Developer Mickey Clagg ready for 2020 FIRST Robotics Competition

At the 2019 FIRST competition, Mickey Clagg, left, meets with a member of the Atomic Gears robotics team from the Gordon Cooper Technology Center.

Developer Mickey Clagg has made his mark in the city as part of Midtown Renaissance. The real estate company has bought and redeveloped dozens of buildings north of NW Sixth Street and south of NW 13th Street.

But Clagg has another passion and one that – like his work with Midtown Renaissance – will help Oklahoma City become a great place to live, work and play.

Clagg was part of the group that brought the FIRST Robotics Competition to Oklahoma City, with the inaugural event taking place in 2008. FIRST, which stands for For The Inspiration of Science and Technology, was started in 1989 in Manchester, New Hampshire.

The nonprofit organization encourages high school students to engage in science, technology, engineering and math work by challenging them to build a robot that has to do a specific task. The teams get their parts in January and within a couple months, they must have an operating robot for the competition.

The FIRST Robotics Competition returns to Oklahoma City Wednesday, with the competitions being held Friday and Saturday.

Prior to 2008, the Oklahoma FIRST teams had to travel to St. Louis, Houston or Kansas City for their events. And with FIRST being based at high schools of all sizes, the trips could get expensive.

Clagg learned about FIRST in 2005 when he attended the TED Talks event. It was there that he was introduced to FIRST founder Dean Kamen and Clagg later met up with Kamen at the world robotics competition in Atlanta.

“I’ve always been interested in robotics, electronics and mechanical things,” he said. “In 2005, I had two teenage boys in high school and I was thinking about their job prospects. I wanted to help keep them here at home. We were losing a lot of our college graduates to Dallas.”

When people leave the city, they’re not living in Midtown’s buildings, renting office space or opening cool restaurants. Clagg saw FIRST as a way to start helping diversify the talent pool – and in the long run – hopefully the economy as well.

“Midtown Renaissance was making a place for young people to live,” he said. “FIRST was more of the educational component.”

Then-banker Burns Hargis was on the trip to Atlanta as well. When they returned to the state, Clagg and Hargis were on a mission to get a regional event in Oklahoma City.

“We met with the (FIRST) board and told them we wanted to host a regional event and they laughed at us,” Hargis said. “It was so expensive. We didn’t have that many teams. They thought it was crazy.”

FIRST-Oklahoma Regional Director Harold Holley, left, Dean Kamen, and Mickey Clagg celebrate their success at the 2017 FIRST competition in Oklahoma City.

The board then gave the Clagg and Hargis a chance, yet they’d need to come up with $150,000 before an event would be sanctioned. The men made a deal – if Hargis would raise the money, then Clagg would organize the planning committee to hold the event. Cheering on their efforts to get a regional in OKC was Ponca City High School robotics team teacher Tonya Scott and Karl Reid, then dean at Oklahoma State University’s College of Engineering, Architecture and Construction. 

Hargis headed to Ada where Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby was willing to give $150,000 to act as a deposit to get the event, then Hargis would raise more so the Nation didn’t have as much invested.

Everything came together and about 20 teams were at the FIRST Robotics Competition in 2008. This year, there are two events in the state; one in Tulsa and one in Oklahoma City, with teams coming in from surrounding states and Mexico.

Clagg now heads the Regional Committee that organizes the annual competition. Hargis took his passion for FIRST to OSU when he became school’s president. OSU hosts the annual event where teams get their supplies and have to tackle a one-day build.

Clagg said there’s much more to FIRST than just building robots. As the founder Dean Kramer has said in the past, it’s the robots that build the kids.

“It’s a program that really works,” Clagg said. “It really inspires these young kids. They actually do the work, which is the best way to learn.”

He compared how students learn STEM by building robots to how football is taught. No one sits down to learn football by reading the rules and the history. Players learn by doing.

“I’ve talked to a lot of college athletes and asked them, ‘Have you read the rule book?’ No, they learn by playing,” he said. “That’s what FIRST Robotics does. It teaches you by actually doing.”

When the event gets started this week, Clagg said he’ll be like a kid in a candy store, watching the students make any finishing touches. Then, like a NASCAR pit crew, they’ll have to make repairs as needed as well.

The competition teaches the students ethics like “Gracious Professionalism” meaning to be respectful and honest when in a match and help the other teams when needed. Teamwork and learning to meet a deadline are other traits that come out of the program and can help the students be good members of the workforce. Sponsors including Devon Energy, NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense, Tinker Air Force Base and Boeing see the event as a great recruiting opportunity, showing the students that there are jobs in Oklahoma City that need these skills. Each of those entities provides mentors to the Oklahoma City metro teams.

“This is a proven program and it will help create a better place for all Oklahomans,” he said. “Technology and science will solve the problems we face in the future. That’s why I think this program is so important. We need to encourage as many people as we can to participate and help these students see the opportunities in Oklahoma.”