From the press box

On Saturday, I was covering the OU-Kansas State football game from the press box in Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. We heard a loud explosion, and it shook the press box. Everybody inside seemed confused.

We looked out the window to see what was going on and dismissed it for a few minutes until we saw police officers. It was a little disconcerting, and few of the sports writers in the press box were still interested in the game at that point.

At halftime, about 10 writers, including me, went down to investigate and saw that police weren't allowing people to leave from the west side of the stadium.

When we got to the scene, all of the out-of-state writers were frantic, asking fellow Daily writer Ryan McGhee and me the names of all the buildings and landmarks.

I missed the entire third quarter of the game.

From the sidelines

I heard the explosion while on the sidelines taking photographs of the OU football game. I wouldn't have given it any thought, but two men behind me had a lengthy argument about whether or not it was thunder, which alarmed me because I had not expected rain.

About 10 minutes later, I started receiving phone calls from The Daily's editor in chief Sara Ganus and assistant photo editor Stephanie Singer about an explosion on the South Oval. I brushed it off, thinking it was just a chemistry lab accident, and kept trying to shoot the football game.

I soon learned that the bombing had been a suicide and found Billy Adams, photographer for The Daily, and we ran through the crowd to the scene, hoping to get there before security got too tight.

We waited past midnight for more information.

From the south endzone

In the aftermath of Saturday's explosion, there were rampant and obvious comparisons to the Oklahoma City Bombing.

I went to school in Oklahoma City in 1995. This was no Alfred P. Murrah Building.

Sure, the confusion, the shock, the lack of information--those were reminiscent.

I caught myself saying the same things I did when I was 9. I caught myself wondering if it was thunder, then immediately ruling that out because there were no clouds.

The most obvious comparison was the sound of the explosion. One television station said the explosion reminded many of the rumbles in 1995.

There were so many differences that let me know I was not experiencing deja vu.

Saturday's explosion sounded like a small cannon went off.

168 people died in 1995, one person in 2005. People did not act frightened Saturday; merely inconvenienced and confused.

I'd certainly say I acted differently than I did 10 years ago. And I did. The circumstances were different, the magnitude was different and the situation was orderly.

But both situations caused me to find my loved ones and hold them tight. On second thought, things weren't so different after all.

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