Tag Harland B. Mitchell

Portrait photo of H.B. Mitchell

His Students Made the Case: The Legacy of H.B. Mitchell

Josh Hutton

Before David Boren became governor of Oklahoma or a U.S. senator, Harland B. Mitchell was trying to get him to speak in class.

Boren was frightened of addressing an audience, even his classmates. In a 2016 interview with Voices of Oklahoma, he recalled sitting through debate class while the other students got up to speak. Near the end of the semester, Mitchell gave him a warning.

“You’re going to get an F if you don’t get up and speak,” Boren remembered his teacher telling him.

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graphic showing Bill Wantland, Harland B. Mitchell, and Tommy Kelton after winning the 1952 national debate championship.

A National Championship and a Lifelong Friendship

Josh Hutton

Bill Wantland, now 92, was still a high school senior when Tommy Kelton asked him to become his debate partner at Seminole Junior College. Together, they won a national championship in 1952.

Their victory in Pueblo, Colorado, remains one of only two national titles in the history of the institution now known as Seminole State College. The Belles won the other in women’s basketball in 1976.

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