LB Brian Bosworth was one of the more colorful and physical players in Sooner football history. He was also one of the most talented.
The “Boz,” as he was known to his teammates and by the fans, played the inside linebacker position during his time at Oklahoma and was known for playing his best in big games and on the big stage. He was the recipient of the first two Butkus Awards in 1985 and 1986, presented to the most outstanding linebacker in college football.
As his college career matriculated, the “Boz” also became highly controversial. Bosworth was extremely critical of the NCAA and that organization’s control over student-athletes. He was an early advocate for players making money during their collegiate careers.
Late in his junior season, Bosworth was hit with a suspension for steroid use that prevented him from playing in the 1987 Orange Bowl. During the third quarter of that game, he revealed a t-shirt that had the inscription “NCAA: National Communists Against Athletes.” Barry Switzer later dismissed him from the team, and Bosworth entered the NFL supplemental draft in 1987, going in the first round to the Seattle Seahawks.
LB George Cumby ranks fourth on the Sooners’ career list with 437 tackles. He was a four-year player at Oklahoma from 1976-79 and was a three-time All-American. He was a consensus first-team All-America selection his senior season in 1979. He was named Defensive Newcomer in the Big Eight his debut season and twice was named Defensive Player of the Year in the conference (1978 and ’79).
Barry Switzer once said this about his star linebacker: “(He was) the only person I know who could go one-on-one with (Texas great running back) Earl Campbell and knock him backwards.”
QB Baker Mayfield played the final three years of his college career at Oklahoma, but that was not where he began his college career. He played his freshman season at Texas Tech in 2013, where he was a walk-on. After his freshman season, he transferred to OU, where he had always dreamed of playing as a kid growing up in the Austin, Texas area. Only, Oklahoma did not recruit him.
Mayfield was required to sit out a season because of the NCAA transfer rule, but led the OU scout team at quarterback in 2014 before beating out the Sooner incumbent QB Trevor Knight for the starting job the following season. The rest is history.
Mayfield assumed a leadership role the minute he stepped on the OU campus. In three seasons as the OU starting quarterback, he led the Sooners to three consecutive Big 12 championships and two College Football Playoff appearances. He finished his OU career with 12,292 passing yards and 119 touchdowns, second only to Landry Jones (16,646 and 123). Mayfield ranks second in FBS history with a passing efficiency rating of 175.4 (Sooner Sam Bradford is first at 175.6).
In 2017, Mayfield became Oklahoma’s sixth Heisman Trophy winner; he was also a finalist in 2016.
QB Jack Mildren was best known at Oklahoma as the “Godfather of the Wishbone.” Barry Switzer was offensive coordinator for the Sooners under head coach Chuck Fairbanks when OU installed the Wishbone offense. Switzer knew that the Wishbone required a quarterback with a specific set of skills: a combination of quickness, strength, a high football IQ and quick decision making. Mildren fit that bill.
It took a while to get the timing and execution down, but when the Sooners did over the second half of the 1970 season, the Oklahoma offense became virtually unstoppable.
Mildren was the OU quarterback in the 1971 game with No. 1 Nebraska billed as the “Game of the Century.” The Sooners came up just short in that thrilling nationally televised game, losing 35-31 to the Cornhuskers, but finished No. 2 in the country. In his 1971 senior season, Mildren set program records that have since been exceeded. He led OU to an 11-1 record, collecting 1,140 rushing yards, at the time the most ever by a Soon er QB, along with a record 25 touchdown passes and a season passing efficiency rating of 209.0.
C Jerry Tubbs played three seasons at Oklahoma from 1954 to 1956. Tubbs played a total of 31 games for the Sooners and has the distinction of never losing a game at OU. The Sooners were a perfect 31-0 while Tubbs was on the team.
The Dallas, Texas, native played on two national championship Oklahoma teams. He began his OU career filling in a fullback for the injured Billy Pricer. Tubbs had never played in the backfield before, but he averaged 6.1 yards per carry serving in that role in the 1954 season. The next year, head coach Bud Wilkinson moved Tubbs to center, which is where he stood out in his Oklahoma career. He also played some linebacker on defense.
Tubbs was an All-Big Seven selection in 1955 and 1956 and was a unanimous All-America center selection in 1956. That same season, Tubbs places fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting, which was highly unusual for a lineman.