All-American Couple: Oklahoma P Michael Turk’s Marriage Proposal to SS Grace Lyons Goes Viral

NORMAN — Oklahoma senior Michael Turk awakened Saturday morning an All-America candidate.

He fell sleep engaged to the lady of his desires.

Turk’s postgame marriage proposal to a different All-American — Sooners shortstop Grace Lyons — was yet one more episode within the video lifetime of one among faculty soccer’s true showmen.

Turk has mastered the artwork of punting, setting the varsity report at 51.8 yards per kick final yr. He’s additionally mastered life as a video blogger, with greater than 194,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel.

However he topped even himself within the moments after OU beat Oklahoma State in one other tense Bedlam recreation Saturday evening at Memorial Stadium.

Turk bought on his knee and requested Lyons if she’d marry him.

“Fairly cool,” stated OU coach Brent Venables. “And she or he stated sure.”

She did, amid limitless smiles and some tears and Turk’s teammates leaping up and down round them.

“I’m so grateful to know Grace and have met her at OU, and he or she’s superior,” Turk stated in a postgame media interview. “So I bought to marry the lady of my desires and that is by the grace of God, for positive, so I am completely satisfied.”

Turk requested John Lyons two weeks in the past after the Baylor recreation for permission to marry his daughter. Permission granted, Turk set his plan in movement.

He purchased a hoop, then on gameday locked it in his locker.

When the sport ended, he raced into the locker room, tucked the ring underneath his belt, then ran again out into the postgame pandemonium to seek out her.

“I sprinted in there to seize it and produce it again out as a result of I did not belief myself,” Turk stated. “I used to be gonna put it within the kicker bag, and I believed that that was a nasty concept.”

Earlier than each recreation, Lyons offers him a card with a handwritten bible verse for encouragement. However this time, when the sport was completed and the Sooners had overwhelmed their Bedlam rivals, he gave her the cardboard again.

It learn, “I’ve a query to ask you, will you be my spouse?”

Lyons learn the cardboard and smiled that 10-carat smile as Turk took the ring out of his belt and bought on one knee.

“Then she regarded up and I stated, ‘Will you marry me?’ ” Turk stated. “And so I believe it went actually good. Yeah, I am simply so grateful she stated sure.”

If the notice appears corny, there’s a motive behind it.

“After I requested her to be my girlfriend,” Turk stated, “I truly made her a notice and I stated, ‘Will you be my girlfriend?’ After which she regarded up and stated sure. So I did not even verbally say it. So this time I made her.”

The joyous occasion concluded the busiest evening of Turk’s OU profession.

Because the OU offense slowed down again and again throughout the remaining three quarters, Turk was referred to as on repeatedly to get the Sooners out of bother. He did it with a career-high 11 punts — probably the most by an OU punter since 2001.

“Turk’s been a monster, man,” Venables stated. “Eleven punts, 49-yard common, you had a few simply bombs. We down the one on the 4, you understand, a 63-yarder. He had a 67-yarder. Tied for the second-most 60-yard punts in OU historical past. That’s a very long time. That’s the genesis of OU soccer. That is fairly good.”

It was typical Turk, placing on a present.

The previous highschool security from Missouri Metropolis, TX, who began his faculty profession at Lafayette after which transferred to Arizona State, switched to punter due to accidents and adopted within the footsteps of his well-known uncle, 16-year NFL punter Matt Turk (one other uncle, the late Dan Turk, was an NFL long-snapper for 15 years).

He spent three years at Arizona State and was a two-time first-team All-Pac-12 punter earlier than transferring to OU in 2021 and incomes first-team All-Large 12.

He began a YouTube channel that has gone viral and made him a proverbial YouTube sensation.

In fact, Saturday evening’s postgame festivities will probably be No. 1 on Turk’s spotlight reel now.

“It is enjoyable, it is enjoyable,” he stated. “I believe it is simply the correct quantity (of publicity). Nothing too private, however simply sufficient. I believe Grace are I are each grateful to be right here at Oklahoma and get to know the neighborhood and hopefully be a very good instance, though I am clearly not excellent. However we take pleasure in with the ability to know individuals and, like I stated, not be too non-public however public sufficient to get to know individuals and hopefully be a very good instance.”

Turk stated it was additionally vital to him to be surrounded by teammates.

“Just about solely the specialists knew it was coming,” he stated. “ … Initially, I wasn’t even going to have teammates round, however I used to be like, ‘You already know what, this may be higher.’ So I began calling individuals round. I bought David Ugwoegbu, Danny (Stutsman), after which they noticed they noticed (Drake) Stoops I stated, ‘Stoops recover from right here.’ And so it wasn’t the largest crowd ever. however fortunately, there was sufficiently big crowd to the place it was type of extra thrilling, I really feel like.”

And sure, the second was captured on video.

“Yeah, it’s going to be on my vlog on my YouTube channel. ‘Hangtime.’ Subscribe.”