TULSA, Okla. — It had been 10 years and 10 months since the plane crash that killed 10 people associated with Oklahoma State’s men’s basketball program — long enough for the healing to begin but recent enough to rush old memories to the surface when news of another plane crash broke. This time, two coaches from the women’s basketball team had been killed.
Kurt Budke, the head coach for the women’s basketball team, and Miranda Serna, his assistant, were killed Thursday when the single-engine plane transporting them on a recruiting trip crashed in steep terrain in Arkansas. The pilot, 82-year-old former Oklahoma state Sen. Olin Branstetter, and his 79-year-old wife, Paula, also died when the plane crashed.