The first threat on my life in Oklahoma
“Hey! Hey! Hey you!”
I finally turned around. I don’t get too many “hey you”s yet, but this one was definitely directed at me.
It was from a serious-looking 60ish-year-old woman, and she motioned for me to come to her.
I was at the Stigler basketball game in Fort Gibson. The Panthers, who were ranked this week at No. 15 in Oklahoma (their first top-20 ranking since 1999), had just been upset in the first round of the Fort Gibson tourney.
“Now, if you value your life—or your tires—you won’t print anything about this game in the paper,” she said sternly.
I looked into her eyes to see if she was serious, quickly glanced at the people around me (they were expressionless), and snapped my attention back to her.
“What did you say your name was?” I asked.
“I didn’t,” she said. “But I know who you are.”
Needless to say, I was effectively intimidated. I laughed, because what else are you supposed to do with a potential threat, but all the while I was thinking, “Yup, it’s true. People are crazy about their sports here.”
As the tension slowly subsided, I eventually chatted with her and discovered she was the grandmother of one of the Stigler players. She commented that she liked my writing for the paper, but that if she didn’t, she would’ve told me to come back where I came from.
All the same, I was glad that things were on a different topic than the wellbeing of my life. Or my tires.
By the end of the conversation, I was pretty sure (65-70%) that she was joking. I mean, someone wouldn’t slash my tires just because I was doing my job, right? Hmm…people really do like their high school sports.
As I left her, I even tried to joke with her, saying, “Well, if my tires are slashed, I’ll know who to hunt down.”
She laughed and said, “Oh no, I would never do that.” I breathed a sigh of relief. “I would get someone else to do it.” And then she smiled. I was confused.
I did write the story and it printed today. Front page of the sports section, top story. I will let you know if I have any car trouble.
stephenAmurphy.com 
hi
Hey Yankee, dont even cover the Kinta Eagles until you see them play a game, a non conference game, like the quinton homecoming doesnt count. Why dont you let the Kinta Eagles play Whitefield 8th grade and then crow about in the paper you jerk! Come to a Kinta game and see what your missing, they are playing the best games in the county. You have no idea what your missing. You gave quinton a huge cover for thier homecoming, and talked about how they beat kinta, and all kinta got was a crummy thumbnail pic. Kinta boys and girls won thier homecoming by the way. Dont even say well someone else wrote that story for me, shut the hell up! You are the sports editor and you are responsible for any stories written about sports in that sorry excuse for a newspaper. Come to a kinta game and see what youve been missing, youll get your moneys worth I pormise you. Until then bite me.