Sooners to honor '74, '75 national championship teams at season opener

Former head coach Barry Switzer and members of his 1974 and 1975 Oklahoma national championship teams will be honored as part of the Sooners' 2024 season opener on Aug. 30 against the Temple Owls.

This season marks the 50th anniversary of Oklahoma's 1974 national championship, and the Sooners went back-to-back the very next season for national titles four and five in the school's illustrious gridiron history.

Switzer's teams went 31-1-1 in his first three seasons as head coach, losing only to Kansas in the 1975 season and playing to a 7-7 tie with then No. 1-ranked USC in the second game of the 1973 season.

Players, coaches and support staff members of the 1974 and '75 Oklahoma teams will be honored during halftime of the opening game. The halftime activities will begin with a National Football Foundation salute to former OU defensive lineman and All-American Dewey Selmon, who was a member of both Sooner teams and in December will become the 24th Oklahoma Sooner to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Dewey will join his late brother and Sooner teammate Lee Roy Selmon as a member of the Hall of Fame.

The 1974 and 1975 OU national championship teams were the first two of three national championship Sooner teams during the Switzer era. His 1985 Oklahoma team also won a national championship

The 1974 Sooner team went 11-0 and was the only undefeated team in the nation at the Division I level that season. There were eight All-Americans on that team, which averaged 43 points a game and yielded an average of 8.4 points to its opponents.

The 1975 OU team finished 11-1, with seven of the Sooners' wins coming against teams ranked in the top 20.

The events honoring Switzer and the two Oklahoma national champions of the 1970s are part of the season-long celebration recognizing the 100 years of Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

The 2024 season opener with Tulane was originally scheduled for Saturday in Week 1 but was moved to Friday, Aug. 30 for television. The game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. kickoff.