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O. B. Mann (18xx-19xx) - This tall, brave Greenwood grocer epitomized the younger black Tulsa leader and World War 1 veteran who, having fought for his own country and receiving non-Jim… Read the full story at John Dwyer’s The Oklahomanshttps://www.johnjdwyer.com/post/_mannRead the entire Oklahoma story in John J. Dwyer's Media The Oklahomans: The Story of Oklahoma and Its People volume 1 of a 2-part series on the 46th state and the people who make this state very special. |
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Life is so busy and passing so quickly. I found out this week when in OKC that a dear friend of mine and one of the greatest men I have ever met, Douglass Trojan High School Oklahoma Hall of Fame football coach Stanford White, passed away a month ago. I knew he had been fighting cancer and a serious heart ailment with the same courage he faced everything in his long and storied life and career. So many people have their own stories of his selfless contributions to their life, whether the football team who won the state championship in 1976, the scared white kids bused to mostly-black Douglass whom he helped, or the countless young African Americans whom he showed what true manhood was, as opposed to the many false substitutes produced by our society. For me, it was the scores of hours he gave of his time to me, for many years, as I labored on our OKLAHOMANS books. He taught me not just the black history but THE history of all the people of OKC and beyond. He didn’t just tell me his opinions, he introduced me to the liitle-known, the unknown, and the legendary in OKC’s black community. He took me to their homes, got the conversations going, then sometimes stayed and sometimes quietly excused himself. I can’t even begin to calculate all the great stories in OKLAHOMANS 2 that are there only because of Stan White, that I would never have known anything of… The unforgettable stories of his own high school coach, the famed Moses “PiYi” Miller, who first led Douglass to greatness. What a blessing to laugh with Coach Stan about PiYi’s hilarious, roughhewn antics, then marvel with him at his dauntless feats… The brave doctors, dentists, and pharmacists of Medi-Phar going to OU President George Lynn Cross and OU football coach Bud Wilkinson in the 1950s and saying: “Just give Prentice Gautt a chance. He is the Oklahoma player of the year, but we will pay for his schooling his freshman year. If he makes the team, you pay for it from there.” He made it, and then some. Not only did he become an OU great and an NFL store, he became Assistant Commissioner of the Big 12 Conference. And the nation’s finest student athlete academic center possesses his name on the Sooner campus… Dr. Frank Cox facing down the rabble rousing black Muslim “Theodore GX” in the 1960s, warning him that “This is MY town and you better not make trouble in it”… Coach Stan’s former Douglas assistant football coach Jake Diggs grabbing a violent, non-student troublemaker on the campus of U. S. Grant High School during the busing turmoil of the 1970s, body slamming him, and holding him for the police”… Countless times in countless ways he gently but wisely pointed me in the right direction, introduced me to the right person, encouraged me along the way in my long labors. Who knows how many people will know the deeds and feats of black Oklahoma after reading OK 2 because of the influence of Coach Stan that would not otherwise have. He was far too big a man for his influence to end with his mortal life. I know that a lot of people who knew him a lot longer than the 15 years I did really miss him. I miss him dearly. His loss leaves a gaping hole in my heart. The last time we talked, not feeling physically well, he assured me that he was trustfully resting in Christ and what He had done for him. I was choked up and all I could think to say was, “I love you, coach.” I am so glad I did. And now he and his beloved Rae are united again, in a land where “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.’ Read the full story at A Giant of a Man, from Oklahoma History, with John Dwyer
On October 15, 2022, John spoke to a crowd of appx. 125 people that included one former governor and around 20 current and former state legislators at the monthly Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee in Oklahoma City. He delivered a rousing message about modern heroes of Oklahoma History who risked their reputations and sometimes their freedom and even their lives, to stand for the right against powerful forces of evil. And he called those in attendance, and himself, to shake off the challenges, disappointments, and fears of 2020s America's unprecedented malignancies and realize they have been equipped and called by God Almighty Himself, as was mighty Queen Esther of old Israel "For Such a Time As This." https://youtu.be/nFuXX3WB-FoRead the full story at John Tells OCPAC We Have Been Called “For Such a Time as This”, from Oklahoma History, with John Dwyer
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author John J Dwyer
John Dwyer's Oklahoma HistoryAuthor John Dwyer takes us on a voyage through time, to discover Oklahoma is ways we've never fully understood. 
 The hardbound pictorial of volume 1 is available for a limited time at up to 40% off, using this link.
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August 2024
Novelist and Oklahoma native Ralph Ellison said, "You have to leave home to find home", an apt description of the journey of John Dwyer, author and general editor of The Oklahomans. The Dwyer family roots were firmly transplanted from Ireland to Oklahoma by John's great-grandfather and grandfather, the latter who settled in Oklahoma City in 1909, just two years after Oklahoma achieved statehood. Although born in Dallas, TX, John was relocated to Oklahoma when his widowed mother returned to her home when he was two years old.
It would be on Oklahoma soil that his mother instilled in him his love for history, and coupled with his unusually creative imagination, it soon became apparent that John not only liked to hear great stories of legend and history, but to make up his own as well. It would be out of a sense of divine purpose that he would use that creativity in response to a higher calling in the years to come. John began a career in journalism during his high school days when he served in a variety of roles, including news and sports reporter, for the Duncan Banner, a daily newspaper in his small Oklahoma hometown. He was the youngest sports editor in the newspaper's history by the time he attended the University of Oklahoma on a journalism scholarship. He graduated in 1978 with a bachelor of arts and sciences degree in journalism. Dwyer further developed his journalistic skills in radio as a play‐by‐play football and basketball announcer for several radio stations. He won the coveted position of sports director for the University of Oklahoma's 100,000 watt KGOU‐FM radio station. For seven years, he provided live, on‐air reports to America's largest radio networks of University of Oklahoma college football games. Except for a year in England during 6th grade, John lived in the Sooner State for 28 years before returning to Dallas in 1986 to attend Dallas Theological Seminary where he earned his Master of Biblical Studies. While there, Dwyer worked part time on the sports staff of The Dallas Times Herald, which at the time owned one of the five largest circulations of any daily newspaper in Texas. It was in Texas that he also met and married his wife Grace in 1988 and settled down to start his family. In the spring of 1992, Dwyer and his wife founded the Dallas‐Fort Worth Heritage newspaper, which would grow to a circulation of 50,000 per month at the time of its sale, after nearly a decade, to new owners. The Heritage pioneered innovative features such as full color photography and graphics, an expansive web site, a cluster of informative daily radio programs, and an aggressive, uncompromising brand of investigative news reporting unprecedented for contemporary news publications holding an orthodox Christian worldview. In 2006, at the urging of his family and the Oklahoma Historical Society, John returned to Oklahoma to tackle the colossal task of writing "The Oklahomans," which was endorsed as an official project of the Oklahoma Centennial Commission. He has completed volume 1 (Ancient‐Statehood) and a portion of volume 2 (Statehood‐Present), which releases in November 2018. He is now an Adjunct Professor of History and Ethics at Southern Nazarene University. He is former history chair at Coram Deo Academy, near Dallas, Texas. His books include the non‐fiction historical narrative "The War Between the States: America's Uncivil War" (Western Conservatory), the novel "When the Bluebonnets Come" (Bluebonnet Press), the historical novels "Stonewall" and "Robert E. Lee" (Broadman & Holman Publishers), and the upcoming historical novels "Shortgrass" and "Mustang" (Oghma Creative Media). John and Grace have one daughter and one grandson and live in Norman, Oklahoma. They are members of the First Baptist Church of Norman, where they serve in a variety of teaching, mission, and other ministry roles. Categories |
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