Five standout Oklahoma football bowl wins not for a national title
By Chip Rouse
No, 1 — 1954 Orange Bowl: Oklahoma 7, Maryland 0
Bud Wilkinson’s Oklahoma team was nine games into what would be an NCAA-record 47-game winning streak when the Sooners earned a berth in the 1954 Orange Bowl representing the Big Seven Conference against No. 1-ranked Maryland, the Atlantic Coast Conference champions.
The Jan. 1, 1954, Orange Bowl date with Maryland was just Oklahoma’s sixth postseason bowl appearance and their first in three years. The Sooners’ bowl record to that point was 3-2.
OU tailback Larry Grigg scored what would be the game’s only touchdown on a 25-yard run in the second quarter. Twice in the first quarter, Maryland had first downs with the ball inside the Sooner 10-yard line, and both times a stellar Oklahoma defensive stand denied the top-ranked Terrapins any points.
In the second quarter, a Maryland drive stalled at the from the OU 20-yard line, but a Terrapin field goal try into the wind sailed wide right. Maryland threatened to score again in the fourth quarter but a long pass by quarterback Charlie Boxhold was intercepted in the end zone by Grigg, who also played defensive back for the Sooners.
The Sooners finished the season 9-1-1 and ranked No. 4 in the country.
The head coach of Maryland was Jim Tatum, who coached one season at Oklahoma in 1946 before taking the head job at Maryland beginning with the 1947 season. Wilkinson was elevated to head coach replacing Tatum.
Another significant happening in this game was that it was the first bowl game in which the players had to play both ways.