Counting Down Five Sooner Football Favorites of All-Time

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We continue our series counting down to the start of the 2015 college football season with a countdown of our own: No. 3 on the list of my Sooner football favorites of all-time.

One week to go before the Oklahoma season and home opener of the 2015 season…

The first two names in my personal ranking of my five favorite Sooner football players were No. 5 Sam Bradford (2007-09) and No. 4 Tommy McDonald (1954-56). Now it is time to reveal No. 3 on that list:

No. 3 Greg Pruitt

The Wishbone era was one of the most exciting periods in the history of Oklahoma Sooner football, and one of the best players to operate in that ground-pounding option attack was Greg Pruitt, who played at Oklahoma from 1970-72.

Interestingly, Pruitt was recruited to Oklahoma as a wide receiver, but when then-offensive coordinator Barry Switzer introduced the Sooners’ version of the Wishbone attack, Pruitt found an instant home as one of the featured ball handlers in the triple-option ground attack.

Pruitt just missed out on the Sooners national championship seasons in 1974 and ’75, but he was electrifying carrying the football as any player I ever saw playing for the Sooners. He possessed not only great speed but elusive quickness, which made him extremely dangerous when he broke off a run into the second level of the defense.

He ranks third on the career list at OU for all-purpose yards. In his three seasons at Oklahoma, Pruitt rushed for 2,939 yards, 450 receiving yards, 139 yards returning punts and 679 kickoff-return yards. He was named an All-American in 1971 and 1972 and finished third and second, respectively, in the Heisman Trophy voting those two seasons.

His 9.0-yards-per-carry rushing average in 1971 ranked No. 1 in the nation, and his 1,760 rushing yards that season was second nationally.

Pruitt missed out on the Heisman in 1972, his final season at OU, but he was voted the NCAA Football Player of the Year that season by the Pigskin Club of Washington, D.C.

I vividly remember listening on the radio to the Oklahoma-Kansas State game in 1971, when Pruitt ran wild on the helpless KSU defense. He gained 294 yards that afternoon, which stood as a school record until Samaje Perine blew it away with an NCAA record-setting 427-yard game last season against Kansas.

Pruitt went on to play 12 seasons in the National Football League. He was drafted by the Cleveland Browns early in the second round of the 1973 NFL Draft. He was a five-time Pro-Bowl selection.

He is the namesake of the “Greg Pruitt rule,” which made tear-away jerseys illegal in college football. The tear-away jersey was a popular equipment item in the time Pruitt was a collegian. As fast and elusive as he was naturally, you can imagine how difficult it was to bring him down if all you could grab was a piece of his No. 30 jersey.

I’m also reminded of the time Switzer decided to have a little fun during a game week and gave Pruitt a t-shirt with the word “Hello” printed on the front and “Goodbye” on the back side.

That pretty much sums up what many a defender experienced when this special Sooner superstar ended up with the football.