Carlson: Meet the OU women's basketball super fan who is animated, hyped and 'just having fun'

NORMAN ― Ryan Glaspie bolted out of his courtside seat at the sound of the referee’s whistle. A carrying violation by the visitors was giving the basketball to the Sooners, and Glaspie wanted to make sure everyone inside Lloyd Noble Center knew.

He made a couple of big waving motions with his arm, exaggerating an official's signal for a carry. Then he turned on his heel and pointed toward the OU end of the court like a football official signaling a turnover.

Nothing is subtle with Glaspie ― at least not where OU women’s basketball is concerned.

“I’m just having fun,” he said.

No Sooner fan has more of that than Glaspie.

Watch any OU women’s basketball home games, even on TV, and you’ll see the slender, energetic thirtysomething. He sits along the sideline opposite the visitor’s bench, though he doesn’t sit much. He’s often on his feet. He’s regularly motioning this way or that. He isn’t trying to act cool while sitting in the Nicholson seats.

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And you can be sure Glaspie will be as hyped as ever as the Sooners, only half a game back of the top spot in the Big 12, begin a pivotal two-week stretch. They play three of their next four games at home, starting Wednesday against Texas Tech.

Sweep those home games, including one against first-place Texas on Feb. 25, and OU will be in the driver’s seat for its first regular-season conference crown since 2009.

Glaspie would love nothing more, which is interesting considering he didn’t grow up a Sooner fan and didn’t graduate from OU either.

So, who is this guy?

And why is he courtside going crazy for OU women’s basketball?

The answers start with the guy sitting next to Glaspie: former OU receiver Dede Westbrook.

The two knew of each other growing up in south Texas. Westbrook was from Cameron, about an hour west of College Station, and Glaspie was from Conroe, about an hour east of College Station. Even though Glaspie’s high school played a couple of classifications higher than Westbrook’s, both were standouts, so each had heard about the other.

But they became friends at Blinn College.

Both landed at the junior college in Brenham, Texas, to play football. Even though they had played a variety of positions in high school, both played receiver at Blinn and became fast friends.

When Westbrook transferred to OU in 2015, they stayed close.

More:OU's Taylor Robertson meets Steph Curry after breaking all-time NCAA 3-point record

They became so tight over the years that when Westbrook decided to train and workout in Dallas before the 2017 NFL Draft, he wanted Glaspie to move there, too. He began training Westbrook, who spent four years with the Jacksonville Jaguars, then a year with the Minnesota Vikings.

When Westbrook settled in Norman, Glaspie did the same.

Together, they attended all sorts of OU sporting events. Football. Softball. Men’s basketball.

“Because he went here, we really don’t like Texas no more,” Glaspie said with a laugh. “We got over UT fast.”

But while Westbrook and Glaspie are regulars at OU sporting events, they are diehards for women’s basketball.

The reason?

Westbrook has been dating Sooner forward Ana Llanusa for several years.

Knowing Llanusa helped Glaspie connect with OU women’s basketball, but his passion for the Sooners deepened because he appreciated the players’ attitudes. They aren’t standoffish or aloof. They are willing to have fun with Glaspie.

If one of them hears something Glaspie says, they’ll give him a nod or a smile.

“They notice me here,” he said. “I like that.”

Of course, it is almost impossible not to notice him. He is often on his feet cheering when pretty much everyone else is sitting down. He celebrates big shots, sometimes throwing three fingers in the air, other times skipping in place as he swings his arms up and down. He mimics fancy moves to the basket or flexes his bicep on strong ones.

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And while only a few people around him can hear it, Glaspie talks to the players during the game, too.

Since Taylor Robertson broke the NCAA career record for 3-pointers, for example, Glaspie has made sure to remind her of her greatest-of-all-time status.

“I’m out here giving her the GOAT call,” he said.

He bleated like a goat.

Bahhhh.

“You’ve got to interact with the girls, make them feel good,” Glaspie said.

But sometimes his actions are because he feels good. Earlier this season, Glaspie took off running down the sideline when a timeout was called, sprinting the length of the court to the far baseline.

He laughed at the memory.

What possessed him to do it?

“Man, it was a big shot,” he said. “It was a critical moment of the game, we hit a three, and they called timeout. So that gave me the cue right there. Pump the crowd up.”

He laughed again.

“I really couldn’t help myself at the time. Then they told me, ‘Hey, you can’t run up and down the sideline.’”

More:Oklahoma earns upset win against 12th-ranked Kansas State, snaps conference skid

Glaspie has stayed near his seat since then but not always in it. He says that is his love for sports, his passion for competition coming through. He’s always animated when he watches games, whether on TV or in person, no matter the sport.

Everyone just gets to see it when he’s courtside for OU women’s games.

Glaspie regularly wears a jacket that says PEACE and LOVE in big, bold letters on the back. It only makes him more evident to TV viewers, whose wide view of the action comes from behind him.

It has made him even more of a Sooner fixture.

“Where was ‘Peace and Love’?” one of OU associate head coach Amy Wright’s family members asked after a game Glaspie missed. “It’s not the same without him.”

No doubt about that.

Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.

OU vs. Texas Tech

TIPOFF: 6 p.m. Wednesday at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman (ESPN+)

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU women's basketball: Sooners super fan Ryan Glaspie just having fun