Laverne Public Schools

After graduating from high school in May 1964, her high school coach took her to Wayland to try out for the Queens. She was offered a scholarship to attend Wayland. Her experience at Wayland was a good one. She experienced a totally different lifestyle, and it prepared her to be able to make decisions that would affect the rest of her life.                                    

A highlight of her junior year of college was being named a member of the USA team and playing in the World Tournament in Prague, Czechoslovakia, April 14th through 23rd of 1967. She was also a member of the USA team and played in the Pan American games in Winnipeg, Canada, July 24th through August 6th of 19 inu 67. There, they won a Silver Medal.

After graduating from Wayland, she coached and taught school for seven years and then married Terry Mundell. They have farmed and ranched all of that time. Lola really enjoys the ranch and stated, “It is our life!” 

Lola showed great pride in describing her Wayland Queens warm-up routine.    The players would balance their bodies on their left arm and dribble with their right hand while using their feet to turn their bodies in a complete circle. The Harlem Globetrotter-style warm-up, complete with “Sweet Georgia Brown,” always rallied the crowd. This tradition had its beginning in the mid 1950’s in a Nashville Hotel where both the Queens and the Harlem Globetrotters were snowed in. Coach Redin convinced Globetrotter star Marques Haynes to teach the Queens some tricks. A tradition was born.

If I got a chance to talk to current Queens, I would tell them that the most important thing I learned from playing basketball was how to win and lose gracefully. I would also tell them: “Enjoy the experience – Winning is not everything – Enjoy the Game!

You could pretty much mark a game down as a "W" when Lee McLaurine took the mound in a Traveler jersey. All he did was win.

McLaurine is considered by many to be the second-best left-handed Traveler pitcher of all-time, behind only Don Carman. The Laverne native was as close to an automatic victory as you could get, going a combined 20-1 in his final two summers (1970-71).

In fact, Lee set an amateur record in 1971 by winning 20 consecutive starts on the mound. It could have,  and probably would have been, a longer streak, but the 20th straight win was the last game he ever pitched as an amateur. He signed a professional contract the next day with the Houston Astros and went off to begin his pro career.

Lee used an assortment of pitches to keep hitters off balance, and his best was a wicked curveball that rarely got hit hard. He used his savvy on the mound to put together the lowest ERA ever for a Traveler pitcher (minimum of 60 innings) at a microscopic 0.73 in 1970. McLaurine's lone loss as a Traveler came in 1970 when future Kansas City Royals catcher Daryl Porter hit a ninth-inning home run for Oklahoma City Reynolds.

In addition to his great makeup and dominant curveball, Lee also had one of the best pick-off moves to first base that his legion coach Bob Ward can ever recall seeing. "When Lee was on the bump, the running game from first was non-existent," said Ward. In one of the most comical moments of McLaurine's Traveler career (at a game at Burns Flat), Lee peeked over to check a runner at first. When the first baseman caught the ball, there was no runner to tag. The runner thought the ball had gone to the plate and was shuffling towards second base. In the end, the first baseman had to walk out and tag the runner.

McLaurine was drafted by the Houston Astros in 1971.  He played 9 seasons of pro ball in total while playing in the Rookie League, A, AA, and eventually AAA. In his 2nd Rookie League year, Lee had an outstanding 0.78 ERA. In 60 games of AA baseball with the Berkshire Brewers in 1976, Lee had a 2.44 ERA. Partway through his career, he was acquired by the Brewers organization, where he pitched his final four seasons at the Triple-A level, never making it to the big show.

Lee now resides back in his hometown of Laverne with his wife Patrece and is still an avid fan of sports fan

The ninth inductee into the Traveler Hall of Fame was statistically the program's most experienced pitcher of all time.

Les Sutton of Laverne High School logged more innings on the mound than any other Traveler pitcher in history. He was a 6-foot lefthander who played four summers in Woodward, from 1969-72. Sutton was the hardest-throwing pitcher the program had in the early years. His fastball flirted with 90 mph, and he quickly joined with fellow Hall of Famer and Laverne teammate Lee McLaurine to anchor the pitching staff at the age of 16 in 1969.

He and McLaurine were two of the key players who helped establish the Traveler program as a state and regional power in the early 70s. The team averaged 35 wins in its first five seasons (1964-68) before Sutton arrived. In his four years on the team, the average win total jumped to 60.

In his best season -- the summer of 1971 -- Les won 14 games and set the record for most innings pitched (139) and most strikeouts (214). The innings record still holds firm today, and it very well could prove to be an unbreakable mark, considering there hasn't been a Traveler pitcher log more than 100 innings since the 1998 season.

The strikeout record was eclipsed seven years later when Don Carman struck out 233 batters.

Sutton graduated from high school in 1971 and was a late-round draft pick of the Houston Astros. He opted to play at Grayson Junior College and was young enough to come back and play for the Travelers after his freshman year of college in the summer of 1972.

Unfortunately, Les suffered a shoulder injury at Grayson, which caused him to miss part of the '72 summer and cut short what may have been an incredible summer.

Coach Bob Ward believes Sutton would have put together the best pitching season ever in 1972 if not for the untimely shoulder injury.

Despite being drafted out of high school and having a solid college career, Sutton never played pro ball. He finished his college career at Kansas State and eventually moved to Hawaii, where he still lives and has become very successful in the construction business.

When you add it all up, Sutton pitched more than 400 innings in four years with the Travelers. He won more than 40 games and struck out nearly 600 batters.

Those are career numbers that no other Traveler pitcher can match.

Impressive indeed

Traveler baseball has been blessed with a lot of good arms over the past 40-plus years. But none of them could compare with the bazooka that Craig Harvey called a right arm.

How good an arm was it? Well, coach Bob Ward called it the best he had ever seen in Oklahoma, and he likes to tell the story about Tony Rebello, the scout who drafted Johnny Bench. The story goes like this. Rebello was in town to watch the 1974 American Legion state tournament and was eyeing Harvey as a prospect. After watching infield, Rebello said that Harvey's arm behind the plate was one of the eight best arms of anybody in baseball at the time (pro or amateur) and admitted it was better than Bench's.

Harvey's right arm got him a long way. He won 14 games in 1974 and struck out 187 hitters in less than 100 innings. When he wasn't pitching, Craig was locking down opposing running games from behind the plate.

Craig could throw runners out at second base with such ease that at times he would catch the ball pop-up and literally watch the runner for a couple of steps as if he couldn't believe someone was trying to run on him.

Harvey's trademark was pitching with his catching helmet. When coach Ward needed Craig to close, he would shed his gear from behind the plate, spin his catcher's helmet around, and head to the mound.

The Yankees drafted Havery as a pitcher out of high school, but he wanted (and loved) to catch, so he opted instead to be a backup catcher at the University of Oklahoma. Scouts would flock to Norman just to watch Harvey throw balls during infield practice.

The Indians drafted Harvey during the winter draft of his sophomore year at OU. As luck would have it, he signed and went home for the winter, where he completely tore the ligaments in his ankle playing basketball. When he arrived at spring training, he couldn't move well enough behind the plate, so he was back to being a pitcher, the position he turned down out of high school.

After a couple of years pitching in the minors, a crisis arose on his team. All of the catchers were injured, and Harvey volunteered to fill in. His manager put him behind the plate, and he eventually moved all the way to Triple-A with the Indians as a catcher.

Craig tore his rotator cuff during his ninth pro season. The injury ended his career just shy of the Major Leagues

Josh began his baseball career by playing in the Laverne Youth Program.  He was coached in T-ball, Coach Pitch, and Little League by his dad, Ron Tillery. After Little League, he played for 3 years in Babe Ruth League for coach Monte Dauphin.  Josh played high school baseball under Coach Larry Johnson.  Josh played American Legion Baseball for the Hooker Horny Toads, managed by Jack Goosen. Josh continued to play for the Horny Toads, which later led him to be an assistant coach and eventual Head Coach of the Team.  Josh has also been an instrumental part of his hometown, the Laverne Youth Program.

Josh attended Northwestern Oklahoma State University and eventually continued playing baseball at Dodge City Community College for Coach Mike Jones.  He was drafted by the Atlanta Braves.  The Atlanta Braves chose pitcher Josh Tillery in the 22nd round of the 2000 Major League Draft. Tyrone Brooks, a Braves Scout and Area Supervisor, signed Josh to a seven-year contract.  He said, “Josh is a great addition to the Braves organization, as he has a quality arm and a strong, durable body to work with.  He’s also a great competitor and eager to get better.  He’s got definite major league potential, and I know he will work hard to get to Turner Field in Atlanta.”

In 2000, Josh reported to the Danville Braves of the Advanced Rookie Level League.   In 2001, Josh played for the Jamestown Jammers, going 2-0 with a 2.33 ERA. Josh played 37 games for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans in 2002, while not allowing a single run in his first eight appearances. He pitched primarily in middle and long relief in 2002. In 2003, Josh started the year playing AA ball for the Greenville Braves and ended up going back and forth between the Greenville and Myrtle Beach teams.  Josh credited Major League pitching coach Bruce Dal Canton for helping him with his pitching.  However, after a back-and-forth year and nerve problems in his shoulder, Josh finally ended his baseball career with the Braves organization.