Why I love sports: SEC Network's Dari Nowkhah 'smallest kid in my class' determined to live out dream

Editor's note: SEC Network lead anchor Dari Nowkhah, a Tulsa native and OU graduate, tells The Oklahoman why he loves sports.

When I was 4, I didn’t watch cartoons in the morning. I watched replays of games on ESPN. Who wanted to listen to Smurfette when you could listen to Dick Enberg?

I didn’t watch a single Star Wars movie until 10 years ago. I had no interest. In elementary school, when my friends would talk about Han Solo, Chewbacca and Luke Skywalker, I nodded my head like I knew what they were talking about. I had no clue. But I could tell you the starting quarterback for every Canadian Football League team. For some reason, I loved those BC Lions.

My beloved grandfather, “Big Daddy” we all called him, often took me to Tulsa Oilers hockey games in the evenings. Because it was a way to spend countless hours of quality time with him, I became a hockey fanatic. I still am one. I was heartbroken when the Central Hockey League folded. Then it came back. I was 16 when it did. While many of my high school classmates went to parties on Friday nights, I dragged my friends downtown to watch the “new” Oilers. And even though they aren’t still around, I still hate the Oklahoma City Blazers.

I mentioned Big Daddy. He and my grandmother, “Grammy,” held OU football season tickets for decades. Multiple times a year, Grammy would tell him to take me instead of her. She usually read a book during the games. I cheered as though my life depended on whether Jamelle Holieway picked up a first down on the option keeper.

If, on a given Saturday, I didn’t get to go to Norman to watch my Sooners, I would beg Dad to take me to Skelly Stadium to watch the University of Tulsa. That was his alma mater. He was always game to go. We both remember that magical season of 1991, when TU won 10 games and finished ranked 21st. Wide receiver Chris Penn sprinting down the sideline for a touchdown to beat Texas A&M is still a moment I remember vividly.

Extended family in Los Angeles made me a lifelong Dodgers fan. My eyes still get moist when I watch Kirk Gibson hobble around the bases after his game-winning homer off of Dennis Eckersley in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. I’ve never enjoyed a sports moment more than that one. I was 12. How have they not won a title since? Freaking Dodgers.

Always the smallest kid in my class, I knew I wasn’t going play sports very long. But I also knew I was going to be around sports forever. I had to. But how? Find a career in them. That’s how. So when I went to college at OU, I chose a major whose degree-holders typically end up selling insurance or writing press releases. I majored in broadcast journalism and dang it, I was going to make it. I was going to be a sportscaster. Not news. Not weather. Sports. I was stubborn. I wasn’t prepared for it to not work out. It worked out.

Thank goodness it worked out.

I love you, sports.

Love,

Me.

Why do you love sports? Email us your response at NICsportsdesk@oklahoman.com.

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