A MATTER OF DESTINY, Part 3: Even in greatest trial, Skurcenski spirit triumphed

(Note: This is the final part of a three-part feature.)

After going back to their native Pennsylvania for a few months to try and to make a life there, Lou and Stephanie

Skurcenski decided the yellow brick road to their future led back to Bartlesville

Shortly after they moved back to town, Phillips 66ers head coach Gary Thompson asked Skurcenski if he would join the team to finish out the last three months of the season.

More: Lou Skurcenski helped close out amazing Phillips 66ers legacy

Unknown to Skurcenski, or any of the other 66ers’ players, Phillips had already pulled the plug on the program. This (1967-68) would be the last season.

Not knowing that, Skurcenski reluctantly accepted the request to play the rest of the campaign — even though he loathed the road trips away from home.

After the season ended, and the 66ers program disbanded, Skurcenski and Stephanie concentrated on his job, raising their family, and incorporating themselves deeper into the Bartlesville fabric.

But, Skurcenski wasn’t done with his basketball traveling.

His son Jason (6-foot-3) turned into an exceptional high school player and used his skills and grit to earn a spot as a walk-on — in the late 1980’s to early 1990s — on the University of Oklahoma men’s basketball team.

Although not a main rotation player, Jason earned a following in the student section.

Stephanie noticed while attended one game at Lloyd Nobel Center that a young man wore a T-shirt with the word “Ski” — which was Jason’s nickname — printed on it.

“People would call his name a lot,” she said. “Even though he was a walk-on, he earned a scholarship after one year.”The accomplishment of the 1987-88 Sooner team is legendary. Bolstered by stars Stacey King, Mookie Blaylock, Rickey

Grace and Harvey Grant — and the mystique known as “Billy Ball,” the up-tempo style inculcated by head coach Billy Tubbs — the Sooners stormed into the NCAA championship game, only to be stunned by Danny Manning and his Kansas teammates, 83-79.

Jason would develop a special friendship with King — and they still get together occasionally today, Stephanie said.The experienced also provided Jason some perspective.

“When he was in high school, he was a star,” she said. “At Oklahoma, he was just a role player. I think he learned a lot about life from that. … I think he really grew a lot.”

Jason’s spot on the Oklahoma team was a special blessing — a tender mercy — for the Skurcenskis.

That’s because Lou already had been diagnosed in 1986 with life-threatening kidney cancer.

“They took the kidney out but found the cancer had spread,” Stephanie said.

But, Lou displayed that same quiet but fierce determination to squeeze every extra minute he could out of life.

“They didn’t give him much of a chance when he was diagnosed,” Stephanie said.Skurcenski successfully battled the cancer — and didn’t let it get the upper hand on the way he lived his life — for almost all of 12 years.

Even when he had morning treatment in Oklahoma City he would return to finish his work day.

“His boss told me that Lou never missed work,” Stephanie said. “I thought that was a real compliment.”

Skurcenski and Stephanie attended several of the University of Oklahoma games with Jason on the team, which

Stephanie believes helped give Lou a diversion from his challenges.

“Jason didn’t play much, but he was still there and had the fun and the perks of being on the team,” she said. “Lou could lose himself in those games.”

In addition, their daughter Amy was a high school senior at the time of the diagnosis and went to college the next year, which gave Stephanie more of a chance to take care of his needs.

Skurcenski worked all the way up to July 1998 before he retired. He passed away in December 1998, just three days prior to Christmas.

Stephanie’s heart overflows with the lifetime friendships fostered in Bartlesville — many of them with Skurcenski’s former teammates — that have helped sustain and cheer her throughout the intervening years.

Courage is an intangible essence of persistence in trial, total effort with no guarantee of success, respect for foes and friends, shining hope and faith in the night of plight, class and grace in the storm of adversity, gratitude for the goodness of the past, and trying to stand tall emotionally and mentally at all times.

Lou Skurcenski seemed to embody courage — the courage to follow an unknown destiny to reach the finish line of a meaningful life.

Read the series:

A matter of destiny: Former Bartlesville Phillips 66er player forged calm courage

A matter of destiny, Part 2: Bartlesville becomes home for Lou Skurcenski

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Lou Skurcenski excelled on basketball court and at family table