Published: September 07, 2008 01:23 am            

Coach Doyle Kenneth Parrack

Former Oklahoma City University, University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University basketball coach Doyle Kenneth Parrack passed away late on Friday, Sept. 5, 2008 at his home in Perkins at age 86.

Services will be held on Tuesday at 2 p.m. at the Perkins First United Methodist Church, 1005 E. Kirk, Perkins, with Rev. Steve Bredesen officiating.

He was born in Cotton County to Calvin Wesley Parrack and Rosa Mae Reynolds on Dec. 6, 1921. His lifelong love for the game of basketball began on a dirt court outside of Union Valley School in Cotton County during the final days of the Depression. As a sophomore, he would shoot hoops outside of the high school gym that was still under construction. The Daily Oklahoman would later name the young rising star to the all-time 1930s Oklahoma high school basketball team for his achievements on the court.

Parrack would become the first in his family to go to college after graduating from Union Valley in 1939. With a basketball scholarship in hand, he attended Connors State College in Warner and then pursued his bachelor’s degree at Oklahoma A&M (later Oklahoma State University), and true to his commitment to education, earned his bachelor’s degree in secondary education. At OSU, he would forge two longstanding relationships in his career – one with the university and one with the university’s basketball coach, Henry Iba. Under Coach Iba’s tutelage, Parrack’s skills on the court matured. He was named a starter on the 1945 National Championship basketball team.

After a brief stint coaching basketball and teaching history at Shawnee High School, the call of the game brought Parrack back to the court. He played for the Chicago Stags, the NBA predecessor to the Chicago Bulls, in 1946-7 and participated in the first televised NBA playoff game. Parrack left professional basketball after just one year for the opportunity to coach college basketball at Oklahoma City University.

As head coach and then athletic director at OCU, Coach Parrack transformed the program from a club team without a campus gymnasium or scholarship funding into a national powerhouse. During his eight-year tenure, he led OCU to membership in the NCAA, four consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, and ultimately to two All College tournament championships in 1949 and 1951. Coach Parrack would hold the honor of being the youngest coach to have both played and coached in a NCAA tournament.

In 1955, Coach Parrack accepted an offer to serve as head coach at the University of Oklahoma. In 1959 he was recognized as the conference Coach of the Year after the team tied for second in the Big Eight. Despite his successes at OU, Coach Parrack chose to return to his alma mater in 1962 and served as both the freshman basketball coach and assistant to his longtime mentor, Coach Iba, until Iba’s retirement in 1970.

In 1972, Coach Parrack was given the opportunity to build the Israeli national basketball team, taking his players as far as the playoffs in Germany that same year. Six years later, he was named head coach of the OU women’s basketball team. He would retire from coaching in 1980.

Coach Parrack was known as a strict but positive disciplinarian. Decades later, his players would recall that Coach Parrack taught them far more than basketball skills. He taught them how to work as a team, appreciate victories, learn from losses, and to be successful in life.

Despite his departure from the basketball court, Coach Parrack never gave up teaching. Upon leaving OU, he took on a new challenge – serving as a probation officer for the Oklahoma City Juvenile Bureau and sharing with troubled youth the same life lessons his players had valued years before.

Through the years, Coach Parrack received many accolades for his contributions to the sport of basketball and to the lives of young people. He was honored as the Big 8 coach of the year in 1959 while at Oklahoma University, has been inducted into the Oklahoma City University Sports Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma State University Athletics Hall of Honor as part of the 1945 NCAA Basketball Championship Team of Distinction. In 2006 he was inducted into the Oklahoma State University College of Education Hall of Fame, and in 2007 he was recognized by Oklahoma City University and his former players when the clock tower at the Meinders’ School of Business was named in his honor.

Coach Parrack resided in Perkins with his wife of 56 years, Charlotte Barrick Parrack. His older brother Al lives in Henderson, Nev., and his younger brother Travis lives in Waurika. His daughter Diane, son-in-law John Mombani and Diane’s son Blake Stacey live in Oklahoma City; his son David, daughter-in-law Rebecca and their children Andrew, Josh and Sarah live in Tulsa; his daughter Linda, son-in-law Brad Livingstone and their daughter Shelby live in Malibu, Calif.; and his son Jim, daughter-in-law Des and daughters Paige and Ashton live in Oklahoma City.

In lieu of flowers contributions in Coach Parrack’s name can be made to the Doyle K. Parrack Coaching Scholarship through the Oklahoma State University Foundation, P.O. Box 1749, Stillwater, 74076 or to the Athletics Scholarship funds at Oklahoma City University Att: Athletics Scholarships Department, 2501 N. Blackwelder, Oklahoma City, 73106-1493 or University of Oklahoma, Athletic Scholarships Department, Parrington Oval, Norman, 77019-0390.

Condolences may be e-mailed to the family and an online obituary may be viewed by visiting our Web site at www.strodefh.com

        

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