Half a Hundred: 50 Years of Barry Switzer at Oklahoma – Part 1: The Teams
On Sept. 15, 1973 – exactly 50 years ago this fall – the legend of Barry Switzer officially began.
It was a 42-14 victory over the Baylor Bears in Waco, TX, and it foreshadowed an era of greatness that actually lived up to the unparalleled excellence of the legend himself, Bud Wilkinson.
Switzer's OU legacy, of course, was off and running before the 1973 season kicked off. Growing up poor – the son of a "successful" bootlegger in extreme southern Arkansas – Switzer had already beaten the odds as a scholarship linebacker for the Razorbacks. He learned the coaching game under Hogs icon Frank Broyles, then came to OU to work under Jim Mackenzie.
Mackenzie arrived in 1966 to fix a dilapidated 3-7 season the year before, but died of a heart attack in spring of 1967. He was 37. Switzer called Mackenzie's sudden passing "a low point" and said none of the coaches even knew if they would have a job. But when Chuck Fairbanks was promoted to head coach, he made Switzer his offensive coordinator and Switzer's coaching career was officially on the fast track.
In 1971, Switzer famously installed the wishbone during the season, and in '73, Fairbanks took the New England Patriots job. The only practical hire was Switzer, then 35, who took the "monster" that Wilkinson created and put it on a new, even hungrier path.
OU was on NCAA probation when Switzer took over, but he won a national championship in his second season, then repeated in Year 3, then did it again a decade later – 1974, '75 and '85 – and he redefined what big-time college football could look like.
And it all started fifty years ago.
AllSooners commemorates Switzer's step into OU's big chair with this weekly series that looks back on his best teams, best games, best players and best moments.
Part 1: The Teams
Oklahoma’s best teams under Barry Switzer were stamped with two overriding characteristics: an exciting triple-option offense, and an elite, punishing defense.
Here are the 10 best OU teams of the 16-year Switzer era (1973-88):
1. 1974
Record: 11-0, National Champions
NCAA probation from 1973 carried over to the 1974 and 1975 seasons, but Switzer and his troops were undeterred despite no games on television and no bowl games.
After going undefeated with one tie in his maiden season, Switzer’s Sooners were unbeatable and indomitable in ’74, as the backfield was loaded and the defense was stacked.
Steve Davis was a proven commodity in his second season as the starting quarterback, Joe Washington was a Heisman contender, Waymon Clark and Jim Littrell were stars. The defense featured Dewey and Lee Roy Selmon, linebacker Rod Shoate, safety Randy Hughes and a multitude of other All-Big Eight talent.
After an easy start to the season, the No. 2-ranked Sooners outlasted No. 15 Texas in Dallas 16-13. Oklahoma wasn’t tested again until Thanksgiving, when Nebraska stayed within 28-14.
Switzer’s streak included a record-setting performance on the ground (73.9 rushing attempts per game).
Eight players earned All-America accolades, Washington was the Touchdown Club of DC’s national player of the year and was third in the Heisman voting, and OU won its first national championship (AP but not UPI) in 18 years, giving Switzer legend status.
And he was just getting started.
2. 1985
Record: 11-1, National Champions
OU won its Supreme Court case against the NCAA the year before, so ABC moved the Sooners’ opener against SMU to December.
OU wasn’t on all cylinders when they finally kicked off on Sept. 28 at Minnesota, a 13-7 victory, after which Gophers coach Lou Holtz proclaimed the Sooner defense “the finest I’ve ever seen.” That theme would be repeated all year, especially after a 14-7 win over Texas, in which the Longhorns managed 70 total yards (minus-24 in the second half).
In Game 4, however, that defense — missing three starters, including All-American Tony Casillas — was exposed by Vinny Testaverde and the Miami Hurricanes, who left Norman with a 27-14 upset. The game was a turning point for winning the national championship.
Promising young QB Troy Aikman, who was torching the Canes (6-of-8 for 131 yards and a touchdown), was sacked by Jerome Brown and suffered a broken ankle. True freshman Jamelle Holieway came in, Switzer reimplemented his latest version of the wishbone, and the season became historic. OU rolled through its Big Eight schedule, including a 27-7 win over No. 2 Nebraska and 13-0 win at No. 17 Oklahoma State (the “Ice Bowl”), then went back to Miami for a date with No. 1-ranked and undefeated Penn State. Jimmy Johnson’s Miami club lost 35-7 to Tennessee earlier in the day, so the door was open for OU to make magic.
An easy 25-10 victory over the Nittany Lions cinched it as Holieway became the first freshman quarterback to lead his team to a national championship. His wishbone wizardry produced a team-leading 861 yards and nine TDs on the ground and 517 yards and five TDs through the air.
Casillas won the Lombardi, linebacker Brian Bosworth won the Butkus, and both, along with defensive end Kevin Murphy, were named first-team All-American, while Holieway, tight end Keith Jackson, defensive end Darrell Reed, and offensive linemen Mark Hutson and Anthony Phillips were All-Big Eight. The Sooners led the nation in total defense and pass defense and ranked No. 2 in rush defense and scoring defense.
3. 1975
Record: 11-1, National Champions
Oklahoma came into the 1975 season on a 20-game winning streak and ranked No. 1 in both polls. OU took a loss to Kansas and needed some Sooner Magic along the way, but still lived up to that billing by repeating as national champs — the first program to do it back-to-back twice (Bud Wilkinson did it in 1955 and ’56).
After pounding No. 15 Pitt 46-10 (Tony Dorsett ran for 17 yards on 12 carries, the worst game of his college career), OU held on for a 20-17 win at Miami and a 21-20 win over No. 19 Colorado, in which the Buffs missed two field goals and a game-tying extra point with 1:19 to play (OU dropped to No. 2 in the polls). The Sooners got a 33-yard touchdown run from Horace Ivory in the final minutes to outlast Texas 24-17, but Switzer’s first career loss ended a 29-0-1 start and came in Norman at the hands of the Kansas Jayhawks thanks to a blocked punt and three turnovers that produced a 23-3 shocker.
OU led Missouri 20-0, but found itself trailing 27-20 in the fourth quarter. That’s when Joe Washington took a fourth-and-1 pitch from Steve Davis and raced 71 yards for the touchdown. Rather than kick the PAT, Switzer opted for the same play on a 2-point conversion, and Washington stretched across with 4:20 left for a 28-27 win as Mizzou missed two field goals down the stretch.
A 35-10 rout over Nebraska sent No. 3-ranked OU to the Orange Bowl, where they faced Michigan. Ohio State was playing UCLA in the Rose Bowl, and the Buckeyes were heavy favorites to beat the Bruins again (they won 41-20 in October). But UCLA pulled off the shocker, opening the door for OU to win — and repeat. The Sooners took care of business with a 14-6 victory over the Wolverines, with touchdowns by Billy Brooks and Steve Davis and another lockdown defensive performance.
Eight Sooners earned All-American: defensive linemen Dewey and Lee Roy Selmon (Lee Roy won the Outland and the Lombardi), Washington (he was fifth in the Heisman voting), wideouts Brooks and Tinker Owens, linebacker Jimbo Elrod, tackle Mike Vaughn and guard Terry Webb.
4. 1986
Record: 11-1, Big Eight champs
The offense was great as usual as Switzer’s wishbone continued to evolve (OU led the nation in scoring offense and rushing offense), but the defense, led by linebacker Brian Bosworth, pitched five shutouts and led the nation in scoring defense, total defense, pass defense and rushing defense.
OU, coming off Switzer’s third national title, started the season at No. 1 thanks to eight returning starters on defense (including Bosworth, DT Steve Bryan, DE Darrell Reed, LBs Paul Migliazzo and Dante Jones, and safeties Sonny Brown and Rickey Dixon) and a loaded offense.
The only setback was a 28-16 road loss to Heisman winner Vinny Testaverde, Michael Irvin and the No. 2-ranked Miami Hurricanes — a game in which Bosworth had 22 tackles.
OU routed Kansas State and Texas, then shut out Oklahoma State and Iowa State and pounded Kansas 64-3 and Missouri 77-0. A road trip to Colorado was no contest (28-0), but a visit to Lincoln required some Sooner Magic.
OU was No. 3 and Nebraska was No. 5, and with a Big Eight title on the line, the Sooners fell behind 17-7 in the fourth quarter. But Jamelle Holieway hit Carl Cabbiness and Derrick Shepard for big gains, pitched to Spencer Tillman for another, then connected with Keith Jackson for the tying TD with 1:26 to play.
OU forced a punt, and with just seconds remaining, Holieway found Jackson again, this time with a one-handed catch down the sideline, putting Tim Lashar in position for the game-winning field goal with three seconds to play.
With Miami losing to Penn State for the national title in the Fiesta Bowl, the Sooners routed Arkansas 42-8 in the Orange Bowl, highlighted by a big game from Tillman and low lighted by Bosworth’s “National Communists Against Athletes” T-shirt, and climbed to No. 3 in the final poll.
Bosworth won his second straight Butkus Award (still the only player to do that) and he, Jackson and offensive linemen Anthony Phillips and Mark Hutson earned All-America accolades.
5. 1987
Record: 11-1, Big Eight champs
OU again started the season at No. 1 behind a dominant offensive line, a couple of dynamic quarterbacks and a suffocating defense. But again, the Sooners couldn’t quite close the deal.
Oklahoma ran the table in the ’87 regular season before losing to Miami — for the third year in a row — in a winner-take-all Orange Bowl.
Only one team — North Texas (69-14 in the season-opener) could manage multiple touchdowns against one of the stingiest defenses in OU history.
With 15 starters back and seven from the All-Big Eight team, the Sooners were on a mission all season. A 44-9 victory over Texas highlighted the first half of the season, and a Bedlam showdown with No. 12 Oklahoma State — Switzer’s 146th career win, pushing him past Wilkinson as the Sooners’ winningest coach — was the nadir of the second half, although it also included a season-ending injury to quarterback Jamelle Holieway.
Freshman Charles Thompson filled in well and in some ways actually sparked the offense, although a tight win (17-13) over Missouri and another (17-7) at No. 1 Nebraska (OU was No. 2) may have given Miami the blueprint it needed in the Orange Bowl. (Still, the Sooners produced three 100-yard rushers in Lincoln).
Thompson and the OU offense couldn’t solve Miami’s lightning-fast defense and managed just 14 points and 255 yards on the Hurricanes’ home field as Steve Walsh and Michael Irvin thrived against the Oklahoma defense.
OU led the nation in total offense, rushing offense and scoring offense, and total defense, rushing defense, passing defense and scoring defense and five Sooners were named All-American: TE Keith Jackson, OG Mark Hutson, LB Dante Jones, DE Darrell Reed and FS Rickey Dixon, who also won the Jim Thorpe Award.
6. 1973
Record: 10-0-1, Big Eight champs
It says something about Switzer’s mid-‘80s teams when his inaugural squad went undefeated and only comes in as the sixth-best team of his tenure.
At 35, Switzer already had a plan. NCAA probation (the Kerry Jackson transcript debacle) didn’t derail his plans. He just handed the quarterback reins to local kid Steve Davis, who began the preseason at No. 7 on the depth chart. Davis had the luxury of Joe Washington, Tinker Owens and a stout offensive line, but it was the OU defense, anchored by all three Selmon brothers, linebacker Rod Shoate and safety Randy Hughes that was the heart and soul of Switzer’s first team.
After opening with a 42-14 win at Baylor, Switzer’s second game as head coach was a 7-7 tie at USC. The No. 1-ranked and defending national champion Trojans couldn’t manage a pulse against No. 8 OU.
The Sooners, however, lost three fumbles in the first half, and not even Washington’s electrifying punt return — a minus-4-yard net — could spark the Sooners to victory.
OU trailed Miami in Norman 20-7, but the Sooners rallied to a 24-20 win.
After that, a 27-0 victory over Nebraska was the closest anyone would come all season. That started a 28-game winning streak and opened the door to back-to-back national titles.
Shoate, Lucious Selmon and OT Eddie Foster earned All-America honors, and Selmon was named Chevrolet Defensive Player of the Year.
Probation meant OU was ineligible for the UPI national championship, but the Sooners still finished third in the polls.
7. 1978
Record: 11-1, Big Eight champs
The Sooners opened at No. 4 in the AP Poll, but as they started 9-0, quickly climbed into the No. 1 spot. Voters were impressed by a quality 35-29 win at Stanford, a 52-10 route of West Virginia and a 66-7 pounding of Rice, which pushed them to the top of the poll.
OU also throttled No. 6 Texas 31-10, but committed five turnovers and had to hold on for dear life in 17-16 win at Kansas, in which the Jayhawks tried to win it with a 2-point conversion.
It was turnovers that would ultimately cost the Sooners in a 17-14 loss at Nebraska, with Billy Sims — the eventual Heisman Trophy winner with 1,762 yards and 20 touchdowns as Switzer experimented with the I-formation — fumbling twice in the fourth quarter, the second one at the Huskers’ 3-yard line. Without the turnovers — OU fumbled 10 times and lost six — the Sooners would have likely cruised to another national championship. Instead, Switzer took his first loss to Cornhusker coach Tom Osborne (who also took over in Lincoln in 1973).
Osborne’s face went ashen, however, when the Huskers’ Orange Bowl opponent was revealed: Oklahoma. Switzer’s Sooners beat the Huskers 31-24 in Miami, finished the season at No. 2 in the polls and led the nation in rushing at 427 yards per game as Sims, guard Greg Roberts (that year’s Outland Trophy winner), linebacker Daryl Hunt, and noseguard Reggie Kinlaw were named All-American.
8. 1979
Record: 11-1, Big Eight champs
Switzer’s squad opened the season at No. 3 in the AP Poll and started with four easy wins before a 16-7 loss to Texas in the Cotton Bowl.
Halfback Billy Sims did his best to win his second straight Heisman — to this day, only Ohio State’s Archie Griffin has accomplished that — but finished second to USC’s Charles White despite 1,506 yards and 22 touchdowns on the ground.
Texas would be the Sooners’ only setback, as they routed a weak Big Eight schedule before a 24-22 victory at Missouri (the Tigers tried to tie it with a 2-pointer in the final minutes) and a 17-14 victory over Nebraska (the Huskers made it tight with their famous “fumblerooski” play but were turned away twice in the final minutes) provided Switzer another Big Eight crown and a trip to the Orange Bowl.
OU overcame a slow start in Miami to route the Seminoles 24-7, capped off with a 99-yard touchdown drive and one final touchdown from Sims.
Sims and linebacker George Cumby earned All-America honors as the Sooners finished No. 3 in the AP Poll.
9. 1984
Record: 9-2-1, Big Eight champs
Switzer’s bunch — ranked No. 16 to start the season after four down years (and an incomprehensible “Bury Barry” bumpersticker and T-shirt campaign) was young and a year away from true championship mettle, but this was maybe his most underrated squad.
The 15-15 tie with No.1-ranked Texas (OU was No. 3) was thanks to an historically bad blown call in a driving rainstorm; the 28-11 loss at Kansas happened when quarterback Danny Bradley was injured (and famously replaced by painfully wide-eyed, 17-year-old, true freshman Troy Aikman, OU’s first freshman QB to start in more than 40 years); and the 28-17 Orange Bowl loss to a quality Washington team followed a month of Switzer politicking for OU to win the national title rather than BYU (and included a fateful and infamous gaffe by the Sooner Schooner).
Of the Sooners’ nine wins, only a 12-10 victory at Iowa State was within double digits.
Switzer’s strength this season was the nation’s No. 1-ranked run defense (just 69 yards per game), led by unanimous All-American noseguard Tony Casillas and a hotshot redshirt freshman linebacker named Brian Bosworth.
Even No. 1-ranked Nebraska, which led the nation in rushing offense, fell 17-7 in Norman, and No. 3-ranked Oklahoma State, which finished with minus-4 yards rushing, lost 24-14 in Norman.
OU finished the season at No. 6 in the AP Poll.
10. 1976
Record: 9-2-1, Big Eight co-champs
As Georgia could find out this year, winning three straight national championships isn’t easy.
OU opened the season ranked No. 5 thanks to the loss of elite talent like Lee Roy and Dewey Selmon, Jimbo Elrod, Steve Davis, Joe Washington, Jim Littrell, Tinker Owens and Billy Brooks.
The Sooners opened 4-0, but then tied Texas 6-6 in a bitter one in Dallas. UT coach Darrell Royal accused a Switzer associate of spying on practice, and even invited Switzer and assistant coach Larry Lacewell to take a lie detector test. They denied it and declined, with Switzer saying he’d rather have Royal “chasing ghosts,” and Royal calling the OU staff “sorry bastards.”
OU also wound up losing 31-24 at home to Oklahoma State and 42-31 at Colorado. That forged a three-way tie for the Big Eight championship, although after back-to-back national titles, there was no parade.
An easy 41-7 victory over Wyoming in the brand new Fiesta Bowl was a nice Christmas present (it was future Texas coach Fred Akers’ last game with the Cowboys) as OU’s defense forced six turnovers.
The Sooners finished where they started at No. 5 in the AP Poll and finished with two All-Americans (DB Zac Henderson and OT Mike Vaughn).
Resources: OU Media Guide (2023), "The Oklahoma Football Encyclopedia" by Ray Dozier (2006), "Switzer: The Players' Coach" by Jimmie Tramel (2014), "The 100 Greatest Sooners" by Sooners Illustrated (2004).
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