What makes Gallagher-Iba Arena special:

Imagine getting to say you got taught basketball by one of the best collegiate basketball coaches ever, Mr. Henry Iba, the historic former Oklahoma State basketball coach from 1934-1970.

Or getting to say that it was common to wake up and see OSU athletes sleeping in your living room. For Brad Stone, a loyal OSU fan since 1963, that’s just how it was, because his family lived and breathed Oklahoma State.

Stone and his family moved to Stillwater in 1963, when his father opened a Phillips 66 gas station near campus. After a player’s family came into his father’s gas station with no place to stay, he welcomed them into his own home for the weekend so that they could watch their child represent America’s Brightest Orange.

“The next day when they went to the game and told Mr. Iba, immediately they became buddies,” Stone said. “All the Iba family bought gas at my dad’s station, all the football team and the basketball team, all the sports.”

While running the family gas station, Stone’s father was also a referee for many different sports, including basketball, baseball and softball. His good connections with Mr. Iba came in handy when the basketball team needed a referee for scrimmages and practices. He began to regularly referee practices not only for the basketball team, but also for the baseball and softball teams.

With this unique opportunity his father had, it meant Stone also had privileges that not many others could say they had: he was a regular attendee of OSU men’s basketball practices held by Mr. Iba.

“My whole family would go to practice, we only lived a block from there just on the other side of what used to be the patio apartments,” Stone said. “We would go, he (his dad) would show up at the end of practice because they needed a referee for the scrimmage at the end of practice and it would help him get in shape to referee. I’d be there, and I could play with a ball but when Mr. Iba was doing stuff, I had to be quiet. I was a little kid, and he was a pretty grumpy old man.”

However, there’s one practice that will always be etched into his memory. The practice when Mr. Iba showed Stone how to shoot a basketball.

“I’m down at one of the end baskets, and everyone was shooting around and their doing some practice stuff,” he said. “All of the sudden he stops practice, and my mom looks up and sees him walking down towards the end of the court. Her thought is that I’m in trouble, that he’s coming to reprimand me for something. But he comes down and shows me how to set the ball in one hand and use the other to push it up. He saw me struggling and he came and showed me how to get my one hand to push it up and finally got to make my first basket.”

Not only did he get taught basketball by a hall of fame collegiate basketball coach, Stone also regularly woke up with OSU athletes in his home because of the great relationship between his family and OSU athletics through the gas station. His family would even host OSU athletes who couldn’t make it home for Thanksgiving dinner, every year.

“It was normal to me, you know,” Stone said. “I didn’t realize I was getting taught how to shoot a basketball by the god of basketball. To me, he was just a grumpy old man that did a lot of screaming at the players.”

When the Harlem Wizards came to town, Stone’s father was asked to referee the comedic basketball game. His father was even so good at it that they asked him to join full-time, but he couldn’t leave behind the gas station that had gifted him with many great opportunities.

“These wizards (Harlem Wizards) came to town, and they would just hire a local referee,” he said. “My dad had seen the Globetrotters three or four times. He pretty much knew the game; he was good at it. When my dad refereed, he didn’t need to be mic’d (up). Everyone in the arena knew what the call was, and if you questioned him, he’d answer loud enough to make sure everyone knew what the answer to your question was.”

Stone got to experience it all as an OSU fan, from attending basketball practices to getting behind the scenes views of the Harlem Wizards, and he even got to fill up the water bottles before games. But perhaps one of the most fun experiences in Gallagher Hall was an Elton John performance in 1972, inside Gallagher Hall.

“I went to go see Elton John in my 1956 Chevy,” he said. “I was 16 years old, and it was when ‘Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only a Piano Player’ came out and it was an amazing concert.”

But through everything, all the basketball practices and games, the Harlem Wizards and five-time Grammy winner Elton John, there’s still one game, one moment that always has the fondest memories inside GIA.

On Feb. 24, 1993, the OSU Cowboys welcomed the Missouri Tigers to Gallagher-Iba Arena. The game would go down as one of the most electrifying wins in OSU history as Bryant ‘Big Country’ Reeves heaved a miracle three-point shot at the buzzer to win the game in overtime, 77-73.

In that infamous highlight that aired across SportsCenter that night, you can make out four Oklahoma State fans near the half-court line about three or four rows up in the bleachers. Those four guys? Brad Stone, his father and two of his nephews who got to experience their first basketball game ever.

“I used to work for an oil company, and somebody cancelled out on the company tickets last minute,” he said. “I was able to take my dad, and he got to spend some time with Mr. Iba. I also took two nephews that had never been to a basketball game and that’s the only game they’ve ever been to in their life still. We were sitting third row front and center and we were on every video every time I see it on SportsCenter of the ‘Big Country’ shot. That was later on after we were gone, that was the last game I went to with my dad, so that would be my most heartfelt memory.”

Stone and his family got to do things that many Oklahoma State fans dream of, whether it was getting taught basketball by Mr. Iba or regularly housing OSU athletes. But through it all, one thing never changed: their love for Oklahoma State athletics.

They attended every game they could, supporting OSU and the athletes with a fierce love. They did more than just attend the games, they made meaningful impacts on many former OSU athletes and OSU fans. They welcomed athletes into their home simply to make sure they had a place to sleep or needed food to eat.

The Stone family are the definition of what being an OSU fan is all about: being loyal and true all the way through.