Oklahoma Football: Top 10 Quarterbacks in Modern Sooners History
By Chip Rouse
Nov 28, 2015; Stillwater, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners fans celebrate the win over the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Boone Pickens Stadium. Oklahoma won 58-23. Mandatory Credit: Rob Ferguson-USA TODAY Sports
No. 8 – Eddie Crowder (1950-52)
Like Darrell Royal before him, Eddie Crowder was another former Oklahoma quarterback who starred as a Sooner as a player and went on to become a head coach at another major college program.
Crowder was a Kansas boy, growing up in Arkansas City, Kan., who was recruited by legendary head coach Bud Wilkinson to play at Oklahoma. He was a member of the Sooners’ first national championship team in 1950 and was the OU starting quarterback in 1951 and ’52. That was during the era of two-way play, and Crowder played in the secondary on defense.
With Crowder at quarterback, the Sooners won two Big Seven championships and did not lose a conference game in 1951 and 1952. He passed for 704 yards and ran for an additional 226 yards in the 1952 season, and was voted to the All-America team that season.
After his playing days were over at Oklahoma, Crowder was drafted in the second round by the New York Giants of the National Football League. He never played in the NFL, however, going to Canada instead where he played quarterback for the Edmonton Eskimos alongside fellow Sooner teammate Claude Arnold. Crowder played just one season of professional football.
He returned to Oklahoma in 1956, joining Bud Wilkinson’s staff as an assistant. In 1963, he was offered the head coaching job at the University of Colorado. Crowder spend 11 seasons at the Buffaloes head coach. He compiled an overall record of 67-49-2 at Colorado and took the Buffaloes to five postseason bowl games. He was 4-7 against Oklahoma in his head-coaching career.
In 1965, he assumed dual responsibilities as the Colorado athletic director, a position he held for the next 20 years.
Crowder died of Leukemia in 2008. He was 77 when he died.
Next: No. 7 - Thomas Lott (1975-78)