No. 1 — RB Billy Sims
Here we are recognizing Billy Sims as the greatest Oklahoma football player of the last 75 years if not all-time, and he almost didn’t attend the University of Oklahoma. Sims grew up in Texas, and he really wanted to stay in the Lone Star State to play football.
When Barry Switzer and the Sooner recruiting staff first made contact with Sims, he wasn’t aware that OU had players from the state of Texas on the roster. Sims had fully intended to go to Baylor and informed the Sooners of that when they first reached out to him. Switzer, however, had other visions and was willing to go to all ends to persuade the young high school phenom from Hooks, Texas, to change direction — something he did with the best of them on the football field.
The weekend after Sims had made a recruiting visit to OU in 1974, Oklahoma was playing Colorado and led 28-0 heading to the locker room at halftime. Joe Washington had already run up 198 rushing yards in the first half of that game, but Switzer decided he needed to make a phone call to another running back.
Switzer told an ESPN reporter in 2019 that he stepped out of the locker room and went to a pay phone to place a call to a gas station in Hooks, Texas, where Sims was supposedly working.
"“I don’t give a damn, go out and pump it for him, get him on the phone,” Switzer recalled for the reporter. “Billly, this shows how we feel about you and how much we want you,” Switzer told the ESPN reporter in recalling the conversation with Sims. “I came here and used this telephone to call you personally to talk to you about coming to the University of Oklahoma.”"
The rest is history, as they say. As we all know, Sims did end up attending Oklahoma, and he left a galloping wake looking back at his five-year Sooner career. It took a little time before Sims was able to truly show off his incredible skills.
Sims only played in one game his freshman season in 1975, and injuries kept him out for most of his sophomore season. As a result, he was able to redshirt and gain an extra year of eligibility. Injuries continued to hold him back as a redshirt sophomore in 1977, but fully healthy in 1978 and ’79, literally and figuratively broke loose, displaying the full arsenal of what he could do.
In the 1978 season, Sims rushed for 1,896 yards and 20 touchdowns and averaged close to 8.0 yards per carry. The Sooners were 11-1 that season, and Sims was awarded the Heisman Trophy. At the time, he was only the sixth junior to do so.
The following season, in 1979, Sims rushed for 1,670 yards and 23 touchdowns. He finished second in the Heisman voting that season to Charles White of USC.
Sims was named a consensus All-American in both 1978 and ’79 and presently ranks second on the Oklahoma career rushing list with 4,118 yards, a record that stood for 37 years before Samaje Perine topped it in 2016 with 4,122 yards.
As the famous pay-phone story goes, Switzer made two promises to Sims on that phone call: First of all, the OU coach said, I’m going to make sure you get your degree and graduate (which Sims did), and second, you’re going to win the Heisman Trophy (which he also did, and almost twice).