The retirement of jersey numbers in college football is an age-old tradition of honoring and recognizing great players and performances of the past that dates back nearly a century. A large number of major collegiate institutions have a select list of retired jersey numbers, but you might be surprised to know that Oklahoma is not one of them.
And the Sooners are not alone in that non-traditional approach. Several of the most iconic brands in college football -- the likes of Alabama, USC and Notre Dame, along with OU -- have elected not to officially retire football jersey numbers.Oklahoma is one of five SEC schools that does not officially retire football jersey numbers. The others are Alabama, Florida, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt.
What's so ironic about this intriguing fact -- and possibly the reason for it -- is that each of those schools has had so many great players in its history, including Heisman Trophy winners, multi-year All-Americans and top individual award winners, and too many of those former greats who might qualify for such an honor wore the same jersey number.
In the earlier days of college football, when players would play two ways, on offense as well as defense, one player was assigned to one number. In the modern world of platoon football in the college game, however, players on offense and defense on the same team can wear the same jersey number.
For example, on Oklahoma's 2025 roster, quarterback John Mateer wears No. 10. Linebacker Kip Lewis also wears No. 10. That adds up to a lot of players over time assigned to the same jersey number.
Over the last 75 years, or since the Bud Wilkinson era of OU football, you could literally single out one or more all-time Oklahoma football greats for every jersey number 0 through 99. Wouldn't that be an impressive ring of honor adorning the football facility?
It's funny, really, how many football fans remember former great players as much, if not more, by their jersey number than anything they accomplished on the field of play.
Take the No. 20, worn by as many as 36 different Sooners since the middle of the past century and the number on the jersey of one of Oklahoma's and college football's all-time great players in Heisman Trophy winner Billy Sims. The two-time unanimous All-American in 1978-79 and two-time Big 8 Offensive Player of the Year ranks second all-time in career rushing at Oklahoma with 4,118 yards and 53 touchdowns. He averaged nearly seven yards every time he carried the ball and produced seven 200-yard games.
That brings me around to an interesting Oklahoma football trivia question: While Sims is arguably the greatest Oklahoma offensive player to wear No. 20, what Sooner two-time consensus All-American on defense wore that same number? Here's a hint: He played for Bob Stoops and on the Sooners' last national championship team. He was the Butkus Award winner in 2001 as the country's premier college linebacker.
Still stumped? The initials of our mystery No. 20 on defense are R.C...as in Rocky Calmus.