Sooner Legends - Coaches

“We compete, not so much against an opponent, but against ourselves. The real test is this: Did I make my best effort on every play?”

Years: 1947-1963
Place of Birth: Minneapolis, MN
Date of Birth: 4/23/1916
Place of Death: St. Louis, MO
Date of Death: 2/9/1994

 

  • Served in the navy during WW II  

  • Won 47 games in a row - more than any other team in history

  • 6 National Championships, 3 as coach at OU, 3 as Player at Minnesota

  • 14 Conference Championships

  • 6-2 in Bowl games

  • inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1969

Charles Burnham Wilkinson, better known as bud, took a mediocre program and turned it into a top program almost immediately, A native of Minnesota, he played with the University of Minnesota, Wilkinson helped lead the Golden Gophers to three consecutive national championships from 1934-36. After his senior season, he led a college all-star team to a 6-0 victory over the defending NFL champion Packers.

It was at the conclusion of WW II, Jim Tatum, then OU Coach, invited wilkinson to join his staff as an assistant. One year later, Tatum left Oklahoma to coach at Maryland, and the Wilkinson was named both Head Coach and Athletic Director. 

In his first season of 1947, Wilkinson led Oklahoma to a 7-2-1 record and a share of the conference championship, the first of 13 consecutive Big Six/Seven/Eight conference titles. he did not lose his first conference game until his 12th season as head coach in his 79th conference game.  Ultimately, Wilkinson would become one of the most celebrated college coaches of all time. His teams captured national championships in 1950, 1955, and 1956, and amassed a 145-29-4 (82.6%) overall record.

He is best known for coaching the team to a record 47 straight wins and had another streak of 31.  His 1955 Team is considered one of the best ever and he is the first college coach ever to have his own TV show. 

Head coaching record

 

YearTeamOverallConferenceStandingBowlCoaches#AP°
Oklahoma Sooners (Big Eight Conference) (1947–1963)
1947 Oklahoma 7–2–1 4-0-1 1   16
1948 Oklahoma 10–1 5-0 1 W Sugar Bowl 5
1949 Oklahoma 11–0 5-0 1 W Sugar Bowl 2
1950 Oklahoma 10–1 6-0 1 L Sugar Bowl 1 1
1951 Oklahoma 8–2 6-0 1   11 10
1952 Oklahoma 8–1–1 5-0-1 1   4 4
1953 Oklahoma 9–1–1 6-0 1 W Orange Bowl 5 4
1954 Oklahoma 10–0 6-0 1   3 3
1955 Oklahoma 11–0 6-0 1 W Orange Bowl 1 1
1956 Oklahoma 10–0 6-0 1   1 1
1957 Oklahoma 10–1 6-0 1 W Orange Bowl 4 4
1958 Oklahoma 10–1 7-0 1 W Orange Bowl 5 5
1959 Oklahoma 7–3 6-1 1   15 15
1960 Oklahoma 3–6–1 2-5    
1961 Oklahoma 5–5 4-3    
1962 Oklahoma 8–3 7-0 1   7 8
1963 Oklahoma 8–2 6-1     8 9
Total: 145–29–4  
      National Championship         Conference Title         Conference Division Title
#Rankings from final Coaches Poll (started in 1950) of the season.
°Rankings from final AP Poll of the season.

 

 

 

 

Wilkinson reitired from the Sooners after the 1963 season, Wilkinson came out of retirement in 1978, taking the reigns of the NFLs St. Louis Cardinals. In two seasons, he posted a 9-20 record and was fired at the end of the 1979 season. On February 9, 1994, he died of congestive heart failure at age 78.

Articles about Bud Wilkinson and his teams from the Sports Illustrated Vault:

September 18, 2006
Announced That he will retire after the final Formula One race of the year, driver Michael Schumacher (above). The 37-year-old German, who has won more F/1 championships (seven) than any other driver, announced his...

 

 

December 29, 2003 | Barry Switzer
The former Sooners coach on his life with the OU football juggernaut

 

 

September 17, 2001 | Ron Fimrite
The Undefeatedby Jim Dent/Thomas Dunne Books, $24.95

 

 

December 27, 1999
1 Bronko NagurskiGreat tackle, great fullback

 

 

September 04, 1995 | Paul Zimmerman
If you consider the a dynasty—and I do—then it's time to look at the historical question of why dynasties end. The Packers, the dynasty of the 1930s, were supplanted by the younger and tougher Bears, who ruled until...

 

October 17, 1994 | Rick Telander

 

 

February 21, 1994 | Edited by Jack McCallum

 

 

October 14, 1991 | Alexander Wolff

 

 

February 27, 1989 | Rick Telander

 

 

December 14, 1981 | Edited By Margaret Sieck
BEAR AND BUDSir:In his article on Coach Paul (Bear) Bryant ("I Do Love the Football," Nov. 23), Frank Deford brings another great coach into the picture, Bud Wilkinson, formerly of the Oklahoma Sooners. Deford wrote,...

 

September 07, 1981
.

 

 

December 10, 1979 | Edited by Myra Gelband
OPEN INVESTIGATION

 

 

September 04, 1978 | Joe Marshall
could win this division playing its reserves, its only weakness being at placekicker. When All-Pro Efren Herrera demanded to renegotiate his contract, Dallas shipped him off to Seattle. But as scout Cornell Green...

 

 

July 31, 1978 | Bruce Newman
Prospects for the upcoming season looked dim to the St. Louis Cardinals. Then out of the pages of yesteryear came the whistle blasts of the great Coach Wilkinson

 

 

January 19, 1976 | John Underwood
March 11, 1974 | Harold Peterson
The Gamekeepers' Dinner at Newport, Shropshire, on April 8 should be a real prize. "Lord Stafford will preside at the dinner," reports the Country Landowner, a normally high-toned British publication, "after which...

 

 

October 02, 1972 | John Underwood

 

 

January 20, 1969
Bus Mosbacher, the famed racing yachtsman and twice a victorious America's Cup skipper, has been named Presidentelect Richard Nixon's Chief of Protocol. Other sportsmen upon whom Mr. Nixon has called are Bud...

 

 

October 26, 1964
•Louis E. DePauli, district attorney of Gallup, N. Mex., refusing to act on Internal Revenue Service reports of World Series lottery pools at local bars: "This is a special time of year."

 

 

July 27, 1964 | Tommy McDonald
November 25, 1963 | Mervin Hyman
THE WEST

 

October 28, 1963
APES IN THE IVYSirs:Dick Kazmaier hits the spot in his Open Letter to a College President (Oct. 14), but not hard enough. Athletic "scholarships" are awarded and continued primarily for athletic performance of a...

 

 

October 07, 1963 | Dan Jenkins
In the breathless heat of Los Angeles' Coliseum, Oklahoma held on to the ball almost twice as long as USC and soundly thrashed the country's top-ranked team

 

 

September 30, 1963
On Anticosti Island a Frenchman named Menier set free 100 pairs of deer in the last years of the 19th century. Today Anticosti affords the best deer hunting in North America.

 

 

September 23, 1963 | Compiled by Mervin Hyman, Dan Jenkins, Harold Peterson, John Underwood

 

SATURDAY'S TOUGH ONES

 

October 10, 1960 | Sidney L. James
Food has been a sporting proposition to this magazine since the very beginning. In our September 12, 1955 issue, for instance, Joan Flynn Dreyspool visited the home of Bud Wilkinson, the great Oklahoma coach. There...

 

 

July 04, 1960
SERMON ON THE MOUNDEvangelist Billy Graham told a Washington, D.C. crowd of 17,000, including Vice-President Nixon: "Mr. Nixon has asked me to pray for the Washington Senators, and I told him I would—if they get two...

 

 

December 07, 1959 | Kenneth Rudeen
Fans were baffled—happily or sadly—by some teams in 1959. But every football miracle has its explanation

 

 

November 02, 1959
WILDLIFE: CONSERVATIONSirs:Mr. Knight states that predator-control campaigns sponsored by the Bureau of Biological Survey have aided the return of the pronghorn (The Comeback of the American Antelope, SI, Oct. 19)....

 

 

October 19, 1959 | Kenneth Rudeen

 

October 05, 1959 | Kenneth Rudeen

 

 

December 22, 1958

 

 

January 20, 1958 | Roy Terrell

 

 

December 23, 1957
OKLAHOMA

 

 

November 18, 1957 | Tex Maule
October 22, 1956 | Tex Maule
Go! Go! Go! Go! OKLAHOMA 45 TEXAS 0

 

 

January 23, 1956

 

 

January 16, 1956 | Herman Hickman
The far-flung spectacle of the bowl games over the New Year weekend, with their drama, triumph and tragedy, tempts me to review them from the vantage point of a theater critic on opening night. In this mood, it might...

 

 

January 09, 1956 | Jack Roberts
The so-called national football championship was getting to be a New Year's Day jinx until Oklahoma put an abrupt stop to such nonsense in the Orange Bowl last Monday. Only once since Texas A&M won in the Sugar Bowl...

 

 

December 26, 1955
January 10, 1955 | Bud Wilkinson
Bud Wilkinson, in eighth season as head coach at the University of Oklahoma, has led the Sooners to 19 straight victories. At Oklahoma, Wilkinson has always won or tied for the Big Seven title.

 

 

January 10, 1955
For five hours on New Year's Day, tens of millions of Americans spun their TV dials and saw enough football to qualify them as amateur experts. To offer the professional expert's view, SI sent Coach Red Sanders of...

 

 

November 08, 1954 | Patty Berg