Which six Oklahoma football greats would you invite to the ideal dinner party?
By Chip Rouse
Bud Wilkinson
I consider Bud Wilkinson to be the head coach that put Oklahoma football on the map insofar as being a national power in college football. Wilkinson became coach of the Sooners in 1947, when he was 31 years old, three years younger than head coach Lincoln Riley is now.
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Wilkinson’s Oklahoma teams may have been the greatest all-time at Oklahoma (they are in my opinion). The Sooners won 145 games under Wilkinson and lost just 29 times in 17 seasons, an .826 winning percentage that ranks second among all Oklahoma football coaches Barry Switzer is No. 1 in that category with a win percentage of .837).
With Wilkinson as head coach, Oklahoma won three national championships (1950, 1955 and 1956) and 14 conference championships (1 in the Big Six, 12 under the Big Seven banner and 1 in the Big Eight).
Between 1953 and 1957, Oklahoma won an unprecedented 47 consecutive college football games, a record, much like Joe DiMaggio’s incredible 56-game hitting streak and Cal Ripken’s Iron Man Major League Baseball record of playing in 2,632 consecutive games, that probably will never be broken.
Wilkinson left college coaching in 1963. He coached the St. Louis Cardinals in the NFL for two seasons and then joined ABC-TV as a color commentator on college football games. The former OU head coach was part of the team that broadcast the memorable “Game of the Century” between Oklahoma and Nebraska in 1971.
He was 77 years old when he died in 1994.