Oklahoma football: Why the number 47 has multiple meanings in Sooner history

Besides being the birth year for yours truly, the number 47 has a myriad of meanings for all of us who pride ourselves in being Oklahoma football fans.

The most obvious reference to the number 47 in Oklahoma gridiron history, of course, has to do with the record-setting 47-game winning streak by Bud Wilkinson’s Sooner teams from 1953 to 1957. That included three perfect seasons (31-0) in 1954, ’55 and ’56. Over six consecutive seasons (1953-58) Oklahoma lost just three games total and produced an overall record of 60-3-1.

For the entire decade of the 1950s, OU won 93 games, lost 10 and two games ended in a tie. That is a winning percentage of .895, the best of any decade in program history and the best of all college teams from 1950 through 1959.

But that is not the only reason the number 47 has a special, if not symbolic, place in Sooner football history.

This will be the 124th season of Oklahoma football, which dates to 1895, when the Sooners’ lost the one game they played that year, 34-0, to an Oklahoma City town team. (OU would play the OKC town team three more times over the next nine season, winning all three by shutout by the combined score of 62-0.)

The Sooners first conference affiliation was in 1915, when they became a member of the Southwest Conference. They finished with a record of 10-0 (3-0 in the conference) and were crowned SWC champions in their very first season.

Since that 1915 season, as members of the Missouri Valley Conference (then called the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association), the Big Six, Big Seven, Big Eight and now the Big 12 Conference, Oklahoma has won 46 additional conference championships in football for a total of 47, more than any other school currently affiliated with a Power Five conference.

Broken down by conference membership, that translates to two in the Southwest Conference, one in the Missouri Valley, five Big Six titles, 12 in the Big Seven, 16 in the Big Eight and 11 so far as members of the Big 12.

Bud Wilkinson has 14 conference titles to his name, Barry Switzer 12 and Bob Stoops 10. No other Sooner coach has more than three.

The Sooners are gunning for their fourth consecutive Big 12 crown in 2018 — coining the catchphrase “Four in Store” as a season slogan — which would tie Oklahoma with Florida (1993-96) as the only Power Five schools to win four consecutive conference titles in football.

Circling back to the number 47 and its place in OU football history, that was the number of:

• Total pass completions against the Oklahoma defense in 1960.
• Average pass attempts per game by the Sooner offense in 2012
• One more than the all-time record of 46 pass completions in a game by quarterback Landry Jones in 2012.
• Consecutive starts at quarterback by Landry Jones (2009-12), a program record.

Twenty-two Oklahoma players have worn the jersey number 47 since OU started recording this stat in the late 1960s. The most recent is freshman newcomer this season Gabe Brkic, a kicker/punter. Before that it was another kicker, Reece Morrison. Perhaps the most notable of the former Sooner players to wear the 47 jersey was running back Renaldo Weeks (2000-03).

Two former Sooners wore that number for five seasons: defensive end/linebacker Brent DeQuasie (1991-95) and defensive end Jeff Hake (1982-86). Several others donned the number for four seasons.

Finally, 47 years ago, in 1971, Oklahoma finished the season with a record of 11-1 (which, incidentally, was not good enough to win the Big Eight championship; OU’s only loss that season was to Nebraska in the “Game of the Century”) and a 40-22 win over Auburn in the Sugar Bowl. The Sooners were ranked No. 2 that season in the final national polls. behind top-ranked Nebraska and third-ranked Colorado, all out of the Big Eight.