Committed to Supporting Sooners
For over 40 years, our founder Jakie Sandefer helped former Sooner student-athletes in need find gainful employment. He did this out of his own pocket on an ad hoc basis and finally, in 2014, he and others formalized the effort with the founding of Sooners Helping Sooners, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation.
Since then, we have assisted, in one way or another, over 100 former OU men and women student-athletes representing numerous sports and have successfully placed many in jobs. Most of those you would remember from their playing days – Quentin Griffin, James Allen, Bubba Moses (Football), Russell Caldwell (Wrestling), Heather House (Rowing), et al. We recognize that after leaving OU not all will be prepared to compete in the workplace and we feel we have an obligation to help them along.
Originally funding for the organization came from Jakie and a few of his close University of Oklahoma friends. Later we expanded our fundraising with an annual Barry Switzer golf tournament and, last year, added a “Benny, Bud, Barry & Bob” dinner. We also received invaluable support from a group known as the “Upfront Club”. We are replacing the “Upfront Club” with “The 300 Club” as the foundation group for our funding and will be asking each of the 300 members to contribute $1,000 annually to support the mission of Sooners Helping Sooners. The enthusiasm for this endeavor has been outstanding.