December ’21

Rho Lambda Newsletter

Greetings, Brothers,

This website is yours, to facilitate the interaction amongst our brotherhood and to help re-establish the DKE chapter at OU.

Click here to see the RLLA Board members. The password we emailed you will open that file. Don’t have it? Contact us. If you get lost, use your back arrow, or return to oudekes.org.

Don’t miss the new photos from 2021’s Reunion and Tailgate Parties in News & Gallery. (Click on a photo to enlarge it). 

Explore the entire website. Leave a comment. Take a moment to check your contact information in the Members Only/Rosters & Committees section. If it’s incorrect, let us know here. We want to make this an easy place for you to navigate.

The Future of OU Football, by Jim Reed

Lincoln Riley’s departure is a real disappointment, not just because we lost a coach who had the football program on a path to greater success, but because his recent statements suggested he was not considering a move. 

There are many details to be considered when making a coaching change, so it is clear that Riley had been working on this for some time.  His denial of the LSU job was most likely a smoke screen.  This is why so many OU fans feel a sense of betrayal.  I think many of us had come to believe our coach was here for the long haul, then with almost no notice, he and several of his assistants boarded a plane and flew off to Los Angeles.

One of our immediate concerns is that Letter of Intent signing day is just around the corner.  I hope Bob Stoops can get our recruits to postpone their decisions until our new coach can talk to them.  We are hemorrhaging commits at an alarming rate. 

We have a proud coaching tradition at OU, and we could emerge from this with another outstanding coach, a person worthy of Benny Owen, Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer and Bob Stoops. If we do, we may look back on this week, not for the disappointments, but for the opportunities presented.  I hope so.

 Boomer Sooner. Jim Reed, ‘67

From The ΔKE ΡΛ Literary Association

DKE Headquarters has launched the Forever Deke Annual Fund Campaign. I urge everyone to support it as we move towards our goal of, in 2025, bringing Rho Lambda back to OU.

Browse the amazing DKE Quarterly Magazine, too.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I wish our brothers a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!

Kerothen, Bob Tierno, Chairman of the Board

ΡΛ Brother of the Month -DENNIS CLOWERS

Dennis and Suzi

Suzi, family, OU football. There’s more to Dennis’ life, but his priorities are easy to see. Consider this: Suzi went to OSU, Dennis to OU and, even after all the Bedlam, they love each other like crazy. For me, that says it all. Cute grandkids, right?

Dennis graduated in ‘73 with an Engineering degree and an MBA. He ran his own engineering consulting company in OKC for 20 years, specializing in utilities. Then he was hired as the city’s Public Works Director, and six years later the Asst. City Manager. He retired in 2019.

46 years in one paragraph. Time flies for us all, doesn’t it?

We had a great conversation about our times at the Deke house. Dennis pitched the ‘69 softball game when we crushed Sigma Chi. That’s him and Pickup, above, at the pledge/member football game, and they and Stites at the ‘71 formal.

The Goalpost

Let’s see, what else? Oh, there’s his 65-year stint of attending every OU-Texas game since 1956. See the goal post pictured above? It’s from the 1956 game. That’s the year we went on to beat Paul Hornung’s Notre Dame team 40-0 and win back-to-back national titles. 

Dennis’ dad and mom are below, with Dennis and Suzi when they got married. When Dennis was 8, he and his parents arrived at the Cotton Bowl with only two tickets. The ticket taker insisted Dennis needed a ticket, but his dad insisted “Dennis is eight; we can all fit in two seats.”

When the man resisted, Dennis’ dad gave him both tickets, saying, “If Dennis can’t see the game, we won’t either.” The man relented at that, saying, “OK, go in, but don’t tell anybody.” So Dennis saw his first OU-Texas game with no ticket. And he was there when the Goalpost came down.

When, at 17, he saw a piece of it hanging in the Deke house during rush, his decision was easy. There’ll be more in the January 2022 Newsletter about the Goalpost’s odyssey. Even though the Goal Post Award goes to a different Deke every year, the Goalpost itself, in OU colors of red cedar and white paint, hangs proudly in Dennis’ office. 

DKE Bonds and Golf

The Deke house formed lifelong bonds for us all. Below, there’s Dennis and his son with Burnsie and his son at Telluride in the 80s. 

A lot of we Dekes play golf, too. Suzi and Dennis were at the Masters last April.

And here’s Ben Hogan, I mean, Dennis, at the first tee at St. Andrews, celebrating his 60th birthday with Suzi and friends.

He shot 3 over par and, typical great guy Deke, he gives his caddy the credit.

Ron Sorter