'We wanted it to be Oklahoma State': How Cowboys' graffiti mural became a recruiting boon

STILLWATER — Chris Deal first sketched out the brainstorming suggestions on a white board. Then, he went even more primitive than that.

A single napkin.

Earlier this year, Deal, Oklahoma State’s director of football creative services, drew the final mockup on the unusual canvas. He is far from a renowned artist. But he passed the napkin around the recruiting meeting.

“It was a rough sketch,” OSU graphic designer Rod Hill said with a chuckle.

Months later, that napkin has more meaning than most realize. It was an initial step in part of a new recruiting effort.

On that thin paper was the mockup of graffiti art for a wall deep inside Boone Pickens Stadium near Orange Power Studios.

The final product is a sight to behold.

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An image of the stadium sits in the background. A spirit rider holding a black-and-orange OSU flag is on the right. A Pistol Pete head is on the left. And the centerpiece is “Go Pokes” painted in bubble letters similar to graffiti seen in “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” between football-glove covered hands shaped into pistols.

Strictly there for recruiting purposes — namely, photos for recruits on unofficial visits — the mural has morphed into a valuable tool.

“I think it’s really unique, because obviously in this job you watch what other teams are doing and I haven’t really seen anything like this or to this extent,” Hill told The Oklahoman. “I think it ties together the elements of the school in particular, different landmarks around the school but then it adds a little bit of an urban feel to it.”

In an ever-changing recruiting world where photos matter more and more to potential student-athletes, the Cowboys have found a new creative way to draw attention. OSU is believed to be the lone program in the country with a graffiti art mural for recruiting purposes.

This comes just a few years after the Cowboys were first to place recruits on official visits on a horse for photos. They've also been known to wow on signing days with graphics.

“The social media stuff is a big deal,” OSU director of football recruiting Todd Bradford said. “And you have to stay relevant and you have to stay with what’s cool at the time. And it doesn’t last very long, so you have to have things that keep morphing.”

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Oklahoma State football recruiting gets creative

OSU’s football recruiting budget is not among the richest in the country. A five-year report released earlier this year by USA Today had the Cowboys’ average recruiting budget of $475,500.33 per year, the sixth-lowest among 52 public universities in the report. But coach Mike Gundy said that number has since increased.

Either way, the recruiting staff is always searching out new creative ways to thrive.

Former director of on-campus recruiting Mariah Turner was a big part of that. Before leaving for a position with the Buffalo Bills, she brought everything together for the mural.

That started by reaching out to artists with OSU connections.

Logan Rogers spent one semester at OSU Institute of Technology in Okmulgee studying graphic design. Rogers, a 25-year-old graduate of Metro Christian in Tulsa, is now a tattoo artist and budding mural painter.

He’s also the great nephew of legendary sculptor Harold Holden, the designer of the T. Boone Pickens and Barry Sanders statues outside the stadium along with several others around the state.

So, it was instantly a natural fit.

“It was a great opportunity, actually,” Rogers said. “I hadn’t really had the opportunity to paint a mural like that ever. So, it was just a really fun thing to do.”

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Rogers has painted murals at Metro Christian, a daycare for dogs and Clean Hands in Tulsa. He’s working on a mural for Broken Arrow Public Schools.

But the one for OSU was special.

The design on the napkin was turned into a graphic design by Hill, a 24-year-old Central Oklahoma graduate.

Then it was given to Rogers. After some back-and-forth with different renditions, Rogers got to work in early May.

He painted that alongside his girlfriend, Becs Burroughs, an OSU graduate.

It’s become a source of pride.

“It’s in the stadium, which is such an iconic part of OSU,” Burroughs said. “I’ll be eating lunch one day and I’ll randomly remember, ‘like, ‘Oh, yeah. That’s so cool.’”

Added Rogers: “We’ll even get people coming up to us and talking about the mural. I know my parents were super-excited about that. My grandparents were really excited because it legitimized our career for people around us.”

For OSU, the mural has become a boon.

Initially intended to be used only on unofficial recruiting visits, athletes on official visits have asked for photos in front of the wall.

Other sports are involved as well, not just football.

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“It’s that popular,” Bradford said. “And we’ve done uniforms in front of the graffiti wall. We’ve done letter jackets in front of the graffiti wall. We’ll probably keep expanding that to, I don’t know, cap and gown in front of the graffiti wall.”

Bradford said he always believed the wall would be so successful.

Even when the plan was being formed on a napkin.

“The thing that we try to do — and I don’t see it with everyone — is we try to make ours still part of Oklahoma State,” Bradford said. “I know guys bring in different props, but they don’t really have anything to do with their school. We were the first ones to do guys on a horse for their official visit. I know that other teams have copied that.

“We wanted this to not just be a graffiti wall. But we wanted it to be Oklahoma State.”

Jacob Unruh covers Oklahoma State athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Jacob? He can be reached at junruh@oklahoman.com or on X/Twitter at @jacobunruh. Sign up for the Oklahoma State Cowboys newsletter to access more OSU coverage. Support Jacob’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com or by using the link at the top of this page.

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State football graffiti mural is recruiting tool for Cowboys