Stormin in Norman
Fansided

Oklahoma Sooners: A Mount Rushmore of modern OU GOATs

By Chip Rouse

KEYSTONE, SD - OCTOBER 01: Mount Rushmore National Memorial towers over the South Dakota landscape on October 1, 2013 near Keystone, South Dakota. Mount Rushmore and all other national parks were closed today after congress failed to pass a temporary funding bill, forcing about 800,000 federal workers off the job. A bulletin issued by the Department of Interior states, 'Effective immediately upon a lapse in appropriations, the National Park Service will take all necessary steps to close and secure national park facilities and grounds in order to suspend all activities ...Day use visitors will be instructed to leave the park immediately...' (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
KEYSTONE, SD - OCTOBER 01: Mount Rushmore National Memorial towers over the South Dakota landscape on October 1, 2013 near Keystone, South Dakota. Mount Rushmore and all other national parks were closed today after congress failed to pass a temporary funding bill, forcing about 800,000 federal workers off the job. A bulletin issued by the Department of Interior states, 'Effective immediately upon a lapse in appropriations, the National Park Service will take all necessary steps to close and secure national park facilities and grounds in order to suspend all activities ...Day use visitors will be instructed to leave the park immediately...' (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 5
Next
NORMAN, OK – OCTOBER 15: The Sooner Schooner takes the field after an Oklahoma Sooners touchdown against the Kansas State Wildcats October 15, 2016 at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma defeated Kansas State 38-17. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) *** local caption ***
NORMAN, OK – OCTOBER 15: The Sooner Schooner takes the field after an Oklahoma Sooners touchdown against the Kansas State Wildcats October 15, 2016 at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma defeated Kansas State 38-17. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) *** local caption *** /

What if there were a Mount Rushmore commemorating the greatness of Oklahoma Sooner sports over the last 70 years, which four OU athletic head images should appear on the monument?

The annals of American history inform us that over a 14-year period, from 1927 to 1941, the head sculptures of four American  presidents were carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore, located in the Black Hills, a small mountain range situated in western South Dakota.

The four American presidents whose images appear on the southeast-facing side of Mount Rushmore — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln — were selected, history tells us, because of their role in preserving the republic and expanding its territory in the first 130 years of American history.

All four are considered national icons in the birth, growth and general history of the great country in which we all live.

So which sports icons in the modern history of University of Oklahoma athletics are Mount Rushmore-like worthy and stand as ideal representations of Sooner athletic greatness from 1946 to the present, considered the modern era of OU sports history?

Depending on your time in life and frame of reference, there are  many names and permutations you could pick from. No one said this would be an easy exercise. And the longer you give thought to this challenging question, the more arduous it becomes to settle on just four Sooner icons that represent almost three-quarters of a century of OU sports history.

Regardless, I’m jumping in with both feet. Here are the four images that would appear on my modern-day version of Sooner Mountain:

Home/Oklahoma Sooners