OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME MEMBER SPOTLIGHT Wayman Tisdale ayman Tisdale was learned to play along with Wborn June 9, 1964 the jazz and funk music he in Fort Worth, Texas, the loved in the 1970s. It was youngest of six children. He during Sunday service at the grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Friendship Baptist Church the son of a preacher, while playing in the worship Reverend Louis Tisdale, and band when he met his future played music in his father’s wife, Regina. From their first church. At age 8, Tisdale Wayman Tisdale, inducted into the Oklahoma date at Godfather’s Pizza, received his first guitar from Hall of Fame in 2009. Courtesy Oklahoma they were inseparable. Hall of Fame Archives. his father, sparking a love Regina recalled that Tisdale of performing and writing was a gentleman, opening music. His father had actually doors and pulling out chairs bought a guitar for each of for her. He was 6’ 9’’ and his three sons, hoping one of blossoming into a high school them would take an interest in basketball star. Growing music. Tisdale taught himself up, Tisdale naturally took to how to play his guitar, even basketball, playing pick-up playing it upside down as games with his older brothers he was left-handed, but he Weldon and William. overcame the challenge and Despite his phenomenal basketball career, Wayman Tisdale’s passion for making music never wavered. Courtesy Oklahoma Hall of Fame Archives. BY MATTIE BARLOW 50