University of Oklahoma’s Gaylord College Receives National Acclaim for ‘Sooner Sports Pad’

In its debut year “Sooner Sports Pad,” the student-produced television sports magazine from the University of Oklahoma, has won two major national awards. The show is filmed with a live studio audience and is aired weekly on Fox Sports Oklahoma on Monday nights and replayed throughout the week on Fox Sports Southwest, where it can be seen in more than nine million television households.

“Sooner Sports Pad” won the Grand Prize for the Best Video Sports Program from the National Broadcasting Society at a conference in Los Angeles in March. Earlier in the year, the program also won the national award for the Best Student Sports Program Series from the Sports Video Group’s College Sports Media Awards.

Gaylord College Dean Joe Foote said, “Seeing a student-produced program be singled out like this in its very first year is an exceptional achievement. Now at the end of its second year, “Sooner Sports Pad” is setting the bar high for other student-produced programs in the nation. We are grateful to SoonerVision for inviting us to make this program and are very proud of our students who are working at a very high professional standard.”

Ken Fischer, faculty adviser to the program, said, “I am very pleased to see the new Sports Pad program continue the high-quality production values established by its predecessor, “OUr Sports Pad,” which also received national acclaim from the NBS.”

“Sooner Sports Pad” is co-produced by the Gaylord College of Journalism & Mass Communication in partnership with SoonerVision, the video production unit of the University of Oklahoma Department of Athletics as part of its contract with Fox Sports. A crew of more than 50 students produces the program with the professional staff at SoonerVision. It is one of the few student-produced programs in the nation to be aired regularly on any major cable television network.

The Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication is one of the top-five degree-granting colleges at OU with about 1,200 students. The Gaylord College offers Bachelor of Arts degrees in Advertising, Public Relations, Journalism, Broadcasting and Media Arts and Professional Writing. The College also has masters and doctoral programs.

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