My graduation day is tomorrow, and that fact has made me look back on my career at OU. Since I’ve essentially lived in the Daily newsroom for the past few years, much of my thought process revolves around sports.

So I just have one farewell message to students and Sooner fans: enjoy this year.

If you haven’t followed the OU football team for long, you might not realize how lean the years were before Bob Stoops arrived. Stoops’ two predecessors — Howard Schnellenberger and John Blake — combined to go 17-27-1 in the four years prior to Stoops’ arrival. In his ten-year tenure, Stoops is 109-23 with just two home losses.

Some students seem to think OU has always been at the top of the college football mountain, but that isn’t the case. And whenever Stoops leaves — which won’t be for a long time — the Sooners could return to mediocrity again. Enjoy the team’s current success, and stop lamenting BCS bowl losses. It could be worse.

The men’s basketball team is the best it has been in years, and has one of the most dangerous duos in program history in Blake Griffin and Willie Warren. The Sooners are up to No. 5 in the nation, and could easily begin the season 16-0 before taking on Texas.

The job Jeff Capel has done pulling his team back into contention after the mess Kelvin Sampson left is incredible.

Even factoring in the inevitable poor game here and there, the Sooners should finish in the top 10 and get a high seed in the NCAA Tournament. They could easily make it deep into the tournament, but enjoy it while it lasts. Griffin will almost certainly leave for the NBA after this year, and Warren could follow suit.

The NBA eligibility rules generally result in lots of player turnover, so the team could go up and down talent-wise for a while. OU might not see a team this good for years.

Photo Gallery

Football: OU vs. Missouri

Football: OU vs. Missouri

Women’s basketball has continued its recent dominance, led by Courtney Paris and her 100 consecutive double-doubles. Nobody has held her under 10 points and 10 rebounds in more than three years. That is absolutely ridiculous.

Then there are the vastly under-appreciated sports, namely hockey, wrestling and gymnastics. The hockey club is ranked in the nation’s top 10, wrestling is in the nation’s top 20 and men’s gymnastics is coming off its eighth national title.

With the success of all these teams, OU is in a sports Golden Age, but students seem to be taking it for granted. After this year, Griffin will be gone, Paris will be gone and three of the Sooners’ top four wide receivers will be gone.

I can honestly say I feel honored to have been at OU during the past four years, and have gotten a chance to experience some amazing sports moments.

At this time next year, you may be realizing how much you missed out on. So roll out to as many sporting events as you can find, because years from now you’ll be able to say you saw famous athletes in person.

— Corey DeMoss is the sports editor and a journalism senior.