Bob Stoops helps Dollarhide family find "Hope" again

A Blackwell family once had Hope. Now, the family has peace – and a piece of art to prove it.

As a young girl battling cancer at the Jimmy Everest Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders in Oklahoma City, Hope Dollarhide became known as a friend to OU football coach Bob Stoops, a powerful fighter against cancer and, by some accounts, a prolific artist.

So prolific, in fact, that one of the artistic creations she made while in the hospital was sold at a benefit auction to a man in Dallas who was willing to pay anything to get it.

But in late January, 15 years after he purchased the piece, Jim Higgins knew Hope’s work needed to go back to her family in Blackwell.

So, in a Jan. 19 swap at the Switzer Center, Higgins returned hope.

“It was just the sweetest gesture,” said Bridget Dollarhide, Hope’s mother. “I just can’t tell you how thrilling it was to get that back.”

‘CREATIVE LIKE THAT’

From the time she was born in 1998 to the time she died in 2011, nothing would stop Hope Dollarhide from doing what she wanted to do, her mother said.

Hope dreamed of being a star cheerleader for the OU football team, according to her obituary. She started preparing for that dream at the age of four, when she began cheerleading and tumbling. She later became a talented member of the Blackwell Middle School cheer squad.

Hope fought with cancer for several years, and she was frequently in the Everest Center, a division of the Children’s Cancer Center of Oklahoma City.

While she was there, she picked up another talent: art.

“It was just something she could do when her body was tired, and it just gave her an outlet to be creative,” Bridget said. “She doodled all the time. She had a little fashion book, where she’d make the little people and create outfits for them and boots, stuff like that. She was just very creative like that.”

Her creative ability wasn’t the only quality she was known for. Her conversational ability made her stand out to Stoops, one of the most successful and admired coaches in the university’s history, Bridget said.

Stoops often visited the children’s hospital to talk with children. Those visits were rarely publicized, but families preserved them with pictures.

So did the Dollarhides. They reflect on a photo they have of Hope during a Special Spectators event at OU, allowing children facing illness to have VIP access to sporting events.

“She’s the one sitting there in her little OU cheerleader’s outfit on Coach Stoops’ lap,” Bridget said, describing the photo.

Hope often wore a T-shirt Stoops gave her, said Bridget, who added that Stoops’ generosity is part of the reason she switched from being a Cowboys fan to a Sooners fan. Hope even got to try on Stoops’ championship rings.

“They were literally friends,” Bridget said. “We were at a cheer competition, and Hope was like, ‘There’s Coach Stoops.’ Goes right up to him, and they just start having a conversation. Turned out his daughter did competitive cheer as well.”

PRICELESS ART

Higgins never planned to attend a benefit auction in Oklahoma City hosted by the Art with a Heart organization. But one day in March 2007, he was visiting some friends in the Sooner State’s Capital City. They told him to suit up and get his checkbook.

They were going to the auction.

Art with a Heart features the artistic creations children make while in the hospital. Proceeds from the auction are returned to the Everest Center.

That night, Hope’s piece – which is untitled – was a big selling point, Bridget said. The canvas was covered with circles of all shapes, colors and sizes, and it was blazoned with tiny paper umbrellas used to top off drinks. Confetti and tissue paper round out the list of artistic ingredients.

The auction was silent, but a fierce bidding war ensued. Higgins and another attendee kept out-bidding one another until Higgins said he would pay whatever he had to for the painting, Bridget said.

He did, and for 15 years, he displayed it prominently in his home.

“He said, ‘There’s been so many times in my life that I’ve been down and out. I just look at that, and I see the name ‘Hope’ … and it really brought me through a lot of tough times. … Of all the work I have, this one always gets the most comments,’” Bridget said, paraphrasing Higgins’ words.

Meanwhile, the Dollarhides had a small print of the piece hanging in their home in Blackwell. It was their favorite, too.

Soon, they would have the original.

TURN YOUR TV ON

Higgins reached out to Oklahoma City TV station Fox 25 several weeks ago with a request: Help me track down the family of Hope Dollarhide.

While sitting at Sonic, Bridget got a Facebook message from a Fox 25 reporter who helped connect the family to Higgins.

After some delays, Higgins and the Dollarhides arranged to meet at the Barry Switzer Center in Norman so that Higgins could give them Hope’s painting.

He didn’t know, however, that the Dollarhides were going to give him something in return: the print of that piece of art.

“I didn’t really want to let go of it because I’ve had it for all this time,” Bridget said. “And then I’m like, ‘But I’m getting the real thing.’

“As soon as I saw the original, I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah. He can have this one.’”

The family posed for a portrait with Higgins and the painting. And, yes, Stoops was in it, too – right in the middle.

He never forgot Hope, Bridget said. And most of all, through her battles, Hope never forgot whom God called her to be, even when she was sick. She was active in the youth group at the First Christian Church, and her love of Jesus was “a huge part of her life,” her mother said.

Hope had confidence.

“I attribute it to her relationship with Jesus,” Bridget said. “She was very faithful, and she knew who she was, and that’s all she had to be.”

COMING HOME

Hope’s piece now hangs on the wall in the Dollarhide home. Thanks to their open floor-plan, it’s visible from several different spots.

Much like the painting’s longtime owner, the Dollarhides look at Hope’s work and find inspiration.

Above all, they’re reminded that Hope’s legacy still lives on.

“It gives you somewhat of a peace, that she was here, she made a difference,” Bridget said. “She may not have been here as long as we would have liked, of course, but she lived her life to the fullest while she was here and did amazing things.

“She’s still spreading hope. That’s what I like to say.”