Bud Wilkinson
Since 1947, or shortly after the end of World War II, no major college football program has won more games than Oklahoma. And the man that got it all started was Bud Wilkinson, who took over the head coaching job at Oklahoma beginning with the 1947 season. What he accomplished in 17 seasons as the Sooner head coach ranks right up there with the all-time best in the game.
His Oklahoma teams won 145 games and lost just 29 times, the third best winning percentage in program history. Under Wilkinson, the Sooners won their first three national championships, 13 consecutive conference championships, went undefeated four times and, of course, won 57 consecutive games, an NCAA record that still stands today and may never be broken.
Wilkinson is the man credited with putting Oklahoma football on the national map as one of college football’s elite programs, a position they’ve managed to hold on to for almost 75 years.
I believe it would be truly fascinating to listen to Wilkinson talk about OU football in the 1950s and ’60s, which is the time when I first became a young fan of the Sooners. I would particularly like to hear Wilkinson in conversation with an Oklahoma head coach of another revolutionary era.
Wilkinson died in 1994, at the age of 77, of congestive heart failure.