Oklahoma football: Eight great books on Sooner gridiron history
By Chip Rouse
“Oklahoma’s Bennie Owen: Man for All Seasons,” by Gary King. History Press Library Editions, 2015, 210 pages
The names Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer and Bob Stoops are the Oklahoma coaching legends you always read and hear about. but no Sooner head coach spent more time on the football sidelines than Bennie Owen.
For those younger Oklahoma fans who may not be familiar with the name Bennie Owen, he is the one after whom Owen Field at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium is named.
In June, I wrote a posted a two-part series in this space, chronicling the life and times of this great Sooner legend (Part I, Part II).
Owen served as the OU football coach for 22 seasons, from 1905 to 1926. He won 122 games, lost 54 and tied 16 and is the first of four Oklahoma football coaches to win 100-plus games. Most fans will remember Owen for his accomplishments as a football coach, but his leadership and skills as a teacher and coach went beyond the gridiron. He also coached the Oklahoma men’s basketball team for 13 seasons and coached baseball for 17 seasons. He definitely was a man for all seasons, as the title of the book suggests.
Owen also was the Oklahoma director of athletics from 1907 to 1934.
Owen went to the University of Kansas and played football there for three seasons. After graduating, he went into coaching, spending one season at Topeka Washburn in Kansas and one year as an assistant at Michigan before returning to Kansas as head coach of the Bethany Swedes, who ironically defeated OU in successive seasons in 1903 and 1904.
This is a fun read about an important figure in Oklahoma football and sports history.