Life's Journey Led Spangler Back Home

As a freshman at Gonzaga five years ago, Ryan Spangler frequently would telephone back home to Oklahoma. A very close family, the entire Spangler clan would be gathered – mother, father, two brothers, three nieces, a nephew, cousins, etc.

While talking to his parents, Spangler could hear familiar voices in the background and LeAnn Spangler could hear sadness in her youngest son's voice.

“Everyone would be having a family dinner and it got to the point when he'd call, we'd move people into another room because they could tell in his voice (he was homesick),” LeAnn said.

Some tears no doubt will be shed Tuesday night when Spangler plays his final game inside Lloyd Noble Arena, the facility where he dreamed of playing while growing up in multiple towns in rural Oklahoma. Turns out Spangler took a 1,790-mile detour to Spokane, Wash., before he returned home to fulfill that dream.

As a standout athlete at Bridge Creek High School in Blanchard, Spangler said he had 24 Division I basketball scholarship offers and in the end chose Gonzaga over Colorado. Spangler also took unofficial football recruiting trips to Arkansas, Tulsa and Texas Tech, but said he never considered playing both sports in college.

“I never wanted to do that,” Spangler said. “I thought it would be too hard, so I just wanted to only play one.”

Spangler was named Oklahoma Gatorade Player of the Year and fourth-team Parade All-American in basketball, had 71 touchdown passes and 6,951 career passing yards in football and threw a fastball in the low-90s in baseball. Despite this impressive resume, he was not recruited in any sport by Oklahoma (or Oklahoma State).

“It stung a little bit,” Spangler said of being overlooked by his beloved Sooners, “but there's a lot of good schools out there so I wasn't too worried about it.”

At the end of his freshman season at Gonzaga, there was a changing of the guard at OU with Lon Kruger replacing Jeff Capel as head coach. Spangler informed Bulldogs coach Mark Few he wanted to transfer so he could be closer to home. Few asked Spangler to take some time to think about it before making a final decision. Spangler never wavered and Few granted his release.

“Gonzaga gave me my release on a Friday and that Saturday they put my name on a list of transfers,” Spangler recalled. “That's when all the college coaches could start to call me, and OU was one of the schools that did. Creighton and Colorado offered me again. TCU offered me and so did Boise State and Missouri, but I was pretty sure I knew where I wanted to go. I told (OU assistant) coach (Steve) Henson I wanted to set up a recruiting trip and two weeks later I was in Norman and I committed.”

The split was amicable. “I enjoyed my time at Gonzaga and if Gonzaga had been close to home, it would have been perfect,” said Spangler, who averaged 2.5 points, 2.4 rebounds and shot 56.1 percent from the field in his 22 games with the Bulldogs.

Though they had not met, Spangler knew of Kruger's success. “He has a good body of work and everybody respects him,” Spangler said, “so I knew this is where I wanted to go.”

This time around, the Sooners pounced at the chance to get Spangler.

“We called coach Few, who said nothing but complimentary things and basically said, 'We'd love to keep him. He's been a great player for us,' ” Kruger said. “Coach Few understood he wanted to go back closer to home and wanted to wish him well. Mark was great about it. Ryan said the same thing, that he really liked the people at Gonzaga, it was just too far away.”

When it came to staying close to home while in college, Kruger certainly could relate. Born and raised in Silver Lake, Kan., Kruger went on to become a star at Kansas State, located just 40 miles west in Manhattan.

“Being a player who grew up and stayed close to home and shared all that as I was going through it, it's always special to see other players do that,” Kruger said. “I know how much it meant to our family, just to be able to share in it, rejoice in it, celebrate it and remember it. The memories won't go away.”

While studying game tape of Spangler, one trait in particular stood out to Kruger. “We thought he was a very natural rebounder, first and foremost, and the Gonzaga folks said that, too,” Kruger said. “He's got that instinct you really can't teach. He obviously does a great job going to the ball.”

The wheels literally turned quickly to get Spangler back home. Larry Spangler made the 26-plus hour drive to Spokane to pick up Ryan and move him back to Oklahoma. Father and son were so excited, they drove straight through back to Oklahoma, stopping only for gas.

Some kids are a coach's son, but Spangler is a coaches' son.

Larry spent much of his adult life coaching high school football, making stops in Healdton, Crooked Oak, Warner and Marlow, plus a couple more in Texas. LeAnn, who recently retired, was a special education teacher and coached high school girls' basketball.

“When you're a coach's kid, you cherish that game more,” Spangler said. “You realize what's at stake more. You realize the little different things you can do to help your teammates and maybe your coach out other than you just play the game because you love it.”

Kruger said Spangler's attributes of being a coaches' son are easily evident.

“He's a coach's dream from that standpoint, in terms of attitude every day and work ethic every day,” Kruger said. “He doesn't care if he scores or who scores. He wants to step up and do his part. He just wants to win and that's pretty special.”

Spangler would attend his parents' practices in the fall and winter. Various gyms and locker rooms served as his study hall. “It was fun,” Spangler said of having parents who coach. “I got insight from both of them. Sometimes it was both of them griping at me, but most of the time they worked with each other. Mom just tells me to stay confident and keep playing hard. Dad's more of the type where he's always picking me up but telling me what he thinks I did wrong.”

Toughness has long been a Spangler family trait. Larry played college football at Northeastern A&M and East Central University (where Mark Gastineau was a teammate) and he now works in oil fields.

Older brothers Rob and Rustin played multiple sports in high school and both played college football at Southeastern. They also were known to bully their little brother from time to time. “They made me tough, though,” Ryan recalled. “Beat me up all the time.”

Spangler said he grew up wanting to play football like his brothers, until he fell in love with basketball during high school.

Spangler didn't just attend his parents' team practices. He listened, learned and most important, he studied what he saw. “The biggest thing is just being able to watch from the sidelines,” Spangler said. “A lot of people have played their whole lives, but haven't gotten to see from the sidelines and don't really know what's kind of going on in the game when you're not in the game. There's little pieces to each game that you miss if you're in the game and not just watching it.”

After sitting out the 2012-13 season under NCAA transfer rules, Spangler didn't waste any time making his presence known for the Sooners, finishing with 15 points and 12 rebounds in a season-opening victory over Alabama at American Airlines Center in Dallas.

For the rest of his career at OU, the double-double would serve as Spangler's identifying mark. He has 11 this season and 29 in his career (one at Gonzaga).

When Spangler was at Gonzaga, his parents would make the trip to Spokane roughly one a month. With their son now just 25 miles away, Larry and LeAnn travel to every road game, except West Virginia. All told, Spangler's parents have logged roughly 100,000 road miles to watch their youngest son play college ball. Larry and LeAnn have been attending all their children's games since elementary school.

“It's awesome,” Spangler said of his parents' unwavering support. “That's why I came back home, just to be able to play in front of them and the rest of my family. My mom being able to retire and travel with my dad to every game is unbelievable. The only bad part is when we lose on the road and then they have to drive home after a loss.”

As if their lifelong attendance wasn't impressive enough, Larry and LeAnn frequently offer their services as road game chauffeurs for player parents visiting Norman at the time.

“They're like that to anybody, but when it comes to my teammates, they're even more like that,” Spangler said of his parents' giving manner. “I think they feel kind of special that they get to be at every game they want to be at. I think they realize other families aren't as close to home, so when they get to go to a game they try to help them.”

One frequent passenger is Buddy Hield's mother, Jackie Swann.

“They're great,” Kruger said of Spangler's parents. “They've been to a lot of practices and been to a lot of games away from home as well. From a coach's perspective, that's the best part of all of this, to see families share that experience and enjoy it and have memories for a lifetime. Had Ryan been away from home, the depth of that just couldn't have been the same.”

Larry said roughly 20-plus tickets are required for every OU home game (not including the four complimentary tickets provided for immediate family). “Bridge Creek, Newcastle, Blanchard and Tuttle are buying up all the tickets,” Larry said with pride.

Spangler's gravitational pull is so strong, he's even converted some Oklahoma State fans from LeAnn's side of the family.

“It's perfect for our family,” LeAnn said of Ryan playing for the Sooners. “We thank God every day that he's here.”