| Bud Wilkinson |
Article Index for Bud |
Website Links For Bud |
Information AboutBud Wilkinson |
|
A Minnesota native, Wilkinson began his College Football career as a Quarterback for the University Of Minnesota , taking his team to three national championships in the 1930s . Following his graduation, he became an assistant coach at Syracuse and then Minnesota; during World War II he served on an aircraft carrier with the U.S. Navy . In 1946 he went to the University Of Oklahoma as an assistant football coach, becoming head coach and athletic director the following year. In his first season as head coach, Wilkinson led Oklahoma to a 7-2-1 record and the Big Six championship, the first of thirteen consecutive conference titles. 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 (.826%) record prior to his retirement in 1963. The centerpiece of his reign in Norman was an 47-game winning streak from 1953 to 1957, an NCAA Division 1 record that still stands. The Wilkinson-coached Sooners never lost more than one game in any season from 1948 to 1958 and his 1955 Oklahoma team is widely considered to be one of the greatest teams in college football history regardless of era. He was also the first collegiate coach to host a televised football coach's show, aptly named "The Bud Wilkinson Show". Wilkinson retired from his Oklahoma position in 1963 . Following an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 1964 , Wilkinson joined the ABC Television network as their lead Color Commentator on college football telecasts (teaming with Chris Schenkel and, later, Keith Jackson ). He was inducted into the College Football Hall Of Fame in 1969 . In 1978 Wilkinson returned to coaching, with the St. Louis Cardinals of the National Football League . After two losing seasons he was fired and returned to broadcasting. Bud Wilkinson died of Congestive Heart Failure in 1994 . |
|
|