Stormin in Norman
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Oklahoma Sooners: A Mount Rushmore of modern OU GOATs

By Chip Rouse

KEYSTONE, SD - OCTOBER 01: Mount Rushmore National Memorial towers over the South Dakota landscape on October 1, 2013 near Keystone, South Dakota. Mount Rushmore and all other national parks were closed today after congress failed to pass a temporary funding bill, forcing about 800,000 federal workers off the job. A bulletin issued by the Department of Interior states, 'Effective immediately upon a lapse in appropriations, the National Park Service will take all necessary steps to close and secure national park facilities and grounds in order to suspend all activities ...Day use visitors will be instructed to leave the park immediately...' (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
KEYSTONE, SD - OCTOBER 01: Mount Rushmore National Memorial towers over the South Dakota landscape on October 1, 2013 near Keystone, South Dakota. Mount Rushmore and all other national parks were closed today after congress failed to pass a temporary funding bill, forcing about 800,000 federal workers off the job. A bulletin issued by the Department of Interior states, 'Effective immediately upon a lapse in appropriations, the National Park Service will take all necessary steps to close and secure national park facilities and grounds in order to suspend all activities ...Day use visitors will be instructed to leave the park immediately...' (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) /
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Patty Gasso

Patty Gasso is a winner and she has transformed the sport of softball at the University of Oklahoma.

Before Gasso took over the OU softball program in 1995, the Sooners had been to just five NCAA Tournaments in the history of the program. Since then, a period covering 23 seasons, Oklahoma has failed to make it into the NCAA postseason championship just once, including every one of the past 15 seasons.

But making 22 NCAA Tournament appearances in the past 23 years is just part of the story. Gasso has led her Sooner softball squads to 11 Women’s College World Series appearances and four national championships, including three of the past five seasons. She also has 16 conference championships to her credit, including the last five.

Gasso isn’t just the best softball coach in the Big 12 Conference, she is one of the best in the country, all-time. The numbers tell it all.

She has won more Big 12 games (307) than any coach in Big 12 history and more than twice as many as any other coach in OU history.

Since the Big 12 came into existence in 1996, one year after Gasso became the softball coach of the Sooners, an Oklahoma softball player has been named Big 12 Player of the Year 12 times and Pitcher of the Year five times. She has coached 53 All-Americans and been named Big 12 Coach of the Year 10 times, including each of the past six seasons.

Former Sooner pitcher Keillani Ricketts was a two-time USA Softball Player of the Year in 2012-13, just the third player in history to win the award more than once.

In 2017, Gasso became the second-fastest coach in NCAA Division I history to record 1,000 career wins. She reached that milestone in 1,300 games.

Next: Golden 50 Oklahoma football players of the modern era

Like Bud Wilkinson in football, Patty Gasso is responsible for taking Sooner softball to the pinnacle of the sport and establishing the program as a perennial collegiate power.

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