Oklahoma football: Ranking the Sooners six Heisman winners
By Chip Rouse
No, 5 – Running back Steve Owens, 1969 Heisman Trophy winner
Steve Owens was a workhorse and the best player on a very mediocre Oklahoma team. The 1969 Sooners finished with an overall record of 6-4 and were just 4-3 in the Big Eight Conference, coming in fourth in the league standings.
Despite heavy graduation losses off the 1968 OU team that went 6-1 in the Big Eight, the Sooners managed to average close to 30 points a game, attributable in large part to Owens’ battering-ram run game.
The second Sooner to claim college football’s top individual prize, Owen carried the football 358 times in 1969 (an average of 35 rushing attempts per game). He was credited with 1,523 yards that season (although he had more rushing attempts and yards the previous year, his junior season: 393 for 1,649), and he scored 23 rushing touchdowns, which then was a school record.
Owens was a punishing runner, who still owns the school record with 57 career touchdowns. His 4,041 rushing yards ranks fifth on the all-time Sooner leaderboard.
His best season statistically as a Sooner was not his best at OU, but given the drop-off in the team’s performance from Owens’ junior to senior seasons, his performance in 1969 was highly impressive. It was obviously impressive enough to earn him the Heisman Trophy.