Oklahoma State Loses To Iowa State, Copes With Loss Of Kurt Budke, Second Plane Crash

Oklahoma State Loses To Iowa State, Copes With Loss Of Kurt Budke, Second Plane Crash

Oklahoma State band member Lauren Ritchie, center, bows her head Friday, Nov. 18, 2011, during a moment of silence honoring Oklahoma State women's basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant coach Miranda Serna who were killed Thursday in a plane crash, before an NCAA college football game against Iowa State, in Ames, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

TULSA, Okla. — It had been 10 years and 10 months since the plane crash that killed 10 people associated with Oklahoma State's men's basketball program – long enough for the healing to begin but recent enough to rush old memories to the surface when news of another plane crash broke.

This time, two coaches from the women's basketball team had been killed.

"I feel for the Oklahoma State community. How many more tragedies can they endure?" said head coach of top-ranked Baylor, Kim Mulkey.

Kurt Budke, the head coach for the women's basketball team, and Miranda Serna, his assistant, were killed Thursday when the single-engine plane transporting them on a recruiting trip crashed in steep terrain in Arkansas, the university in Stillwater said. The pilot, 82-year-old former Oklahoma state Sen. Olin Branstetter, and his 79-year-old wife, Paula, also died when the plane sputtered, spiraled out of control and nosedived into the Winona Wildlife Management Area near Perryville, about 45 miles west of Little Rock.

The crash was the second major tragedy for the sports program in about a decade. In January 2001, 10 men affiliated with the university's men's basketball team died in a Colorado plane crash.

For some, the news brought back the emotions felt a decade ago.

"Not a day goes by that I don't think about one of those guys," said Eddie Sutton, the OSU men's basketball coach at the time of the 2001 crash. "It's emotional, believe me. This brings back a lot of unpleasantness."

Roger Engelsman, undersheriff for Adams County in Colorado, the site of the first crash, has attended the service held there each year – a service attended by OSU officials.

"Quite honestly, it takes a lot to surprise me or shock me, but I was just in disbelief," said Engelsman. "My friends at Oklahoma State are suffering in this fashion again.

Oklahoma State Loses To Iowa State, Copes With Loss Of Kurt Budke, Second Plane Crash