SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – While traveling to the Summit League Tournament in South Dakota, aboard a comfortable, luxury coach – also known as the ORU Pep Band and Cheer Squad bus – I began thinking about the thousands of miles I’ve logged on similar buses over the past 30-plus years.

I won’t even go as far back as high school, when with the Jamestown (New York) High School Band, we traveled long distances to places like Wildwood, New Jersey, and Orlando, Florida. Just considering the travel I have done on a bus for sports related purposes, I’m thinking I have probably logged more than 50,000 miles across the United States, Canada and France.

This trip alone, from the ORU campus to Sioux Falls, SD, is 1,200 miles round-trip, and I’ve made this trek at least eight times now.

Thinking back to when I first moved to Tulsa and the first play-by-play job I had that involved travel, that would have been doing the ORU men’s and women’s basketball games on radio in 1990 – 1992 (and again in 1998-99). Although some of our travel was by plane, most was in vans or on buses, and even when we flew into an area, we still had to ride a bus to play one or two teams in the area.

I did three stints as the play-by-play broadcaster for the Tulsa Oilers, and 98-percent of our travel was on a bus. In the five seasons I was with the Oilers, I can only remember flying twice; once to Fayetteville, North Carolina, and once to Indianapolis. Yes, we bused all the way to Salt Lake City, Utah; Boise, Idaho; Rapid City, South Dakota; Macon and Columbus, Georgia, and all cities in between, on the CHL and ECHL schedule

On my first tour as the P.A. announcer with the Harlem Globetrotters, we bused all over six western states and one Canadian province, and on my second tour with the Globetrotters, we were in eight eastern states and 19 cities in France. That’s a lot of miles and sleepless nights on a bus.

That brings up another point: sleeping on a bus is not easy, even with two seats to yourself. Right now, my back is reminding me I’m not as young and limber as I once was. The best bus travel I’ve experienced was my time with the Tulsa Oilers, because they always traveled on a bus outfitted with 20 bunk beds. In fact, there was a couple seasons where the Oilers were using one of those “tour” buses that music artist travel with. That only had 12 bunks, but several couches, and often, players would stay up the whole night playing cards or watching movies, so I could usually snag a bunk.

So, this trip finds me once again in Sioux Falls and I’m thrilled to be here. I may have lost track of the number of hours and miles I’ve spent on a bus, but there’s no denying the fact that I’ve been very blessed to be in a position to do all this travel over the past three decades, and I’m looking forward to logging many more miles.

SUMMIT CHAMPIONSHIP

The No. 4 seed ORU women’s team opened play in the Summit League Tournament on Sunday with a win over Western Illinois (No. 5), 74-66, to advance to the semifinals on Monday against No. 1 seed South Dakota.

ORU was led by Keni Jo Lippe with 19 points and 11 rebounds, and Mo Brotons with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

The No. 4 seed men’s team was also victorious in their quarterfinal game against No. 5 Omaha, winning 79-52, behind a 20-point performance by Max Abmas.

In the semifinal of the women’s bracket Monday afternoon, No. 1 seed South Dakota beat ORU 65-43, to advance to the championship game. The Golden Eagles kept it close early, and were tied 10-10 after the first quarter, but S.D. outscored ORU in the second quarter, 25-5, and put the game out of reach.

The ORU women finished the season with a 15-16 overall record.

Despite 27 points from Kevin Obanor, the Golden Eagles lost to the No. 1 seed North Dakota State in the semifinal on Monday evening, 75-69. ORU finished the season with a record of 15-14.