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Dickson Announcement

Rick Dickson has officially announced his retirement for the 2nd time. Wishing him the best. Huffy any ideas on who TU approaches as this may be the most vital AD hire TU has ever had to make given the current situation with NIL and the possibility of more conference realignment that determines whether you are part of the 2nd tier of the in crowd or relegated to irrelevance.

TU On Pro Rosters

With the NFL draft starting Thursday and I can guarnatee no one from TU will be going in the first round. I wanted to see who was on a Roster.

Here is what we got

Canadian Football League

NamePositionTeamLeague
Tyon DavisDBBC LionsCFL
Isaiah EppsWRCalgary StampedersCFL
Travon FullerDBWinnipeg Blue BombersCFL
Josh JohnsonWRWinnipeg Blue BombersCFL
JuanCarlos SantanaWRHamilton TigercatsCFL

National Football League

NamePositionTeamLeague
Zaven CollinsOLBArizona CardinalsNFL
Tyler SmithOTDallas CowboysNFL
Chris PaulGWashington CommandersNFL
Deneric PrinceRBKansas City ChiefsNFL
Trevis GipsonLBJacksonville JaguarsNFL

🏀 Recruiting Tulsa hosts several basketball visitors from transfer portal

The Tulsa men’s basketball coaches are combing the transfer portal to help fill out their roster for next season, and three players have made recent visits to the TU campus.

🏀 Recruiting TU Basketball hosts three visitors from transfer portal

The Tulsa men’s basketball coaches are combing the transfer portal to help fill out their roster for next season, and three players have made recent visits to the TU campus.

📝 Larry Lewis Rick Dickson made lasting impact at TU

To say Rick Dickson's imminent departure as TU's athletic director is the end of an era is an understatement. When he retires, this time for good, as Tulsa's AD at the end of June at age 70, it will be 50 years since he first came to TU as a football player from Bishop Kelley.


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Al McGuire and TU link

I read this on an Al McGuire website. I didn’t realize the last game he called was Tulsa and College of Charleston.

“I worked with Al McGuire his last year of the tournament (1999). And Coach McGuire was never known for the depth of his preparation. As in, ‘I’ll react to what’s going on.’ And that Thursday or Friday is the longest day in broadcast television. It is. It’s a grind. I can still tell you the teams. We were in Charlotte. We lead off with Delaware and Tennessee. Get that done. Then we’ve got Southwest Missouri State and Wisconsin in what I would still argue is one of the worst college basketball games I’ve ever done. Like, 42-31, and that was at the end of the game. So now we get a short break. My pile (of papers) is going down. You take half of it and throw it away. The evening game was Mississippi Valley State and Duke, and Duke was a 48-point favorite, and they covered. So the last game of the night is College of Charleston and Tulsa. We’re taking a break and I said, ‘Coach, anything I can do for you in this last game?’ And he said, ‘No, no.’ We get back and sit down. He doesn’t have a note. He doesn’t have a roster. And I said, ‘Is there anything I can do to help you out?’ He said, ‘No, no—they’ll take their warmups off and I’ll get the names and numbers, and I’ll listen to you for the first five minutes, and I’ll pick things up and I’ll be fine.’ Charleston comes out and they have maroon warmups. They take them off and they have no names, just numbers. Tulsa, with Bill Self as the coach, comes out in blue—no names. McGuire looked at me and said, ‘Son, you might have to help me—I think I’m screwed.’”

--- Verne Lundquist

📝 Larry Lewis Rick Dickson made lasting impact at Tulsa

To say Rick Dickson's imminent departure as TU's athletic director is the end of an era is an understatement. When he retires, this time for good, as Tulsa's AD at the end of June at age 70, it will be 50 years since he first came to TU as a football player from Bishop Kelley.

🏈 Recruiting Dallas-area DB checks out Tulsa

2025 Dallas (TX) Lake Highlands safety Ayden Webb has seen his recruitment heat up over the past two months. Tulsa was one of the first programs to extend an offer, and Webb was on the TU campus last month to watch spring practice.

TU Alums / Drillers --Game & Ticket Info...

Join the Tulsa Chapter of the TU Alumni Association for a baseball game

and buffet lunch on Sunday, April 28! Bring your family and friends along

to connect with the True Blue community at the Tulsa Drillers,

all ages are welcome!



Alumni Afternoon at the Drillers
Sunday, April 28
Gates Open: 12:00 p.m.

First Pitch: 1:05 p.m.
Coors Light Refinery Deck
ONEOK Field
201 N Elgin Ave.

Tulsa, OK
For more information, contact the Office of Alumni Engagement at
tualumni@utulsa.edu or 918-631-2555.​

TU Legend DT to Retire

Don Tomkalski, the longest tenured employee in the athletic department, is retiring after 40 years. He’s pretty much at every game and getting stats and records to the media. A Tulsa legend.



NIL Effects On The NFL Draft

I found the information interesting.
Didn't realize the numbers for younger players entering the draft are down.

Entering NFL Draft, Chiefs + other teams are learning it can pay to stay in school
Entering NFL Draft, Chiefs + other teams are learning it can pay to stay in school
BY BLAIR KERKHOFF
BKERKHOFF@KCSTAR.COM
10 hours ago
This week’s NFL Draft marks a shift in the age of prospects. There are 58 early entrants, the fewest the league has seen since 2011.

From 2016-2022, more than 100 early entrants — players three years removed from their high school graduating class — had entered the draft.

Brett Veach knows why.

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“This is just the NIL effect,” the Chiefs general manager said.

Colleges athletes can profit from their name, image and likeness. Those numbers aren’t public. The NFL minimum salary for a rookie in 2024 is $795,000. An NIL deal might not approach that figure, but it could be good enough for the player to remain in school and perhaps improve his draft stock.

This is making the 2024 draft “older” than previous editions over the past decade. To Veach, that will be especially evident in the middle to late rounds.

“Typically when you’re working through the fourth, fifth and six rounds,” he noted, “there’s always interesting prospects and small-school guys.”

But now the Chiefs and other NFL teams are seeing those candidates as older players.

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“They have the opportunity to stay in school,” Veach said. “So we have to work a little bit harder to find some young guys with upside that you really like.”

NIL became policy with a Supreme Court ruling in 2021. In the ensuing NFL Draft, held in April 2022, 100 underclassmen entered the draft, 28 fewer than the previous year. The number dropped to 82 in 2023.

Among the underclassmen in this year’s draft, which begins on Thursday, are Missouri cornerback Ennis Rakestraw, Jr. and Kansas edge Austin Booker.

Also affecting the profile of this year’s draft is the extra year of eligibility granted to college players because of the COVID-shortened 2020 season. It’s paid, figuratively and literally, for athletes to stay in school.

The Chiefs have found great value in the later rounds of recent drafts, especially on defense. Cornerback L’Jarius Sneed, a standout who was assigned to the opponent’s top receiver, was taken in the fourth round of the 2019 draft out of Louisiana Tech. Sneed was traded to the Tennessee Titans last month for a third-round pick next season and a swap of seventh-round picks this year.

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Joshua Williams was a 2022 fourth-round selection from Fayetteville State. In the same draft, the Chiefs selected Jaylen Watson in the seventh round from Washington State. Both were part of the Chiefs’ Super Bowl-champion defensive rotation the past two years.

They weren’t early entrants. But they were part of a deeper draft pool .... which, according to Veach, improved the overall quality of the draft class in which they each was selected.

“When you have a ton of underclassmen putting their name in and decide to (leave college) that makes every draft deeper,” Veach said. “When guys are staying in (college), it’s going to make the draft a little tougher to work with on the back end.”
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🏈 Recruiting Tulsa target Travis Buhake striving to become an elite DL

Tulsa extended a scholarship offer to Mansfield (TX) Summit defensive end Travis Buhake back in January, and he’s racked up several more offers since then. The 2025 prospect attended a junior day at TU last month and came away impressed.

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🏈 Recruiting Sherman RB/LB Kane Bowen talks Tulsa and recruiting

Sherman (TX) athlete Kane Bowen plays both running back and linebacker, and he’s garnered recruiting interest from Tulsa and others. TU coaches offered the 6-foot-2 and 220-pounder back in December, and Bowen attended a Tulsa junior day in March.

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