Oklahoma football: Five games that could have changed OU gridiron history
By Chip Rouse
4. Oklahoma vs. Tennessee, Jan. 2, 1939
Oklahoma took a perfect 10-0 record and a 14-game win streak into an Orange Bowl encounter with unbeaten and untied Tennessee, a powerhouse team from the Southeastern Conference and ranked No. 2 in the country.
This was the first Orange Bowl game that featured two teams ranked in the nation’s top five (the Sooners came into the game ranked No. 4 in the Associated Press Poll) and Oklahoma’s first postseason bowl appearance.
The Sooners were unable to stop or even slow down the powerful Tennessee ground game, as the Volunteers rushed for nearly 200 yards while Oklahoma was held to just 94 yards of offense in a 17-0 Tennessee victory.
Tennessee was coached by Major Bob Neyland, after whom the current Volunteer football stadium is named. Tom Stidham was the Sooners’ head coach.
The game was very physical, with the two teams combining for over 200 yards in penalties.
TCU was declared the national champion that season by the Associated Press (which conducts its final poll in December), but Tennessee was awarded the national championship by several other services, largely because of its win over No. 4 OU.
Who knows what would have happened had the Sooners completed the perfect season with a victory over the second-ranked Volunteers.
The Orange Bowl game that year was the only one that pitted top-ranked teams against each other. Had OU been able to beat Tennessee, it very well could have resulted in the Sooners’ first national championship, which didn’t officially come until 1950.