Oklahoma football: Ranking the all-time, top-10 Sooner QBs

No. 1 — Jack Mildren, Oklahoma quarterback (1969-71)

The choice of Jack Mildren as the greatest Oklahoma quarterback in the so-called modern era of college football (1946 to the present), if not the greatest of all time at OU, is bound to raise some eyebrows. For anyone privileged enough to see him play, however, there should be little argument.

Mildren was the first of Oklahoma’s great Wishbone quarterbacks. He played under head coach Chuck Fairbanks (Barry Switzer was the offensive coordinator).

Emory Bellard, former offensive coordinator for the Texas Longhorns, may be credited for inventing the Wishbone offense, but it was the Oklahoma Sooners who perfected it, and Mildren was there at the beginning.

Mildren possessed both speed and a strong throwing arm (the latter of which was used extremely sparingly in a run-dominated, triple-option offense). Nevertheless, Mildren threw for over 3,000 passing yards in his career as the OU starting quarterback and still holds the program record for passing efficiency in a single season (207.1 in the 1970 season).

Berry Tramel, sports columnist for the Oklahoma City Oklahoman, once wrote about Mildren:

"“The (Wishbone) offense was made for Mildren, who was fast, tough and could throw.”"

Mildren was a consensus All-American in the 1971 season. Oklahoma led the nation in rushing yards, total offense and scoring that season (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?), and Mildren was the conductor of the Sooner offense, composed by Switzer. Mildren alone accounted for 1,287 rushing yards that season.

The one regret the All-American Sooner quarterback had that season was that he was on the losing side of the biggest game of the season, against archrival Nebraska, in a classic battle of No. 1 vs. No. 2, in the game billed at the time as the “Game of the Century.”  The Sooners ended up losing the game 35-31 in a contest that went back and forth and wasn’t ultimately decided until Nebraska running back Jeff Kinney plowed into the end zone from the two-yard line to put the Cornhuskers up for good with just 100 seconds remaining on the game clock.

Mildren played for three seasons in the NFL with the Baltimore Colts, who drafted him in the second round of the 1972 draft, and the New England Patriots. He was drafted as a defensive back.

In 1990, the former OU quarterback was elected Lieutenant Governor of the state of Oklahoma. He ran for governor in 1994, but lost to Frank Keating.

Mildren died in 2008 of complications from stomach cancer. He was 58 years old.

.