December 11-15, 2017

H E I S M A N E D I T I O N | D E C E M B E R 11 -15 , 2 0 17 | T W I C E W E E K LY I N P R I N T | O U D A I LY. C O M

HEISMAN

OU DAILY Baker Mayfield wins the 2017 Heisman Trophy during the Heisman Trophy Presentation on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2017 in New York.

TODD J. VAN EMST/HEISMAN TRUST/POOL

Senior quarterback completes unlikely journey from walk on to Heisman winner with landslide win on Saturday JOE BUETTNER • @JOE_BUETTNER

“OU has been the biggest differencemaker for me. You talk about OU, you talk about the people who changed my life, the mentors I’ve been around, the relationships I’ve built. Those are (going to) be for a lifetime for me. I say it all the time, it’s been a dream come true. It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

BAKER MAYFIELD, QUARTERBACK

N

EW YORK — Baker May f i e l d n e e d e d t w o tries as a walk-on quarterback to find a home and a third try to win college football’s most-coveted individual honor.

So, once he finally walked on stage at PlayStation Theater i n s n o w y Ti m e s S q u a re o n Saturday, the whip-hitting, flag-planting, ultra-competitive Mayfield read an emotional acceptance speech, which he admittedly prepared last minute as he dressed for the ceremony where he’d become the 83rd winner of the Heisman Trophy. “ Eve r y b o d y a s ke d m e i f I had something prepared,” said Mayfield, who received 732 firstplace votes. “I didn’t write anything down or really put it together until today. I wanted to go through the whole process ...

To me, I’ve always been a person to show my emotions to people and be honest. And that speech I gave shows that.”

2016 Heisman Trophy winner and 2017 finalist Lamar Jackson advised Mayfield not to cry. But the kid from Austin, Texas, couldn’t hold back tears

as he expressed gratitude for his team, former coach Bob Stoops, current coach Lincoln Riley and his parents, Gina and James Mayfield, for their contributions to his journey in becoming Oklahoma’s sixth Heisman winner.

“When you talk about people who have impacted my life in such a unique way,” Mayfield said, “and giving me an opportunity and changed me and shaped me into a man, it’s something I could care less what you say.”

“I’ll shed a tear for those people. I’d do anything for them.”

Mayfield wouldn’t have been prepared to speak if he had won the Heisman a year before. In 2016, the then-junior quarterback knew Jackson would win.

The opportunity to go to New York was enough, how ever, for the former walk-on freshman, who lamented his last two months at Texas Tech before showing up in Norman in January 2014.

The unhappy thoughts, which brewed inside Mayfield’s mind after an injury benched him as

the Red Raiders’ starter, quickly simmered as he put on a Sooners practice jersey for the first time in 2014.

As he reflected on his OU career before Saturday’s ceremony, the loud-mouthed quarterback was lost for words before he explained how transferring to Oklahoma impacted his life.

“OU has been the biggest difference-maker for me,” Mayfield said. “You talk about OU, you talk about the people who changed my life, the mentors I’ve been around, the relationships I’ve built. Those are (going to) be for a lifetime for me. I say it all the time, it’s been a dream come true.

“It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Mayfield has mentioned multiple times, however, he’s not done. He’ll be in Pasadena, California, battling No. 3-ranked Georgia for a spot in the College Football Playoff National Championship game in less than a month, and the Heisman Trophy is not the trophy he returned to OU for.

The Heisman has been a topic

of discussion between Mayfield and one of his closest friends, Oklahoma fullback Jaxon Uhles, since 2015. Uhles would joke with his roommate, who finished fourth in the Heisman voting in 2015 and third in 2016, after Mayfield had a good game ab ou t w h e re’d t h e y pu t h i s Heisman Trophy.

“When he has a good game or something, I’ll ask what we need to move off the mantle to make some room and he gets a kick out of it,” Uhles said. “This year I haven’t joked with him too much.”

Uhles can finally prepare the mantle for the bronze trophy Mayfield will bring back to Norman as the first walk-on athlete to win the award since athletic scholarships were created in the 1950s.

“To the kids out there, don’t give up,” Mayfield said as he closed his acceptance speech.

“Don’t ever give up.”

Joe Buettner

joebuet@ou.edu

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HEISMAN EDITION

• December 11-15, 2017

TABLE OF CONTENTS HEISMAN EDITION

PAGE 4: MAYFIELD’S ACCEPTANCE SPEECH PAGE 6: THE BEST OF MAYFIELD, IN PHOTOS

POSTCARD OU senior reflects on his ‘Heisman Evolution’ series and covering Baker Mayfield’s career

PAGE 9: HEISMAN EVOLUTION: INTRODUCTION PAGE 10: HEISMAN EVOLUTION: BILLY VESSELS PAGE 11: HEISMAN EVOLUTION: STEVE OWENS PAGE 12: HEISMAN EVOLUTION: BILLY SIMS JOE BUETTNER • @JOE_BUETTNER

PAGE 13: HEISMAN EVOLUTION: JASON WHITE PAGE 14: HEISMAN EVOLUTION: SAM BRADFORD PAGE 15: HEISMAN EVOLUTION: BAKER MAYFIELD PAGE 17: “HEISMAN POSE” POSTER PAGE 18: HISTORY OF THE HEISMAN STATUES PAGE 19: STATS BREAKDOWN OF OU HEISMAN WINNERS PAGE 22: BAKER MAYFIELD’S TOP FIVE GAMES PAGE 23: IS MAYFIELD THE BEST QB IN OU HISTORY?

2017 HEISMAN VOTE TOTALS 1. BAKER MAYFIELD: 2,350 2. BRYCE LOVE: 1,300 3. LAMAR JACKSON: 793 4. SAQUON BARKLEY: 304 5. RASHAAD PENNY: 175

6. JONATHAN TAYLOR: 58 7. MASON RUDOLPH: 56 8. MCKENZIE MILTON: 54 9. KERRYON JOHNSON: 45 10. ROQUAN SMITH: 38

N

EW YORK — Never have I stumped Baker Mayfield the way I did inside a Marriott Marquis ballroom in Manhattan, New York, around 6:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.

A little more than two hours away from hearing his name called as the 2017 Heisman Trophy winner, Mayfield took a pause after I asked him how playing at OU has changed his life.

For Mayfield, it’s been the best thing that’s ever happened to him, which is something I can relate to as a fifth-year senior at OU. Mayfield and I were both college freshmen in 2013, and by some amazing luck, my time covering Sooner football lined up perfectly with Mayfield’s legendary career in Norman.

So, as I sat there listening to Mayfield’s answer and then a few minutes later grabbing dinner with the Oklahoma media in New York, I also reflected on my time in Norman.

When I first started at OU, I couldn’t have imagined I’d cover a College Football Playoff or a Heisman Trophy presentation. But there I was, a week away from graduating from college, in snowy Times Square witnessing Mayfield win college football’s premier individual award after scoffing at rumors of his transfer back in early 2014.

I won’t forget when we, the media, spoke with Mayfield for the first time after he was announced as OU’s

starter ahead of the 2015 season.

Hearing him speak at the podium after being introduced as “Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield” was a surreal moment for me.

Mayfield’s story is about as unrealistic of a plot that you can imagine.

The stories I have written regarding his career read more like a Friday Night Lights episode, considering he has the stature of Matt Saracen, the swagger of Smash Williams and the antics of Tim Riggins.

It was back in April, however, when I first pitched an idea for an independent study to Seth Prince, The Daily’s digital adviser, to publish a series profiling each Oklahoma Heisman Trophy winner and releasing each story leading up to the 2017 ceremony.

We had no clue whether Mayfield would be invited or even considered for the award at the time, but we rolled the dice.

I felt like there was no better time to tell these stories, and even if Mayfield hadn’t won, the work I’ve done in detailing all of OU’s Heisman winners is something I couldn’t be more proud of.

This weekend, albeit a business trip, was a nice treat as I approach graduation this upcoming Saturday.

It was the best way to cap this project that we’ve worked on for months but has been years in the making.

I have so many people to thank for making my vision possible. As I sit in LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York, on a Sunday at 3 p.m. ET writing this, I can’t believe the ride is over for myself — although for Mayfield and Oklahoma football, they still have two more to go.

If the past three years have been any indication, I expect the most epic ending to the future “30 for 30” documentary unfolding right in front of us.

Joe Buettner

joebuet@ou.edu

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HEISMAN EDITION

• December 11-15, 2017

‘It’s been a dream come true’ BAKER MAYFIELD • DECEMBER 9, 2017

Senior quarterback Baker Mayfield was named the 2017 Heisman Trophy winner Saturday night.

Here’s a full transcription of his acceptance speech:

TODD J. VAN EMST/HEISMAN TRUST/POOL

Senior quarterback Baker Mayfield and coach Lincoln Riley pose for a picture with the Heisman trophy in New York on Dec. 9.

“This is unbelievable for me, being up here among these greats. It’s something that words can’t even describe unless it’s them. God has put me in a position to be so blessed, and all the time I wonder why. But, it’s such an honor to be up here and I really appreciate it. It’s unbelievable. “One, first I’d like to say congratulations to Bryce (Love). Good season, man.

Heck of a year — you played well. Then, getting to know your family as well, heck of a family. It’s no wonder you turned out so great.

Congratulations, keep balling. Then, Lamar (Jackson), it’s good to see you again.

I love your family, and you guys are special people so I enjoyed being around you guys. “Now I’d like to thank the Heisman Trophy Trust. You guys put on a great event year in and year out. It’s an honor just to be here and to win. It’s a blessing. I appreciate you guys and everybody who helps put on this event.

It’s awesome, I love it. “To my big boys up front who protect me — you’ve got (Orlando Brown), Cody Ford, Ben Powers, Erick Wren, Dru Samia and Bobby Evans. Boys back home, it wouldn’t happen without you. I appreciate you more than you know. Keep the physicality, we’ve got two more (games), but this one’s for you guys. “Then to my receivers and running backs, you make my job easy. I’ve got playmakers, and I wouldn’t trade you guys for anybody. It’s who I’d pick for being in a foxhole

with. I love you guys. “Our defensive guys as well, I don’t play with them but they challenge me every day. They get me better week in and week out, and also our scout-team guys. I’ve got respect for them. They challenge me, they keep me going, they keep it competitive during the week and our team would not be where it is without you. So, thank you to you as well. I appreciate you.

I’m proud to play behind those people. “It’s been a tough journey.

They showed the videos. I walked on twice. It’s been a long journey. To my coaches back in Lake Travis, you guys instilled a work ethic and mentality in me that’s never left. It’s only grown. So I thank you guys back home.

I think they won their playoff game tonight, so shoutout to Lake Travis. “Everybody at OU, the staff welcomed me in with open arms. It’s been the greatest thing to ever happen to me, and I can’t thank everybody enough. You guys have pushed me to be the best.

It’s been a dream come true.

There’s a standard and tradition there that’s set very high, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. “I’ve got the strength staff that pushes me. I came in and wasn’t the most physical specimen that you’ve ever seen, but they changed me. But really, mentally, they pushed me to be better. The support staff and the nutrition team, I couldn’t do it without you. There’s a lot of people that put effort into this and it’s unbelievable. “To coach (Bob) Stoops,

you welcomed a chubby, unathletic kid into the program with open arms. I wouldn’t say that many would do that, but thank you. What I’m most thankful for is you hiring coach (Lincoln) Riley.

The day that you did that changed my life so I appreciate that. Coach Riley, you’ve been a great mentor to me.

We’ve been through a lot together, so I appreciate you. “To my family, I love you guys. There were times that we had to move. You guys made sacrifice after sacrifice just so I could chase my dreams. I wouldn’t be here without you. I love you. Like I said, sacrifice after sacrifice, you guys have instilled a mentality in me of loyalty and how to have a family that’s second to none. I appreciate that. “To all the Sooner fans back home, including Billy (Sims) up here, it’s been a dream come true to play at OU. Although I grew up in Austin, Texas, I was always Sooner born and Sooner bred, and they say when I die I’ll be Sooner dead, and I truly mean that. It’s been a dream for me, and it’s an honor to get to represent my school. There’s many more people I could thank that’ve helped me get there, it’s unbelievable. I just want everyone to know I appreciate them. I can’t name everybody because it’s too many, it wasn’t just me. Although that statue right there is going to have my name on it, it’s more deserving to my teammates and my coaches so I appreciate you guys. And to the kids out there, don’t give up.

Don’t ever give up.�

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Baker Mayfield wins the 2017 Heisman Trophy, shakes hands with Lamar Jackson during the Heisman Trophy Presentation on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2017 in New York.

Universal Crossword Edited by Timothy Parker December 11, 2017

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Previous Solution

Monday- Very Easy Tuesday-Easy Wednesday- Easy Thursday- Medium Friday - Hard

Instructions: Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. That means that no number is repeated in any row, column or box.

ACROSS 1 Meal in a can 5 Simians 9 Packs down 14 Comfort 15 Sock some away 16 Something to sneak?

17 “If that’s the case ...�

18 Mix 19 “Should we?� informally 20 Be a real coward 23 Fluctuating toy 24 Food scrap 25 Begets or sires 28 Overly thin 30 Old Ford 33 Hawk’s chill spot 34 Runny cheese 35 Suspicious 36 Mappedout race 39 Icy coating 40 Aaron or Ketcham 41 America’s bird 42 ___ mode 43 Clenched hand 44 Relatives of buddies 45 Pouch 46 Stable newbie 12/11

47 Cause for celebrating over a plate 54 Pineapple Hawaiian island 55 Chill spot for some animals 56 Superlative rating 57 Words with “selfdefense�

58 Assistant 59 ___ of (frees oneself of) 60 The sound of spring?

61 Needed a bandage 62 Bit of land DOWN 1 Paving stone 2 Most populated Hawaiian island 3 Friendly type?

4 “It� baddie 5 Appraises, as metals 6 Homeowner’s chill spot 7 More than wicked 8 “Buona ___� (good night) 9 Gaudy and cheap 10 Not together 11 It reveals what’s cooking

12 Station in NYC 13 Calypso relative 21 Tightens muscles 22 Ninesome 25 Pelvis bones 26 Danger 27 Evidence of baking 28 Main impact 29 Sty sound 30 Shirt size 31 In all honesty 32 A newton’s 100,000 34 Flamboyant shoulder wraps 35 Wild West lawman 37 City near Sacramento 38 Royal domain

43 Counterfeiting 44 In a slip 45 Assassinated 46 Reprimand 47 Baylor’s city 48 Adamantly against 49 Dieter’s target 50 Fall short 51 Churn up 52 Reverse the effects of 53 Robin’s chill out spot 54 Testing spot

PREVIOUS PREVIOUSPUZZLE PUZZLEANSWER ANSWER

12/10 Š 2017 Andrews McMeel Syndication 12/7 Š 2017 Andrews McMeel Syndication www.upuzzles.com www.upuzzles.com

END RUN By Timothy E. Parker

HOROSCOPE

By Eugenia Last

Copyright 2017, Newspaper Enterprise Assn.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2017 ASTROGRAPH by Eugenia Last

someone trying to outdo you will help you gain ground.

Take pride in what you do. Let the past go, head into the future with optimism and turn your dreams into reality. It’s time to take the experience and knowledge you’ve gained over the past few years and turn them into something tangible.

Big changes can be made.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) -Participate in festivities that will bring you in touch with old friends or colleagues. Express your feelings and offer kind gestures, but don’t get talked into something you probably shouldn’t do.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) -- Take the time to schmooze with your peers. Being a good listener will help you form advantageous relationships. Update your image and make love a priority.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) -- Address personal issues before someone complains or makes demands. Have a plan ready to offset an unsavory choice someone wants you to make. Look out for your best interest.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) -- Look at the big picture as well as your expectations. Excessive behavior will lead to personal and emotional loss. Only take on what you can handle.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) -- Make plans to get together with old friends or to go shopping for items you want to purchase before the year ends. Share your feelings with someone you love.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) -- Listen to your heart, not to what others tell you. Someone is likely to offer information that won’t apply to your situation or that could end up costing you time and money.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) -- Be careful how you handle matters pertaining to your home and family. Not everyone will be happy with the limitations you set or criticisms you make. Be fair and understanding.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) -- Listen to what others have to say. The more information you gather, the easier it will be for you to communicate your thoughts, position and contributions.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) -- Make travel plans or set up meetings that will help you address important matters before the year comes to a close. Personal growth and self-awareness will encourage you to make wise choices.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) -- Dig deep and find out all you can.

Knowledge is power, and knowing how to apply it when faced with

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) -- Get into the spirit of the season. Ask questions and find out how old friends and family are doing. Showing consideration and generosity toward others will make you feel good.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) -- Do whatever you can to help those less fortunate. Your time and effort will be appreciated, and you will discover something or someone that gives you incentive to follow your dream.

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HEISMAN EDITION

• December 11-15, 2017

TYLER WOODWARD/THE DAILY

THE BEST OF BAKER From walk-on to Heisman Trophy winner, Baker Mayfield’s journey has been the stuff of legends

JOE BUETTNER FOR THE DAILY

CHRISTOPHER MICHIE/THE DAILY

TYLER WOODWARD/THE DAILY

SIANDHARA BONNET/THE DAILY

SIANDHARA BONNET/THE DAILY

HEISMAN EDITION

December 11-15, 2017 •

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PAXSON HAWS/THE DAILY

SIANDHARA BONNET/THE DAILY

CAITLYN EPES/THE DAILY

PAXSON HAWS/THE DAILY

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ADVERTISEMENT

• December 11-15, 2017

CONGRATULATIONS Baker Mayfield from the entire OU family for winning the Heisman Trophy!

“We are proud not only of your athletic achievements but also of the leadership you have demonstrated. You have earned your place in OU history.”

- President David L. Boren The University of Oklahoma is an equal opportunity institution. www.ou.edu/eoo

- THE PRIDE OF OKLAHOMA

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HEISMAN EDITION

• December 10, 2017

HEISMAN EVOLUTION

JOE BUETTNER/FOR THE DAILY

The Heisman Trophy on display in New York City prior to the award ceremony Dec. 9. Senior quarterback Baker Mayfield became the sixth Oklahoma player to win the prestigious award.

As the Heisman has become a national event, Oklahoma football has grown with it. Here’s our look at OU’s winners

INTRODUCTION T

JOE BUETTNER • @JOE_BUETTNER

MANUFACTURING A WINNER

he Heisman Trophy has evolved from a humble accolade to a year-long production, orchestrated by media outlets and wishful athletic departments.

Kenny Mossman suspected Sam Bradford would win the 2008 Heisman Trophy, an award now forever attached to his name, before the former Oklahoma quarterback was announced the winner in New York City.

The Heisman Trophy Trust, which works to uphold the award’s integrity, didn’t inform Mossman, the director of athletics media relations at Oklahoma at the time.

Rather, he noticed camera crews starting to make their way to Bradford and his family during the commercial break immediately preceding the announcement on ESPN, positioning themselves to capture the recipient’s reaction.

Nearly four decades earlier, Steve Owens found out he won the 1969 Heisman secondhand while walking on campus in Norman. He later got a phone call that confirmed his achievement, but unlike Bradford, there was no public relations team like the one Mossman led to promote Owens as college football’s most outstanding player or a live ceremony on national television to announce his victory.

“There was no campaign,” said Al Eschbach, a sports talk host on WWLS-FM in Oklahoma City.

“Nobody talked about it, nobody was writing about it in the paper or anything. There was no talk radio then.”

In the modern day, television rights, award sponsorships, social media and digital-savvy public relation teams have transformed the landscape of the Heisman Trophy and how a candidate is promoted. Still, there isn’t a perfect formula to promoting a Heisman hopeful. Flashy numbers are a key factor into what defines the best player in the country, but at some point in the season, everyone has statistics, Mossman said.

What it comes down to is who has the most intriguing backstory, the most attractive highlight reel and

a creative public relations team to accent everything special and talented about that player.

Halfway through this season, Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield checked many of those boxes. He’d thrown for 2,347 yards passing, 19 touchdowns and only 2 interceptions. He planted the flag after defeating Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio, threw the game-winning pass against Texas and played through a shoulder injury in a win at Kansas State. All that after walking on to his second Big 12 football program and earning the starting job.

The significance and tradition that follows a Heisman Trophy winner is unlike any other in college football. And in Norman, Mayfield’s likeness will soon be cast as the sixth statue standing east of Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium — the same place where he attended Sooner home games, hoping to one day stand among the heroes he watched as a kid — if he were to win.

“I don’t even think I could use words to describe it correctly,” Mayfield said earlier this season.

“Coming up to tailgate and playing backyard football right there by Heisman Park, before Bradford’s (statue) was there and right around the time Jason (White) was earning his, to realize I was there cheering on the team at that point in time before their statues were even there, so that obviously just shows I was their biggest (fan).

Having something like that next to them would be such an honor, and we’ll see what happens.”

••• It was just 40 years ago the Heisman Trophy presentation truly took off as a national spectacle, televised for the first time in 1977.

Eschbach remembers the era in college football before the award wasn’t exhaustively discussed and debated nonstop from the conclusion of one season to the end of the next.

The commercialization of the

Heisman Trophy was initially met with some skepticism. The late Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, former vice president of the University of Notre Dame, once told The New York Times the Heisman “was not designed as a vehicle for selling soap or beer.”

The prestige of the trophy seemed to be in danger as television rights were shopped for the presentation of college football’s most-coveted individual prize. It had done just fine without sponsorships and television since its inception in 1935, honoring college football immortals like Davey O’Brien, Doak Walker and Ernie Davis.

In 1952, Oklahoma running back Billy Vessels was the first of five Sooners to capture the award.

One of his teammates, Merrill Green, fondly recalls the days playing alongside Vessels with memories of the tough and rugged tailback that highlighted the early stages of the Bud Wilkinson era.

“Once you’re a Heisman winner, that’s really what you are the rest of your life. You’re going to be identified as that.”

KENNY MOSSMAN, SENIOR ASSOCIATE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

“(The Heisman Trophy) was not that prominent, especially back in our part of the country,” Green said. “It was not like, ‘Gee, looks like Billy’s probably going to win to the Heisman,’ like today. You start about (October), people start thinking about who the possible candidates are for the Heisman.

That didn’t happen at all.”

It wasn’t to say the Heisman Trophy wasn’t a big deal. It just wasn’t the presentation fans have come to tune into each December with myriad cameras and lights shining on a handful of college football’s finest players with their coaches and families behind them and the past winners in attendance, waiting to initiate the next member into one of sports’

most-exclusive fraternities.

The humble roots of the Heisman Trophy, however, lend to its significance today.

“There’s so much tradition tied up in that award, that all of a sudden you get this sense that this is something that’s going to happen that is going to forever impact the life of the person who wins it,” Mossman said of seeing the live ceremony. “They talk about that a lot when you’re up there. Once you’re a Heisman winner, that’s really what you are the rest of your life. You’re going to be identified as that.”

••• Not every Heisman candidate is made equal in the age of television and social media. Increasingly, the Heisman moment can propel a campaign in the era of viral video.

Desmond Howard’s stiff arm.

Johnny Manziel running for his life against Alabama. Bradford’s helicopter flip at Oklahoma State.

Ne a r l y t w o d e ca d e s hav e elapsed since Superman arrived for a brief moment at Dallas’ Cotton Bowl.

Two minutes remained in regulation, and the No. 5 Longhorns trailed the No. 3 Sooners 7-3 on Oct. 6, 2001. Oklahoma safety Roy Williams soared over a Texas running back and flew headfirst toward quarterback Chris Simms.

As the Texas quar terback dropped inside his end zone, he cocked his arm with the football in his left hand vulnerable to the airborne Sooner, who draped himself like a cape over Simms. Oklahoma linebacker Teddy Lehman was perfectly planted a few yards away to snatch the ball his teammate knocked free, walk in the score and spoil any of hope of a late rally for the rival Longhorns.

Williams’ play is now regarded as one of the most iconic moments in the Red River rivalry’s fabled history, and for Mossman, it was just as important in the weeks to follow. “‘Superman’ was a gift on a platter for us,” Mossman said.

The junior safety’s signature play was as clear as the Texas skies the day he etched his name in Sooners lore. The play was perfect to promote a Heisman Trophy candidate, and Williams became a strong contender for the award with the aid of his highlights and the campaigning from the Oklahoma athletics department.

“Defensive players are so much harder to promote for that award,” Mossman said. “So we had to get a little bit more creative, and I felt like we are able to do that. Roy helped a lot quite honestly, because he made some spectacular plays that got a lot of national video coverage. I just felt like we took a defensive player and really made him a serious threat.”

Williams ultimately finished seventh in the voting. It’s a feat Mossman is still proud of to this day, considering Williams’ primary kryptonite was playing defense.

Two years later, Mossman made it to his first Heisman presentation with Jason White. The trip was as grand as the city that hosts the ceremony. It made it even better coming during the holiday season, he said. Once the day arrives, however, tension gradually builds inside the intimate confines of the 2,100-seat venue where the ceremony is held.

It’s an overwhelming process only 80 men who’ve been presented the trophy have experienced, but the relief following the show is well worth the wait to go down forever in history as a Heisman Trophy winner.

“The buildup is very significant,” Mossman said. “And then, of course, right before they present the trophy, they go to commercial, so they take it out even longer. It’s really overwhelming.The other thing I think that’s overwhelming about it — you do get some sense of this on television — is so many of the past winners are there, and you’re talking about a who’s who of college football.

“The greatest names to ever play the game.”

Joe Buettner

joebuet@ou.edu

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1952

• December 10, 2017

HEISMAN EDITION

BILLY

VESSELS

Running back helped fuel Oklahoma football’s rise to national prominence JOE BUETTNER • @JOE_BUETTNER

I

PROVIDED BY OU ATHLETICS

HEISMAN WINNERS OVER THE YEARS

BILLY VESSELS STEVE OWENS BILLY SIMS JASON WHITE SAM BRADFORD BAKER MAYFIELD

PROVIDED BY OU ATHLETICS

t didn’t take long for Billy Vessels’ teammates to learn he was unique.

The track star from Cleveland, Oklahoma, was as good as any halfback in the old Big 7 Conference as just a sophomore, his former teammate Merrill Green says. The rest of the country remained in the dark on the special talent until Oklahoma football earned its first opportunity to play on national television against Notre Dame on Nov. 8, 1952.

Green, now in his 80s, struggles to recall much of the classic meeting between the Sooners and Fighting Irish. Green played opposite Vessels at halfback, but he knocked himself out of the contest after blindsiding a Notre Dame defender on a Vessels touchdown run. He’s certain, however, it was that game that won Vessels the 1952 Heisman Trophy.

“In 1952, there wasn’t that many televisions, but if you had one, you were watching Oklahoma play Notre Dame, and Vessels was the star,” said Oklahoma football historian Mike Brooks. “That really propelled him.”

Vessels was doing all of this in the infancy of Oklahoma football’s rise to national prominence.

Before Vessels, Oklahoma had neither a national championship nor a Heisman Trophy to its name.

The kid from Cleveland helped the Sooners accomplish both, despite only playing two full seasons in Norman.

Vessels lifted Oklahoma to its first national title in 1950, rushing for 870 yards and 13 touchdowns.

His junior season was curtailed by a knee injury, but he returned the next year to rush for a career-best 1,072 yards on 167 attempts and scored 17 touchdowns.

The Notre Dame game was the crown jewel of his Heisman-winning season — the season that earned Vessels’ real estate within Norman’s Heisman Park five decades later.

Even if the term had yet to enter anyone’s vernacular, the showdown between the Sooners and Irish was Vessels’ Heisman moment.

He gashed the Irish defense for 195 yards rushing on 17 carries and three touchdowns. A massive media contingent was present in South Bend to see Oklahoma, with as little history as it had, carve up a Notre Dame team that had already claimed seven national titles and three Heisman winners by the time the two programs met for the first time in 1952.

“Notre Dame had such an aura about them,” Brooks said, “and the Sooners go to South Bend and we go toe-to-toe with Notre Dame.”

Vessels did everything he could to put Oklahoma in front, producing all 21 of his team’s points that day. The first came when quarterback Eddie Crowder found Vessels open for a 28-yard touchdown reception on a play-action pass. On the next score, he took a handoff from OU’s 38-yard line, busted through a hole and left every defender looking at the No. 35 on the back of his crimson jersey as he sprinted toward the end zone.

His final highlight was a 47-yard rushing score. Crowder pitched to Vessels, who avoided one tackle in the backfield, tight-roped the right sideline past two more defenders and cut back across to the center of the field to score.

It was the perfect culmination of a big stage and a great player, who took advantage of the spotlight. The only downside to Vessels’ historic day?

Oklahoma lost 27–21.

Vessels will always be remembered as the speedy running back who tore up the Fighting Irish, but he was much more to Oklahoma.

Vessels was as tough physically and mentally as they come.

Among his 327 career carries at

“In 1952, there wasn’t that many televisions, but if you had one, you were watching Oklahoma play Notre Dame, and Vessels was the star.”

MIKE BROOKS, OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL HISTORIAN

Oklahoma that totaled 2,084 yards, one play stands out to Green. He best recalled a defensive play from Vessels’ shortened junior season when Oklahoma faced William & Mary.

Green cannot forget the image of Vessels, who played both sides of the ball at Oklahoma, delivering a devastating hit to an opposing player and leaving the other guy hospitalized.

“I can still see (his) helmet when he hit the guy,” Green said.

The intense nature of Vessels’ playing style helped ignite Oklahoma’s ascension into a college football power. Vessels’ intensity and discipline were a result of his upbringing in the coal-mining region of northeast Oklahoma. He experienced a troubled home life, living by himself for parts of his childhood after his parents left him to move away from Cleveland. A bronze statue of Vessels now resides in the town of 3,222 people in front of the Cleveland Event Center on North Gilbert Avenue.

His humble beginnings and difficult relationship with his family did not deter him from paving a path to the University of Oklahoma in 1949.

Freshmen weren’t allowed to play on legendary Oklahoma coach Bud Wilkinson’s varsity squad at the time, but he would soon immortalize his name along with the sport’s elite as a gifted football player who transcended his time.

“I suspect from all the guys I played with … he’d probably be the only the one that today I could assure you would play today as well as anybody else,” Green said. “He was a very good-sized guy, as well as a great runner. One of the toughest guys physically and mentally that you’d ever be around.”

All of what made Vessels an

outstanding player was hard to come by in one halfback.

Toughness. Quickness. He was purely unmatched.

That well-roundedness was adored by Wilkinson, who guided Oklahoma to its first three national championships.

“Wilkinson just loved Billy Vessels,” Brooks said. “Wilkinson stated many times (that) Billy Vessels was the only player that he ever had that was the fastest player on the team and also the toughest player on his team.”

His intense approach to football led him to an illustrious collegiate career that ended with a trip to New York. It was there the senior halfback from Oklahoma carried a wide grin as he shook hands with the president of the Downtown Athletic Club and accepted his Heisman Trophy.

For those who followed the sport at the time, it was no surprise to see the dominant back take home the coveted award.

Former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer was still in high school when Vessels was tearing up defenses. He knew of the talented Vessels from flipping between Oklahoma and Tennessee football games on his car’s battery radio every Saturday in Crossett, Arkansas.

He continued to see Vessels pop up at his local movie theatre when he’d go to a double feature to catch a Western. Switzer remembers seeing the Oklahoma halfback rip off runs against Nebraska on Movietone News — a now-defunct newsreel that ran in theaters for decades until the early ‘60s — on the black-andwhite movie screen.

Switzer was still a little under two decades away from coaching a pair of Heisman Trophy winners himself.

But he fondly remembers the stud halfback Vessels, who died at the age of 70 in 2001.

Vessels was a good man and a great football player, from what Switzer recalls. He was drafted with the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft in 1953, but opted to go for the big money at the time and play a season in the Canadian Football League before eventually taking a crack at the NFL. He also served his country in the U.S. Army, along with Green. The former Oklahoma teammates became close during their time at Fort Sill. It was there Green came to better understand Vessels and the mentality that helped him shape an unforgettable legacy.

“He was a very amicable, very easy to get along with, very easy to know, very much a part of the team, very encouraging,” Green said. “But he was tough. He was very tough. On the field as well as off. He had a lot of strong discipline about him, and a very determined football player.

“He was very unique. He was cut a little different from the rest of them.”

Joe Buettner

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1969

HEISMAN EDITION

December 11-15, 2017 •

STEVE

OWENS A boy who grew up dreaming of playing for Oklahoma became a workhorse running back and earned a trip to New York City JOE BUETTNER • @JOE_BUETTNER PHOTO PROVIDED BY OU ATHLETICS

H

ope felt lost inside Oklahoma Memorial Union.

It was there Steve Owens and his wife, Barbara, awaited an important phone call on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 1969. He was told he would know around 11 a.m. if he had won the Heisman Trophy, the award annually given to college football’s most outstanding player.

The phone didn’t ring, and he knew the Downtown Athletic Club called only the winner. Owens had to get to football practice soon, so he departed the union under the impression he fell short of becoming Oklahoma’s second Heisman Trophy winner. He headed to practice,walking across campus, with his final game at Oklahoma a few days away, he was stopped by someone who broke the news to him.

Owens had won the Heisman.

A trio of quarterbacks were his biggest challengers — Purdue’s Mike Phipps, Ohio State’s Rex Kern and O le Miss’ Archie Manning. Each played for teams with better records than the 6-4 Sooners of 1969, but team success carried less weight with Heisman Trophy voting in Owens’ era.

What helped was that his name resonated with voters. He had a memorable performance in 1968 against powerhouse Nebraska, scoring five touchdowns in a 47–0 win on national television late in the year. Owens, then a junior, rushed for 1,536 yards and 21 touchdowns, but wouldn’t sniff the Heisman due to an even better season from Southern Cal running back and 1968 Heisman Trophy winner O.J. Simpson.

The Nebraska game set Owens up to compete for the award his senior year when he once again tortured Big 8 Conference defenses. However, he wasn’t breaking off any long scampers to the end zone or producing any jaw-dropping highlights like most running backs who contend for the award today. Owens recorded only one rushing attempt for more than 40 yards in his career as a Sooner.

The year he won the Heisman, Owens racked up 1,523 rushing yards on 358 carries and 23 touchdowns and averaged 4.3 yards per attempt.

“He was a workhorse,” said Barry Switzer, who was wrapping up his fourth season as Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator when Owens won the Heisman.

“Not many people could carry the ball as many as times he did a game and hold up physically, but he did. He carried it 30-something times a game, but he was physically and mentally tough. Basically of all the yards he made, 90 percent of them were inside the tackles.”

Owens’ durability is rare in modern college football. He averaged 35.8 carries a game his Heisman-winning season.

Alabama running backs Derrick Henry, the 2015 winner, and Mark Ingram, the 2009 winner, carried the ball 26.3 and 19.3 times per game, respectively, the seasons they won. You have to go back nearly two decades to find the last running back to win the award and average more than 30 carries a game — Ricky Williams of Texas, the 1998 winner, averaged 32.8 carries in his winning season.

All the more impressive for Owens was the lack of a strength and conditioning program like today’s tailbacks enjoy. In order to endure the weekly punishment of carrying the ball close to 40 times a game, Switzer recalls watching Owens remove his pads immediately after practice to go lift weights.

It was that type of work ethic and dedication that allowed him to win college football’s most prestigious individual award, which he never thought obtainable growing up in the 9.8-square mile town of Miami, Oklahoma.

••• Owens’ roots were nothing short of humble.

He credits much of his success to the lessons he learned as one of 11 children, the son of a truck driver and a mother who cleaned houses and took care of kids.

Owens himself worked at a shoe and clothing store, called the Hub, on the weekends in his tiny hometown in northeast Oklahoma. He’d sneak to the back of the shop to listen to the voices of Bob Barry Sr. and Jack Ogle calling Oklahoma football games on the radio during his shifts. It was there his passion for Oklahoma football began during the days of legendary Oklahoma coach Bud Wilkinson.

“When I was young, I used to get every magazine I could find to read about the history of Oklahoma football,” Owens said.

“At that time as just a kid, I was thinking, if I work hard and am

fortunate, maybe someday I’ll have the opportunity to play at Oklahoma.”

Owens eventually developed into a football and track star in high school, drawing interest from Arkansas. Jim Mackenzie was an assistant coach for the Razorbacks at the time and heavily recruited Owens to stay within 100 miles of home just across the state line, as opposed to a 200-mile drive to Norman.

It was Owens’ dream to play for Oklahoma and walk in the footsteps of one of his first idols, 1952 Heisman Trophy winner Billy Vessels.

The only things holding Owens back from following his dream was Arkansas’ pitch to him as one of the best teams in the country in the late ’60s and Oklahoma struggling in the early years following Wilkinson’s retirement.

Wilkinson’s successor, Gomer Jones, lasted two seasons before stepping down in the aftermath of a 3-7 year in 1965. His departure made way for Mackenzie, however, to take over in Norman.

Convincing the running back he heavily recruited to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to change his mind wouldn’t be much of an issue. “(Mackenzie) called me and said, ‘Forget all that stuff I’ve been telling you about Arkansas,’” Owens said. “‘You need to follow your dreams and go to Oklahoma.’”

••• Tragedy struck a year after Owens followed Mackenzie to Oklahoma.

Following a 6-4 season in 1966 that included a win over fourthranked Nebraska, Mackenzie died of a heart attack after returning to Norman from a recruiting trip to Amarillo, Texas, in the spring of 1967.

He was 37 years old.

Owens never got the chance to play for the man who brought him to Norman, because freshmen players weren’t eligible to play on the varsity until the NCAA changed the rule in 1972. But he stayed the course, and quickly became the star Mackenzie saw blossoming in Miami.

As a sophomore, Owens technically never started a game, according to Oklahoma football historian Mike Brooks. He shared time with the team’s more-experienced

running back, Ron Shotts of Weatherford, Oklahoma. The two rotated series, but it was clear who was better.

“Owens was a budding star,” said Brooks, who started to closely follow Oklahoma football during Owens’ playing days. “Kind of think about Samaje Perine his sophomore year. He didn’t shy away from contact. Good, but not great speed, and very durable.”

Owens wasn’t flashy. He was a north-and-south runner, a slasher and could make you miss going straight ahead, Switzer said.

He made his living picking up four or five yards at a time and wearing down defenses that couldn’t pull him down. He was “Mr. Consistency,” Brooks said.

Switzer had a different name for the 6-foot-2, 200-pound back.

“I used to call him a Ricochet Romance,” Switzer said. “You hit him, most of the time people would come ricocheting off of him.”

One of the games Owens is best known for came Nov. 29, 1969, against Oklahoma State, a few days after he was named the 1969 Heisman winner.

He ran the ball for a grueling eight consecutive plays at one point against the Cowboys and was so worn down he was forced to make a request to his quarterback, Jack Mildren.

“Jack, you have to call timeout,” Owens pleaded. “I can’t breathe.”

The request was granted, confusing Switzer. The Oklahoma play-caller asked Mildren on the sideline who was responsible for the stop in action. Mildren told him it was Owens, to which Switzer replied, “Well, you tell him he can rest when the game is over.”

O w e n s p ow e re d t h rou g h to finish with 261 yards rushing on a whopping 55 carries in Oklahoma’s classic 28–27 win over Oklahoma State, capping an already special week for the running back and leaving his final footprint on Owen Field.

••• A trip to New York City awaited Owens less than a week after his collegiate career ended against the Pokes.

Owens — along with his wife, parents, coaches and teammate Mike Harper, a close friend and the fullback who blocked for Owens in 1969 — flew to New York for the senior to accept college

football’s most coveted individual accolade on Thursday, Dec. 4, 1969.

His trip became more unbelievable for the boy from Miami when he received a phone call from then-President Richard Nixon.

One of Nixon’s aides called to invite Owens and his wife to be the president’s guests to fly to the de facto national championship game that Saturday between No. 1-ranked Texas and No. 2 Arkansas, the school that once recruited him.

Owens’ Sooners had no bowl game to prepare for, so he took the president’s offer. He then flew to the city where he almost spent his collegiate days with Nixon on Air Force One before driving back to Norman from Fayetteville in a beat-up Chevy with some friends who went to the game.

“You just call recall those memories, and you don’t forget those things,” Owens said. “It was just a tremendous experience for me and my family.”

Nearly five decades later, Owens, who turned 70 on Dec. 9, feels blessed for everything Oklahoma gave him and his family. He was the No. 19 overall pick in the 1970 NFL Draft, playing from 1970-74 with the Detroit Lions, and was named to the Pro Bowl in ’71. He later became Oklahoma’s athletic director in 1996 before Joe Castiglione assumed the position in 1998. His younger brother, Tinker, also played for Oklahoma and was a two-time All-American receiver.

He’s grateful for the fraternity of Heisman winners he gets to share with his hero Vessels, Billy Sims, Jason White, Sam Bradford and now Baker Mayfield.

He never expected he would cement his legacy with a largerthan-life replica of himself outside Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. He didn’t expect any of this would happen when he was just the kid at the Hub, tuning into hear his heroes play on Owen Field where he’d later set Oklahoma’s program record for career rushing touchdowns with 57, which still stands.

“When I was a kid at that shoe store, I never thought I’d have a statue at OU,” Owens said. “I wanted to come here and be a part of this great tradition, but I never thought I’d have a statue.”

Joe Buettner

joebuet@ou.edu

WHO ARE YOU? My name is Scooby Axson from Lawton, Oklahoma. I spent 15 years in the military, with deployments to Bosnia, Iraq and New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina. I also have a master’s degree in Psychology and a master’s degree in Journalism from Columbia University.

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SCOOBY A XSON

HOW DID WORKING FOR THE OU DAILY HELP YOU GET TO SPORTS ILLUSTRATED? I had no interest in journalism before I stumbled into the newsroom looking for a hobby to do after classes. I encourage any student that is interested in journalism to work for the Daily or in any capacity at Student Media. I honestly would not be where I am today without the guidance of advisers, the experience of working in the newsroom everyday and the encouragement and drive of me and my colleagues to be one of the best college newspapers in the nation.

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11

12

1978

• December 11-15, 2017

HEISMAN EDITION

BILLY

SIMS

After coach Barry Switzer talked him out of quitting, the Texas native ran his way into the Sooner record books JOE BUETTNER • @JOE_BUETTNER

T

he running back every school wanted felt like he needed to move on with his life. Billy Sims was convinced Oklahoma was where he could thrive in Barry Switzer’s wishbone offense, but he carried the ball just 15 times his freshman season as Joe “Silver Shoes” Washington’s understudy in 1975. He then suffered a season-ending injury in his first appearance as a sophomore, leaving the Sooners to place a medical redshirt on their prized running back from Hooks, Texas.

The honeymoon between the Sooners and Sims was over. He was no longer the player every school in America was chasing.

He wasn’t receiving the same attention from the coaching staff.

He barely saw the field before he was forced to redshirt. So No. 20 made a decision.

Sims quit Oklahoma’s football team.

“I wasn’t playing, I was highly recruited,” Sims said. “All of a sudden, I got hurt.”

He can’t remember specifically what Switzer told him that made him stay, but it was the confidence instilled in Sims

by Switzer, the Sooners’ head football coach from 1973–1988, that helped him get through the rough beginning to his collegiate career.

It was the motivation he needed to rededicate himself to football.

A healthy Sims scorched defenses his junior season for a program-record 1,896 yards rushing, which held for 26 years until Adrian Peterson broke it in 2004. He scored 22 rushing touchdowns, the third most in a single season in school history, before tying Steve Owens’ record of 23 a year later. He also averaged 7.41 yards per carry, making him one of three Sooners ever to average 7-ormore yards per rushing attempt in a season after Greg Pruitt (8.98) and Marcus Dupree (7.84).

His remarkable year ultimately led Sims to capturing college football’s most prestigious

individual honor, the Heisman Trophy, in 1978 as Oklahoma’s third winner.

“I thought I was just going to go back and pump gas the rest of my life,” Sims said, “but coach Switzer saw more in me than I saw in myself.”

••• Sims wasn’t sure he’d have a life beyond Hooks.

It was there in the small, northeast Texas town he emerged as the state’s best running back. He still holds the Texas high school football record for most-consecutive games with 100-yards rushing — 38 straight contests stretching from 1972-74. As a high school senior, the state’s No. 1 tailback in the 1975 recruiting class didn’t intend on crossing state lines to play college ball either.

“I was headed to Baylor,” Sims said.

Switzer managed to get the Baylor commit to make the 260mile trip to see what Norman had to offer. Before he got there, Sims didn’t realize the number of Texas players Oklahoma had on its roster.

“I had told coach Switzer that I had a good visit,” Sims said, “but I’m going to keep my commitment and go to Baylor.”

But then, a week after his visit, Sims got a phone call while working his regular weekend shift pumping gas at a Conoco service station on Oct. 19, 1974.

Sw it zer called Sims on a Folsom Field payphone while his team still had a half left to play at Big 8 foe Colorado. The Sooners smashed the Buffaloes 49-14 that day, but the bigger victory for Switzer might’ve been the call he made to Sims.

“I just couldn’t believe that,” Sims said. “I never thought a coach would call a high school kid at halftime, especially when they have a game.

“Pretty much the rest was history after that.”

•••

supplant Switzer as Oklahoma’s all-time winningest coach.

“He was a nightmare,” Stoops recalled of Sims’ performance in Oklahoma and Iowa’s meeting on Sept. 15, 1979. “We played them fairly well. But boy, he was a terror. He was strong, fast, powerful, spinning. I’ve said it many times, he was like the Tasmanian devil running through there. His power, speed. All of it. He was tough.”

Sims’ biggest test his senior season was Nebraska once again. The Cornhuskers defense hadn’t surrendered 100 rushing yards to any running back all season before the Big 8 rivals met on Nov. 29, 1979.

Sims rushed for 282 yards against Missouri the week before, so Switzer asked his star if he had one more good game in him.

“Coach,” Sims replied, “I always save my best for last.”

Sims went off for 247 yards rushing, helping Oklahoma beat Nebraska 31-24. He then reeled off 164 yards rushing in the Orange Bowl against Florida State to cap his career at Oklahoma with 4,118 career rushing yards, a school record until Samaje Perine nosed ahead with 4,122 yards 37 years later.

Sims legitimately had a chance at another Heisman. He finished second to USC running back Charles White, which upset Switzer that his running back wasn’t able accomplish what only one other player — Ohio State’s Archie Griffin — has done.

“He should’ve won the Heisman Trophy two times in a row,” Switzer said. “He was the best back in the country his senior year. His last three games were fabulous.”

Sims was content with the trophy he already won.

“I almost won it twice,” Sims said. “A lot of people thought I should have, but Charles White had a great year at USC. Once In O klahoma’s 1979 s ea- was good enough.” son opener, the senior running back played against Bob Stoops, then an Iowa freshman defensive back who would eventually Sims, now 62, often shakes his head when he drives by the bronze statue of himself on Jenkins Avenue.

No one, not even Sims, could’ve imagined he would win a Heisman Trophy entering his junior season. But by the end of it, Oklahoma offensive guard and Outland Trophy winner Greg Roberts interrupted one of Sims’ botany classes in 1978 with news.

Roberts walked into the class to inform his roommate he won the 1978 Heisman Trophy.

Roberts told him he needed to go to the sports information department, but there was one issue.

“I wouldn’t leave the class,” Sims said. “Because I had a teacher (who) didn’t care about football players. So I was an hour late.”

No one might’ve seen Sims winning a Heisman the way his career began, but the glimpses of greatness were always there.

“I totally expected him to (win the award),” Switzer said. “He was the best back in the country. We were the best team in the country. We should’ve won the national championship (that season).

“But he fumbled too many times against Nebraska.”

Oklahoma’s only blemish in 1978 was a 17-14 loss to the Cornhuskers. Sims fumbled the ball twice late in the game — the final one coming on the Nebraska three-yard line with less than four minutes to go.

It was a low point for Sims’ Heisman-winning year, but the Sooners got a chance to redeem themselves when the Orange Bowl pitted Oklahoma and Nebraska in a rematch that same season. OU won 31-24, and Sims still had one more year in crimson.

•••

•••

“Boomer!”

Anyone unfamiliar with Sims as a football player might know him for his business ventures, in particular his barbecue restaurant chain. A few might remember him as the No. 1 overall pick in the 1980 NFL Draft to the Detroit Lions. But to anyone who’s kept up with the Heisman T ro p h y p re s e n t a t i o n l o n g enough, Sims is the man who yells “Boomer” on stage with the other winners as they await the next to be announced.

It’s been a tradition since 1978, he says, and no one’s asked him to restrain his school pride.

“I’ve never been approached about not saying that,” Sims said.

“Even the Sooner Nation, they expect it. They be waiting on it when they watch the TV.” He cherishes the memories he’s made and become the life of the party in New York. He was excited to meet the first Heisman w inner ever, Chicago’s Jay Berwanger, and 1948 Heisman winner Doak Walker. He said he enjoyed watching two more Sooners win the award since he joined college football’s most exclusive fraternity and just saw a third on Dec. 9 with quarterback Baker Mayfield joining the club.

Mo s t o f t h o s e m e m o r i e s might’ve never been made had Switzer not sold Sims on what he could be at Oklahoma when he was still in high school or convinced him to stay when the running back contemplated quitting.

Success was never a guarantee, which makes Sims all the more grateful for the monument of himself standing east of Oklahoma’s football stadium.

“I’m just so fortunate and blessed and thankful for the folks from the state of Oklahoma to honor me like that,” Sims said. “I told coach Switzer, when he was recruiting me he never did mention anything about a statue.”

Joe Buettner

joebuet@ou.edu

WHO ARE YOU? My name is Baxter Holmes. I’m 28, and I cover the Los Angeles Lakers and NBA for ESPN. I live in downtown Los Angeles.

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HOW DID WORKING FOR THE OU DAILY HELP YOU GET THERE? There’s no better way to become a journalist than to practice it on a daily basis, and working at the Daily helped me tremendously in that regard. I was lucky to work along some fine students who carried themselves in an extremely professional manner, which helped elevate all of us to that level. I was also lucky enough to learn from our editorial adviser at the time, Jack Willis, a longtime newspaperman and an outstanding professor who groomed many OU alumni who are working as professional journalists to this day ... Lastly, there are numerous journalism professors at OU who provided wisdom and daily encouragement that is invaluable.

End Here

2003

HEISMAN EDITION

JASON Quarterback battled through multiple knee injuries before finally breaking through

December 11-15, 2017 •

WHITE

JOE BUETTNER • @JOE_BUETTNER PHOTO COURTESY OF OU ATHLETICS

B

ob Stoops found himself in Tuttle, Oklahoma, on Dec. 1, 1998.

He drove to the quiet town 30 miles west of Norman to see Jason White a few hours after leaving his introduction as Oklahoma’s new head football coach in front of Evans Hall.

The high school senior was expected to become a Miami Hurricane, but he was open to hearing what the ex-Florida defensive coordinator had to say after he took the initiative to call White so quickly after the formal ceremony welcoming him to Norman.

“Pardon my appearance,” White recalls Stoops saying upon arriving at his parents’ home. “I’ve been in the same clothes for three days.”

It was a key moment in White’s recruitment and in the rebirth of Oklahoma football.

Stoops inherited a program absent a winning record in five seasons, but in the infancy of his eventually prosperous tenure, he convinced the future winner of college football’s paramount individual honor: the Heisman Trophy.

“He was so confident and he made you believe what his plan was,” White said. “By him doing that and being so confident, I think his urgency to call me, I decided, ‘Hey, I’ll take my last trip over to OU and see what it’s about.’”

The next weekend, White made the short drive to Norman.

“I knew about (Oklahoma’s) tradition, but to experience it as a recruit and walk those halls, it’s impressive,” White said. “I kept thinking, ‘Man, Steve Owens played on this field’ or ‘Billy Sims ran on this field’ or ‘He changed in this locker room.’ Just things like that, that you’re a part of this great history.

And, so after that trip, I remember just thinking to myself, ‘Here’s an opportunity to be a part of a huge change at the University of Oklahoma.’

“So, I decided to go there instead.”

White saw enough in the once-fabled program for the 6-foot-2 quarterback to change his mind, so he could join a program where his name would eventually become synonymous with Owens and Sims as college football royalty.

second year on campus when Oklahoma earned its seventh national championship.

After Heupel graduated, Nate Hybl beat White for the starting job in 2001, but a midseason injury to Hybl opened the door for White to play.

The redshirt sophomore led Oklahoma to three wins before suffering an anterior cruciate ligament tear in his left knee early in the second quarter against thenNo. 3 Nebraska that ended his season. The following year, White beat Hybl for the starting job in fall practice before suffering the same injury to the opposite knee in OU’s second game vs. Alabama.

White returned for spring practices in 2003, but the pain became too much for him to handle.

“My knees were hurting so bad that it was almost like it wasn’t worth it,” White said. “I would go to practice and then the next day it was just so hard to get around, get out and about.”

So, one day that spring, White entered then-Oklahoma offensive coordinator Chuck Long’s office with plans to quit.

“Jason,” White remembers Long saying, “when’s our next game?”

White didn’t know what he meant, so Long repeated the question.

White replied Oklahoma had its upcoming spring scrimmage, but Long wanted to know when Oklahoma’s next real game was.

“Well, September,” White said.

Long then asked the rising junior one more thing.

“It’s April,” he said. “So, why are you in such a hurry?”

Those words were everything White needed to hear. That spring, the Sooners eased him back into the position. The starting job was open again, and White was eventually thankful Long talked him out of the career-ending decision.

If not, White would’ve never become Oklahoma’s fourth Heisman Trophy winner.

“For a guy to have overcome what he did, work the way he had to rehabilitate,” Stoops said. “Not only to play again, but to be the best player in college football?

“That’s unheard of.”

•••

•••

White returned to the Cotton Bowl two years after taking his first White sat out most of his fresh- meaningful snaps of his college caman season as a backup to Josh reer on Oct. 11, 2003.

Heupel, and then redshirted his White, coming off two major

knee surgeries, embarrassed the Longhorns, throwing for 290 yards on 17-of-21 completions and four touchdowns, leading top-ranked Oklahoma to a 65-13 win over No. 11 Texas.

Kenny Mossman, Oklahoma’s director of athletics media relations at the time, was walking with then-Tulsa World columnist Dave Sittler after the Sooners finished their postgame interviews session. And as the two walked back to the Cotton Bowl press box, Sittler asked a question that froze the Sooners media relations director.

“Once he stayed healthy and really started to see the game and throw it like he can, he was just incredible.”

BOB STOOPS, FORMER OKLAHOMA HEAD FOOTBALL COACH

“Have you decided what you’re going to do with Jason White’s Heisman campaign yet?”

Mossman recalls Sittler saying.

White didn’t have a Heisman moment, but the way he led No. 1 Oklahoma to a dominant victory over Texas on a big stage gave Mossman and OU’s media relations staff a legitimate Heisman contender to promote.

“Heck, I was just trying to make it through practice,” White said.

He did quite a bit more, lifting the Sooners to three top-25 wins over Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma State by scores of 6513, 34-13 and 52-9, respectively.

He tossed five touchdown passes in a 77-0 massacre of Texas A&M that season. And White threw a school-record 40 touchdown passes that season, a mark surpassed five years later by Sam Bradford with 50 and by Baker Mayfield’s 41 so far in 2017.

He was also four yards short of breaking Heupel’s single-season school-record 3,850 passing yards, which was later surpassed

by Bradford, Landry Jones and Mayfield.

“He showed a lot of signs in both (2001 and 2002) before he got hurt of being a guy that could be a great quarterback,” Stoops said. “You don’t know what you have in a Heisman guy until you got midway through that season (in 2003). Once he stayed healthy and really started to see the game

and throw it like he can, he was just giving Mossman’s team a more difincredible.” ficult task. Similar to Mayfield and Dede Westbrook’s dual Heisman campaign in 2016, Oklahoma never promoted one over the White couldn’t believe he won other. a Heisman, and neither could an White, who’d already won a airport employee the Oklahoma Heisman, lobbied for Peterson, quarterback encountered when the same way Mayfield did for he departed New York following Westbrook. But both fell short the 2003 ceremony. with Peterson and White finishing The employee thought the second and third, respectively, beOklahoma contingent flying home hind the 2004 winner Leinart. The was lying when they declared the Sooners duo beat out USC sopholarge case with them contained more running back Reggie Bush, the coveted bronze trophy. So, however, who placed fifth that seathe group opened the case to the son and went to New York with his skeptical employee to reveal the Trojan teammate. award White won over Pittsburgh “It was really cool to be up wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, there with your teammate,” White Ole Miss quarterback Eli Manning said. “Especially a guy you kind of and Michigan running back Chris had to coach along the way (as a Perry. freshman).”

Future NFL quarterbacks Matt Peterson eventually went on Leinart of USC, Ben Roethlisberger to become the No. 7 overall pick of Miami (Ohio) and Philip Rivers in the NFL Draft three years later. of North Carolina State also re- White, on the other hand, went ceived Heisman votes that season. undrafted and signed with the White had one more game to Tennessee Titans before deciding play following his trip to New York to retire before the start of the 2005 — the 2004 Sugar Bowl vs. LSU — season because of his knees. but the Sooners would go on to White, now 37, has ventured lose 21-14 to the Tigers. into local businesses since his “(2003) was kind of a magical football career ended. He is the season,” White said of a team that face of Air Comfort Solutions, a featured the likes of Mark Clayton, local heating, plumbing and air Renaldo Works, Tommie Harris, conditioning provider. He was Derrick Strait and Teddy Lehman. also recently featured in a Nissan “That was the scout team from commercial with 2007 Heisman the 2000 national championship Trophy winner Tim Tebow. team. We all played on the scout The Tuttle native lives in his team that year, and so, to get our sports-crazed hometown again, time out there and be the starting where one of the main roads is group, that was special to us. That named “Jason White Boulevard” year was special. I mean, we went for the city that used to shut down out and played well every game ex- on Friday nights to watch him cept for two.” torch opposing defenses and tune White admits the Sooners’ in to see him will Oklahoma to 2003 run was tarnished some by consecutive national title game the losses to LSU for the national appearances, a Big 12 championchampionship and the stunning ship and a 24-3 record in his final 35-7 loss to Kansas State in the Big two seasons of college football.

12 championship game.

Never did he think, however, He had one more season ahead he’d be on stage in New York on of him, however.

Dec. 13, 2003, accepting college In 2004, the duo of White and football’s most prestigious individfreshman running back Adrian ual honor months after he debated Peterson looked unstoppable for a giving up the sport forever.

Sooners team that rolled to a 12-1 “Still to this day, when I won it, record before walking into a buzz- they announced my name, I resaw in the 2005 Orange Bowl vs. member sitting there in shock,” White said. “I knew I had a good USC. White threw for 3,205 yards, 35 chance maybe to win it. I never touchdowns and completed a ca- thought that I’d be the one to get reer-best 65.4 percent of his passes my name called.” as a senior, while Peterson ran for a school-record 1,925 rushing yards on 339 carries and 15 touchdowns.

Joe Buettner joebuet@ou.edu Both were invited to the 2004 Heisman Trophy presentation,

•••

WHO ARE YOU? My name is Hannah Allam. I was born in Oklahoma and my mother’s family is from Oklahoma City, but I spent my childhood largely in the Middle East.

I’ve always had a deep connection with both places and am honored to call both places home.

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HANNAH ALLAM

HOW DID WORKING FOR THE OU DAILY HELP YOU BECOME A REPORTER COVERING MUSLIM LIFE IN AMERICA FOR BUZZFEED NEWS? When I was named Baghdad bureau chief at age 26, my only management experience was from serving as an editor at The Daily ... Overall, student media laid the foundation for my entire journalistic career: I learned the skills I would need on the job, got hands-on training at the paper, practiced community engagement as an editor and graduated feeling incredibly lucky to have had professors who showed me how to turn a passion into a profession.

End Here

13

14

2008

• December 11-15, 2017

HEISMAN EDITION

SAM BRADFORD Sooner coaches knew the quarterback was special after just two college games JOE BUETTNER • @JOE_BUETTNER

PROVIDED BY OU ATHLETICS

K

evin Wilson understood Sam Bradford was gifted.

Bradford showed glimmers of elite potential. During his second-career start in 2007, Oklahoma was on the Miami 10yard line in the fourth quarter when the inexperienced quarterback faked a handoff to DeMarco Murray, looked up and saw his intended receiver Malcolm Kelly get taken out of a play the team had practiced all week.

The poised 20-year-old quarterback immediately improvised to find his fullback, Dane Zaslaw, for an easy touchdown.

“Here’s a guy playing a big game, a second game as a redshirt freshman,” said Wilson, who took over as OU’s offensive coordinator in 2006. “It’s Oklahoma, a lot of pressure at quarterback. I know I have prepared him to do a throw that I expected to be there. I got in the game and it wasn’t there, and he made me look smarter than I was.”

Bradford’s decision made Wilson and then-Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops feel confident about more than just the quarterback’s future.

Bradford threw for 3,121 yards and 36 touchdowns in his debut season, helping Oklahoma win the 2007 Big 12 Championship and make a second-consecutive Fiesta Bowl appearance. Inspired, Stoops went to Wilson the ensuing offseason with the idea of running a no-huddle offense. The now-retired coach thought even if it skewed his team’s defensive statistics, it would be worth it.

“My reasoning was that if we can call 10-20 more plays a game than you can with my quarterback, I like my chances of winning,” Stoops said. “I just felt like he was going to be a better quarterback than anyone we played.”

The curly-haired quarterback with a quiet persona proved his coach right. In 2008, Bradford tore up his helpless competition en route to conducting one of the most prolific offenses in NCAA history and winning the Heisman Trophy — the prize annually presented to college football’s most outstanding player.

His father, Kent Bradford, played under legendary Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer in the late 1970s and blocked for Heisman Trophy winner Billy Sims. So, he knew if the Sooners offered him, that’s where he’d go.

“There was a period of time where I just wasn’t sure if I was going to have that opportunity,” said the Oklahoma City-bred quarterback, who was a three-star prospect by Rivals.com. “I think I was probably well down the list of quarterbacks they offered that year.”

Chuck Long, Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator from 200205, was impressed, however, by the Putnam City North product.

Long, who left Oklahoma in 2006 to become San Diego State’s head coach, watched Bradford throw at an Oklahoma football camp and told Stoops he needed to pay closer attention to the local prospect.

“I really trusted what Chuck felt about him,” Stoops said. “He loved Sam. His demeanor, athleticism, the way he threw the football. And then, I remember just paying closer attention to him. I remember just also really being struck by the athlete he was, not just in football.”

Bradford was a multi-sport star at Putnam City North, playing football, basketball and golf. He also played hockey and baseball, as well as playing on the same AAU basketball team as former Oklahoma star and current Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin at one point. “(He was) very competitive,” said Bob Wilson, Bradford’s high school football coach. “Just a guy who wanted to be successful. I don’t think I ever heard him say ‘I.’ It was always the team. He was that type of guy.”

Finally, one day during the spring of his junior year of high school, Oklahoma extended an offer.

“I called them the next day and committed,” Bradford said. “It was pretty simple for me.”

•••

Bradford mostly went unnoticed his first year on campus.

The quarterback wasn’t a serious contender to take senior Paul B efore Bradford b e came Thompson’s job in 2006 — the Oklahoma’s fifth Heisman Trophy same year Oklahoma dismissed winner, he wasn’t certain an OU starting quarterback Rhett Bomar offer would materialize. a month before its season opener,

•••

lost to Oregon on a controversial onside kick and dropped an unforgettable Fiesta Bowl to Boise State.

Underneath the rubble of a season filled with painful memories, Bradford was learning under first-year quarterbacks coach Josh Heupel, who finished second in the 2000 Heisman Trophy voting, and honing his passing ability as the Sooners’ scout-team quarterback.

“Probably more than anything, (that year) just gave me confidence and a sense of belonging that when spring started the next year, I knew that I would be able to compete, and I knew that I would be able to play at that level,” Bradford said.

Stoops recalls watching the freshman dissect Oklahoma’s first-team defense that included All-American linebacker Rufus Alexander, All-Big 12 defensive back Nic Harris and defensive lineman C.J. Ah You. “Have you guys watched some of his scout-team play going up against our defense?” Stoops remembers asking his offensive assistants.

Wilson recalls Stoops saying, “Man, Sam is ridiculous on scout team. He’s threading the needle.

He’s lighting these guys up.”

Oklahoma’s assistants admitted they hadn’t paid much attention to the 197-pound freshman.

The assistant coaches quickly caught on to the accuracy and decision-making Stoops was seeing each day from a quarterback Wilson says approached practice and video study as hard as anyone.

“I don’t think many people know or realize how hard Sam prepared and studied,” Wilson said. “He was a very smart kid, very gifted. But he worked unbelievably hard to become an elite player.”

••• Bradford’s dedication paid off.

In 2008, the redshirt sophomore, guiding OU’s new no-huddle scheme, orchestrated an Oklahoma offense that scored an NCAA single-season record 99 touchdowns. Bradford threw a school-record 50 touchdown passes and rushed for five more.

He completed 328-of-483 (67.9 percent) passes for another school record, 4,720 passing yards.

The Sooners went on a tear late in that season to bolster Bradford’s Heisman campaign, starting with a

65-21 win over No. 2-ranked Texas Tech in the now-famous “Jump Around” game.

Then-Texas Tech receivers coach Lincoln Riley refers to that evening as a “nightmare,” but for Bradford?

“That was probably the most fun I’ve ever had playing in a football game,” he said.

Oklahoma continued to roll with a 61-41 win the next week over No. 11 Oklahoma State when Bradford iconically launched himself nine feet away from the goal line, took a hard hit to the stomach, flipping and landing hard on his left side out of bounds.

The Sooners then topped No. 19 Missouri 62-21 in the Big 12 Championship Game for the program’s third consecutive conference crown, ensuring Oklahoma would play in its fourth national championship game in nine years.

Bradford was rewarded with a trip to New York for the 2008 Heisman Trophy presentation, where he won over Texas quarterback Colt McCoy, who beat Bradford head-to-head, and Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, who won the award the previous year.

Bradford admittedly was shocked to hear his name called.

Sims, who was on stage at the presentation with the other former winners, eased his nerves a bit when he repeatedly yelled “Boomer!” after the Sooners’ fifth Heisman Trophy winner was announced.

“I think I said ‘Boomer’ a hundred times,” said Sims. “The way his dad helped me – his dad helped me win mine.”

Bradford, who yelled “Sooner!” back at Sims as he walked on stage to accept the coveted bronze trophy, later went to The Palm Steakhouse in New York City after the Heisman ceremony.

“Just going to dinner with my family afterwards, having them there and being able to have fun and celebrate the evening,” Bradford said. “I think that’s something I’ll always remember.”

He still had one game remaining his sophomore season after the special weekend in New York.

Oklahoma faced Florida and Tebow for the 2009 BCS National Championship, but the Sooners fell short of capturing the school’s eighth national title, losing 24-14 to the Gators.

Oklahoma’s single-season passing yards and touchdowns leader could’ve forgone his junior season to enter the draft, but he decided to return for one more crack at a national title along with defensive tackle Gerald McCoy and tight end Jermaine Gresham.

His season was curtailed by a shoulder injury suffered in OU’s 2009 opener vs. BYU, which was re-aggravated a few weeks later against Texas, ending his college career.

“I’ve always kind of put it on me,” said Wilson, now Ohio State’s offensive coordinator. “Sometimes I start thinking it’s my fault and what could I have done from a play-calling perspective. Because you know, injuries are a part of the game. You want to do as much as you can to keep your quarterback out of harm’s way.”

Bradford managed to recover from the injury and was selected by the St. Louis Rams with the first overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft — the third Sooner to ever be taken No. 1 overall, joining Lee Roy Selmon (1976) and Sims (1980).

Bradford won the 2010 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and spent five seasons in St. Louis.

But after dealing with more injuries, he left the Rams following the 2014 season to play one year with Philadelphia before joining the Minnesota Vikings.

He set the NFL single-season record for pass-completion percentage — 71.6 percent — during his first year with the Vikings in 2016.

He played in only two games in 2017, however, after re-aggravating a knee injury that shut him down for the season.

Now 30, Bradford isn’t done with football yet, but his legacy at Oklahoma is already immortalized with a statue erected in 2011 in Norman’s Heisman Park. His likeness looks up at the stadium where — similar to newly crowned Heisman winner Baker Mayfield — he nearly didn’t get the chance to live out a lifelong dream. “(Bradford) was an elite worker and made himself into a phenomenal college player,” Wilson said.

“He was an unbelievable Sooner.

What he did those couple years with us in Norman — he was a special young man.”

Joe Buettner

joebuet@ou.edu

WHO ARE YOU? My name is Jennifer Hicks. I am a native of Norman, Okla., and a 2002 OU graduate. I’m the digital news editor at The Wall Street Journal. I live in Brooklyn, N.Y., with my husband, Anthony.

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JENNIFER HICKS

HOW DID WORKING FOR THE OU DAILY HELP YOU GET TO THE WALL STREET JOURNAL? I always knew I wanted to pursue a career in journalism. The Daily was the perfect introduction to the field. I held several roles at the Daily, including online editor, managing editor and night editor. I was editor-in-chief during my senior year. The Daily is a place to practice journalism in its many forms.

It’s a place to write stories that have impact. It’s a place to make mistakes and learn from them. It’s a place to develop strong ethical standards. It’s a place to blaze a trail and invent new kinds of storytelling. It’s the perfect place to start a career in journalism.

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2017

HEISMAN EDITION

December 11-15, 2017 •

15

BAKER MAYFIELD The walk-on transfer won the starting job, the hearts of Sooner fans and the Heisman JOE BUETTNER • @JOE_BUETTNER

JOE BUETTNER/FOR THE DAILY

B

aker Mayfield had never played a down of varsity football at Lake Travis High School before the Cavaliers’ 2011 season opener at the 100,000-seat Darrell K Royal Stadium in Austin, Texas.

The backup junior quarterback, then 16, was quickly handed the keys, however, to a program fresh off winning its third-consecutive Division 4A-1 state championship and facing rival Westlake on Aug. 27, 2011.

The stage didn’t faze Mayfield when Lake Travis’ senior starting quarterback exited with a shoulder injury a few plays into the game.

“I knew when I wasn’t nervous going into that something was wrong with me,” Mayfield said.

“Not wrong with me, but just a little different ... A kid going in for his first varsity game on a big stage, and I wasn’t nervous at all — that was eye-opening for myself to realize that I’m ready for this.”

Mayfield notched 278 yards passing on 19 completions, threw for a 43-yard touchdown and scored on runs of 22 and 30 yards.

Lake Travis won 35-7 over rival Westlake as an undersized but hyper-confident quarterback kick-started a 16-0 season that ended with a state championship. Six years later, he’s looking to add a national championship at the school he loved from a young age.

But first, Mayfield went to New York on Saturday for the ceremony to coronate college football’s most outstanding player.

Now that he’s won the Heisman Trophy, a sixth bronze statue will soon stand in the park near the big patch of grass east of OU’s stadium where Mayfield used to play pickup football as a kid before Sooners’ home games.

From playing around the Heisman statues to having his likeness become one, the small kid with big aspirations had no clue he’d go from being the young Sooner fan in the stands trying to get a high-five from any OU player to being that player himself.

“The whole situation for me set on Oklahoma, regardless of is ... it was a dream come true,” OU freshman Trevor Knight’s remarkable Sugar Bowl perMayfield said. formance that postseason over Alabama.

“Trevor Knight’s going to be the guy there for three years, are Mayfield knew he didn’t be- you crazy?” Riley recalled telling long on the visitor’s sideline Mayfield when he first recruited at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma him.

Memorial Stadium.

Riley couldn’t wrap his mind “Being the enemy for Sooner around why Mayfield would fans was a little different,” he said want to go Oklahoma, but the of his visit wearing a Texas Tech lifelong Sooner fan was chasing uniform when the Red Raiders a bigger dream he was told he came to town on Oct. 26, 2013. couldn’t achieve.

“It was frustrating. At the time I wasn’t happy. I had just gotten healthy and I thought I’d be “I knew when I wasn’t playing again at that point in the nervous going into that season. I was unhappy about that something was wrong and then coming (to Norman) with me. Not wrong and realizing this is a special place. This is where I grew up with me, but just a little loving it. It was just different. It different ... A kid going in felt like I was looking from the for his first varsity game outside in.”

A scholarship from Oklahoma on a big stage, and I or any major program never mawasn’t nervous at all — terialized for Mayfield out of high that was eye-opening for school, whose best offers came from Washington State, which myself to realize that I’m had a combined 10 wins while ready for this.”

Mayfield was in high school, BAKER MAYFIELD, and Florida Atlantic. Instead, QUARTERBACK Mayfield bet on himself and earned the Week 1 starting quarterback job as a walk-on true freshman at Texas Tech.

For one of the few times in his Mayfield helped the Red Raiders to a 5-0 start before suf- life, Mayfield was apprehensive.

Cleared by NCAA complifering a leg injury against Kansas on Oct. 5, 2013. His starting job ance, he heard about OU’s first wasn’t waiting for him, however, team meeting of the 2014 offseawhen he recovered a few weeks son and showed up to introduce later. Texas Tech won twice himself to then-Sooners head without Mayfield, so coach Kliff coach Bob Stoops.

“I don’t get nervous for footKingsbury allowed Davis Webb to operate the Red Raiders’ of- ball, but I was nervous for that,” fense as Mayfield brooded on the Mayfield said. “Because they hadn’t really known I was going sideline.

Texas Tech ended its regular to be there or they hadn’t told season with five straight loss- me, ‘Yes, we’d like for you to be es, but Mayfield still managed here.’ So it was just kind of showto win the 2013 Big 12 Offensive ing up on his doorstep as an unFreshman of the Year award. invited person.

“I wasn’t sure how he’d take it.”

He still wasn’t given a scholarStoops heard rumors of ship, however, by Kingsbury. So, Mayfield’s arrival and marveled Mayfield decided to leave.

Then-East Carolina offensive at the quarterback’s confidence. coordinator Lincoln Riley tried After Mayfield introduced himto lure Mayfield to quarterback self, Stoops quickly calmed the his offense. But Mayfield was quarterback’s nerves, telling

•••

•••

him, “I heard you were coming to Oklahoma,” with a half-smile.

Just a few months later, the Sooners staff did what Texas Tech never would.

“He was put on scholarship shortly after once we got on to spring ball and started watching him play,” Stoops said. “It didn’t take us long to where we’re like, ‘We’re not going to go out and get just any other freshman to go play like this.’”

Due to NCAA transfer rules, Mayfield was forced to sit out Oklahoma’s 8-5 season in 2014 that ended in a 40-6 loss to Clemson in the Russell Athletic Bowl. So in 2015, he, Knight and Cody Thomas battled for the starting position the offseason Riley joined the Oklahoma coaching staff.

Like at Texas Tech, Mayfield again won the job. But in his second game as the Sooners’ starting quarterback, he faced the biggest test of his career to that point: a road game at Tennessee.

Mayfield completed 7-of-20 attempts for 77 yards in the first half and threw an interception on Oklahoma’s first series. OU’s offense punted five times as Tennessee jumped out to a 17-3 lead heading into half.

“It’s pretty chaotic, looking back on it,” Mayfield said. “The thing that sticks out to me is the conversation I had with coach Riley between halftime and then on the sideline.”

“Hey, this moment is never too big for you,” Mayfield remembers Riley telling him. “We’re going to get the job done, just believe in that. Keep doing your job and the good things will come.”

Mayfield threw another pick in the third quarter before he finally settled in and led his team on a 14-play, 80-yard touchdown drive early in the fourth quarter to narrow Tennessee’s lead to seven.

Eight minutes of game clock later, Mayfield literally hushed the 100,000-plus fans at Neyland Stadium that night with a touchdown to Sterling Shepard with 40 seconds left in regulation to force overtime. He then bullied his way into the endzone from

the goal line in the first extra period and found Shepard again for an 18-yard score in the second overtime to propel Oklahoma to a 31-24 win.

The magical night foreshadowed Mayfield’s next three years at Oklahoma. And as the stages grew bigger, he kept relying on the words Riley shared with him at Tennessee.

No moment seemed too big for Mayfield, who carried Oklahoma to wins over No. 4 Baylor, No. 11 TCU and No. 9 Oklahoma State to close the 2015 regular season and a College Football Playoff berth.

Mayfield’s breakout year ended on a sour note, however, after Clemson topped Oklahoma 37-17 in the playoff semifinals.

The beginning of OU’s 2016 season didn’t provide any more promise with Houston and Ohio State beating Oklahoma in the first three weeks of its season.

“I think that was the biggest stride I made,” Mayfield said.

“After the Ohio State game and going into the bye week and realizing that I’m in this position for a reason, and I’ve had success for a reason. I’ve worked hard, but I got to get back to the basics and just do what got me here.”

Mayfield promised he wouldn’t let his team down again.

The Sooners went 9-0 in Big 12 play after the Buckeyes loss, including a 38-20 win over Oklahoma State to clinch their second-consecutive Big 12 Championship. After the 2016 Bedlam game, Mayfield revealed a shirt he wore under his pads that already proclaimed OU as back-to-back Big 12 champions.

The Sooners missed the College Football Playoff in 2016 and settled for a date with with Auburn in New Orleans. On Jan. 2, the day of the Sugar Bowl, Mayfield posted a picture of himself following the Ohio State loss to his Instagram account. In the post’s caption, Mayfield referred to the night he lost to the Buckeyes as the day he “looked failure in the face.” see BAKER Page 16

WHO ARE YOU? I am a sports journalist at the Houston Chronicle, where I am currently covering the Houston Rockets.

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JENNY DIAL

HOW DID WORKING AT THE OU DAILY HELP YOU GET THERE? I covered a football team that played in the national championship, a basketball team that played in the Final Four. I got deadline writing experience, press conference experience and editing experience on the job which all ended up being crucial in my career. I was much more ready and seasoned for what was ahead since I had covered sports at a high level and knew what to expect. I still had a lot to learn, but I eliminated a lot of rookie mistakes in my college years. I still follow the Daily closely and love to see what my fellow Sooners are working on and coming up with. I am still really proud of the time I spent at the OU Daily.

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16 •

2017

December 11-15, 2017

HEISMAN EDITION

PAXSON HAWS/THE DAILY

Senior quarterback Baker Mayfield brings his arm back to throw the ball during the game against West Virginia on Nov. 25. OU beat West Virgina 59-31 in Mayfield’s final home game.

BAKER: Continued from Page 15

The humbling experience refueled Mayfield’s fire, who closed his 2016 season with 296 yards passing and two touchdowns in a 36-19 win over Auburn.

Mayfield could’ve left school to enter the 2017 NFL Draft. But a Sugar Bowl win was far from his ultimate goal. He and Riley had more work to do.

••• Mayfield’s competitiveness transcends the football field.

One night in 2015, Mayfield found himself running on a Norman High School field in the pouring rain at 9:30 p.m. in a collared shirt, jeans and

Converse sneakers.

He and then-girlfriend Baillie Burmaster, a former Oklahoma State soccer player, debated who was in better shape. The two were at Trevor and Connor Knight’s house blocks from Norman High with roughly 15 other people.

Oklahoma senior fullback Jaxon Uhles, Mayfield’s roommate and close friend, remembers Burmaster telling Mayfield he couldn’t pass her team’s fitness test — the Manchester United Fitness Test — which the hyper-competitive Mayfield guaranteed he could complete.

“So she said, ‘Let’s go do it right now,’” Uhles recalled.

Mayfield, of course, finished the test. But the fiery anytime, anywhere side of Mayfield, as well as an off-the-field issue the spring after his 2016 season, has made him one of the most polarizing figures in college

PAXSON HAWS/THE DAILY

Senior quarterback Baker Mayfield takes off across the field during the game against Kansas on Nov. 18.

football.

Mayfield provided opposing fans with easy “College GameDay” sign fodder when he was charged with public intoxication, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and fleeing in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on Feb. 25.

The quarterback made more headlines after planting a flag at Ohio State, which he a few days later apologized for. He was caught on video telling Baylor players he was their “daddy” after they talked smack to him.

“I’m not going to back down,” Mayfield said of teams’ talking trash to him. “I have fun with it and I enjoy it.”

But none of Mayfield’s previous antics could match him yelling “f*ck you” and grabbing his crotch while looking at the Kansas sideline during a chippy game Nov. 18.

The outburst prompted Riley, who was promoted to Oklahoma’s head coach on June 7, to strip Mayfield of his captain status and not start him for his final home game and Senior Day. “No matter how long I go coaching — whatever the rest of my career ends up being like — I don’t know that I’ll ever have a player that’s as special to me as he is,” an emotional Riley said, breaking down at times, in announcing Mayfield’s Senior Day punishment two days later.

“We’ve been through a lot together ... I’m proud as hell to be his coach.”

Despite Mayfield’s antics, the marriage of Mayfield’s skill and Riley’s play calling has worked. The two could’ve posted video-game numbers at East Carolina, but they’ve complemented each other for the past three seasons and developed

one of the most productive offenses in the country. Riley and Mayfield’s prosperous relationship has evolved into a team ranked No. 2 in the country and two wins from winning the school’s eighth national championship.

Mayfield will lead Oklahoma as he always has, from hitting the whip as a scout-team leader in 2014 as his teammate s da n c e d a rou n d h i m to Oklahoma offensive tackle Orlando Brown carr ying Mayfield’s jersey to the coin toss for OU’s final home game.

For all the cheers, Mayfield could also recite a laundry list of doubters who told him he wasn’t good enough. It’s hard for him to avoid hearing negative things about himself when every part of his career is dissected on television, and he can’t escape the comments he receives on social media.

But he doesn’t try to forget any of it. He keeps a running tab of all his slights and goals in two columns on a dry-erase board beside his locker.

“If somebody comes out and says something negative about him, he’ll take that to heart,” Uhles said. “I think that’s why he’s so great. People have not given him the time of day until this year, and he likes proving people wrong.”

••• A year ago on Saturday night, Mayfield was asked by Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson if he was nervous before the 2016 Heisman ceremony, to which he admitted he wasn’t — he didn’t even prepare a speech.

Ja c k s o n a s k e d i f h e w a s serious.

“Yeah,” Mayfield replied before Jackson won in a landslide.

“You’re going to win.”

On Saturday, the roles were reversed. Mayfield, who dreamed of winning the award as a young Sooner fan growing up in Austin, Texas, had a speech prepared.

Mayfield was joined by Jackson and Stanford’s Bryce Love as finalists.

Neither of the challengers sitting next to him at PlayStation Theatre, however, had a journey as movie script-esque as Mayfield, neither of them has elevated their team to a second College Football Playoff berth in three years and neither is as fueled by their doubters as he is.

“He’s been everything you wish for in a quarterback,” Stoops said. “He has energy, brings energy, makes everybody around him better. Keeps everybody interested and excited.

“All of it.”

But leaving New York with the Heisman Trophy in tow isn’t why he came back for his senior year. He’ll have the opportunity to do what Jason White and Sam Bradford couldn’t, with the Sooners two wins from college football’s ultimate prize.

Mayfield will go down as one of the best to ever play for Oklahoma, regardless, but after Oklahoma’s 41-17 win over TCU in the Big 12 Championship Game on Dec. 2, Mayfield was asked on stage during the trophy presentation if he thought he’d done enough to win a Heisman.

“I’m not worried about that,” he replied.

“I’m going for a national title.”

Joe Buettner

joebuet@ou.edu

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HEISMAN EDITION

December 11-15, 2017 •

LEGEND

17

PAXSON HAWS/THE DAILY

18 •

HEISMAN EDITION

December 11-15, 2017

HISTORY OF HEISMAN STATUES

A statue of OU Heisman winner Billy Sims stands in Heisman Park on Jenkins Avenue Dec. 10. Sims won the Heisman in 1978.

PAXSON HAWS/THE DAILY

Baker Mayfield received Oklahoma’s sixth Heisman Trophy Saturday night. Soon, he’ll get a statue next to the stadium

A

ABBY BITTERMAN • @ABBY_BITTERMAN

fter Baker Mayfield shook all the hands of his fellow Heisman winners and said all his thank-yous in his acceptance speech, he walked across the stage and picked up his Heisman Trophy. The trophy the senior quarterback hoisted in New York City had traveled just as many miles as he had to be there.

S i n c e 2 0 0 5 , t h e He i s m a n Trophy has been made by MTM Recognition, a company located 18.3 miles north of Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The company has been around for 46 years and has become one of the nation’s top awards companies. It

makes the trophy for Jostens, said Jack Nortz, director of sculpting for MTM Recognition.

In addition to the Heisman, MTM Recognition makes a lot of other awards and trophies for the college football world. It makes several bowl trophies and conference trophies — including the Big 12 Conference Championship Trophy the Sooners won Dec. 2 — and other individual awards, like the John Mackey Award won this year by junior tight end Mark Andrews and the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award Lincoln Riley is a finalist for.

The Mackey Award is one that Nortz sculpted himself, and,

being a big Sooners fan, he was excited when Andrews won it last week.

“As OU fans we get really excited about them winning,” Nortz said. “(The Sooners) won the Big 12 Championship, and that’s another one that we do and it was on TV and gave us a lot of notoriety, so that’s cool, too.”

As Oklahoma’s sixth Heisman winner, Mayfield gets more than just a trophy to add to his shelf. He will get a statue of himself in Heisman Park alongside the greats who came before him, and it’s possible that MTM Recognition could be involved with that one, too, though no

plans have been announced yet.

The first four statues to go up in Heisman Park — Billy Vessels, Steve Owens, Billy Sims and Jason White — were made as part of Oklahoma’s centennial celebration. The four statues were commissioned by the Centennial Commission, and the effort was led by Lee Allan Smith, an alum of the University of Oklahoma and friend of Vessels. Smith led the fundraising effort for the sculptures, which he said can range in cost from $100,000 to $175,000, and were all made by different sculptors from Oklahoma.

It took Jim Franklin of Perry, Oklahoma, about a year and a

half to make Billy Sims’ statue. He said the Centennial Commission sent him a photo of Sims taken during a game the year he won the Heisman to be his pose.

Franklin found other photos from the time Sims was playing and used them as reference material to help him make an 18-inch maquette — a small scale version of the statue. He made the statue without his helmet on because while Sims was playing football he was known for his big afro, and Franklin said he wanted to show it off. see STATUES Page 20

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HEISMAN EDITION

December 11-15, 2017 •

STATS

Jesse Pound Editor in Chief Emma Keith News Managing Editor

BREAKDOWN Take a look at the eye-popping stats for all of Oklahoma’s Heisman winners in their award-winning seasons.

KELLI STACY • @ASTACYKELLI

2017

BAKER MAYFIELD 4,340 passing yards 41 passing touchdowns 1952 2008

BILLYBRADFORD VESSELS SAM 1,072 Rushing Yards 4,720 passing yards 17 50Rushing passing Touchdowns touchdowns

1969 2003

STEVE WHITE OWENS JASON 1,523passing Rushingyards Yards 3,846 23passing Rushingtouchdowns Touchdowns 40

1978

BILLY SIMS

1,896 rushing yards 22 rushing touchdowns

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1969 2003

STEVE WHITE OWENS JASON 1,523Passing rushingYards yards 3,846 rushingTouchdowns touchdowns 4023Passing

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1952 2008

BILLYBRADFORD VESSELS SAM 1,072 rushing yards 4,720 Passing Yards 17 Passing rushing Touchdowns touchdowns 50

PHOTOS OF FORMER WINNERS COURTESY OF OU ATHLETICS

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HEISMAN EDITION

• December 11-15, 2017

“It’s one of the greatest honors of my career in sculpting — to have that piece at OU just outside the stadium.”

Jim Franklin, sculptor

PAXSON HAWS/THE DAILY

A statue of former OU football player and Heisman winner Sam Bradford stands in Heisman Park on Jenkins Avenue Dec. 10. Bradford became the fifth Heisman winner from OU in 2008.

STATUES: Continued from Page 18

Franklin presented the model for approval to a few people in the Oklahoma Athletic Department, Barry Switzer, Smith, Sims and his wife, he said. There was one comment from Sims and his wife that stuck out to him.

“His wife said, ‘Well that doesn’t really look like you,” Franklin remembered. “And he says ‘Of course it doesn’t look like me because that was back in 1978, and I’ve changed a little bit since 1978.’”

After the maquette got approved, Franklin said it was sent to a foundry where it was scanned, and computer programs digitally enlarged it and created a foam base the size of

what the statue would be — about 9 feet. The foam base was delivered to Franklin’s studio where he assembled it and then sculpted clay over it to establish all the details and textures. Before he sculpted the clay on, though, he said he painted the foam with a latex paint to make it easier to work with.

Once the clay sculpture was approved, it was sent back to the foundry where a wax replica was made. That wax statue was then encased in a ceramic shell. The wax was melted out and bronze was poured in to make the final statue. This process is called the lost-wax bronze process, Franklin said. When it was done, the statue weighed about 500-600 pounds and had to be transported by a flatbed truck.

“It’s one of the greatest honors of my career in sculpting — to have that piece at OU just outside the

stadium,” Franklin said.

The process was similar for Jason White’s statue and all the others.

The pose, though, is different for every statue. It’s what makes them unique and what immortalizes Oklahoma’s Heisman winners forever in the minds of Sooner Nation.

Sculptor Jay O’Meilia of Tulsa said he picked the pose for White, whom O’Meilia said he had to force back into his Oklahoma uniform to make sketches of him.

“Being a great long-distance quarterback — he had a great arm on him, and I wanted to show that,” O’Meilia said. “Now he could throw a ball 60 yards down the field, so that’s the pose I wanted because that’s what people knew him for, his great arm strength.”

O’Meilia wanted to make the statue more of a portrait of White, so he asked for approval to make the statue without a helmet on his

subject. Of all the Heisman winners, Vessels’ is the only one with a helmet on his statue.

Nortz and MTM Recognition made the most recent addition to the park — Sam Bradford. There was a bit of controversy surrounding the statue when it was first installed in Heisman Park because people were unsure whether it looked like him.

Nortz said he thinks he knows where that sentiment comes from, though. When Bradford was playing at Oklahoma, he would cut his hair short at the start of a season and then let it grow until the end. When he made the maquette, Nortz gave Bradford his longer, curly, end-of-the season hairstyle, but he said Bradford wanted his statue to have short hair.

Plans for Mayfield’s Heisman Park statue aren’t yet known, but some have already weighed in on

what they think his pose should be. Before Mayfield even won the Heisman, a petition had already been started on Change.org for the pose to depict him planting the flag on Ohio State’s field. The petition had 7,446 online signatures as of 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

On an ESPN radio show on Dec. 8, though, Mayfield said he doesn’t think that will get approved. He did have some ideas of his own for what he’d like to see his statue look like.

“You have to have the band a n a , t h a t ’s a t r a d e m a r k ,” Mayfield said on the show.

“Maybe a temporary handlebar (mustache) for Bedlam week.”

Abby Bitterman abbybitt@ou.edu

CONGRATULATIONS BAKER MAYFIELD

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HEISMAN EDITION

• December 11-15, 2017

BAKER MAYFIELD’S TOP 5 GAMES ABBY BITTERMAN • @ABBY_BITTERMAN

Senior quarterback Baker Mayfield won the Heisman after leading the Sooners to the College Football Playoff and a Big 12 Championship this season. It was his third top-four Heisman finish.

Here are the top five games of Mayfield’s career at Oklahoma in chronological order:

1

Tennessee 2015: OU 31, Tennessee 24

The 2015 Tennessee game was Mayfield’s national coming-out party with the Sooners. Things didn’t look good for Oklahoma through the first three quarters in Knoxville, Tennessee — Mayfield threw two interceptions, and the Sooners couldn’t find the end zone. Then in the fourth quarter, Mayfield led Oklahoma to overcome a 17-3 deficit to take the game into overtime.

Mayfield broke tackles and scrambled, something he became known for that season, and the Sooners won in double overtime. He was 19-of-39 in the game, throwing for 187 yards and three touchdowns and running in another himself. In his first true test as Oklahoma’s starting quarterback, Mayfield passed.

Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield scans the Tennessee defense on Sept. 12, 2015.

JOE BUETTNER/THE DAILY

Baylor 2015: OU 44, Baylor 34

2

When the Sooners headed to Waco, Texas, Baylor was No. 6 in the country, and Oklahoma was sitting at No. 12.

Mayfield’s scrambling and deep balls were again on display in the Sooners’ upset win. The victory also helped catapult the Sooners back into the discussion for the College Football Playoff that year.

Mayfield was 24-of-34 with one interception, while throwing for 270 yards and three touchdowns and rushing for 74 total yards and another score. He found wide receiver Sterling Shepard for two impressive touchdowns, one of which he got to Shepard just out of reach of the defender at the goal line.

CHRISTOPHER MICHIE/THE DAILY

Junior quarterback Baker Mayfield changes pace as he dodges Baylor defenders in McLane Stadium Nov. 15, 2015.

3

Bedlam 2016: OU 38, Oklahoma State 20

In the cold rain, Mayfield racked up 288 passing yards and three touchdowns, going 13-of-19 in his second game against Oklahoma State. He tied the game up just before halftime with a touchdown pass, and then led the Sooners to a dominant performance in the second half.

The 2016 Bedlam game was the de facto Big 12 Championship, and Mayfield was prepared for it. He wore a “back-to-back” T-shirt under his uniform during the game.

JULIA HARTH/THE DAILY

Junior quarterback Baker Mayfield waits for the snap in the Dec. 3, 2016 Bedlam game. The Sooners won 38-20.

Ohio State 2017: OU 31, Ohio State 16

4

Mayfield left his mark in Columbus, Ohio. Before he planted the flag in the middle of “the Shoe,” he threw for 386 yards and three touchdowns, going 27-of-35.

Mayfield led the underdog Sooners to a dominating victory in dramatic fashion.

Mayfield spread the ball around throughout the game, finding receivers and creating plays. After losing to the Buckeyes the year before in Norman, Mayfield was determined to see a different result this season.

SIANDHARA BONNET/THE DAILY

Senior quarterback Baker Mayfield throws the ball downfield during the game against Ohio State Sept. 9, 2017.

5

Bedlam 2017: OU 62, Oklahoma State 52

This year’s Bedlam was a back-and-forth showdown from start to finish. Oklahoma’s defense couldn’t stop the Cowboys, but Mayfield continued to lead the offense down the field and score drive after drive. Mayfield was 24-of-36, throwing for 598 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions and adding a rushing touchdown.

The quarterback connected with sophomore wide receiver Marquise Brown twice for long touchdowns.

He also spread the ball around, using eight different receivers. Mayfield’s performance in his final Bedlam was as memorable as his annual handlebar mustache, as he finished his career as a Sooner 3-0 against Oklahoma State.

CAITLYN EPES/THE DAILY

Senior quarterback Baker Mayfield throws while under pressure in the Bedlam game against Oklahoma State Nov. 4, 2017.

HEISMAN EDITION

December 11-15, 2017 •

GEORGE STOIA • @GEORGESTOIA

With Oklahoma senior quarterback Baker Mayfield winning the program’s sixth Heisman Trophy, one question continues to be asked among fans:

Is Baker Mayfield the greatest quarterback in OU history?

I certainly think so. Here are my top five quarterbacks in Oklahoma history:

1. BAKER MAYFIELD Mayfield is not only one of the best quarterbacks in Oklahoma history, but also one of the best players to have ever played in Norman. Mayfield has the second most wins in program history (33), more total touchdowns than anyone (135) and is the only quarterback in Oklahoma history to win three-straight Big 12 Championships.

But the stats and accolades are not what makes Mayfield the greatest quarterback to put on the crimson and cream. His leadership off the field is what makes him special. His ability to motivate his team is unmatchable. Oklahoma has never had a quarterback or leader like Baker Mayfield, and that’s why he’s the greatest of all-time.

5. JASON WHITE 2. SAM BRADFORD

3. JACK MILDREN

4. STEVE DAVIS

Oklahoma’s last Heisman winner, Sam Bradford, also had one of the best careers in OU history. Throwing for more than 8,000 yards and combining for 93 touchdowns in basically just two seasons played, Bradford was one of the most efficient quarterbacks ever.

Bradford also led one of the most prolific offenses college football has ever seen, which almost won him a national championship in 2008. If it weren’t for his injury at the beginning of the 2009 season, Bradford might be sitting atop this list with a ring to show for it.

Unlike Bradford and Mayfield, Ja c k Mi l d re n n e v e r w o n a Heisman Trophy, but was one of the all-around best athletes Oklahoma has ever had. Mildren never won many awards, but he is one of the founding fathers of the wishbone offense.

In 1970 when the Sooners decided to start the wishbone offense, which would go on to make them one of the most successful teams in the country, Mildren led the way. His ability to be a threat on both the ground and through the air makes him one of the most unique quarterbacks in program history.

Along with Mildren, Steve Davis also never won the Heisman, but did win two national championships. Davis’ impressive record of 32-1-1 as a starter earned him the fourth spot on this list.

Davis was legendary coach Barry Switzer’s first quarterback, leading the Sooners to back-to-back national titles in 1974 and 1975. Davis also had impressive numbers, amassing 4,160 yards and 55 total touchdowns in his career.

AMERICAN ARMORY & TACTICAL

Jason White had one of the most successful careers in all of college football, leading Oklahoma to two national championship games and almost taking home the Heisman twice.

White won 27 games in his career, the fifth most in program history.

White also had one of the best single seasons in college football history in 2003, throwing for 40 touchdowns and just 10 interceptions after having reconstructive knee surgery on both knees.

Unfortunately, White suffered multiple injuries throughout his time on the field, ending his career early. If not for those injuries, we may still be watching White today.

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CONGRATULATIONS to Baker Mayfield and the University of Oklahoma football program for winning the highest individual honor in college football for the sixth time in program history!

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