Oklahoma Sooners

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Oklahoma Sooners
Mosier Indoor Track Facility
Other venuesMcCasland Field House
Vierson Gymnastics Center
MascotSooner Schooner
NicknameSooners
Fight songBoomer Sooner
ColorsCrimson and cream[1]
   
Websitesoonersports.com
Big 12 Conference logo in Oklahoma's colors

The Oklahoma Sooners are the

Land Run of 1889, which initially opened the Unassigned Lands in the future state of Oklahoma to non-native settlement.[2][3] The university's athletic teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)'s Division I in the Big 12 Conference. The university's current athletic director is Joe Castiglione
.

The Sooners have won 43 team national championships. In 2002, the University of Oklahoma was ranked as the third best college sports program in America by Sports Illustrated.[4]

Sports sponsored

Men's sports Women's sports
Baseball Basketball
Basketball Cross country
Cross country Golf
Football Gymnastics
Golf Rowing
Gymnastics Soccer
Tennis Softball
Track and field Tennis
Wrestling Track and field
Volleyball
† – Track and field includes both indoor and outdoor

The University of Oklahoma was a charter member of the

Big Six Conference. Over the next 31 years, more schools were added and the conference underwent several name changes, incrementing the number each time up to the Big Eight Conference where it remained until 1996. Four Texas schools joined with the members of Big Eight to form the current Big 12 Conference
.

In July 2021, Oklahoma and the University of Texas at Austin accepted invitations to join the Southeastern Conference after the two universities had reached out the conference.[5] In May 2023, it was announced that the two universities had approved the necessary contractual agreements with both conferences in order officially join the SEC on July 1, 2024.[6] Oklahoma will remain as an affiliate member of the Big 12 in men's wrestling as the SEC does not sponsor the sport, no other sport will be affected.[7]

When combined with

John Wooden Award and Sam Bradford's Heisman Trophy, Oklahoma became the second school to have a top winner in both basketball and football in the same year (in 1968, Gary Beban won the Heisman Trophy and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
won the USBWA "Player of the Year" award for UCLA).

Football

Oklahoma Memorial Stadium

The Sooners have been participating in

Owen Field home, the team has won numerous bowl games, 50 conference championships (including every Big Seven championship awarded), and seven Associated Press National Championships, making the Sooners football program the most decorated in the Big 12. Oklahoma has scored the most points in Division I-A football history despite the fact they have played over 60 fewer games than the second place school on that list.[8] OU also has the highest winning percentage of any team since the start of the AP poll in 1936.[9]

The Sooners possess 7 national championships in football, with 1950, 1955, 1956, 1974, 1975, 1985, and 2000 seasons featuring the top team in the

most AP titles of any Division I college football team after the end of World War II (which is commonly used as the division between eras in college football).[10][11]

In addition to these seven acknowledged national championships there are also ten additional years in which the NCAA's official record book lists other selections (mostly by math rating systems) of the Sooners as national champions, with the first four years in retrospect: 1915, 1949, 1953, 1957, 1967, 1973, 1978, 1980, 1986, 2003.

(BCS).

The Oklahoma squad in a pregame huddle.

Individual success is also a major part of Oklahoma football; seven

Mark Clayton, Tommie Harris, J. C. Watts, Keith Jackson, and Jammal Brown. More than a dozen Sooner players have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame
. Oklahoma has more Butkus award winners than any other school.

Oklahoma University – Memorial Stadium – Norman, Oklahoma (6088942148)

Coaches

Owen Field in honor of his long tenure and devotion to the university. Wilkinson left many imprints on the game, such as the 5–2 defense with five linemen and two linebackers; the perfection of the Split-T, an early option offense; three national championships; and his teams set the NCAA Division 1 record for consecutive wins at 47 (started October 10, 1953, vs. Texas and ended in 1957 with a loss to Notre Dame 7–0). Switzer won three national championships (the National Championship of 1975 is highly controversial; Arizona State went 12–0 that season while Oklahoma was 11–1) and forged arguably the fiercest rushing offense ever,[citation needed] the Oklahoma wishbone formation, throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Though the end of Switzer's tenure at Oklahoma was marked by controversy and poor player behavior, he is generally well regarded by both his past players and Sooner fans.[citation needed] During his 16 years as the Sooners' head coach, Switzer led his team to 12 conference championships and never lost more than two games in a row. His winning percentage of .837 stands as the fourth-highest in the history of 1-A football. Other Hall of Fame coaches whose tenure included stints at the University of Oklahoma are Lawrence "Biff" Jones
and Jim Tatum.

Baseball

The Oklahoma Baseball tradition is long, proud and storied, with two National Championships in 1951 and 1994, along with numerous All-Americans. Their home field is L. Dale Mitchell Baseball Park, named after famed player Dale Mitchell. The current coach is Skip Johnson. The baseball program was a source of recent controversy when the head coach, Larry Cochell, resigned after making racially insensitive remarks about one of the players on the team.

During the 2005–2006 season, the Sooners were given a home regional at L. Dale Mitchell Park and were named the No. 1 seed. They beat the University of Houston, Texas Christian University, and Wichita State University to win the regional and advanced to a Super Regional where they were defeated by Rice University in a best-of-three series. Oregon State University went on to win the College World Series that year.

Prior to 2006, the Sooners hosted regionals at minor league parks in Oklahoma City, first

Oklahoma Redhawks, the Class AAA affiliate of the Houston Astros
, led OU to bid for future regionals at its on-campus stadium.

Men's basketball

The men's basketball team is highly successful and rose to national prominence since the early 80s with head coach Billy Tubbs and three time All-American power forward Wayman Tisdale. It currently plays in the Lloyd Noble Center, which came to be known as the house Alvan Adams built and Tisdale filled. While the team has never won a national championship, it ranks second in most tournament wins without a championship behind Illinois. The team played in the 1988 national championship game but lost to Kansas, despite having beaten the Jayhawks twice earlier in the season. The program has won a combined twenty regular-season and tournament conference championships.

The Sooners headed into the 2005–06 season ranked No. 5 in the AP preseason poll, led by Taj Gray, Kevin Bookout, Terrell Everett, and David Godbold, but had a disappointing early season. After the emergence of Michael Neal as a potential star, the Sooners salvaged a No. 3 seed in the Big 12 Conference Tournament but lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

On March 29, 2006, Kelvin Sampson left the University of Oklahoma to become the head basketball coach at Indiana University. 13 days later, on April 11, 2006, Oklahoma Athletic Director Joe Castiglione named Jeff Capel III the new head coach. Capel encountered trouble in his first few months as several players who had been recruited by Sampson backed out of their commitments. Also, under Sampson's watch, Oklahoma was placed under a three-year investigation by the NCAA for recruiting violations. At the end of their investigation, the NCAA issued a report citing more than 550 illegal calls made by Sampson and his staff to 17 different recruits. The NCAA barred Sampson from recruiting off campus and making phone calls for one year, ending May 24, 2007.[14] The Sooners looked to continue a streak of 12 consecutive postseason tournament appearances in 2006–2007, but were disappointed when they did not receive a bid for either the NCAA Tournament or the NIT.

In the 2009 NBA draft, the Sooners produced the No. 1 overall draft selection Blake Griffin.[15]

Women's basketball

OU women's basketball began during the 1974–75 academic year.

Connecticut Huskies. The Sooners won seven Big 12 titles in the 2000's and became a mainstay in the NCAA Tournament, advancing to the Final Four in 2009 and 2010.[19]

Men's golf

The men's golf team has won 19 conference championships:

The Sooners won the

NCAA Championship
in 1989 and 2017. OU has also crowned two individual national champions: Walter Emery in 1933 and Jim Vickers in 1952.

Several Sooners have had successful amateur and professional careers after college:

2018 Emirates Australian Open
).

Men's gymnastics

national championship
.

The men's gymnastics program at OU is headed by coach Mark Williams. It has won twelve

Penn State in 2004 and 2007).[22][23] They won the 2006 title with very little experience on the team as 50% of the members were freshmen and just 21% were upperclassmen (seven freshmen, four sophomores, one junior, and two seniors).[22] Teams from OU also won national championships in 1977, 1978, 1991, and became the third program in history to win four consecutive championships when they won in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.[24]
In 2015, the Sooners broke the NCAA scoring record in a duel meet against Michigan scoring 456.4 points and then broke their own record two weeks later against Illinois scoring 457.3 points.

Gymnastics began at the school in 1902. The program folded in 1917 when the original coach left. The program was revived in 1965 with the new coach,

Nissen Award winners than any other university and is the only school to have back-to-back Nissen Award winners.[25]

Women's gymnastics

The women's gymnastics program is headed by

K. J. Kindler. The Sooners have won 14 Big 12 conference titles, 8 regional championships, and six [26] national championship titles (2014, a co-championship with Florida and in 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022, and 2023). The Sooners have also won seven individual titles in their history, with Kelly Garrison (all-around in 1987; all-around, bars and beam in 1988), Taylor Spears (beam in 2014), Nicole Lehrmann (bars in 2017), and Maggie Nichols (bars in 2017) claiming honors.[27]

Women's rowing

On May 10, 2007, the University announced the addition of women's rowing to the intercollegiate athletics program started by well-respected rower Candie Garrett.[28] The University hired head coach Leeanne Crain in the spring of 2008. Assistant Coaches Kris Muhl and Andrew Derrick followed Crain from the University of Central Florida to jumpstart OU's program. Muhl took a head coaching position at Jacksonville University during summer 2009. Former UVA rower and Alabama Novice coach Marina Traub was hired as the varsity assistant coach in Fall 2009.[29]

The University of Oklahoma women's rowing team practices in the Oklahoma City River (formerly the Canadian River), located in the Bricktown area of Oklahoma City. The river was designated as a U.S. Olympic Training Center for the sports of kayaking, canoeing, and rowing on July 28, 2009. The University's boathouse was completed in 2011.

Women's soccer

The women's soccer team plays in the Big 12 Conference. Their home ground is John Crain Field in the OU Soccer Complex.

As of 2021 the head coach is Mark Carr, a graduate of Bournemouth University, who was formerly head coach of the United States women's national under-20 soccer team.[30][31]

Softball

The OU softball program qualified four times for the AIAW WCWS (1975, 1980, 1981, 1982) and 16 times for the Women's College World Series (Division I) (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021,2022,and 2023).[32]

In October 1994, OU hired Patty Gasso as the fifth head coach in program history. In 29 years, she has built OU into one of the premier collegiate softball programs in the nation. Within her first five seasons in Norman, Gasso led the Sooners to the final Big Eight championship (1995) and 15 Big 12 titles (1996,1999,2000,2009,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2021,2022,and 2023).

In 2000, Oklahoma won its first Women's College World Series title by defeating perennial power UCLA. It marked the first national championship by a women's athletics program in school history. OU rolled through the 2013 season en route to its second WCWS title. The 2016 Sooners won the program's third national title while starting four sophomores and four freshmen. Despite entering the 2017 postseason tournament as a No. 10 national seed, OU won its second consecutive WCWS title and fourth overall. Game One of the WCWS champion series featured a 17-inning thriller in which the Sooners defeated Florida 7-5. The 2021 WCWS saw OU drop its opener to James Madison before rebounding to earn a spot in the championship series against Florida State. The Sooners defeated the Seminoles in three games to win the program's fifth national title.

Men's and women's track and field

The men's and women's outdoor track and field teams host meets at the John Jacobs Track and Field Complex. The men's and women's indoor track and field teams host meets at the Mosier Indoor Track Facility.

Wrestling

McCasland Field House, home of OU's volleyball and wrestling teams.
Several of the main athletic facilities at the Norman campus

The Sooner wrestling program was established in 1920 and is the fourth most decorated in college wrestling, having won seven NCAA national championships in 1936, 1951, 1952, 1957, 1960, 1963 and 1974. The Sooners are considered a power in their own right and Bedlam matches draw big home crowds, with the Howard McCasland Field House being the home for Sooner Wrestling. There are numerous All-Americans and National Champions that have wrestled for the Oklahoma Sooners. Mark Cody was head coach of the program for five years before his resignation in 2016. During his time, Cody coached the Sooners to 10th in 2014. Under Cody, the Sooners had ten All-Americans and two national champions (Kendric Maple and Cody Brewer). Roger Kish took over as head coach in May 2023.[33]

Notable Oklahoma Sooner wrestlers include:

  • Melvin Douglas – 2-time NCAA Champion, World Champion, and 8 time U.S. National Champion in freestyle wrestling
  • Tommy Evans – 2-time NCAA Champion and 2-time NCAA Outstanding Wrestler
  • Jared Frayer – 2-time NCAA All-American and National Finalist, competed at 2012 Summer Olympics
  • Dan Hodge – 3-time NCAA Champion, 2-time Outstanding Wrestler, and namesake of Dan Hodge Trophy award which is awarded to America's best college wrestler
  • Mickey Martin – 3-time NCAA Champion and NCAA Outstanding Wrestler
  • Dave Schultz – NCAA, World and Olympic Champion
  • Mark Schultz – 3-time NCAA Champion, NCAA Outstanding Wrestler, 2-time World Champion and Olympic Champion
  • Wayne Wells – NCAA, World and Olympic Champion

Oklahoma Sooner Wrestling team accomplishments:

  • 23 Conference Titles
  • 263 All-Americans
  • 65 individual NCAA Champions
  • 7 NCAA Championships: 1936, 1951, 1952, 1957, 1960, 1963 and 1974[34]

Notable non-varsity sports

Rugby

Oklahoma plays

college rugby
competition in the US, and is broadcast live on NBC each year.

The Oklahoma University Rugby Football Club was established in 1974. OU Rugby has experienced success since its founding, including an undefeated record in the 1983–1984 season, and reached the national quarter-finals five times from 1980 to 1990.

US national rugby team, and went on to become OU's first professional rugby player.[35]
Oklahoma finished the 2005 season with a 19–1 record.

Rivalries

Nebraska Cornhuskers

A traditional college football rivalry with the

Big 12
Championship Game, with Oklahoma again the victor in a close game by a score of 23–20. This turned out to be the final conference meeting between the two teams, as Nebraska departed for the Big Ten Conference the following season.

Oklahoma State Cowboys

Oklahoma's shares an intrastate rivalry with the

Tulsa. Oklahoma currently leads the series 86–18–7 in football, and 125-88 in basketball[36]
In baseball the series is tied at 147–147, and in wrestling Oklahoma trails the series 27–128–9.

Texas Longhorns

Reminder for OU students of rivalry with the dates of every game for the past 20 years. With construction of a new pedestrian mall, this painting was replicated outside Nielsen Hall close to the clock tower in front of Bizzell Library. Until May 2006, it was located at the South Oval.

The Texas Longhorns are one rival of the Sooners. Regardless of the trademark implications, inverted versions of the Longhorn mascot can be seen on automobiles all over the Norman campus, and many T-shirts referring to the rivalry present the word "Texas" in mirror image, upside-down, or possibly surrounded by obscenities. A reminder of the rivalry shared by these two schools was painted on the South Oval of the OU campus for many years, and was recently replicated near the Library clock tower due to construction at its original site.

The annual game between the schools at the

Red River Showdown
, is a game that draws attention from all around the college football world.

Traditions

The "fight song" of the University of Oklahoma is "

Oklahoma!", "OK Oklahoma", played after extra points, and the "OU Chant
." At home games, The Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band plays that visiting team's "fight song" while facing their fans.

The Mascot present at all football games is the Sooner Schooner, a Conestoga wagon, pulled by two crème white ponies, Boomer and Sooner. The caretakers of the wagon are the spirit group called the RUF/NEKS, who shoot off modified shotguns in celebration of scores by the home team. The group was launched in 1915 when an elderly female spectator at an OU-Oklahoma A&M basketball game chided the group for raising hell ("Sit down and be quiet, you roughnecks!")[37]

Recently, in time for the 2005 football season, two new mascots, based on the ponies who pull the Schooner, were created, named appropriately, Boomer and Sooner. They are costumes of two identical (except for eye color) crème white ponies. Before, the Boomer and Sooner costume mascots, OU was also represented by Top Dawg. Top Dawg did some appearances at football games, but was primarily used at wrestling and basketball events.

The official school colors are Crimson and Cream, with red and white sometimes used as substitutes for simplicity.[38] The school logo is an interlocking OU design.[39]

Championships

National Team Championships

National Championships (43)
Men's (30)
Sport Year Head coach Overall record
Baseball 1951 Jack Baer 16–9
1994 Larry Cochell 50–17
Football 1950 Bud Wilkinson 10–1
1955 11–0
1956 10–0
1974 Barry Switzer 11–0
1975 11–1
1985 11–1
2000 Bob Stoops 13–0
Golf 1989 Gregg Grost
2017 Ryan Hybl
Gymnastics 1977 Paul Ziert
1978 10–1
1991 Greg Buwick 15–1
2002 Mark Williams 28–1
2003 26–0
2005 21–2
2006
2008
2015
2016
2017
2018
Wrestling 1936 Paul V. Keen
1951 Port Robertson
1952
1957
1960 Tommy Evans
1963
1974 Stan Abel
Women's (13)
Gymnastics 2014
K. J. Kindler
31–2–1
2016 38–1
2017 33–0
2019 32–0
2022 31–2
2023 28–2
Softball 2000 Patty Gasso 66–8
2013 57–4
2016 57–7
2017 61–9
2021 56–4
2022 59–3
2023 61–1

SoonerSports.TV

SoonerSports.tv
CountryUnited States
History
LaunchedSeptember 12, 2012 (2012-09-12)
Closed30 June 2022 (2022-06-30)
Links
Websitewww.soonersports.tv

SoonerSports.tv was a streaming network and

pay per view, one men's basketball game, and select games from baseball, softball, volleyball, wrestling, soccer, and men’s and women’s gymnastics.[40]

Select men's and women's basketball games, select softball, and select baseball games, were also distributed to the regional Bally Sports networks and their affiliates as part of the programming block.[41]

The network was created in 2012 as part of an agreement with the Fox Sports Networks.[42] In 2021, following the re branding of the Fox Sports Networks to Bally Sports, Bally Sports took over operation. On May 5, 2022 it was announced that SoonerSports.TV will be ending and will be rebrand as Soonervision on ESPN + under a multi-year deal with ESPN. .[43]

References

  1. ^ "Colors – OU Brand Guide". April 20, 2018. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
  2. ^ "What is a Sooner?". Oklahoma Sooners. May 28, 2015. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
  3. ^ "Sooner – Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture". Oklahoma Historical Society. May 28, 2015. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
  4. ^ "America's Best Sports Colleges". Sports Illustrated. October 1, 2002. Archived from the original on October 19, 2002. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
  5. ^ Medina, Daniella. "How to leave a conference in 10 days: A timeline of how Texas and Oklahoma invaded the SEC". The Tennessean. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
  6. ^ "OU, Texas get OK from regents for '24 SEC move". ESPN.com. May 6, 2023. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
  7. ^ "OU Wrestling to Remain in Big 12 Conference as Affiliate Member". University of Oklahoma. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
  8. ^ Division I-A All-Time Points Scored Archived May 26, 2006, at the Wayback Machine College Football Data Warehouse.
  9. ^ Soonersports.com. OU Football Quick Facts Archived August 20, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
  10. ^ SoonerSports.com. Seven National Championships Archived September 28, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. University of Oklahoma. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
  11. ^ No. 1 program of the modern era Archived November 20, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. University of Oklahoma. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
  12. ^ Past Division I-A Football National Champions Archived August 26, 2006, at the Wayback Machine. www.ncaa.org
  13. ^ Vautravers, James. "Math-Based Rating". Retrieved June 9, 2019. For modern (post-WWII) years, however, no one recognizes math formulas as national championships. If they did, just using the systems listed in the NCAA Records Book, we would have an additional 42 so-called national champions between 1970 and the present.
  14. ^ "Sampson barred from off-campus recruiting". May 25, 2006. Retrieved February 22, 2008.
  15. ^ "2009 NBA Draft". Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
  16. ^ "Women's Basketball Set For Thanksgiving Throwdown With Princeton". University of Oklahoma. Retrieved December 16, 2023.
  17. ^ editor, Karoline Leonard, news managing (June 23, 2022). "'I wanted to do it for all the women that weren't able to': How Title IX changed the lives of OU community members". OU Daily. Retrieved December 15, 2023. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ Evans, Murray. "OU Axes Women's Basketball". The Oklahoman. Retrieved December 13, 2023.
  19. ^ "2002 Women's NCAA Tournament Summary". College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
  20. ^ "Big Eight Conference Men's Golf Championship History". Retrieved June 21, 2013.
  21. ^ "Big 12 Record Book – Men's Golf" (PDF). Retrieved June 21, 2013.
  22. ^ a b "Men's Gymnastics Year in Review". University of Oklahoma. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
  23. ^ "Men's Gymnastics Season in Review". University of Oklahoma. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
  24. ^ "Dynasty: OU Wins Fourth Straight NCAA Title". University of Oklahoma. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
  25. ^ SoonerSports.com Seven Nissen Emery Award Winners Archived August 12, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. University of Oklahoma. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
  26. ^ "Oklahoma captures 5th women's gymnastics title". April 16, 2022.
  27. ^ "Lehrmann, Nichols Win Individual NCAA Titles". soonersports.com. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
  28. ^ "OU Athletics Adds Women's Rowing". The University of Oklahoma Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. May 10, 2007. Archived from the original on August 9, 2007. Retrieved August 21, 2007.
  29. ^ "Traub Named Asst. Rowing Coach SoonerSports.com - Official Site of the Oklahoma Sooners - Traub Named Asst. Rowing Coach". www.soonersports.com. Archived from the original on August 23, 2009.
  30. ^ Soccer soonersports.com
  31. ^ "2019 OU Women's Soccer Media Guide (PDF)" (PDF). University of Oklahoma.
  32. .
  33. ^ reporter, Louis Raser, sports (May 2, 2023). "OU wrestling hires North Dakota State's Roger Kish as head coach". OU Daily. Retrieved October 27, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  34. ^ "UO Wrestling". University of Oklahoma Athletics. Retrieved January 1, 2014.
  35. ^ a b Oklahoma Rugby, http://rugbyou.wordpress.com/history/
  36. ^ Bedlam Series
  37. ^ Road Trip: University of Oklahoma. Sports Illustrated: On Campus. September 9, 2004.
  38. ^ "Crimson & Cream". Oklahoma Sooners. Retrieved June 19, 2016.
  39. ^ "Athletics Marks". University of Oklahoma Brand Guide. University of Oklahoma. Retrieved June 19, 2016.
  40. ^ "Oklahoma and Fox Sports Announce Agreement for Sooner Sports TV". Bleacher Report.
  41. ^ "Television details announced for Oklahoma softball's season". February 13, 2020.
  42. ^ "Oklahoma, FOX announce partnership". September 12, 2012.
  43. ^ "ESPN+ AND OU ANNOUNCE MULTI-YEAR 'SOONERVISION ON ESPN+' AGREEMENT". May 5, 2022.

External links