STILLWATER — Lt. Col. Charles Payne had strict instructions for cadets on the project.
The plywood had to be 4-feet by 8-feet. It had to be 3/4 inches thick with holes for hands to stabilize it.
In 1997, no other board would hold a member of Oklahoma State’s Cowboy Battalion for pushups in front of thousands of fans.
A Cowboys tradition was born.
“It did exactly what I wanted to do,” said Payne, who oversaw the ROTC program for three years. “It’s endured to this day."
Sitting 1,214 miles away from Boone Pickens Stadium on Wednesday in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, the architect of the push-up board had yet to see OSU's new football uniforms unveiled this week for Saturday’s game against Kansas.