Oklahoma Football: Six Bowl Losses Sooner Fans Would Like to Forget
By Chip Rouse
1963 Orange Bowl, No. 5 Alabama vs. No. 8 Oklahoma
The 1962 season was the last of 14 conference championships won by Oklahoma in 17 seasons under legendary head coach Bud Wilkinson. Although he would coach one more season, the 1963 Orange Bowl would be Wilkinson’s final bowl game of the six he took the Sooners to.
Under Wilkinson, the Sooners were 4-1 in bowl appearances heading into the 1963 Orange Bowl, and two of those bowl victories were in the Orange Bowl.
Oklahoma, which ended the regular season with an 8-2 record but was a perfect 7-0 in the Big Eight and conference champion, was paired against No. 5-ranked Alabama, coached by Paul “Bear” Bryant. Twelve years before that, Bryant had beaten the Sooners and Wilkinson as the coach of the Kentucky Wildcats in the 1951 Sugar Bowl.
The No. 8 Sooners managed only 260 yards of total offense against a stingy Bama defense – the Tide haven’t changed much, have they? Meanwhile, the Crimson Tide, behind a pretty good quarterback named Joe Namath, tallied 17 points in the game, more than enough to beat the Sooners, 17-0.
About the only thing that went right for Oklahoma that day was a visit paid to the Sooners locker room after the game by President John F. Kennedy.