Tom Stidham
Biff Jones, a name most living Oklahoma football fans will never recall, was head coach when Tom Stidham was hired to the staff to coach the Sooner linemen. Stidham served in that capacity for two seasons.
In 1937, Jones left OU to become head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, one of the Sooners biggest rivals and chief conference rival. Stidham was hired as his Oklahoma replacement.
Oklahoma finished the 1937 season, Stidham’s first as head coach, with a 5-2-2 overall record and a second-place finish in what at the time was known as the Big Six Conference. The following season, however, the Sooners went 10-0 in the regular season and were conference champions.
No. 4 Oklahoma was matched up against No. 2 Tennessee in the Orange Bowl that season, where the SEC champions defeated Stidham’s Oklahoma team 17-0, handing the Sooners their only loss of the 1938 season.
Stidham coached two more years at Oklahoma but was unable to match the championship season of 1938. The Sooners won 12 of 18 games during 1939 and 1940, and Stidham left the Oklahoma plains and became head coach at Marquette in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Next it was Dewey Luster’s turn in the Sooner head-coaching seat.