Basketball Opens Doors for Rogers

Past OU Winners of NCAA Major Awards
Year	Name	Award
2015	Tamyra Rogers, M.D., WBKB	Silver
2015	Gabe Ikard, FB	Top 10
2013	Keith Jackson, FB	Silver
2012	Danielle Robinson, WBKB	Top VIII
2011	Amy Backel, WT&F	Top VIII
2005	Michelle Thomas, W T&F	Inspiration
2001	Lee Roy Selmon, FB	Silver
1989	Anthony Phillips, FB	Top VIII
1988	Keith Jackson, FB	Top VIII
1969	Dennis Weaver, M T&F	Performing Arts Salute

NORMAN – It's round and is usually orange. Its surface is pebbly and it is doubtful that anyone looking at a basketball would see it as a key. Dr. Tamyra Rogers, a former Sooner student-athlete who is a doctor in San Antonio, Texas, would be quick to correct you.

“Everything that has happened to me that moved me forward as a student and in my post collegiate career has been because of basketball,” Rogers said.

That journey has led one of OU's best all-time players to yet another positive as she was recently named an NCAA Silver Anniversary honoree. She will receive her award during the Honors Celebration as part of the 2015 NCAA Convention in Washington, D.C.

The Silver Anniversary Award annually recognizes distinguished individuals on the 25th anniversary of the conclusion of their college athletics careers. Representatives of NCAA member schools and conferences, along with a panel of distinguished former student-athletes, select each year's recipients.

Rogers joins Stanford's Jennifer Azzi, women's basketball, Brent Lang, Michigan, swimming and diving; Pellom McDaniels, Oregon State, football; Bernard Muir, Brown, basketball; and Mike Mussina Stanford, baseball, as this year's honorees.

“We are extremely proud to join the NCAA in honoring one of our outstanding former student-athletes,” OU Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics and Director of Athletics Joe Castiglione said. ”Tamyra had many accomplishments, on and off the court, when she played basketball for OU and her post collegiate achievements have changed the lives of so many people.

“People who saw her play here at OU will remember her tenacity as a defender and her skill as s shooter. She also worked diligently in sustaining women's basketball at the University of Oklahoma and in doing so helped lay the foundation for the strong program we have today," Castiglione continued.

“The Sooner basketball family is so happy to see one of our own earn this prominent recognition from the NCAA,” Sooner head coach Sherri Coale praised. “While I never coached Tamyra, I've heard about the kind of student-athlete she was, on the court and in the classroom. Through her medical career, she has helped so many people live better, healthier lives and that is something we hope all of our student-athletes will do once they leave OU, to make a difference in the world.

“With the number of quality female student-athletes who have come through all the OU programs, we are especially proud that the first woman from OU to win the Silver Anniversary Award is from basketball. I expect she will be the first of many,” Coale added.

Growing up in a small Texas town, Rogers remembers her mother encouraging her to dream big. She made sure her daughter understood that basketball was her ticket out of that small town, that basketball was her path to college and that was a way to get a better life.

Everything that has happened to me that moved me forward as a student and in my post collegiate career has been because of basketball.
Tamyra Rogers

“My hometown was so small -- we had one stoplight -- but my mom encouraged me to use my basketball talent to change my life. I was just naïve enough to believe it when people told me that I could do this or that. I listened and believed what they said to me,” Rogers added.

“When I arrived on campus in the fall of 1985, I was paired with Lisa Allison, a junior on the team and she helped me understand how to study. My academic advisor, Renee Launey, encouraged me to pursue medicine as a career. Again, I listened and I believed them.”

The Sooners won a Big Eight Championship in Rogers' freshman year. Following her sophomore year, there was a coaching change. Just as Rogers was getting to know the new staff, she fractured her femur and had to sit out for the season. She then played for a second head coach as a junior and senior.

Her Sooner career was a bit bumpy as OU went from 24-7 her freshman year to 7-22 her senior year. Support dropped, crowds got smaller and the seniors had to do all they could to keep the team together. Shortly after the end of her senior season, OU announced that it would drop women's basketball. The news stunned the players who had eligibility remaining. For the senior from Texas, she got mad.

“It really made me mad after all that I had been through so I decided to speak out and speak up,” Rogers explained. “I signed with OU because I believed the program would win championships. As a team leader, I knew I had to speak out. I knew OU had the potential to produce champions in women's basketball. The culture was there, the leadership in women's basketball wasn't. I knew OU would be great if the right things were in place.”

Eight days later, OU reinstated women's basketball and in the spring of 1996, Coale was hired. Memories of those challenging years quickly became a distant memory. Rogers' link to Sooner success is something that Coale makes sure today's Sooners understand.

“She is a part of our history and that is something we want today's players to understand,” Coale continued. “Without her selfless actions in those eight days in 1990, we might not be where we are today, we might not have a history.”

Collegiate basketball career over, Rogers began medical school. Again, a link to basketball helped her land a spot in the medical school at the University of Texas-San Antonio. She completed her Doctorate of Medicine in 1995 and returned to the OU Health Sciences Center to do her residency. She ultimately became chief resident and basketball, in a round about way, would play a role in the next part of her life journey.

While in medical school, Rogers received a scholarship from the National Health Care Corporation. Upon completion of her degree, the scholarship required that she work two years in an under served area. After several months of studying options, she became the Director of the Metabolic Clinic for the Tuba City Indian Medical Center in Tuba City, Ariz., a health care clinic on the reservation of the Navajo nation.

Soon after she arrived in Tuba City, Rogers found a gym and began playing pickup games with others. Basketball was a major activity for many Navajos and Rogers' ability caught the eye of some of older members of the tribe.

While sitting in her office one day, the mother of one of the players Rogers had been playing with in the community center walked in and asked the young doctor if she would consider coaching the high school girls teams. Again, basketball was about to open a door. This time, though, the result would be life changing for a nation.

Rogers accepted the challenge, even though she had never coached in a formal setting. She then headed to talk to the director of the clinic to share what had happened.

“He already knew what had happened,” Rogers explained. “He also had the ability to see the big picture. He knew how important basketball, especially winning basketball, was to the Navajo nation. He saw this as an opportunity for the clinic to expand its impact. He knew that if I could succeed as a basketball coach, it would build a sense of trust that could help the clinic help people on the reservation who were battling a number of serious health conditions.”

Before she committed completely, Rogers wanted to know what kind of coach the community wanted. “I told them I could be one of two kinds of coaches. I can coach to win where the best players got the most playing time or I can coach to build a community team where everyone got to play equal time. Two seconds later, the parents told me that I better win.”

Always known for her competitiveness, Rogers had gotten the answer she wanted and she went to work. She was hired as a substitute teacher and she had to hire an assistant coach and a freshman coach. She bought tapes, went to clinics and learned as much as she could about how to coach.

Two state 3A championships later and Rogers had become a trusted person in the community. She used that trust to approach the leader of the nation about building a wellness clinic on the reservation by the Navajo nation. She became the chair of the diabetic program of the center and the fight against the epidemic of diabetes was on. Once again, basketball had opened a door, one that many never thought would happen.

“It was phenomenal,” Rogers said. “We were able to help with a wellness clinic that had the ability to dramatically change peoples' lives. I respected the holistic approach the Navajo took toward healing and living. I was able to blend that with the medical knowledge I had.

Without a doubt, my greatest achievement is my five-year-old triplets.
Tamyra Rogers

“We went out into the community and helped people learn how to cook traditional Navajo meals in a healthier way. I had earned their trust through our success in basketball. Basketball opened doors to let us do what we really needed to do to,” she added.

Nearly two and a half years later, Rogers moved to San Antonio to set up the Dr. Rogers Weight Loss Centers. She now has three clinics in San Antonio and has received numerous awards for the kind of medicine she practices and care she gives, including the Patients' Choice Award and the Compassionate Doctors Recognition in 2011 and 2012.

For Rogers, though, her greatest accomplishment is dramatically different than awards for her career.

“Without a doubt, my greatest achievement is my five-year-old triplets,” Rogers explained. “Receiving this award from the NCAA is still a bit unbelievable to me. I'm looking forward to sharing this award with my family and friends, including my triplets.

“I feel like I have completed a life cycle. What I started with was basketball and what I went through playing basketball has really paid off. I feel like I have completed a circle. I know that I have been blessed by God with a unique life.”

A unique life and a rather odd-shaped key.

By Debbie Copp

OU Athletics

NCAA 2015 Siver Anniversary Release

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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