TOP ATHLETE OF THE PAST 30 YEARS: MICKEY DOLLENS (BARTLESVILLE)

By Mike Tupa

Feb. 24, 2026

BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT

During his nearly 30 years of covering area high school sports for either the Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise or the Bartlesville Area Sports Report, Mike Tupa has enjoyed the opportunity to observe some incredible athletes.

This is an ongoing series highlighting, each few days, one of those athletes from the 1996-97 school year through the present. The list is not in chronological order. The athletes are presented in random sequence.

Today's Spotlight

MICKEY DOLLENS (Bartlesville)

Multiple sports (Class of 2006)

Legendary American orator Edward Everett Hale once opined:

"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”

Perhaps this burning drive flames brighter in Mickey Dollens than in any Bartlesville High School athletic product.

Dollens has been the ubiquitous renaissance man. He has conquered — or at least scaled many mountains of challenge that would have kept the average person rooted to the ground looking up in bewilderment.

He hasn’t known the word “can’t” — whether it me to earn a four-year Division I scholarship from a pretty substandard Bartlesville High football program to honing himself into one of the state’s best distance throwers in track and field to making in incredible attempt to represent the United States in international bobsled competition, to learning to be a successful author to winning a seat in the Oklahoma State legislature.

Dollens has dared to dream big — but to make his dreams his tools and not his masters.

In track competition he let his achievements do his talking — qualifying for state in 2005 in the shot put, finishing second in the 2006 Class 6A Owasso regional shot put (49-8) and bringing home a state shot put medal in the 2006 finals (51-10).

On the gridiron, Dollens played for a Bruin program that finished only 4-16 his junior and senior seasons — including a 1-9 mark his senior season (2005).

After having been named to the Pigskin Preview All-Oklahoma Team, Dollens didn’t garner exactly a trophy room full of postseason honors.

Division I scholarships remained a highly-competitive commodity. They weren’t exactly the ripest apple on the bottom branch of the tree.

In other words, Dollens’ prospects to earn a spot on a major college football roster — let alone make an impact or earn a scholarship — appeared to be almost a Quixotic notion.

But the word “discouragement” is not part of Dollens’ competitive lexicon.

He wanted to play big-time college football. He wasn’t going to be denied.

Like a pointer on the scent he pursued the prize, doing whatever he had to do to stay on the trail.

He landed with the Southern Methodist University program as a defensive lineman, measuring out at 6-2, 267 as a senior. 

Dollens didn’t just earn a roster number.

He played in three games as a redshirt freshman, returning a kick-off seven yards.

As a sophomore (2008) he racked up two tackles against Rice and played in six games.

Dollens got to go bowling in 2009, seeing action in the Hawaii Bowl.

In 2010, he played in all 14 games, 

Sometime in the months or years following his college years, Dollens slimmed down about 50 pounds and turned his attention to the bobsled.

He would train in Lake Placid and participate in several four-man bobsled events in America’s Cup competition, in Utah, Canada and Lake Placid, placing in the top seven multiple times.

Dollens also wrote a book to help athletes recruit themselves as well authoring and promoting other volumes.

He has continued to be actively involved in multiple athletic endeavors.

Hard to believe 2006 marks just the 20th Anniversary of Dollens’ diploma snatch at Bartlesville.

Some people do little more than mark time when it comes to making their dreams become reality.

Not only does Dollens remain one of the exceptional all-around athletes to have wrapped himself in the Blue & White — as well as one of the short list to have played four years of major college football, including a bowl game — but he has been an enduring testimony to what grit plus determination plus vision can produce.

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Mickey Dollens

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This series has featured the following athletes, listed in no particular order.

-Jena’ Williams, Bartlesville

-Eric Rolfs, Bartlesville

-Chris Smith, Caney Valley

-Jill Bryan, Copan

-Barron Tanner Jr, Bartlesville

-Hailey Tucker, Bartlesville

-Jeremy Dunkle, Dewey

-Whitney Metcalf, Bartlesville

-Tim Hamilton, Bartlesville

-Danielle Koster, Bartlesville

-Carson LaRue, Dewey

-John Hamman, Wesleyan Christian

-Jamie Elam, Caney Valley

-Sam Mitchell, Bartlesville

-Karissa Jones, Dewey

-Noah Hartsock, Bartlesville

-Tiffany Paper, Copan

-AJ Parker, Bartlesville

-Tiffany Eden, Caney Valley

-Henry Williams, Bartlesville

-Markell Carter, Bartlesville

-Rebecca Schluter, Wesleyan Christian

-Adam Hibdon, Barnsdall

-Tishuana Hunter, Nowata

-Nate Alleman, Bartlesville

-Jessie Burch, Dewey

-Joey McNair, Caney Valley/Bartlesville

-Michael Thompson, Bartlesville

-Kate Steward, Bartlesville

-Jarrett Rouse, Community

-Amanda Warehime, Bartlesville

-Trey Osborne, Dewey

-Heather Lanphear, Barnsdall

-Erin Epperson, Bartlesville

-Levi Wyrick, Caney Valley (Kan.)

-Spencer Magana, Dewey

-Jackie Jo Chaney, Copan

-Haley Downey, Bartlesville

-Cooper Fogle, Caney Valley

-Amanda Brown, Copan 

-Rachel Smith, Pawhuska

-Casey Cassity, Barnsdall

-Stacy Cornforth, Bartlesville

-Gabby Higbee, Dewey

-Kirby Schoenthaler, Bartlesville

-Tyler Kay, Barnsdall

-Colton Penrod, Bartlesville

-Erin Herchock, Dewey

-Lindsey Collins, Caney Valley

-Nathan Hughes, Bartlesville

-Aaron Hunt, Copan

-Calan Crowder, Bartlesville

-Colby Kohlmeyer, Caney Valley

-Allison Hunt, Copan

-Stephen Garrett, Dewey

-Brett Turowski, Bartlesville

-Hayley Bryan, Copan

-Kaitlyn Ritchie, Bartlesville

-Caroline Courtney, Bartlesville

-Preston Bartley, Copan

-Chris Turner, Bartlesville

-Michael Wolfe, Bartlesville

-Caleb Hawes, Barnsdall

-Austin Beck, Nowata

-Kortney Bridges, Dewey

-Brandi Schueler, Bartlesville

-Nick Phillips, Bartlesville

-Paige Eden, Caney Valley