Funeral services were held Saturday in Woodward, Okla., for Charles Harvey "Pug" Gabrel, an assistant coach under Glenn Gossett on the NSU Demon football staff from 1967-71.
Gabrel is survived by his wife, Helen, two sons, three daughters, nine grandchildren and two great grand-daughters. He was 79. He came to NSU with Gossett from NSU in 1967 and coached with John Ropp, Gene Knecht, Red Phillips and others.
He and his wife had one of the first bed-and-breakfast homes in Natchitoches when they renovated the big house on the left just past the west end of the Keyser Avenue bridge, reports NSU vice president Jerry Pierce.
Gabrel became offensive coordinator and assistant head coach at Oklahoma State and also coached at Texas A&M before going into private business in the late 1970s.
His obituary is at http://www.enidnews.com/obituaries/local_story_150225412.html
Memorials may be made through the funeral home to Gideon Bibles or Feed the Children. Condolences may be made online at www.johnsonsgoodsamaritanwoodward.com
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Spirit of Northwestern gets rated in elite 8
It's nice to be noticed for doing well. It was well deserved for the Spirit of Northwestern marching band to be included in a recent list of "Eight Great College Marching Bands" on a music blog by band fans at Quinnipiac University.
Northwestern's SON was listed alongside bands from Texas Tech, Baylor, Texas A&M, Georgia, Michigan, James Madison and Jacksonville State.
This could set up a repeat of the sensational 2006 halftime show at the NSU-Baylor football game. The teams, and maybe the bands, meet again in Waco this Sept. 6.
We saw the Jacksonville State band when the Gamecocks were associate members of the Southland Conference through 2002, and their kudos are well deserved.
Texas Tech's band was superb when we were in Lubbock last fall. In fact, it was band alumni night and one of the returning members was Traci Wancho, wife of former Demon sports information director (1985-89) Tom Wancho.
We've also seen the Georgia band in person at a Demon game, that one in Athens in 2002. They put on quite a show between the hedges!
Would love to see the James Madison band in a playoff setting (if they would travel here or meet in Chattanooga!)
For the complete list with comments, visit this link:
http://www.collegeotr.com/quinnipiac_university/eight_great_college_marching_bands_8637
Doug Ireland, SID
Northwestern's SON was listed alongside bands from Texas Tech, Baylor, Texas A&M, Georgia, Michigan, James Madison and Jacksonville State.
This could set up a repeat of the sensational 2006 halftime show at the NSU-Baylor football game. The teams, and maybe the bands, meet again in Waco this Sept. 6.
We saw the Jacksonville State band when the Gamecocks were associate members of the Southland Conference through 2002, and their kudos are well deserved.
Texas Tech's band was superb when we were in Lubbock last fall. In fact, it was band alumni night and one of the returning members was Traci Wancho, wife of former Demon sports information director (1985-89) Tom Wancho.
We've also seen the Georgia band in person at a Demon game, that one in Athens in 2002. They put on quite a show between the hedges!
Would love to see the James Madison band in a playoff setting (if they would travel here or meet in Chattanooga!)
For the complete list with comments, visit this link:
http://www.collegeotr.com/quinnipiac_university/eight_great_college_marching_bands_8637
Doug Ireland, SID
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Six months later, kindness remembered
Six months after the fact, the Demon basketball team's kindness resurfaced Saturday in Fayetteville, Ark.
While there attending my niece's graduation in a class of 686 from Rogers High School, I was able to reunite with our former neighbors growing up in Jonesboro. The Turners live in and around Fayetteville now, but lost mother Sandra last fall. Her daughters and and former husband were gathered Saturday afternoon for a cookout and our family dropped by for a visit.
Incredible coincidence - the graduation was Friday night in 20,000-seat Bud Walton Arena, which was nearly half full. Our group sat in section 132 on the top row. Right in front of us was extended family of the Turners, and both daughters sat across the aisle from us. It wasn't assigned seating and there wasn't any planning - it just worked out that way, leading to our more relaxed reunion Saturday and this poignant tale.
I saw the Turners at the Demons' Dec. 19 game at Bud Walton Arena against Arkansas. Didn't know at the time that I missed daughter Mary the previous night at the sparkling Promenade Mall in Rogers, where the Demon coaches and team went to catch a movie and a bite to eat.
Mary didn't miss the Demons. She noticed our players walking in the mall, and saw the NSU logo with the state of Louisiana. Her mother had passed away in October. Her mother was a Northwestern nursing school graduate.
Mary, never a wallflower, walked up and started visiting with the players. She told them that seeing them reminded her of her mom, and by the end of the conversation, a souvenir ball had been purchased from a nearby sporting goods store, and the players had autographed it for Mary and her family.
So a little bit of Northwestern went a long way on a cool December night in northwest Arkansas ... and nobody thought to mention it to Coach Mike McConathy until I was able to call him Saturday evening from Fayetteville.
Doug Ireland, SID
While there attending my niece's graduation in a class of 686 from Rogers High School, I was able to reunite with our former neighbors growing up in Jonesboro. The Turners live in and around Fayetteville now, but lost mother Sandra last fall. Her daughters and and former husband were gathered Saturday afternoon for a cookout and our family dropped by for a visit.
Incredible coincidence - the graduation was Friday night in 20,000-seat Bud Walton Arena, which was nearly half full. Our group sat in section 132 on the top row. Right in front of us was extended family of the Turners, and both daughters sat across the aisle from us. It wasn't assigned seating and there wasn't any planning - it just worked out that way, leading to our more relaxed reunion Saturday and this poignant tale.
I saw the Turners at the Demons' Dec. 19 game at Bud Walton Arena against Arkansas. Didn't know at the time that I missed daughter Mary the previous night at the sparkling Promenade Mall in Rogers, where the Demon coaches and team went to catch a movie and a bite to eat.
Mary didn't miss the Demons. She noticed our players walking in the mall, and saw the NSU logo with the state of Louisiana. Her mother had passed away in October. Her mother was a Northwestern nursing school graduate.
Mary, never a wallflower, walked up and started visiting with the players. She told them that seeing them reminded her of her mom, and by the end of the conversation, a souvenir ball had been purchased from a nearby sporting goods store, and the players had autographed it for Mary and her family.
So a little bit of Northwestern went a long way on a cool December night in northwest Arkansas ... and nobody thought to mention it to Coach Mike McConathy until I was able to call him Saturday evening from Fayetteville.
Doug Ireland, SID
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Rooting interests in NCAA baseball tournament
Along with cheering for Sam Houston State, the Southland Conference's representative in the NCAA baseball regional tournaments this weekend, there are plenty of former Demons to root on.
Alabama, with NSU graduate and former head coach Jim Wells (1990-94) as the skipper, and former NSU assistant (1993-94) and later head coach (2002-2007) Mitch Gaspard as Wells' assistant, will be in the Coastal Carolina regional playing East Carolina.
Kentucky, led by former Demon head coach John Cohen (1998-2001), is heading up to Ann Arbor to play the regional hosts, Michigan.
Arkansas, with former Demon head coach (1995-97) Dave Van Horn running the show, is headed to Palo Alto, Calif., for the Stanford Regional, where the Razorbacks will play Pepperdine.
Ole Miss, whose bench boss is former Demon assistant coach (1991-92) Mike Bianco, gets some national TV exposure (ESPNU) in the Coral Gables regional hosted by top-seeded Miami. The Rebels open against Missouri.
Texas A&M has the heaviest contingent of people formerly wearing purple. Head coach Rob Childress was Van Horn's pitching coach in 1995-97 and was chiefly responsible for recruiting three of the four major league baseball draft picks in 1998 -- MLB veteran Brian Lawrence, Alan Davis and Chris Brown. Aggie third base/hitting coach Matt Deggs was a Van Horn assistant in 1996-97. First base coach Andy Sawyers was a Van Horn and Cohen assistant in 1997-98.
The Aggies are hosting a regional and will open against Illinois-Chicago.
Kentucky and Ole Miss could meet in a super regional.
Alabama, with NSU graduate and former head coach Jim Wells (1990-94) as the skipper, and former NSU assistant (1993-94) and later head coach (2002-2007) Mitch Gaspard as Wells' assistant, will be in the Coastal Carolina regional playing East Carolina.
Kentucky, led by former Demon head coach John Cohen (1998-2001), is heading up to Ann Arbor to play the regional hosts, Michigan.
Arkansas, with former Demon head coach (1995-97) Dave Van Horn running the show, is headed to Palo Alto, Calif., for the Stanford Regional, where the Razorbacks will play Pepperdine.
Ole Miss, whose bench boss is former Demon assistant coach (1991-92) Mike Bianco, gets some national TV exposure (ESPNU) in the Coral Gables regional hosted by top-seeded Miami. The Rebels open against Missouri.
Texas A&M has the heaviest contingent of people formerly wearing purple. Head coach Rob Childress was Van Horn's pitching coach in 1995-97 and was chiefly responsible for recruiting three of the four major league baseball draft picks in 1998 -- MLB veteran Brian Lawrence, Alan Davis and Chris Brown. Aggie third base/hitting coach Matt Deggs was a Van Horn assistant in 1996-97. First base coach Andy Sawyers was a Van Horn and Cohen assistant in 1997-98.
The Aggies are hosting a regional and will open against Illinois-Chicago.
Kentucky and Ole Miss could meet in a super regional.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Memorial Day moment
I had another blog topic ready; it will keep for a day.
Have you seen the monument outside the NSU athletic fieldhouse, a plaque atop a four-foot tall block of concrete, erected by the Graduate N Club?
While playing in the Buddy Bonnette Memorial golf scramble today, one of my teammates asked what the Graduate N Club was. I explained it's the alumni association for athletes and coaches and staff members, those who were involved in NSU athletics.
Coming by the office afterward to check e-mail, my thoughts turned to Memorial Day and its meaning and the Graduate N Club entered my mind.
I remember when coach Johnnie Emmons came by my office explaining what he wanted to do, that as secretary-treasurer of the Graduate N Club, he and the officers agreed they wanted to put up a monument to the athletes and coaches who had passed on, a tribute to their lives and memories.
He specifically mentioned that when he was just getting out of school in the early 1950s, the Korean Conflict was ongoing. He told me there were boys who were supposed to be playing for the Demons who gave their lives fighting for the United States of America in Korea.
Last night, I had a visit with Dr. Ron McBride, one of our outstanding education professors and an avid NSU athletics supporter. He just returned from a visit to Korea, where NSU has a sister university and is working with that institution to co-mingle programs (pardon to the academic folks if I've stated that poorly). But NSU has a presence now in Korea.
Just as it did, in the most personal of sacrifices, more than a half-century ago.
I'll walk past that moment tomorrow. I'll stop and pause and think about young, promising lives given up so we, and others around the world, could embrace freedom and democracy.
Doug Ireland, SID
Have you seen the monument outside the NSU athletic fieldhouse, a plaque atop a four-foot tall block of concrete, erected by the Graduate N Club?
While playing in the Buddy Bonnette Memorial golf scramble today, one of my teammates asked what the Graduate N Club was. I explained it's the alumni association for athletes and coaches and staff members, those who were involved in NSU athletics.
Coming by the office afterward to check e-mail, my thoughts turned to Memorial Day and its meaning and the Graduate N Club entered my mind.
I remember when coach Johnnie Emmons came by my office explaining what he wanted to do, that as secretary-treasurer of the Graduate N Club, he and the officers agreed they wanted to put up a monument to the athletes and coaches who had passed on, a tribute to their lives and memories.
He specifically mentioned that when he was just getting out of school in the early 1950s, the Korean Conflict was ongoing. He told me there were boys who were supposed to be playing for the Demons who gave their lives fighting for the United States of America in Korea.
Last night, I had a visit with Dr. Ron McBride, one of our outstanding education professors and an avid NSU athletics supporter. He just returned from a visit to Korea, where NSU has a sister university and is working with that institution to co-mingle programs (pardon to the academic folks if I've stated that poorly). But NSU has a presence now in Korea.
Just as it did, in the most personal of sacrifices, more than a half-century ago.
I'll walk past that moment tomorrow. I'll stop and pause and think about young, promising lives given up so we, and others around the world, could embrace freedom and democracy.
Doug Ireland, SID
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