Oklahoma football: Five best Sooner coaches who never won a national title
By Chip Rouse
Chuck Fairbanks
Chuck Fairbanks joined head coach Jim Mackenzie’s Oklahoma staff in 1966 as a 33-year-old assistant following 4-year stops as an assistant at both Arizona and Houston. His assistant role at OU was as defensive backs coach. At the end of the 1966 season, Fairbanks was promoted to offensive coordinator.
Following the 37-year-old Mackenzie’s unexpected death in April 1967 after just one season, Fairbanks was appointed head coach of the Sooners. With Barry Switzer brought in from Arkansas as the Sooners new offensive coordinator, Oklahoma went 10-1 in 1967 in his first season as head coach won the Big Eight Conference crown with a perfect 7-0 record.
The Sooners’ win total tailed off some over the subsequent three seasons, but Oklahoma posted 11 wins in each of his final two season in Norman in 1971 and 1972.
In six full seasons at Oklahoma, Fairbanks’ Sooners compiled an overall record of 52-15-1. He left after the 1972 season to take over as head coach of the New England Patriots in the NFL.
Shortly after Fairbanks left, Oklahoma was cited for recruiting violations under his watch As a result, the Sooners were forced to forfeit nine games from the 1972 season and were made ineligible for a postseason bowl appearance and the United Press national championship for two years. That left a black mark on Fairbanks’ otherwise successful run as head coach of the Sooners.
Switzer succeeded Fairbanks as the 17th head coach at Oklahoma, and the rest is history.