Sarah Eppler Janda is a professor of history at Cameron University. She is the author of Prairie Power: Student Activism, Counterculture, and Backlash in Oklahoma, 1962–1972 and the coeditor (with Patricia Loughlin) of This Land Is Herland: Gendered Activism in Oklahoma from the 1870s to the 2010s. Patricia Loughlin is a professor of history at the University of Central Oklahoma. She is the author of Angie Debo: Daughter of the Prairie, with Excerpts from Her Childhood Diary. 

Oklahoma Reconsidered began in earnest more than five years ago. But really, it started when we first met more than two decades ago. We are historians of Oklahoma and the American West. We attended graduate school in Oklahoma (one of us at Oklahoma State University and the other at the University of Oklahoma). We raised our families here. Our children are products of the Oklahoma public school system.  

And we are deeply invested in studying, preserving, and sharing the stories that make Oklahoma with broad public audiences. We both authored histories of our respective institutions, Cameron University and the University of Central Oklahoma, where we have spent our careers educating Oklahoma students. We lamented the absence of scholarship on modern Oklahoma history, especially for students who would go on to teach Oklahoma history as K-12 educators. Finally, we stopped lamenting and started writing. This project has been a collaboration not just between the two of us but between us and numerous students, educators, museum professionals, and authors who have inspired us to write this book. 

These histories of Oklahoma encompass many people, events, and themes, from Indigenous nations, sovereignty, and civil rights to the creation of Oklahoma as the forty-sixth state in 1907 and to modern histories of violence, including the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, that were followed by resilience and recovery through what has become known as the Oklahoma Standard.  

The narrative of Oklahoma’s complex history is informed by the scholarship of dozens of historians and writers, but at the same time, this book offers a reordering and reconsideration of how the story of Oklahoma has been told in previous works.  

We provide significantly more attention to modern Oklahoma, with ten of sixteen chapters focusing on the period after statehood. Like people across the country and the world, Oklahomans witnessed and experienced the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The historic US Supreme Court ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma in 2020 marked a major victory for tribal sovereignty. Themes of civil rights and sovereignty alongside disappointment and opportunity are not relegated to single chapters or sections of the book; they remain present throughout as we offer a reconsideration of what was gained and lost in the making of the state. 

Here is an excerpt from Chapter 15 on the Oklahoma City Thunder: 

By 2000 the Oklahoma City metro had a population topping 1.1 million but did not have a major league sports team. At the time, Oklahoma tended to focus on college football rivalries such as the famous Bedlam football game between OU and OSU. Attracting an NBA team to Oklahoma City would alter the dynamics of sports in Oklahoma and provide the opportunity for citizens of the state to rally behind one team. 

After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005, Oklahoma City temporarily hosted the New Orleans Hornets that season. This was Oklahoma City’s chance to demonstrate that it could support a major league sports team. The team, led by Rookie of the Year Chris Paul, was officially called the “New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets” and played thirty-five games at the Fort Center in downtown Oklahoma City. As David Holt, who was later elected major of Oklahoma City, described it in Big League City, “Oklahoma City fans loved their Hornets like nothing the city has ever seen.” The status of histing an NBA team brought nationwide credibility to the city almost overnight. Holt continued, “There was also a newfound sense of local unity. Instead of fighting over OU and OSU, everyone loved the same team unconditionally. The Ford Center had become the city’s meeting place, where people of all races, classes and ages came together to cheer a common cause.” NBA commissioner David Stern attended a Hornets game in Oklahoma City and said that the city was at the top of the relocation or expansion list. As it turned out, New Orleans needed more time to recover from Hurricane Katrina, and the Hornets would play a second season in Oklahoma City before returning to Louisiana. 

In 2006 Clay Bennett and a group of Oklahoma City investors created Professional Basketball Club LLC and purchased the Seattle SuperSonics of the NBA and the Seattle Storm of the WNBA. His investors included Chesapeake Energy cofounders Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward, MidFirst Bank CEO Jeff Records, and others. The Oklahoma City group purchased the Sonics and Storm for $350 million. Bennett said he would give Seattle one year from the date of the close of the sale to approve a funding plan for a new modern arena in Seattle. More than a year later, with no arena funding place in place in Seattle, the Oklahoma City group asked the NBA to approve a relocation to Oklahoma City. Meanwhile, the WNBA announced that the Storm would stay in Seattle under new ownership. 

On March 4, 2008, to prepare for a possible NBA team in their city, Oklahoma City voters approved the “Big League City” initiative to continue a one-cent sales tax to fund renovations to the Ford Center. Then, on April 18, 2008, thirteen years after the Oklahoma City bombing, the NBA Board of Governors approved the relocation of the Sonics from Seattle to Oklahoma City. The team was renamed the Thunder. 

Oklahoma City Thunder players such as Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden helped build the early foundation of an organization committed to excellence on and off the court, particularly in the area of community service. By the mid-2020s a new generation of Thunder players had emerged, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren. In 2025 the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Indiana Pacers in a seven-game series to become the NBA champions. They became the youngest team (their average age is 25.6 years old) to win the NBA championship in almost fifty years. Oklahomans celebrated the victory with a huge parade in Oklahoma City, perhaps the state’s biggest event to date. 

Order your copy of Oklahoma Reconsdiered here.