Courtesy the Oklahoman

(January 10, 2011) Dating back to the 1970s, Tom Dirato first covered the Cowboys as a newspaper man, then later crossed over to the other side, where he spent 30 seasons in the athletic department and on air providing color commentary for a combined 1,367 basketball, football and baseball broadcasts, along with another 1,292 coaches shows.

He helped deliver the news of so many great Cowboys moments. And he shared in the lows, none greater than the plane crash that claimed 10 members of the basketball team's travel party to Colorado nearly 10 years ago, a trip he was on.

Dirato's association with OSU stretches through four decades and isn't completely finished yet, despite his retirement from the university, as he remains involved through Stillwater sports radio shows.

I grew up in somewhat of a sheltered environment on the East Coast, in New Jersey. My family didn't have just a lot of money. I thought if you went to Pennsylvania you'd gone to the West Coast. My geographical boundaries were such that I didn't really know what was outside the state of Pennsylvania.

My mom was from Oklahoma, so I would come to Oklahoma and visit from time to time. It was kind of our second home, Oklahoma was. We'd come every couple of years to visit and make a whirlwind tour to Idabel, Oklahoma, and visit her sister and sisters. Then we'd make it down to Dallas and visit some more of her sisters and in-laws who were there.

It was certainly different from coming out of the East Coast, where I grew up. It was a change of pace. And I loved it here in Oklahoma. So it was natural to be here.

My path to OSU was kind of a winding one. I was at The Oklahoma Journal and basically Oklahoma State was my beat. If you go back 40 years, from the time I worked at Oklahoma State to the time I covered Oklahoma State, I spent 40 years of my life associated with OSU.

I had uncles who went to Oklahoma A&M at the time, some family members there, so I was aware of OSU. And they would talk about how great of a place it was. And they were happy they had been there. That caught my eye.

It didn't take long, people say it all the time — coaches say it, players say it, students say it, parents of students say it — when you get here and you get to this town, it just has a positive impact. I want to be here. And covering Oklahoma State like I did at The Journal, I had a lot of time to be here and be around people and work with people and this was where I wanted to settle down. And it worked out.

When you're here for the better part of four decades, you see a lot of things that still have a tremendous amount of influence in your life. I think the biggest thing I take out of my stay here are the relationships that you build.

The beautiful part of working in this environment, it keeps you young. You change the clientele, if you will, every four years. And they're all young and energetic and ready to go. And that keeps you young.

I've seen a lot of things that were good, and obviously, the other end of the spectrum, the lowest point of my personal and professional life is coming up on 10 years now, the plane crash that took the lives of 10 people and changed really the face of some areas of Oklahoma State forever and ever.

The plane crash was the lowest point for all of us. And still is. I can still recall the events of that night from the time we walked out of the Coors Event Center in Boulder to the time we got the news and spent that long night in the basketball office. I can recall it like it happened yesterday.

You can't grieve enough. You can't ache enough. Because you know the hundreds of people who are affected, the brothers, the sisters, the parents, the grandparents, the wives, the kids who were connected to the great 10 people who lost their lives in that plane crash. People go on with their lives, I understand, but there are holes that never get filled.

I was blessed to be a part of broadcasting, in a small way, some of the golden moments of OSU sports. By the time I got out of there, we had one golden moment after another.

You don't realize the impact you do have on people when you're doing the game. Because you don't think about just how many people are listening. And it made you a part of their family when the game was going on. For a good part of the time I did radio, we didn't have a glut of TV appearances. So that was the only contact our fans had with the event.

It was an honor to be around Mr. (Henry) Iba. There are very few people in the world, when that person walked into a room his or her presence just took over the atmosphere. He was that way. He didn't have to say a word.

If (Mr. Iba) spoke to you, you knew he had something to say. And you darn well better listen. He's a legend, but he's as nice a man as one could be around.

Gary Ward and Eddie Sutton are two of my dearest friends.

The thing that was the common denominator with both of those guys, they were tremendous storytellers. And 99 percent of the stories were true. But they had so many points of reference, they are legends. I was in awe of them, even at the time I was doing the shows with them.

It's been a great ride for me. I was blessed to work with and around in the athletic department, some of the best people you could find. Some of the best coaches in all sports. For a long time, Oklahoma State had the reputation of getting the most out of the least. We didn't have the biggest budget. But we had tremendous coaches. All you have to do is look at the championships and records OSU has over the years.

We talk about OSU being Tailback U. I like to consider us as Announcer U. And it doesn't include me. But you look at the lineup of people behind the microphone at OSU, past and current, you would be hard pressed to find that array of talent at any school.

You start with Mr. (Bill) Platt. Mr. Platt was, in my mind, the voice of the Cowboys still. He had such a reassuring, confident, strong, informative voice. He was the connection OSU sports for decades. You bring in Bob Barry and Bill Teegins, again I'm biased, but two of the greatest announcers, TV people, radio people, personalities that this state has ever had. And we had both here. We had two of the icons who are still icons in the business in Oklahoma.

Dave Hunziker is as good as it gets. He came on in a difficult situation, but he's right there with those guys. There are four guys right there that most schools would dream of having and we had them at OSU, in succession.

When I was doing the games, I took great pride in being prepared. I had a bad voice, perhaps, and was a little too blunt at times. Because I was so focused on doing as good a job as I could, I didn't realize some of the tremendous moments that myself and Bob and myself and Bill and myself and Dave were able to describe and bring to OSU fans.

You're so focused on what you're doing, you don't take time to realize what you're doing at the time. I do now, stepping back from it.

I do enjoy the connection I still have with OSU. I do miss the daily excitement I have, the daily connection you have with players and coaches. I would like to continue to do this as long as I can hold up my end of the bargain. It keeps me young.

I hear so many people, they can't wait to retire. I'm not the kind who's going to tie two ends of a hammock to a tree and go read a book.

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