Tulsa World: Wilkinson set the standard, gets my vote

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Wilkinson set the standard, gets my vote

By JOHN KLEIN Senior Sports Columnist
Published: 6/29/2008 2:12 AM
Last Modified: 6/29/2008 2:53 AM

One could make the case for Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer or Bob Stoops as the greatest coach in Oklahoma football history.

In fact, some could even argue that Bennie Owen, the first outstanding coach for OU football, was such a pioneer that he deserves some credit for what has become long term success.

Yet, by most measuring standards, the debate should fall to Bud, Barry or Bob.

Those are the three coaches with national championships.

Those are the three coaches who made the Sooners synonymous with college football excellence.

There is a huge amount of difference in college football of the 1940s, when Wilkinson started building the foundation of OU football, and college football in the 2000s, as Stoops continues to add to the legend.

So any attempt to compare the different eras will fall short. The challenges, players and game have little in common.

Yes, it is still blocking and tackling. So, if you try to boil down college football to its most basic elements, then Wilkinson wins the debate.

Switzer was very fond of saying he didn't create the monster. He was just in charge of feeding it.

That's true for Stoops, too.

Wilkinson took the ball from the university president, who set in place a plan to turn Oklahoma's shame from the Dust Bowl and Okies into glory on the college football field.

For all of Oklahoma's accomplishments, it could be argued that the state is best-known around the nation for its outstanding college football program in Norman, and Wilkinson set in motion all of the elements it took to become a nationally recognized football powerhouse.

In the 1940s, the college football programs at Oklahoma State and Tulsa were setting the standard for football in this state.

In fact, some old-timers at OU believe a 47-0 beating that the Sooners suffered at the hands of rival OSU (then Oklahoma A&M) with running back Bob Fenimore in 1945 started the push for college football championships in Norman.

Whatever the reason, the following season OU brought on Jim Tatum for a Gator Bowl season before hiring Wilkinson.

After his first five games, Wilkinson was 2-2-1.

The late Curt Gowdy, then the voice of OU football and OSU basketball, said he had to go on a tour of Sooner Clubs around the state to beg fans to be patient with their new young coach.

That would prove to be excellent advice.

The Sooners would not lose again that season (finishing 7-2-1). The winning would continue for another 15 years until Wilkinson retired after the 1963 season.

Most trace OU football history back to that first Wilkinson season 41 years ago.

By 1949, in just his third season, Wilkinson coached the Sooners to the first of his four unbeaten seasons.

The 1949 Sooners capped their unbeaten year with a 35-0 victory in the Sugar Bowl over LSU.

A year later, OU won its first national championship, going 10-0 before losing to Kentucky in the Sugar Bowl. (National champions were selected before bowl games.)

That 1950 team was just the tip of the iceberg in what is generally considered one the greatest eras of Sooner football (and one of the best if not the best in college football history).

During the 1950s, Oklahoma won three national championships. The Sooners pieced together a 47-game victory streak, still the longest in college football history.

OU lost the season opener to Notre Dame in 1953 (Sept. 26). It would not lose again until the eighth game of the 1957 season (Nov. 16 to Notre Dame).

Yes, Switzer can match Wilkinson in number of national championships. And, Switzer's first three seasons were remarkable (two national championships and a 32-1-1 record).

Still, not even that run can match Wilkinson's march to immortality in the mid-1950s.

Stoops won a national championship in his second season and revived Wilkinson's monster during an unbeaten season in 2000.

When Stoops took over in 1999, OU had not had a winning season since 1993.

So, he is often hailed as the savior of Oklahoma football. Certainly, he should be credited with the best turnaround in Oklahoma football.

Yet, Wilkinson had little history or tradition when he took over.

OU had won conference championships but was not the national power it would become under him.

Owen coached OU for 21 years and won three conference titles.

But what Wilkinson would do in Norman dwarfed not only those numbers but set standards that seem unreachable in today's college football landscape.

Tatum's and Wilkinson's teams did not lose (72-0-2) a game against a conference opponent from 1946-59.

So, no one should diminish what Switzer and Stoops have done.

But, perhaps no college coach anywhere did more than Wilkinson did in the 1950s in Norman.

For those reasons, Wilkinson is my pick. The best, maybe anywhere. By JOHN KLEIN Senior Sports Columnist

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T Bone, (6/29/2008 10:23:15 AM)

John: Not only was Wilkerson a great coach and motivator, but he recruited good student-athletics. Not like now, when coaches recruit athletics with questionable character and the coac;hes say they will handle the problem internally.

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