It wasn’t but a few minutes later when the phone rang again. “I hang up the phone and I’m like, ‘Well, I guess he’s ready. “I answer the phone, and he goes, ‘Mom, I qualified for Hawaii!’” Millye recalls. But qualifying had just wrapped up for Oklahoma’s fall finale in Hawaii, and Hale had played well enough for the individual spot in that event. He had failed to crack the travel roster for each of the Sooners’ first four fall events, and Hybl was debating redshirting him. Millye remembers getting a call from Blaine toward the end of his first semester in Norman. So, Hybl squeezed Hale in on scholarship. Oklahoma head coach Ryan Hybl had little room as well, with four players already committed in Hale’s recruiting class, yet he couldn’t deny that the burly teenager with the powerful, homemade swing and Texas-sized smile had something special. The new staff at Oklahoma State would offer Hale merely a walk-on spot while McGraw chose to honor the Bears’ prior commitments, which left no space for Hale. Before Hale could sign, however, the Cowboys fired their head coach, Mike McGraw, who later would take the lead job at Baylor. – Millye Hale said a prayer for her only son, Blaine, when he embarked for the University of Oklahoma in the fall of 2015:īlaine Hale was twice a first-team All-State selection at Lake Highlands High School in Dallas with aspirations of playing college golf for his dream school, Oklahoma State.
