TIMELINE HISTORY
1898 - FIRST SEASON The Oklahoma baseball team begins collegiate play. The Sooners would only play three games during the season and finish with a 2-1 record. 1906 - BENNIE OWEN ERA BEGINS Bennie Owen becomes the first official coach of the Sooner baseball team and guides the squad to a 10-6 record in 1906. Owen would go on to coach OU until 1927 and finished his career in Norman with a 142-102-4 (.581) overall record. 1915 - SOONERS RECORD PROGRAM-BEST 17 WINS Under Bennie Owen, Oklahoma goes on to win 17 games during the 1915 season. Owen and company finished 17-4 and the win total remained a school record for the next 20 years. 1927 - HASKELL TAKES OVER Lawrence Haskell became the Sooners’ third head coach and debuted in 1927 with a 12-5 record and the program’s first conference title. Oklahoma won seven conference championships and was 176-74-2 in the Haskell era. 1936 - OU WINS 18 GAMES, EIGHTH CONFERENCE TITLE For the second time in school history, Haskell and the Sooners won back-to-back titles in 1935 and 1936 (also 1930-31). The run during the 1936 season produced the program’s eighth conference championship and a school-record 18 wins, breaking a 21-year-old mark. 1942 - MEMORABLE NAMES JOIN SOONERS After Haskell’s career ended in Norman, another soon-to-be Sooner legend took over the reins when Jack Baer was hired for the 1942 season. Baer wasn’t the only legendary Sooner to begin his OU career in 1942. Baer had the pleasure of coaching freshman L. Dale Mitchell in 1942, a season that saw Mitchell hit .409. 1946 - WWII ENDS, MITCHELL RETURNS After WWII ended in 1945, the Sooners returned to collegiate baseball the following year. Mitchell, who fought overseas, didn’t lose a beat as the Sooner recorded a .507 batting average during the 1946 season. The clip still ranks as the best batting average for a single season in OU history. Mitchell finished his short career with a .467 batting average, also a program best, before leaving school early for professional baseball. June 17, 1951 - SOONERS WIN FIRST NATIONAL TITLE In his seventh season at the helm, Baer guided the Sooners to the program’s first NCAA Championship in 1951. The Sooners went a perfect 7-0 during the postseason run, claiming the title with a 3-2 win over Tennessee on June 17 in Omaha, Neb. The postseason run marked the first time in College World Series history that a team made it through the double-elimination tournament without a loss. The 1951 Sooners finished the season with a 19-9 record, breaking the 1936 record for most wins in a season (18). The Sooners also won the program’s 10th conference title in 1951. 1951 - SHIRLEY FIRST ALL-AMERICAN The 1951 season was not just about the team’s national championship run as Jack Shirley became OU’s first All-American after recording the win on the mound in the championship game. Shirley was a second team member (ABCA - American Baseball Coaches’ Association) and finished the year with a 5-1 record and a 1.97 ERA in 1951. 1959 - TOMMY JONES TOSSES FIRST OKLAHOMA NO-HITTER The Sooners defeat Missouri, 1-0, led by Tommy Jones’ performance on the mound in which he held the Tigers hitless. The no-hitter was the first in school history. 1963 - HADDOCK STRIKES OUT 20 OU hurler Jerry Haddock tosses 11 innings and records a school-record 20 punch outs as the Sooners complete a three-game sweep of Kansas in Norman. Haddock’s performance broke the record held by Hal Cumberland who struck out 17 batters against Kansas State in 1941. Cumberland’s performance is still the best by a Sooner in nine innings and was tied by Bobby Witt against Texas on March 25, 1985.
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1967 - BAER STEPS DOWN, SEMORE ERA BEGINS Jack Baer, who coached 26 years at Oklahoma, steps down after finishing his Sooner career with a 281-250 (.529) record which included the program’s first national title in 1951. Baer ranks third all-time with 281 wins. Enos Semore began his OU head coaching career in 1968 and finished his first year below .500 (13-14) before winning a then-school record 23 games in 1969. 1972 - SOONERS RETURN TO COLLEGE WORLD SERIES In his fifth season at the helm, Semore helps guide the Sooners into the College World Series for the second time in school history (first since 1951). Semore’s Sooners claimed the program’s second district title by sweeping Tulsa and won their first game of the CWS, a 2-1 victory over Temple in 13 innings, before dropping back-to-back games against Arizona State and Texas. The 1972 season marked a fifth-place finish for Oklahoma and the start of five consecutive appearances in Omaha. During the impressive string of CWS appearances, the Sooners compiled a 240-66 record (.784) and also recorded three top-five finishes (fifth in 1972 and 1974 and fourth in 1975 1975 - OU WINS 24 STRAIGHT GAMES From March 10, 1975, through April 8, the Sooners set a school record with 24 consecutive wins. The previous mark was established during the end of the 1909 season and beginning of the 1910 season when Bennie Owen coached OU to 23 straight wins. During the 1975 streak, the Sooners held the opposition to two runs or less in 14 games (six shutouts) and outscored their opponents 196-57 (8.16 runs/game). 1976 - SOONERS RECORD 62 VICTORIES, SET SCHOOL MARK Making the program’s fifth straight appearance in the CWS, Semore and company finished the 1976 season with a 62-19 record. The 62 victories remains a school record and was made possible by 22 straight victories near the end of the regular season. The Sooners also won their first regional championship that year, claiming the crown out of the South Central Regional. 1977-1979 - OU WINS TWO BIG 8 TOURNAMENTS IN THREE YEARS Oklahoma ended the 1970s with two Big 8 Tournament Championships out of the final three years. The 1977 title was the first for OU in the conference’s postseason tournament and it came after it won the regular season title as well. In 1979, the Sooners once again claimed the postseason championship after finishing third in the regular season.
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