When Burl Plunkett was young, he often snuck out of his home at night, sometimes slept in a barn and went to the rodeo.

Today, he is OU women's basketball coach, but as a young man, Plunkett spent his time concentrating on a sport far different from basketball.
Plunkett said his mother did not want him to ride bulls and horses because of the danger. So, he would sneak out so that his mother wouldn't know.

In fact, Plunkett says he is lucky he didn't suffer from more injuries.

He broke his shoulder, hand, foot and three ribs in his rodeo career, which lasted throughout his playing days.

"My size hurt me, I was really too big to ride," Plunkett said.

"I never was really one of the top hands. But I loved it and I won a lot of money and won a lot of buckles. I wouldn't have ever been a world champion because it was the wrong sport for me."

Plunkett said his interest in the rodeo stemmed from his upbringing in Valliant. Had he grown up in Tennessee, he said he would have probably been more interested in music. If he were in Kentucky, it would've been horse racing.

But that wasn't the case. Despite his talents in basketball, Plunkett says that he really wanted to concentrate on the rodeo.

"I was disadvantaged because I couldn't rodeo for 12 months a year," Plunkett said. "Because I would go back to college and play basketball."

Plunkett's spacious office in Lloyd Noble Center is lined with his life's activities, including a few pictures of him holding onto a bucking bronco or bull.
If you can keep from looking out the west window, which may be the best view of the basketball floor, you can easily see Plunkett's interests by looking at his walls.
He has his pride and joy mounted on his wall behind his desk - an 18-pound striper he caught while fishing.

Beside that are two bass and a rainbow trout his wife, Betty, caught.

"I love to fish, when I have time," Plunkett said. "That's about the only recreation I do. I don't play golf. I either fish or I come here and work."

There are also pictures from all aspects of his basketball career.

He was an All-American at Centenary College, where he graduated in 1956.

While at Centenary, Plunkett said he remembers playing against some outstanding stars.

But his greatest memory is playing in a summer league in New York with Wilt Chamberlain.

"It was a great experience," Plunkett said. "Of course, it was no contest because he just dominated. He's certainly the best player I ever played against. He might be the best player of all time."

Plunkett also played with and against a couple of the founding members of the Harlem Globetrotters, Marcus Haynes and Goose Tatum. Those two began another team called the Harlem Magicians.

Plunkett went on tour with the group, playing in Europe, Puerto Rico and Cuba. Plunkett said he didn't worry about performing all the tricks the others on the team did because he was one of the serious ones. "I couldn't do all the stuff they could do, but I played with them," Plunkett said.

After college, Plunkett played with a semi-professional team based out of San Francisco before returning to coach at Valliant High School in 1962.

Plunkett also coached at Tulaso-Midway High in Texas, Byng High School and Idabel High School. At Byng, Plunkett won two straight state championships in 1974-75.

Pllunkett took over the Sooner program in 1993, when women's basketball at OU was on the brink of extinction.

In his first year, the Sooners won the post-season National Invitational Tournament. Last year, OU was ranked in the top 25 and received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

This season, Plunkett said he doesn't know what to expect because there are eight new players on the squad. He will get his first chance to see the team in game action at 2 p.m. Sunday at Lloyd Noble Center. Admission is free to OU students.

Plunkett lives alone during the week, and he's joined by his wife on the weekends. Betty teaches science at Idabel and lives there during the week. She travels 200 miles each week to spend the weekend with her husband.

Plunkett said he feels lucky to have a wife like Betty because she has always been supportive despite the long hours throughout his life exploits.

"She's been my inspiration," he said. "When you coach as long as I have, you have a lot of ups and downs and a lot of heartaches. She's the only one who really kept me going the whole time. You can't imagine how many holidays I had to practice and many meals I had to miss.

A coach's wife is a special person and I got a special woman for my wife. I would have never made it as long as I have without her behind me," Plunkett said.

"I've got the best wife in the world."