Around midnight some time during fall 1995, Pat Popolizio awoke to his father Frank standing over him bedside.
An urgent look appeared on Frank’s face as Pat awoke himself. Once he did, he hypothesized on what it might be regarding.
“Coach John Smith is on the phone. He wants to talk to you.”
“I immediately thought, ‘Of course,’” Pat said in a phone interview with The O’Colly. “Who else would be calling around that time?”
Pat had committed to wrestle for Pittsburgh a little more than one week prior. Now, John Smith – then the newly-hired head coach at Oklahoma State – was calling in hopes of changing his mind and flipping the highly-sought-after high school recruit from New York.