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Oklahoma football History 101: Record string of winning streaks

By Chip Rouse

NORMAN, OK - OCTOBER 27: A general view of the east side of the stadium before the game between the Kansas State Wildcats and Oklahoma Sooners at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on October 27, 2018 in Norman, Oklahoma. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images)
NORMAN, OK - OCTOBER 27: A general view of the east side of the stadium before the game between the Kansas State Wildcats and Oklahoma Sooners at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on October 27, 2018 in Norman, Oklahoma. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) /
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Editor’s note: Throughout the 2019 season, we will dig back in time to provide you with interesting facts and figures that you may or may not be aware of from 125 years of Oklahoma football history.

Most everyone who follows college football is aware of the incredible 47-game winning streak by Bud Wilkinson’s Oklahoma football team of the mid-1950s. That is an NCAA record that is likely to stand the test of time and never be equaled or eclipsed.

What fans may not realize is that the Sooners own three of the 15-longest winning streaks in the history of NCAA Division I football (now more commonly referred to as the Football Bowl Subdivision).

An interesting fact about the Sooners’ unprecedented 47-game win streak — which began with the third game of the 1953 season and extended through the first seven games of the 1957 season and included a pair of national championships, in 1955 and ’56 — was that Notre Dame was the last team to beat Oklahoma before the historic streak began and also the team that ended the streak 1,505 days and 47 games later, with a 7-0 upset of the then No. 2-ranked Sooners on Nov. 16, 1957. Both losses to the Fighting Irish were at Oklahoma.

In addition to sporting a 47-game win streak entering the 1957 contest with Notre Dame, the Sooners also had scored in a then-record 123 consecutive games.

Just a couple of years before Oklahoma embarked on its 47-game win streak, the Sooners put together a 31-game winning streak, also under Wilkinson’s reign, between 1948 and 1950. The Sooners lost their opening game of the 1948 season, a 20-17 setback at Santa Clara, and would not lose again until falling to Kentucky in the 1951 Sugar Bowl. Despite the Kentucky loss, Oklahoma was awarded its first national championship.

Barry Switzer, the Sooners’ second winningest head coach, also got into the act, leading the Sooners to 28 consecutive wins and two national titles, from 1973-75. Of all teams, Kansas was the team that ended the streak at 28 with an improbable 23-3 upset of the Sooners at Oklahoma on Nov. 8, 1975.

Lengthy winning streaks are something that have been native to OU football history. In Bob Stoops’ first 78 home games as the Sooners’ head coach, Oklahoma won 75 of them. Loss No. 3 came 13 years into Stoops’ coaching reign — a 41-38 stunner to Texas Tech — and ended what was then the longest active home winning streak in college football at 39 games.

The Sooners enter the 2019 season with two active streaks: twenty consecutive wins in true road games and 17 straight victories in the month of November. They have not lost a game in November since 2014. Oklahoma also has won 34 of their last 36 games against Big 12 opponents.

Information for this article was sourced, in part, from the 2019 Oklahoma Football Media Guide.

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