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

By Chip Rouse

NEW ORLEANS, LA - JANUARY 02: Baker Mayfield #6 of the Oklahoma Sooners throws a pass against the Auburn Tigers during the Allstate Sugar Bowl at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on January 2, 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
NEW ORLEANS, LA - JANUARY 02: Baker Mayfield #6 of the Oklahoma Sooners throws a pass against the Auburn Tigers during the Allstate Sugar Bowl at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on January 2, 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images) /
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NORMAN, OK – OCTOBER 29: Oklahoma Sooners fans wait to enter the east side of the stadium before the game against the Kansas Jayhawks October 29, 2016 at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images)
NORMAN, OK – OCTOBER 29: Oklahoma Sooners fans wait to enter the east side of the stadium before the game against the Kansas Jayhawks October 29, 2016 at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) /

No. 10 — Jack Mitchell, Oklahoma quarterback (1946-48)

Jack Mitchell began his college career at Oklahoma as a halfback and was eventually converted to quarterback. Mitchell, who was born across the Oklahoma state line in the Kansas town of Arkansas City, is probably best known as the first Sooner QB to run the option offense.

He became a master at running Bud Wilkinson’s Split-T offense, and in 1948, Mitchell’s senior season, he became Oklahoma’s first quarterback to achieve All-America status.

Mitchell was a two-time all-conference selection and still holds the NCAA Division I-A record for career punt returns. From 1946-48, he returned 39 punts for 922 yards, an average of 23.6 yards per return.

After his college playing career, he went into coaching. He served as the head coach at Wichita State and later at Arkansas in the early 1950s, and in 1958 was named head coach at Kansas, where he recruited such future stars as John Hadl and Gayle Sayers in his nine years as the head coach of the Jayhawks.

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