Bennie Owen is the grandfather of both the OU football and basketball programs and the football field is still named after him to this day, though the stadium is not. Owen was the first of four OU football coaches to win 100 games, no other college program has more than three coaches that have reached that mark. Owen has been credited with developing the three point stance though few know if that is actually true or a crude joke based on the fact that he coached with only one arm for most of his career after losing his right arm in a hunting accident in his third season as the head football coach at OU, 1908. He also took over as basketball coach that same year and successfully coached both football and basketball until 1921 and remained as the football coach until 1926. thus 13 and 21 seasons, respectively. As, a basketball coach he went 113 and 49 posting two undefeated seasons. Owen met football greatness early, first playing for Fielding Yost at Kansas in 1899 and then joining Yost's coaching staff in Michigan and being part of Yost's point-a-minute squads in 1901 and 1902 where Michigan scored over 600 points in both seasons. After beating OU in 1903 and 1904 as the head coach at Bethany College in Kansas he was hired as the OU coach in 1905.  Owen would often get angry at his players and join scrimages as a player to amp up the intensity. Owen changed the culture at OU immediately going 7-2 his first year and OU and had two undefeated seasons in 1915 and 1918 winning the conference championship in the now defunct Southwest Conference in its inaugural season and 1915. He also lead the Sooners to a Missouri Valley Conference championship and an undefeated season in 1920. It was a different Athletic culture at OU pre-Bud Wilkinson and Owen often had to fight with budget constraints even being fired in 1908 for making too much ($3,500) by the state legislature before being reinstated due to politicking by the  university president.  He countered OU's lack of budget by having week-long road trips where his teams would play three games in the same week. Bennie Owen Records by Year   Records by Opponent     Year Team Win Loss Tie Pct. PF PA Delta 1905 Oklahoma 7 2 0 0.77778 229 55 174 1906 Oklahoma 5 2 2 0.66667 124 36 88 1907 Oklahoma 4 4 0 0.50000 181 75 106 1908 Oklahoma 8 1 1 0.85000 272 35 237 1909 Oklahoma 6 4 0 0.60000 203 107 96 1910 Oklahoma 4 2 1 0.64286 163 31 132 1911 Oklahoma 8 0 0 1.00000 282 15 267 1912 Oklahoma 5 4 0 0.55556 197 80 117 1913 Oklahoma 6 2 0 0.75000 323 44 279 1914 Oklahoma 9 1 1 0.86364 440 96 344 1915 Oklahoma 10 0 0 1.00000 370 54 316 1916 Oklahoma 6 5 0 0.54545 472 115 357 1917 Oklahoma 6 4 1 0.59091 451 103 348 1918 Oklahoma 6 0 0 1.00000 278 7 271 1919 Oklahoma 5 2 3 0.65000 275 63 212 1920 Oklahoma 6 0 1 0.92857 176 51 125 1921 Oklahoma 5 3 0 0.62500 127 102 25 1922 Oklahoma 2 3 3 0.43750 66 114 -48 1923 Oklahoma 3 5 0 0.37500 144 111 33 1924 Oklahoma 2 5 1 0.31250 28 80 -52 1925 Oklahoma 4 3 1 0.56250 93 44 49 1926 Oklahoma 5 2 1 0.68750 137 52 85   Totals 122 54 16 0.67708 5031 1470 3561 His overall record with OU was 122-54-16. Giving him a winning percentage .677. His teams scored 5031 points and only allowed 1470. Owen is a big reason why OU is the highest scoring football program of all time and installed the offensive mentality that has been a staple of OU athletics since his departure.  He was the first coach to bring the forward pass to the south-west portion of the country.  Of the big four OU coaches, Owen is the only one to not win a national championship though he had three undefeated season in 1915, 1918 and 1920. but do to regional Bias teams from the South, especially the Southwest were seldom considered for a NC which was much more based on polls then than even now.    Bennie Owen is the father of OU atheletics and is the foundation for the great programs is both sports. Bennie Owen was a charter member of the College Football Hall of fame when it opened in 1951.