Brian Kimrey was one of the first people Skip Johnson hugged on Charles Schwab Field.

Before Johnson’s Gatorade bath and before the confetti fell on the Sooners, Kimrey had his arms around the OU Baseball coach, soaking in a moment eight years in the making.

“I couldn’t be happier for Skip,” an emotional Kimrey said moments after Oklahoma had beaten North Carolina to win the program’s third national championship and its first since 1994. “To see it come to fruition like this, it’s pretty surreal.”

OU’s run to the national title was somewhat improbable. 

Beating No. 2 Georgia Tech, No. 15 Kansas, No. 7 Alabama, No. 3 Georgia and No. 5 North Carolina, in that order, isn’t something many people believed was possible in May. That run was made possible because of the relationship Brian and his wife, Kim, built with Johnson when he was hired as head coach in 2018.

Brian Kimrey, a lifelong OU fan, befriended Johnson over their shared passions for baseball and—less predictably—bowling. Their friendship grew into exactly what the baseball program needed: someone willing to bet on a vision.

From Kimrey’s point of view, he saw a coach “doing a lot with very little.”

“From day one, the culture stood out,” Kimrey says of Johnson’s early years running the program. “It was easy to sense good things were coming. Skip was really the reason why we decided to tie ourselves to the baseball program. I thought he was the best coach in the country.”

The Kimreys, owners of a third-generation family steel company in Dewey, Okla., began their investment with a $250,000 gift in Johnson’s first season, then $1 million a couple of years later, then $5 million after the 2022 team reached the Men’s College World Series. In 2024, the Kimreys made a $20 million commitment—the largest single pledge in OU Athletics history. The commitment is split between OU’s baseball and football programs and is helping to remake what is now Kimrey Family Stadium. Their investment is part of OU’s “Road to Omaha” challenge to fans and played a pivotal role in keeping Johnson in Norman as other programs pursued him.

Kimrey’s faith in Johnson is what helped turn the program into a real contender.

“Brian got to be part of our culture, see what our culture was about, and he loved it,” Johnson says. “I can’t thank Brian enough for what he’s meant to me and my family and our program.”

OU Vice President and Director of Athletics Roger Denny says donors like the Kimreys have the ability to transform individual programs. It has a similar impact to that of the Headington family on OU Football and the Love family on OU Softball.

“When supporters get behind our program early like the Kimreys did, it’s a statement that they see a vision and a future,” Denny says. “They are an incredibly successful family with the right compass, and when other successful people see that, it lends credibility. It’s similar to a company receiving a startup investment from a firm everyone respects—other firms decide they want to jump in.”

Six months ago, Denny says, the OU Athletics Department was still making the case that the Sooners could be the best baseball program in the country. Little did the fans or Denny know the Sooners would go on a historic national title run, which the Kimreys had helped put in motion.

But the Kimreys always believed, and now others are believing, too.

“We don’t have to convince people anymore,” Denny says. “They’ve seen it.” 

George Stoia covers OU athletics for SoonerScoop.com. You can read a more extensive piece Stoia wrote about the relationship between OU Baseball and the Kimrey family here.

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