Morningside historian: Sharon Ocker

That stat startles Sharon Ocker, who says the Mustangs were lucky to score 89 points in a season as a member of the now-defunct North Central Conference. Ocker has witnessed a conference change (Morningside now competes in the All-Great Plains Athletic Conference) over the years and a transformation of mascots.

Ocker, an athletic historian and statistician for the school, keeps a wooden plaque bearing the image of a red-and-white-painted American Indian chief (Morningside's former mascot), weathered school song lyrics and various team histories he's written.

The former small-town Nebraska school superintendent and coach moved to Sioux City in 1967 to prepare future teachers at Morningside College.

When the college had an opening for a basketball scorekeeper, Ocker jumped at the opportunity. He became well acquainted with the coaches and basketball players during the 29 years that he worked at Morningside. Ocker also served as the college's faculty representative for the North Central Conference. Creating a basketball history was a logical project for Ocker, which he completed in 1999. He compiled stories, facts, data and photographs while interviewing 50-some people.

"I love history. I love putting that stuff together," says Ocker as he sits at a folding table covered in a green-and-white checkered  cloth in his home office. He pulls a maroon beanie stitched with a white letter "M" out from under his pile of memorabilia and places it atop his bald head. The 83-year-old estimates he spends 300-some hours compiling stats, photos and stories for team histories. Some focus on just a single season.

"When you write you kind of get an obsession going. It's all you think about. Who can I talk to to get some stories? Where can I get some pictures?" he says. "It just takes over your life until it's done."

Ocker sighs when he thinks about school traditions that are no more. Freshmen were once required to wear beanies. If they were caught on campus without their caps, Ocker says punishment would be doled out in the form of pushups or scrubbing floors.

Beanies are out as well as learning the school song and any form of initiation. Ocker says the death of these school traditions are a travesty. He recalls donning his beanie, singing and playing his ukelele during school talent shows.

"You lose something there. Learning the school song is a big deal," he says. "It gives you a tie-in with the school, but that's gone by the wayside. It's not politically correct anymore to have initiation."

But some school traditions have managed to survive. Take the Spoonholder -- a large outdoor bench -- for example. Every year, Ocker says students paint it different colors and write their names on it. A boulder once accompanied the bench, but years ago he says students got tired of it and dumped into the Missouri River.

"That's still going. It's still active," he says of the Spoonholder. "They have freshmen coming in pretty soon now and they'll tell them about the Spoonholder. It's a good tradition."

Every campus concert closes with the Morningside Hymn, according to Ocker. He says you'll also hear the piece, which was written by a faculty member, sung by football players on the field after a game.

"They've got some new words to it," he says. "But the song itself is where it's at."