THE SOONER TRADITION
THE TRADITION CONTINUES OU football has produced five Heisman Trophy winners: halfback Billy Vessels won the award in 1952, tailback Steve Owens won in 1969, halfback Billy Sims won in 1978, quarterback Jason White brought the trophy back to Norman in 2003 and fellow QB Sam Bradford took home the award last season. OU players have captured 63 national awards and the Sooners have also produced five Outland Trophies, four Walter Camp Trophies, four Butkus Award winners, four Davey O’Brien Awards, three Lombardi Awards, three Thorpe Awards, two Bronko Nagurski Awards, two Maxwell Awards, one Tatupu Award, one Johnny Unitas Award and one Bednarik award. The Oklahoma baseball team swept through its regional tournament and the World Series without a loss to capture the 1994 national championship. The Sooners topped off a 42-17 regular season with the school’s second national baseball title. Oklahoma wrestling has produced 18 Olympians who have collectively won three gold and two silver medals. Brothers Dave and Mark Schultz both won gold in the 1984 games.
Oklahoma baseball won the 1951 College World Series with a come-from-behind win over Tennessee in the championship game to become the first team in history to claim the title after winning the doubleelimination tournament without a defeat. Oklahoma baseball advanced to its 10th College World Series appearance in 2010 and finished the season ranked No. 5 nationally, the program’s highest finish since claiming OU’s second national title in 1994. Oklahoma basketball great Wayman Tisdale was a three-time All-American for the Sooners from 1983-85 and is the all-time leading scorer and rebounder in OU history. He was a member of the 1984 gold-medalwinning U.S. Olympic team and was recently named the greatest player ever in the Big Eight Conference by a panel of longtime conference media observers and officials. Tisdale’s No. 23 jersey was retired by Oklahoma in 1997 -- the first jersey ever retired by OU in any sport.
Former OU letterwinners Michael Blackwood (track and field), Jonahthan Horton (men’s gymnastics) and Danny McFarlance (track and field) represented Oklahoma at the 2008 Olypmic Games in Beijing. OU women’s gymnastics made its eighth-straight NCAA Championships in 2011 and its second straight NCAA top three finish. OU made back-to-back apperances in hte NCAA Super Six in 2010 and 2011, finishing a program best second place in 2010 and thrid place overall in 2011. The Sooners completed their third undefeated regular season in four years in 2011 and currently own the nationa’s longest regular season win streak at 29. OU women’s gymnastics became the first women’s sport at Oklahoma to be ranked No. 1 during the regular season in 2010. The Sooners were ranked first or second in every regular season poll in 2010, as teh Sooners were the only squad in the country to score above a 196.000 in every meet.
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Women’s Rowing