Denny recognized a familiar face in the sea of people awaiting the NCAA men’s basketball title game between Illinois and North Carolina.

Roger Denny had been raised in North Carolina, a Tar Heels fan through and through.

So when UNC athletic director Dick Baddour walked by, both mother and son immediately recognized him.

They were excited to not only see a central figure in the Tar Heels’ athletic department, but also a familiar face from back home.

The group exchanged pleasantries, relaying the story that they were from North Carolina but had recently relocated to the St. Louis area.

Roger Denny was then a first-year law student at Saint Louis University.

During their chat, Debi pointed to her son and told Baddour, “He’s going to have your job some day.”

Roger Denny didn’t quite get there.

Baddour retired from the job in 2012, when Denny was still fairly early in his career practicing law.

But, now, 20 years later, Denny actually is an athletic director. He will formally take over for longtime OU AD Joe Castiglione on Feb. 15, after being introduced at a ceremony in Norman on Wednesday.

“God love our parents,” Denny said at his introductory press conference at Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. “I grew up around college campuses and there’s just an energy and a magnetism to these things that’s unlike anything else in the world.

“It’s always been my goal to be in college athletics in some form. I didn’t always know I would be an athletic director, but the closer I got to it and as I matured a bit and started to see kind of how my skills would translate, 2021 happened and the world changed in our business.”

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The changes offered an open door for a new type of athletic administrator — one with the skills Denny had spent 15 years developing in the various fields of law.

But his love of college athletics — the same love that drew him to join the Illinois athletic department as a Deputy Athletic Director in 2021 and carried him to Oklahoma now — was formed long before then.

That love was largely born at Carmichael Auditorium, then home of UNC men’s basketball.

“We hated Duke, you know,” Debi said with a laugh.

When Denny was young, his parents regularly took him to the arena to watch Michael Jordan and the Tar Heels play.

At Denny’s introduction ceremony shortly before the press conference, OU President Joseph Harroz said he knew Denny was right for the job with his answer to Harroz’s inquiry that he had to know whether Denny was “a dawg.”

That was a label that rang true for Denny’s mother.

It didn’t take long for Debi to see the qualities that ultimately led him to excel in school, taking him first to Southeast Missouri State for a bachelor’s degree, then to Saint Louis U., where he graduated from law school, and then to Washington University in St. Louis, where he earned his Master of Laws.

“Anything he ever wanted, he figured out how to get it and how to make it work,” Debi told Sooners On SI. “He’s like a little dog with a bone when it comes to things like that. So if he wanted it, he made a way to get it.”

Back in 2005, when North Carolina beat Michigan State in the Final Four to advance to the title game, there wasn’t a question. Mom and son were going to go.

They spent the day going to as many of the UNC events as they could, building memories that endure.

That stretched to that chance meeting with Baddour, and then the Tar Heels’ 75-70 win over the Fighting Illini that gave the program its fourth national title.

Among the items in a gift bag presented to the Denny family as part of the introductory ceremony were Crimson and Cream Jordan shoes.

Denny’s parents smiled when they chatted about the connection to their son’s earliest days as a sports fan.

Roger Denny walked off the stage after Wednesday’s press conference and made his way through the throng of people to give Debi a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Afterward, Debi beamed with pride.

“It’s amazing,” she said, “to see him achieve this. He’s so deserving of it.”