Guru Stu

Monday, July 16th 2007, 10:02 am

By: News On 6

One of the key people involved in Tulsarama is someone you never saw or even heard much about. News on 6 reporter Rick Wells sat down with the website creator who kept the whole world updated on all the happenings. He reports we might be surprised who that was.

Stuart McDaniel is a young Tulsa entrepreneur, a web designer with a growing list of clients.

"I have about 38 right now,â€ McDaniel said.

His biggest so far was Tulsarama. He helped his grandfather enter his â€˜57 Chevy in the car show and told them if they need web help, he'd be glad to.

"Just felt like fun being involved in an event like this,â€ said McDaniel.

The Tulsarama folks called McDaniel and wanted to meet. He said he had class.

â€œShe asked 'what time is your class over?' I said the bell rings at 3:30, silent, then busts out laughing on the phone. She didn't know,â€ McDaniel said.

They couldn't meet for a drink unless it was ginger ale. He was still in high school, but he got the job and donated most of his time for the experience and the fun, and he was busy. At the peak, the website had 1,000 hits a minute

"We had 3,400,000 from June 3rd to June 16th,â€ he said.

McDaniel said he had to hustle to keep the system from crashing on a couple of occasions, but the work was all worth it, being on the inside of an event with so much drama.

He's been asked to handle web duties for the centennial time capsule to be buried in November.

Meantime he'll be a freshman in college, probably the only one with his own logo T-shirts. McDaniel will start TCC in the fall. His eventual goal is to go to the University of Tulsa.

Watch the video: Tulsarama Website Creator