NATIONAL DEBATE CHAMPION
NEW OU LAW STUDENT BLAKE JOHNSON HAS ROCK STAR STATUS ACCORDING TO SOONER STUDENT MAGAZINE
NEW OU LAW STUDENT BLAKE JOHNSON HAS ROCK STAR STATUS ACCORDING TO SOONER STUDENT MAGAZINE
If you have been watching Oklahoma football during the half time activities this year you may have noticed some additiona
l accolades for not only the boys on the field but also for another program that has brought OU national recognition and national championship teams. President David Boren has heaped generous amount of praise and recognition for the fairly new award winning debate program. It has only been around for four years. Former Eufaula resident Blake Johnson and his debate partner Conor Cleary are credited with helping revive the program at OU. Sooner Magazine recently stated that “Blake and Coner are given rock star status in the collegiate debate world. They went further than any team since former U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Carl Albert back in the 30s.” For most Oklahomans, and those across the country who follow competitive endeavors, it comes as no surprise some of the nation’s most sought-after trophies call the University of Oklahoma campus home. What might be surprising is at least two of those prestigious trophies do not reside in OU’s Barry Switzer Center, the campus shrine to Sooner football.
The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Trophy and the Franklin R. Shirley Trophy, awarded to the winners of the Harvard University Invitational Policy Debate Tournament and the Wake Forest University Franklin R. Shirley Dixie Classic Policy Debate, reside in David L. Boren Hall, home of OU’s Honors College and the OU debate team. For only the third time in the collective history of those exhaustively named tournaments, the symbols of victory are displayed on the same campus. Blake reiceived a ful scholarship to OU law after teaching debate OU and the Urban debare league in Cailf. Coner is with a law firm in Tulsa.
If the magnitude of that accomplishment does not register quickly, consider this: The Harvard tournament has been around for more than 50 years; the latest incarnation of OU’s debate program for just four.
The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Trophy and the Franklin R. Shirley Trophy, awarded to the winners of the Harvard University Invitational Policy Debate Tournament and the Wake Forest University Franklin R. Shirley Dixie Classic Policy Debate, reside in David L. Boren Hall, home of OU’s Honors College and the OU debate team. For only the third time in the collective history of those exhaustively named tournaments, the symbols of victory are displayed on the same campus. Blake reiceived a ful scholarship to OU law after teaching debate OU and the Urban debare league in Cailf. Coner is with a law firm in Tulsa.
If the magnitude of that accomplishment does not register quickly, consider this: The Harvard tournament has been around for more than 50 years; the latest incarnation of OU’s debate program for just four.
Parents of Blake Johnson are Joe Johnson & Jeanette Johnson
