Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 14:19, 10 August 2006

The Oklahoma Sooners football squad is an elite program in college football. It represents the University of Oklahoma in the Big 12 Conference which is a Division I-A conference of the NCAA. The program has existed for over 110 years and many hall of fame players and coaches have come through the system.

History

Pre-Owen era

The football program at the University of Oklahoma is the most famous aspect of Sooner athletics. Football at OU made its start in September 1895, 12 years before statehood and one year after the first organized football game in Oklahoma Territory. The team was organized by John A. Harts, a student from Winfield, Kansas who had played the game in his home state. That first team was composed of mostly non-students, such as a local fireman. That first "season" saw the team go 0-1, being blanked 0-34 by a more experienced Oklahoma City Town Team (they could not even muster a first down). The first game was played on a field of low prairie grass just northwest of the current site of Holmberg Hall. Several members of the OU team were injured, including Coach Harts, and by the end of the game, the OU team was borrowing members from the opposing squad so they would have a full lineup. After that year, Harts left OU to prospect for gold in the Arctic.

The team got its first real coach in 1897 when the new modern language professor, Vernon Louis Parrington, was drafted as head coach. Parrington played some football at Harvard and was more exposed to football being from the east coast. In his four years as head coach (1897-1900), Parrington's teams racked up 9 wins, to one loss and two ties. After the 1900 season, football began interfering with Parrington's teaching, his real passion. He stepped down as head coach shortly thereafter and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1928 at the University of Washington.

The Sooners had three coaches over the next four seasons. Fred Roberts led the Sooners to a 3-2 season in 1901, Mark McMahon recorded an 11-7-3 record in his two years as coach from 1902 and 1903, and Fred Ewing recorded a 4-3-1 record in 1904. The most notable event of those four years came in 1904 when OU had its first match against its instate rival, Oklahoma A&M. The game was played on November 6, 1904 at a park in Guthrie, Oklahoma. The OU team soundly defeated the Oklahoma Aggies 75-0, but it was an unusual touchdown that is remembered most of that game.

The day was bitterly cold with blustery winds out of the north. The boundaries were vaguely defined. And one of the oddest touchdowns ever recorded in football history occurred when an Aggie punt was carried backward by the wind until it bounced into Cottonwood Creek. Players from both teams pursued the evasive football into the deeper, chilly waters of the creek, but it was a Rough Rider who prevailed and climbed ashore with the football. Incidentally, every player on the OU squad scored that day, soundly defeating the Aggies 75-0.

— Taken from statue in Guthrie, Oklahoma. See photo.

Bedlam football was born that day.

Owen era

After ten years of football, the program began to get serious and started looking for a permanent coach. That coach was Bennie Owen. Owen was a quarterback on the undefeated Kansas team of 1899 led by famous coach Fielding Yost. Owen's previous team beat OU twice in 1903 and 1904, so the Sooners were familiar with his ability. Owen's first two years at OU were spent between Norman and Arkansas City as OU did not have in the budget enough funds to keep him there all year around. The early years of Owen's tenure were tough for budget reasons. Due to a low travel budget, his teams would regularly have to play as many as three games in one trek. For instance, in 1905, his squad played three teams in three Kansas cities in five days and again in 1909 when they played three games in Missouri and Texas in six days. In Owen's first year, in 1905, he gave OU its first victory over rival Texas, defeating them 2-0. Owen's first dominant team came in 1908 when he went 8-1-1 losing only to the powerful Kansas team. His 1908 team used hand-offs directly to large runners as the forward pass was just becoming common. His 1911 team, on the other hand, had several small and fast players that the quarterback would pass directly to. That team went 8-0. Owen had two more undefeated seasons in 1915 and 1918. 1920 was also OU's first season in the stronger Missouri Valley Conference. In the new conference, they went 6-0-1 tying only Kansas State University. During Owen's 22 year career at OU, he went 122-54-16, a 67.7% winning percentage.

The next couple coaches that came after Owen, Adrian Lindsey and Lewie Hardage, amounted to little going a combined 30-31-10 over those eight seasons. The next coach, Lawrence "Biff" Jones, went 9-6-3 in his two seasons at the helm, but he is credited for reigning in the athletic department's administration, finances, and methods. The whole football program was placed on a solid footing necessary for success in modern times. Jones was a "blunt-spoken, hard-nosed military man" who graduated from West Point in 1917. Jones coached Army from 1926-1929 and then was the head coach of Louisiana State University. He was fired from LSU after refusing then governor Huey Long's request to address his team during halftime of a game. His tenure at OU came during Oklahoma's Dust Bowl. The dust storms would be so thick it would block the sun and the players would be covered in dust at the end of practice.

In 1937, Tom Stidham became the coach. Stidham took the solid footing put in place by Jones and stook on it. In his four seasons, Stidham's team went 27-8-3 for a winning percentage of 75%. When he left in 1941, his assistant coach, Dewey Luster succeeded him. After Luster's first season, a 6-3 season, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. As was the case with schools all over the country, many players left the team to join the military.

Luster stepped down after the 1945 season due to ill health. The OU Board of Regents interviewed several candidates for the new head coaching job and one of those men was Jim Tatum. With him, he brought another coach, Bud Wilkinson, who would be his assistant coach. The Board was so impressed with Wilkinson, they considered hiring him for the head coaching position but decided against it as it would be unethical. Tatum had a relatively successful season finishing with an 8-3 record including a 73-12 win over Oklahoma A&M. When Tatum left for Maryland after the 1946 season, Wilkinson stepped up.

Wilkinson era

Bud Wilkinson was a quarterback for the University of Minnesota and won three national championships in the 1930s. His coaching career began at Syracuse University and then he began coaching at his alma mater Minnesota. After his service in the U.S. Navy in World War II, he began coaching at a naval academy in Iowa with Jim Tatum. When Tatum came to OU, he brought Wilkinson with him. His first year he went 7-2-1 and tied for first place in the Big Six Conference, the first in an unprecedented string of 13 straight conference titles. Wilkinson won the school its first national championship in 1950 despite the fact they lost their last game against Bear Bryant's Kentucky team. That loss was the Sooner's first loss since a season opener loss to Santa Clara University in 1948, 31 games earlier. In 1952, OU had its first Heisman Trophy winner in halfback Billy Vessels, a local player from Cleveland, Oklahoma. In 1953, the Sooners opened with a loss to Notre Dame and tied Pittsburgh the next week. The Sooners would win every game until the next time they faced Notre Dame in November 1957. Wilkinson and his Sooners set a record with 47 consecutive wins, a record that still stands to this day. No team has entered a season with the chance the break that record. During this streak, the Sooners won the national championship in 1955 and 1956.

Wilkinson's best years came during the first eleven years of his tenure. In that time, he recordered winning streaks of 31 and 47 games and went 114-10-3, a winning percentage of 89.8%. When Wilkinson left OU after the 1963 season, he walked away with record of 145-29-4 and 123 straight games with a score.

During Wilkinson's tenure, another first would be recorded, just not in the record books. Prentice Gautt would become the first black football player at the University of Oklahoma. Gautt had been a superior student at an Oklahoma City high school. He was a member of the National Honor Society and president of his senior class. During his junior and senior years of high school, he helped his team amass a 31 game win streak. He was also the first black player to participate in the state all-star game. Gautt was not the first black player to try out for the team, three others tried out two years earlier. Two couldn't afford to continue and dropped out and one was injured. Because of Gautt's academic success in high school, he was supported financially by a group of local black doctors and pharmacists. A couple months into his freshman year, Gautt was place on athletic scholarship and the money was returned to the investors. Unfortunately, members of Gautt's team were not as excited to play with him and he was with them. One player even left OU because he refused to play with an African American. However, his attitude eventually grew on them. After a freshman game in Tulsa, Gautt was refused service in the restaurant where the team was scheduled to eat. His teammates abruptly left and found an eating establishment that would also serve Gautt. OU also had to stay at a different hotel during Gautt's eligibility in Fort Worth, Texas because their normal hotel that forbid blacks. Gautt broke out as a player in 1958. In 1959, he was named the Orange Bowl MVP. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1985.

Wilkinson's assistant coach, Gomer Jones, took over as head coach in 1964, a move Wilkinson engineered himself. His first year would prove to be a sharp contrast from Wilkinson's early years. His first year saw the Sooners go 6-4-1. The season saw them start 1-3 with three consecutive losses to USC, Texas and Kansas. But the hardest loss came in the Gator Bowl to Florida State. Prior to the game, it was found that four of the better players had signed professional football contracts before their college eligibility had expired. Those four were dismissed from the team prior to the bowl game. OU lost this game 19-36. Jones next season faired no better, going 3-7, OU's worst record, percentage wise, since it went 0-1 its inaugural season in 1895. This brought the Jones era to quick close although he did remain at Oklahoma as the athletic director, a role he also held when he was head coach.

Following Jones's 9-11-1 record, OU brought in a young coach from Arkansas named Jim Mackenzie. He wanted discipline for his team so he set a curfew for his players and required them to enroll physical education class. His season saw an improvement from the previous, but it still not meet the expectations of Sooner football that Wilkinson had set. The 1966 team went 6-4 with a win in the Red River Shootout over rival Texas coached by Darrell Royal, their first win over Texas since 1957. They also beat the number four team in the land, rival Nebraska with a score of 10-9. The 1966 season showed promise for the young coach, but he was not able to expound on it. On April 28, 1967, Mackenzie died of a heart attack. He was 37 years old.

After the 1964 season, Chuck Fairbanks, an assistant coach at the University of Houston, was offered a job at Tennessee. He wanted to accept, but it was the middle of the summer and unusually late for a coaching move, so he decided to stay loyal to Houston and he remained there. After the next season, he was offered a position as an assistant on Mackenzie's staff at Oklahoma, a position he felt was a better job than the Tennessee position. Immediately after the 1965 season, Fairbanks was offered a job at Missouri with the promise that he would be the head coach within four years. He declined and stayed at OU. Four months later, Coach Mackenzie died and Fairbanks was named head coach. It did not take long for Fairbanks to turn the team around. His first season, in 1967, his squad went 10-1. They entered their sixth game with a 5-1 record (their only loss was a two point loss coming to rival Texas) and unranked and played the ninth ranked Colorado team soundly beating them 23-0. This propelled Fairbanks team to the number eight team in the country. They continued their romp through the season and beat the number two team in the country Tennessee in the Orange Bowl. They finished the season ranked number three in the country.

Fairbanks next three seasons can be considered mediocre with four losses each season (and 7, 6, and 7 wins in 1968, 1969, and 1970 respectively). Despite the record of those years, several great players came through Fairbanks program. One of those players was Steve Owens. Owens was born in Gore, Oklahoma in 1947. After an impressive year in 1969, despite OU's record, Owens was named the Sooner's second Heisman Trophy winner. Many consider that he saved Fairbanks career as he helped OU pull out a win over rival Oklahoma State. End of season losses to rival OSU had resulted in the termination of the coach on a couple occasions in OU's history. But with a win over OSU, he survived.

It didn't take long for Fairbanks to return the team to form. His 1970 team finished with a tie to Bear Bryant's Alabama team in the Bluebonnet Bowl and finished as the number 20 team in the country. They began the 1971 season ranked number 10. They beat the number 17 ranked USC team, the number three Texas team and the number 6 Colorado team back to back to back. They quickly rose to the number two team in the country, directly below the number 1 Nebraska team. Leading this team was quarterback Jack Mildren and running back Greg Pruitt. The team was a scoring machine, averaging 44.5 points per game, the second highest in OU history. Equally impressive that season was Pruitt's nine yards per carry (for comparison, Heisman Trophy winning running back Barry Sanders averaged 7.64 yards per carry his record breaking 1988 season in which he had 2,628 rushing yards). On November 25, 1971, the number one Nebraska Cornhuskers played the number two Oklahoma Sooners in what was widely considered to be the Game of the Century. Unfortunately, OU walked away from that game with a loss, their only of the season. They rebounded the next game and beat rival Oklahoma State 58-14 and capped the season with a win over the number five Auburn team to finish the season ranked number two.

Fairbank's last season at OU in 1972 went about the same. Their only loss came to the number nine Colorado and they finished the season with a win in the Sugar Bowl over Penn State. Following this season, Fairbanks accepted a position with the NFL team the New England Patriots. However, he left behind a mess for the new head coach, Fairbank's offensive coordinator, Barry Switzer.

Switzer era

Soon after Barry Switzer took the reign of the program, the NCAA forced Oklahoma to forfeit nine games from the 1972 season due to violations involving the alteration of transcripts. Fairbanks denied any knowledge of this. As a punishment, the Sooners could not play in a bowl game for two years. This setback did not stop Switzer's Sooners. His 1973 team finished 10-0-1 with only a tie to the number one ranked USC team. They finished the season ranked number three after beating seven teams ranked in the top 20. He showed no signs of slowing down the next season either. Switzer's team finished 11-0 and won the national championship. This was the Sooner's first undefeated season and national championship since 1956. That team was another high scoring team averaging 43 points per game and was anchored by Steve Davis at quarterback, Joe Washington at running back and the Selmon brothers on defense.

Nothing would slow down Switzer's teams in the 1970s. His 1970s teams went a combined 73-7-2 in seven years. In 1978, OU would get its third Heisman Trophy winner in running back Billy Sims. That year, he set the OU record for most rushing yards in a season with 1,896, a record that would stand for 26 years. He currently stands at number three in yards per attempt that year with 7.41, behind fellow Sooners Greg Pruitt and Marcus Dupree. Sims also hold the record at OU for most rushing yards in a career with 4,118. He finished second in the Heisman race the following year, 1979.

The early 1980s saw the Sooners begin to slip under Switzer. They lost four games in 1981, 1982, and 1983. It was the first time they lost four games in a season since 1970 under Coach Fairbanks. However, eight of those twelve losses came to the likes of USC, Texas, Nebraska and Ohio State. They began to turn around in 1984 when they went 9-2-1 and were ranked number six at the end of the season. The 1984 team featured Buster Ryhmes at wide receiver, Spencer Tillman at running back and Tony Casillas. Over the next three years, the team continued to grow and went 11-1 each of those three years (with all three losses coming to Miami), including a national championship in 1985 (they finished ranked number three in 1986 and 1987). Many great Sooner athletes came through the program during these years, including two-time Butkus Award winner Brian Bosworth, tight end Keith Jackson and quarterback Jamelle Holieway. While Switzer was not able to match Wilkinson's unimaginable string of 13 consecutive conference championships, he was able to rack up 12 of his own during his career at Oklahoma.

In 1988, it all came crashing down for Switzer. His team was placed on probation by the NCAA for violating several rules. In a six month time frame, there was a shooting and a rape in the athletic dorm on OU's campus, Switzer's house was robbed with the help of one of his athletes, and an athlete was caught attempting to sell drugs to an undercover agent. The three year probation included a two-year ban on TV and bowl appearances and a reduction in scholarships from 25 to 18.

Succeeding Switzer was his defensive coordinator Gary Gibbs. Gibbs record during his six seasons as head coach would have been stellar at any program, but not at Oklahoma. It proved hard to please the boosters and administrators with an 8-3 year. All in all, Gibbs went 44-23-2 but it was his record against OU's rivals that did him in. Gibbs went 2-15-1 against Texas, Nebraska and Colorado. In addition to his record, many feel Gibbs was not comfortable around alumni, the media, or with being a head coach in general.

To replace Gibbs, OU looked towards the seasoned Howard Schnellenberger, then 61 years old. Schnellenberger had won a national championship at Miami and turned around the Louisville program. In the end, he was almost too sure of himself. He was quoted as saying, "They will write books and make movies about my time here." Ultimately, his 1995 went 5-5-1 and he was done. Many feel he was doomed from the beginning because of his lack of interest in the history of Oklahoma football; not its coaches or its players, a fact he was not shy about. He ordered old files to be thrown out, instead, they were archived without his knowledge.

For the 1996 season, OU hired former player John Blake. Blake was the favorite to succeed Schnellenberger and was backed by Barry Switzer, Steve Owens, and former OU president George Lynn Cross. However, many were skeptical of Oklahoma's choice for the new coach. He coaching experience was very limited, especially compared to his predecessor. Blake was an assistant coach for three years in the NFL, a wide receivers coach for one year at Tulsa, and a defensive assistant at Oklahoma for four years. The skeptics were proven right. In Blake's first season, he went 3-8. It was the worst record, percentage wise, Oklahoma had experienced since 1895 and is tied for the most losses in one year (along with Blake's 1997 squad) to this very day. In his three years at Oklahoma, Blake went 3-8, 4-8, and 5-6. It was the first time since 1922-1924 that OU had three consecutive losing seasons. Blake's largest contribution to the team was his recruiting. He set the stage by recruiting several players that would excel under the next coach, including J.T. Thatcher, Josh Norman, Roy Williams and Rocky Calmus.

Stoops era

The university looked at many candidates to replace Blake. Reportedly, some of those included Barry Alvarez, Jim Donnan, Bob Toledo, Dennis Franchione, Tommy Bowden, Gary Barnett, and Mike Bellotti. However, OU decided on a 38 year old defensive coordinator from Florida, Bob Stoops. Stoops was a defensive back at Iowa under coach Hayden Fry and was his team captain and MVP. Stoops built on the foundation that had been given to him, however weak it was. He brought in junior college quarterback Josh Heupel to run his offense. His first team went 7-5 and included some impressive wins and equally impressive losses. The season started with three wins over non-conference opponents amassing 132 points to their opponents' 31. They lost the next two games, which included a close 34-30 loss against Notre Dame at South Bend.

In 2000, the Sooners opened the season ranked number 19, the first time they opened the season ranked in five years. The Sooners opened 4-0, cruising over its early opponents by a combined score of 176-51. They entered the annual Red River Rivalry ranked number 10 while Texas was ranked number 11 with a record of 3-1. The Sooners beat the Longhorns in what was then the most lopsided upset in the history of the rivalry with a score of 63-14. Quentin Griffin set the OU record for most touchdowns in a game with six. They narrowly beat the number two ranked Kansas State 41-31 and then went on to beat the number one ranked Nebraska 31-14. ESPN's Brent Musburger said that, "The Sooners' October run of burying Texas, Kansas State and Nebraska is one of the greatest 30-day stretches in college football history." The Sooners narrowly escaped a loss at the hands of Texas A&M but they pulled out a victory, winning 35-31. They finished the season with a win over Florida State in the BCS National Championship Game and claimed the Sears Trophy. At the end of the season, quarterback Josh Heupel had the top two spots on the list of OU's season passing records. In 1999, he threw for 3,850 yards and in 2000, he threw for 3,606 yards.

Stoops' teams continued to excel. He brought his 2003 team and 2004 team back to the BCS title game, but both contests ended in a loss. His 2003 team was the highest scoring team in OU's history, scoring 601 points compared to 214 by the opponents. This season included seven games of 50 points or more, a 77-0 beating of Texas A&M, their largest loss in history, and a 65-13 beating of Texas. The team was upset in the Big 12 championship game and eventually lost to LSU. That year, Jason White became OU's fourth Heisman Trophy winner.

Many great players have come through Stoops's teams and are now players in the NFL. Some of these players include Tommy Harris, Jammal Brown, Mark Clayton, Dan Cody, Teddy Lehman, Dusty Dvoracek, Davin Joseph, Brodney Pool, and Mark Bradley.

Coaching History

Championships

The Oklahoma Sooners have been a dominant program in every conference they have participated in, from the Southwest Conference to the Big 12 Conference. Below is a list of all 39 conference titles.

Awards

Heisman Trophy

The Heisman Trophy is giving annually to the nation's best college football player. Four OU players have won the Heisman Trophy, but four more finished runner-up.

Maxwell Award

The Maxwell Award is giving annually to the nation's best college football player.

Walter Camp Award

The Walter Camp Award is giving annually to the nation's best college football player.

Dick Butkus Award

The Dick Butkus Award is awarded annually to the nation's best linebacker.

Bronko Nagurski Trophy

The Bronko Nagurski Trophy is awarded annually to the nation's best all-around defensive football player.

Chuck Bednarik Award

The Chuck Bednarik Award is awarded annually to nation's best defensive football player.

Davey O'Brien Award

The Davey O'Brien Award is awarded annually to the nation's best quarterback.

Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award

The Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award is awarded annually to the nation's best senior quarterback.

Jim Thorpe Award

The Jim Thorpe Award is awarded annually to the nation's best defensive back.

Lombardi Award

The Lombardi Award is awarded annually to the nation's best lineman or linebacker.

Outland Trophy

The Outland Trophy is awarded annually to the nation's best interior lineman.

All-Americans

Oklahoma has had 141 All-Americans (63 consensus) in its history.

* denotes consensus All-American. Source:"2006 Football Media Guide" (HTML). SoonerSports.com. Retrieved 2006-08-09.

See also

• 2006 Oklahoma Sooners football team

Further reading

• Athlon Sports (2006). Game Day Oklahoma Football: The Greatest Games, Players, Coaches, And Teams in the Glorious Tradition of Sooner Football. Triumph Books. ISBN 1572438835. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |other= ignored (|others= suggested) (help)
• Bosworth, Brian (August 1, 1988). The Boz. Doubleday. ISBN 0385247478.
• Clark, J. Brent (1995). Sooner Century: 100 Glorious Years of Oklahoma Football. Quality Sports Publications. ISBN 1885758049. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Corcoran, Mike (September 28, 2004). The Game of the Century: Nebraska Vs Oklahoma in College Football's Ultimate Battle. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0743236211.
• Cromartie, Bill (1982). Annual Madness: A Game by Game History of the Texas-Oklahoma Football Rivalry, 1900-1980. Gridiron Pub. ISBN 0932520057. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Cross, George Lynn (1977). Presidents Can't Punt: The OU Football Tradition. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806114193. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Dent, Jim (September 24, 2002). The Undefeated: The Oklahoma Sooners and the Greatest Winning Streak in College Football. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0312303262.
• Dozier, Ray (August 1, 2005). Oklahoma Football Encyclopedia. Sports Pub. ISBN 158261699X.
• Hartley, Danny (1982). Oklahoma football, the winningest team of the seventies. Western Heritage Books. ISBN 0865460361.
• Heard, Robert (1980). Oklahoma Vs Texas: When Football Becomes War. Honey Hill Pub. ISBN 0937642002. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Heupel, Josh (March 26, 2001). The Road to Glory. Contributions by Bob Schaller. Cross Training Publishing. ISBN 1929478259.
• Keith, Harold (2003). Forty-Seven Straight: The Wilkinson Era at Oklahoma. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806135697. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Keith, Harold (1978). Oklahoma Kickoff: An Informal History of the First 25 Years of Football at the University of Oklahoma, and of the Amusing Hardships That Attended It. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806114851. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• King, Gary T. (July 24, 2006). An Autumn Remembered: Bud Wilkinson's Legendary '56 Sooners. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 080613786X.
• McKenzie, Mike (2003). Tales from the Sooner Sidelines: Oklahoma Football Legacy and Legends. Sports Publishing. ISBN 1582613206. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Meece, Volney (January 1, 1960). Thirteen years of winning Oklahoma football under Bud Wilkinson. Bryan. ASIN B0007EUM84.
• Shropshire, Mike (August 1, 2006). Runnin' with the Big Dogs: The True, Unvarnished Story of the Texas-Oklahoma Football Wars. William Morrow. ISBN 0060852771.
• Smith, Jay (2003). Prelude to Greatness: Sooner Football in the 1990's. Foreward by David Boren. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806135204. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Snook, Jeff (2005). What It Means To Be A Sooner: Barry Switzer, Bob Stoops And Oklahoma's Greatest Players. Forewords by Bob Stoops and Barry Switzer. Triumph Books. ISBN 1572437596. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Switzer, Barry (1990). Bootlegger's Boy. William Morrow & Co. ISBN 0688093841. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Towle, Mike (August 1, 2002). I Remember Bud Wilkinson: Personal Memories and Anecdotes About an Oklahoma Sooners Legend As Told by the People and Players Who Knew Him. Cumberland House Publishing. ISBN 1581823010.
• Upchurch, Jay (2007). Game of My Life: Oklahoma Football. Sports Publishing. ISBN 1582617651. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Weeks, Jim (1982). The Sooners: A Story of Oklahoma Football. Strode Publications. ISBN 0873972201. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Wilkinson, Jay (August 1, 1994). Bud Wilkinson: An Intimate Portrait of an American Legend. Sagamore Publishing. ISBN 1571670017. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

Notes

1. ^ Keith, Harold (September 1942). "Football Ups and Downs" (PDF). Sooner Magazine. pp. 12–13, 54.
2. Burr, Carol (Fall 1998). "If you think football is just a kids' game, you didn't attend the University of Oklahoma" (PDF). Sooner Magazine. p. Inside front cover.
3. ^ "Football Coaches" (HTML). SoonerStats.com. Retrieved 2006-08-02.
4. ^ Clark, J. Brent (1995). Sooner Century: 100 Glorious Years of Oklahoma Football. Quality Sports Publications. ISBN 1885758049.
5. Cross, George Lynn (1977). Presidents Can't Punt: The OU Football Tradition. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806114193. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
6. ^ Burr, Carol (Spring 1987). "Prentice Gautt: A Sooner's Story" (PDF). Sooner Magazine. p. 10-15.
7. "1964 Football Season" (HTML). SoonerStats.com. Retrieved 2006-08-04.
8. Hockman, Ned (January 1965). "Bowled over by a mouthful" (PDF). Sooner Magazine. pp. 22–25. Retrieved 2006-08-04.
9. McDade, Larry (March 1966). "Mackenzie Begins" (PDF). Sooner Magazine. p. 4-7. Retrieved 2006-08-04.
10. ^ Connors, Bill (September 1967). "Destiny and Charles Fairbanks" (PDF). Sooner Magazine. p. 4-7. Retrieved 2006-08-04.
11. All rankings post 1950 are based on the AP Poll.
12. ^ "Season Points Scored Records" (HTML). SoonerStats.com. Retrieved 2006-08-04.
13. "1973 Football Season" (HTML). SoonerStats.com. Retrieved 2006-08-04.
14. "Football Seasons - 1970s" (HTML). SoonerStats.com. Retrieved 2006-08-07.
15. "Season Rushing Records" (HTML). SoonerStats.com. Retrieved 2006-08-07.
16. "Career Rushing Records" (HTML). SoonerStats.com. Retrieved 2006-08-07.
17. "The Winning Margin: Year By Year" (HTML). Heisman.com. Retrieved 2006-08-08.
18. "Football Seasons - 1980s" (HTML). SoonerStats.com. Retrieved 2006-08-07.
19. Switzer, Barry (1990). Bootlegger's Boy. William Morrow & Co. ISBN 0688093841. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
20. ^ Dorsey, Stan (August 19, 1996). "Wanting your children to grow up to be … Sooners". The Sporting News. Retrieved 2006-08-07.
21. Chaptman, Dennis (November 24, 1998). "Alvarez's name on Sooners' list". The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal. Retrieved 2006-08-07.
22. Bohls, Kirk (December 21, 1998). "Exception to the theory - football coach Bob Stoops". The Sporting News. Retrieved 2006-08-07.
23. "2000 Football Season" (HTML). SoonerStats.com. Retrieved 2006-08-07.
24. "A remarkable season" (HTML). BCSFootball.com. Retrieved 2006-08-07.
25. "Season Passing Records" (HTML). SoonerStats.com. Retrieved 2006-08-07.

• University of Oklahoma
• Oklahoma Sooners football
• College football
• Big 12 Conference