Sooner football history question

[piusbovis]

Does anyone know of a good source for the history of early sooner football? I'm writing an article comparing the effect sports has had on oklahoma, using the examples of OU football at the beginning of the twentieth century and thunder basketball for the twenty-first. Not exact correlations of course but I find the timing interesting as Oklahoma city keeps growing.

I'm mostly looking for any books or sites that provide a good context for sooner football in the early days of statehood.

[Sooner_Tuf]

This is the best book I know of about early OU football.
http://www.amazon.com/Oklahoma-Vs-Texas-Football-Becomes/dp/0937642002

[rock on sooner]

Sooner Century 100 Glorious years of Oklahoma Football by J. Brent Clark

1895 to 1995....as good as it gets.

[PLaw]

Sooner Century 100 Glorious years of Oklahoma Football by J. Brent Clark

1895 to 1995....as good as it gets.

Ditto.

BOOMER

[badger]

Whatever you do, don't be like the national media and be all like "We here in the OKC were all so down over the bombing that we needed to get the taxes passed to revitalize Bricktown and get a stadium to lure an NHL or NBA team as fast as possible so that the country wouldn't see OKC as bombing victims."

Here is an article (http://www.newsok.com/article/3568634?highlight=[%22bricktown%22%2C%22thunder%22%2C%22national%22]) setting the record straight.

Don't be like ESPN!


Thirteen years earlier, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols orchestrated the explosion that killed 168 people at the Oklahoma City Federal Building. In the aftermath, the city's national identity became the bombing and the bloodbath; to change that, citizens spent the next decade voting for sales tax after sales tax to rebuild the downtown area.

Link (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/columns/story?id=6530509)

[KantoSooner]

'The Undefeated' is pretty good as well.

[bigfatjerk]

It's a bit expensive, but The Oklahoma Football Encyclopedia. It's basically the reference for any OU football history nut. It goes in depth into almost every game played from 1901-2005
http://www.amazon.com/Oklahoma-Football-Encyclopedia-Ray-Dozier/dp/158261699X

[badger]

A 1967 article on the decline of OU football since Bud's retirement :D

Link (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,902065,00.html)

[bigfatjerk]

The original poster is looking for stuff from the start of state hood. Basically 50 years before Bud Wilkinson

Here's a good one from Harold Keith on the early OU passers

http://digital.libraries.ou.edu/sooner/articles/p30-33_1940v12n12.pdf

[SteelClip49]

www.soonerstats.com

www.cfbdatawarehouse.com

[SbOrOiNaEnR]

The definitive, hands-down resource on OU football in the early 20th Century is a long out-of-print book by Harold Keith (OU's first SID who also wrote 47 Straight (http://www.amazon.com/Forty-Seven-Straight-Wilkinson-Era-Oklahoma/dp/0806135697)) called Oklahoma Kickoff. I was lucky enough to stumble across my copy at the Half Price Books at NW 63rd and May in the antique books section.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/4547/oklahomakickoff.jpg

If you're in or near Norman, Bizzell claims to have 14 of them. (http://catalog.lib.ou.edu/uhtbin/cgisirsi/0vgezWNv16/BIZZELL/76920015/5?searchdata1=oklahoma+kickoff)

If not there, you might try Amazon or eBay to see if you can stumble across a copy for a reasonable price. If you're in a different college town, most major academic libraries have some kind of interlibrary loan program. Hope that helps.

[bigfatjerk]

If you don't know who Harold Keith is. He basically created the SID position. His importance to OU football is so large. His marketing ability was a game changer.

[Sooner Cal]

Oklahoma growing!? Everybody is growing. The question is what is Oklahoma's growth relative to other states. Not so good.

Part of Oklahoma's problem is geographic location, but a big part is Oklahoma's politicians. Generally, they act to hurt the State's prospects.

A lot of OU grads leave the state. You get a good education at OU, but Oklahoma doesn't have enough good jobs for even the best.

[101sooner]

Oklahoma growing!? Everybody is growing. The question is what is Oklahoma's growth relative to other states. Not so good.

Part of Oklahoma's problem is geographic location, but a big part is Oklahoma's politicians. Generally, they act to hurt the State's prospects.

A lot of OU grads leave the state. You get a good education at OU, but Oklahoma doesn't have enough good jobs for even the best.

And the geographical location and the politicians in California have made that state a beacon of financial success.

[Sooner70]

"Presidents Can't Punt" by Dr. George Lynn Cross....a history of OU FB from 1895 until end of his tenure as OU President in mid 1960's.Published by OU Press.

"Oklahoma Football"-By Danny Hartley-large softback book, about the 1970's. Mostly recap news stories of each game.

"The Story of Oklahoma Football" by Jim Weeks in 1974-Library of Congress #74-84330.

"The Winning Edge" by Jim & Jack Weeks-1976

[BoomerJack]

The definitive, hands-down resource on OU football in the early 20th Century is a long out-of-print book by Harold Keith (OU's first SID who also wrote 47 Straight (http://www.amazon.com/Forty-Seven-Straight-Wilkinson-Era-Oklahoma/dp/0806135697)) called Oklahoma Kickoff. I was lucky enough to stumble across my copy at the Half Price Books at NW 63rd and May in the antique books section.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/4547/oklahomakickoff.jpg

If you're in or near Norman, Bizzell claims to have 14 of them. (http://catalog.lib.ou.edu/uhtbin/cgisirsi/0vgezWNv16/BIZZELL/76920015/5?searchdata1=oklahoma+kickoff)

If not there, you might try Amazon or eBay to see if you can stumble across a copy for a reasonable price. If you're in a different college town, most major academic libraries have some kind of interlibrary loan program. Hope that helps.

I rec'd a copy of this book in paperback several years ago and it is a great read!! I always try to read it again near first part of August when fall practice starts. It helps to get me fired up. Not only does it relate stories about the early football endeavours, it provides a good perspective about life in Norman after the land run and campus life. Try your best to get a copy.

[stoopified]

The definitive, hands-down resource on OU football in the early 20th Century is a long out-of-print book by Harold Keith (OU's first SID who also wrote 47 Straight (http://www.amazon.com/Forty-Seven-Straight-Wilkinson-Era-Oklahoma/dp/0806135697)) called Oklahoma Kickoff. I was lucky enough to stumble across my copy at the Half Price Books at NW 63rd and May in the antique books section.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/4547/oklahomakickoff.jpg

If you're in or near Norman, Bizzell claims to have 14 of them. (http://catalog.lib.ou.edu/uhtbin/cgisirsi/0vgezWNv16/BIZZELL/76920015/5?searchdata1=oklahoma+kickoff)

If not there, you might try Amazon or eBay to see if you can stumble across a copy for a reasonable price. If you're in a different college town, most major academic libraries have some kind of interlibrary loan program. Hope that helps.I second Oklahoma Kickoff.All the books mentioned are good and all are part of my collection of 35 books on OU football.

[virginiasooner]

Sooner Century 100 Glorious years of Oklahoma Football by J. Brent Clark

1895 to 1995....as good as it gets.

Except for the final chapter.

[PLaw]

Except for the final chapter.

There definitely needs to be another edition published chronicalling this past decade.

BOOMER

[SoonerPride]

I have a very extensive library of books on Oklahoma football. All of those listed above and many others as well.

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i84/SoonerPride1/DSC00329.jpg

I have a limited edition hard cover 1949 self-published version of Oklahoma Kickoff signed by the author. It is, by far, the best book on early OU football.

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i84/SoonerPride1/DSC00325.jpg

You can buy used paperback versions here:

http://www.amazon.com/Oklahoma-Kickoff-Harold-Keith/dp/B000NE8PEQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306523652&sr=8-1

[SbOrOiNaEnR]

Except for the final chapter.

Awwwwww...c'mon! The unbridled optimism surrounding the upcoming 1995 football season is pretty hysterical, in hindsight.

[LASooner]

Sooner Century is good if you tear out the last couple pages and burn them.

[King Barry's Back]

I have read and own most every book mentioned here.

You say you are working on an article, so you probably don't need to do tons of research.

I am willing to bet that Sooner Century will fill the bill for a simple article, and if you need more info, then Oklahoma Kickoff should be your second read.

It's hard to imagine that you would ever need more info than is in those two books for an article comparing OU football's origins with the Thunder.

But either way, read Oklahoma Kickoff. You'll love it.

NOTE: Harold Keith, as stated, created the SID position and also invented the weekly coach's show. Those two accomplishments alone will place him in a prime spot in every sports journalism hall of fame. But when he got to OU, he was so clueless as to what an SID was supposed to do, that for the first couple of days he just wandered around. He ended up helping the groundskeeper mow Owen Field!

[SoonerofAlabama]

I don't know how historical it is, but I love Bootlegger's Boy. It is a great read and was well worth the time I spent reading it.

[texaspokieokie]

I don't know how historical it is, but I love Bootlegger's Boy. It is a great read and was well worth the time I spent reading it.

totally agree !!!!!!

[SoonerofAlabama]

Just going to bring this up: I was reading this ESPN magazine about this year's draft. It said that last year, Jake Locker was thought of as the top pick in the draft until he decided to stay one more season. Was this true?