Ty Darlington

Classroom

Ty Darlington graduated in two and a half years with a degree in arts and sciences planned program with a health promotion emphasis. He graduated with a 3.91 GPA and has begun his master’s of education in adult and higher education with an emphasis in intercollegiate athletics administration. Darlington currently has a 4.00 GPA in his graduate classes and was the recipient of the 2015 1A FAR Academic Excellence Award and the National Football Foundation Oklahoma City chapter/Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame 2015 Scholar Athlete Award. He was named a 2015 Dr. Gerald Lage Award winner, the highest academic honor given to a student-athlete by the Big 12 Conference and earned CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team honors in 2014. He also was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team and the Academic All-Big 12 First Team in 2014. He is a three-time President’s Honor Roll honoree (4.00 GPA) and was named to the Dean’s Honor Roll (3.50-3.99 GPA) twice, making only two Bs in his undergraduate work. He is a six-time Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll selection, six-time Sooner Scholar and received a 2015 Dan Gibbens Oustanding Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award. He won the 2012-13 Jay Myers Outstanding Freshman Award, presented by the OU Athletics Council, as well.

Character

Named a team captain for the 2015 season, Darlington Received a 2015 University of Oklahoma Letzeiser Award in April 2015 for leadership, scholarship and service to the university. He also received a 2015 Athletic Director’s Leadership Award and won the 2014 Sooner Oath Award, which was voted on by the OU SAAC and given to student-athlete (one male and one female) who best represents the characteristics included in the Sooner Oath. Darlington became a very visible spokesperson for the football team and other student-athletes at OU during the days that followed the SAE racist video incident on campus in March 2015. He helped lead the student-athlete effort that advocated for a no-tolerance policy to racism and called for increased diversity and communication following the incident, advocating the ”Not on Our Campus” theme. He was recognized by his head coach and his academic advisor as a selfless leader and has provided outstanding backup to the starter at center, despite limited playing opportunities. In 2013, the team needed him as a true sophomore, and he stepped into the offensive line to play three games and burn his redshirt year. He has caught the eye of his AD, who said, “He’s an AD-in-training. He may have much bigger sights than that. He’s exceptional. I start to run out of adjectives. He’s just an extraordinary leader. A lot of times it’s his influence in leading by example rather than actually doing something.”

Community

Darlington received a 2015 Athletics Council Service Award and is serving as president of the Big 12 SAAC in 2015-16 after serving as vice-president in 2014-15. He became a nationally recognized spokesperson for intercollegiate student-athletes by participating in the 2015 NCAA Convention as a representative from the Big 12 Conference as well as the Big 12 State of College Athletics forum in April 2015. One of the student-athletes appointed to represent other student-athletes at OU Athletics Council meetings, Darlington also was the president of OU’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) chapter in 2013-14 and 2014-15. He serves on the OU FCA Leadership Team, where he is a highly requested and very popular speaker. Darlington helped the group through a difficult transition year when the FCA Huddle experienced a significant adult leader change.

Darlington helped lead Sooner football volunteer efforts following the deadly and devastating tornadoes that hit in May 2013 and helped clear the rubble of destroyed homes and offices, unloaded trucks filled with donations and interacted with families and individuals who had moved into OU dorms shortly after losing everything they had. He volunteered to rebuild the playground at a Moore elementary school and made trips to Haiti as part of Mission of Hope in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Darlington also spent a week working with Sooner teammates to rebuild/repair the damage caused by the massive earthquake that struck the country in January 2010.

He also is a Student-Athlete Advisory Committee team representative for football.

Competition

Darlington has lettered at center in 2012, 2013 and 2014, playing in 25 games with 14 starts and starting all 13 games in 2014. He led a Sooner offensive line that allowed just nine sacks in 386 passing attempts in 2014 and led the blocking for an OU freshman RB to set the single-game FBS rushing record for yards in a game in 2014 (475 yards vs. Kansas). Darlington’s performance led to seven 200-plus yard passing games for Sooner QBs, three of those were 300-plus yards. He also blocked for four 200-plus yard single-game rushers in 2014 and five 100-yard single-game rushers. He played in three games as s true sophomore in 2013 behind All-American Gabe Ikard and played in just enough games to burn a redshirt year. In 2012, he played in nine games with one start as a true freshman and stepped in as a true freshman starter when Ikard got injured. (He had limited opportunities to play in 2012 and 2013 as he backed up Ikard.)