Interesting Facts about Oklahoma Football

With college football coming up fast, I went out and purchased a series of trivia books about various college football programs....the first book I purchased was Soonerology Trivia Challenge....the book has questions about Oklahoma football...here are a Baker's Dozen of interesting facts:

- Oklahoma first became known as the Sooners in 1908...prior to that they were known as Boomers or Rough Riders...

- Granville Liggins was Oklahoma's first African-American All-American...he was an All-American in 1966-67...

- The Oklahoma football program does not retire jersey numbers...

- Greg Pruitt holds the Oklahoma single game rushing record with 294 yards at Kansas State in 1971...

- The Barry Switzer Center, which was dedicated in 1999, houses locker and equipment rooms, coaches offices, sports medicine, and the Touchdown Club Legends lobby...

- The wishbone offense became popular when Oklahoma head coach Chuck Fairbanks and assistant coach Barry Switzer installed it in the fourth game of the 1970 season...

- Since its inception in 1985, the Butkus Award was awarded four times to Oklahoma players - Brian Bosworth (1985 & 1986), Rocky Calmus (2001) and Teddy Lehman (2003)

- The words "Play Like a Champion Today" is inscribed in the locker room that each Oklahoma player touches before taking the field...the saying is made popular by Notre Dame, but has been a long standing tradition at Oklahoma....

- Head coach Bob Stoops was born in Youngstown, Ohio on September 9, 1960...

- The winner of the Red River Shootout between Oklahoma and Texas receives the Golden Hat Trophy...the trophy is a gold ten-gallon hat...

- Two of the most colorful names played running back at Oklahoma - Elvis Peacock and Buster Ryhmes...

- Uve von Schamann kicked the game winning field goal for Oklahoma when they beat the Woody Hayes coached Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus in 1978...

- Marcus Dupree set the Oklahoma rushing mark for most yards in a bowl game when he rambled for 239 yards in the 1983 Fiesta Bowl against Arizona State...the Sooners lost the game...

Below is the clip of Keith Jackson's call of von Schamann's winning field goal over Ohio State...