A legendary era in Oklahoma football history came to a close 30 years ago this week.
Barry Switzer, who compiled a record of 157-29-4 over 16 seasons as head coach of the Sooners, resigned his position on June 19, 1989, amid scandalous events involving several Oklahoma players and heavy media and fan criticism.
The second winningest coach in OU’s highly decorated football history, Switzer served as the Sooners’ offensive coordinator for six seasons before becoming head coach, replacing Chuck Fairbanks, after the 1972 season. In his first three seasons as head coach, Switzer led Oklahoma to a near-perfect record of 32-1-1, including back-to-back national championships in 1974 and ’75.
His teams were 73-7-1 in his first seven seasons at the head of the Oklahoma football machine. The St. Petersburg Times reportedly wrote at the time that Switzer was the high priest of what former Sooner star and Heisman Trophy winner described as the church of OU football.
Switzer won 12 Big Eight championships, including eight in a row to start out, and three national championships. Oklahoma produced an 8-5 record under Switzer in postseason bowl games.
As offensive coordinator, Switzer introduced the Wishbone offense at Oklahoma in 1971. The triple-option, run-oriented offense became closely associated with OU football and proved to be the most dominant rushing offense in college football for a couple of decades afterwards.
Winning football games at Oklahoma isn’t enough if it doesn’t include a winning record against the Sooners’ biggest gridiron rivals. Switzer passed this hurdle with flying colors. He was 9-5-2 against the Texas Longhorns, 12-5 against Tom Osborne and Nebraska, and a dominating 15-1 against in-state rival Oklahoma State.
Switzer was the Sporting News National Coach of the Year in 1973 and the Walter Camp Coach of the Year in 1974.
Here is some of what Switzer said in his 1989 OU press conference announcing he was stepping down, as reported by the Oklahoma City Oklahoman:
"“I resign with great sadness but also with great appreciation for the 16 years I have been privileged to be the head Sooner coach…“I leave with pride in our football program and in the won-lost record during my tenure as head coach, which is the best in college football. But my greatest pride is in the young men who have come through this program and have worked so hard to accomplish those achievements.”"
A couple of years later, Switzer wrote an autobiography titled “Bootleggers Boy.” He says the only reason he wrote the book was to tell his side of the story of what happened in those final months preceding his Oklahoma resignation.
Oklahoma lost as many as four games just once while Switzer was head coach (the Sooners finished 8-4 in 1983). In his final season, in 1988, OU ended with a 9-3 record overall and lost its final two games: a 7-3 loss to Nebraska, the Sooners’ only conference loss of the season, and 13-10 to Clemson in the Citrus Bowl.
Switzer, now 81, is one of four former Oklahoma coaches were are members of the century club in football, each with over 100 wins. Switzer was the third to reach that milestone, following Bennie Owen (1905-1926) and Bud Wilkinson (1946-1963) and preceding Bob Stoops (1999-2016).
After choosing to step down at OU after the 1988 season, Switzer remained out of coaching for several years. In 1994, however, he was named head coach of the NFL Dallas Cowboys, with whom he won a Super Bowl in his second season. Switzer is one of only three coaches to win both a national championship in college and the Super Bowl (Jimmy Johnson and Pete Carroll are the others).