For 100 years, the Associated Press has honored the best players in college football every season with selections to the AP All-America Team. Oklahoma is one of the schools that is most represented on that century-old list.
In recognition of the 100-year anniversary of the AP All-America Football Team, a panel of AP sportswriters who cover college football took on the arduous and highly controversial task of selecting an all-time first- and second-team of AP All-Americans. Three former Oklahoma Sooners were among those chosen, albeit as second-team designations, including linebacker Brian Bosworth, tight end Keith Jackson and defensive lineman Lee Roy Selmon.
All three players, interestingly, played for head coach Barry Switzer: Bosworth and Jackson in the decade of the 1980s and Selmon in the 1970s.
Brian Bosworth, Keith Jackson, Lee Roy Selmon among AP greats
Oklahoma has had 75 players selected all-time as AP All-Americans. That is the fifth most of any school, trailing only Notre Dame (85), Alabama (83), Ohio State (79) and USC (77).
In three seasons playing for Oklahoma, "The Boz" recorded 395 tackles and helped lead the Sooners to three Big Eight conference championships and a 1985 national title. The two-time consensus All-American and twice Butkus Award winner was one of the greatest players in OU history, but sadly he was one of the most controversial figures to ever play at OU.
Bosworth was banned from playing in the Orange Bowl his junior season after testing positive for steroids. While standing on the sideline during the 1987 Orange Bowl game, he removed his shirt to reveal a t-shirt containing the wording, "NCAA: National Communists against Athletes." Switzer later dismissed Bosworth from the team, and he entered the 1987 NFL Supplemental Draft, where he was selected as the No. 1 overall pick.
The fact that Keith Jackson was named to the AP All-Time All-America Team speaks to his overall talent and performance while playing the tight-end position in run-oriented Oklahoma Wishbone offenses. Like Bosworth, Jackson played on OU's 1985 national championship team. The Sooner tight end had 62 total receptions in four seasons at Oklahoma (1984-87) for 1,470 yards and 14 touchdowns. The Sooners were a combined 42-5-1 in Jackson's four seasons, during which he was twice named a unanimous All-American.
Jackson was a first-round selection of the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1988 NFL Draft and went on to play nine seasons in the NFL for three different teams (Philadelphia, Miami and Green Bay). He was a four-time NFL All-Pro selection.
Lee Roy Selmon was a unanimous first-team All-American in 1975 and was a second-team selection in 1974. He played on Oklahoma's 1974 and 1975 national championship teams as a defensive lineman and was awarded both the Outland Trophy and the Lombardi Award in 1975 for being the best at his position in college football. Many consider the Oklahoma native to be the greatest defensive player in OU history.
Selmon had 335 tackles in four seasons at Oklahoma, third all-time among Sooner defensive linemen and 12th all-time in program history. He was the No. 1 overall player taken in the 1976 NFL Draft, taken by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he played for nine seasons, earning three NFL All-Pro selections, as well as NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1979. Selmon is one of just two Oklahoma players to be named to both the College Football Hall of Fame and the NFL Hall of Fame (Tommy McDonald is the other).
To qualify for consideration and selection to the AP All-Time All-America Team, a player was required to have made first-team AP All-American at least once. The Sooners certainly had a number of those, but they also had 14 former players, including Bosworth and Jackson, who achieved two-time AP All-American status. The others were running backs Tommy McDonald, Greg Pruitt and Billy Sims, lineman Jim Weatherall, linebackers Rod Shoate, George Cumby, Rocky Calmus and Teddy Lehman, offensive guard Mark Hutson and Duke Robinson, and defensive tackles Tony Casillas and Tommie Harris.
In 10 decades since the first AP All-America Team in 1925, Oklahoma has had the most AP All-Americans in four of them: 1950s (11), 1970s (19), 1980s (13) and 2000s (16). Since 2010, however, Alabama has dominated the AP All-America selections with 37 over the past 15 years. That is the most selections in back-to-back decades in AP All-America Team history.
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