1.
Mike Gundy
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Mike Gundy is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the football coach at Oklahoma State University–Stillwater. Gundy played college football at Oklahoma State, where he played quarterback from 1986 to 1989 and he became Oklahoma States coach on January 3,2005. In 2007, he received media attention for his heated criticism of a newspaper article on one of his players. At Midwest City High School, Gundy played quarterback, and was voted Oklahoma Player of the Year in 1986 and his high school football coach was Dick Evans. Gundy was heavily recruited by the Oklahoma Sooners but in the end signed with the Oklahoma State University Cowboys and he became the starting quarterback midway through his freshman year. Gundy would become the leading passer in Oklahoma State and Big 8 Conference history. In four seasons Gundy threw 49 touchdowns and 7,997 yards and he led the Cowboys to bowl wins in the 1987 Sun Bowl and 1988 Holiday Bowl aided by two Hall of Fame running backs, Thurman Thomas and Barry Sanders. He also led OSU to two 10-win seasons, coincidentally, Baylor was playing against Gundys Oklahoma State team when Griffin surpassed the mark. After the game, Gundy was able to personally congratulate Griffin on the accomplishment, when Gundy graduated, he joined Pat Joness staff as an assistant coach. He was wide receiver coach in 1990, quarterback coach from 1991–1993, Gundy was quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator for Baylor during the 1996 season. He was on staff with Larry Fedora at Baylor and would rekindle that relationship when he became coach at Oklahoma State. After the 1996 season, Gundy moved again, this time to Maryland where he was wide receiver coach, in 2001, the Oklahoma State University head football coach job became vacant when Bob Simmons resigned and a search produced Les Miles and Mike Gundy as the finalists. Miles was hired as coach and Gundy was brought aboard as offensive coordinator. Gundy is one of three football coaches at Oklahoma State to have played for Oklahoma State, along with Jim Lookabaugh. His first season saw the expulsion of eleven players from the team, in his second season, the Cowboy offense began to click and the Cowboys would finish 7–6 including a victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Independence Bowl. In 2007, the Cowboys again posted a 6–6 regular season record, after their second straight bowl appearance, Gundy was rewarded with a contract extension through the 2013 season. Since 2008, Gundy has led the Cowboys to 59 wins and this is the most successful period in Oklahoma State football history
2.
FieldTurf
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FieldTurf is a brand of artificial turf playing surface. It is manufactured and installed by FieldTurf Tarkett, a division of French company Tarkett Inc. headquartered in Calhoun, Georgia, in the late 1990s, the artificial surface changed the industry with a design intended to replicate real grass. The new system quickly began taking market share from AstroTurf, and is now the leader in the industry, the surface is composed of monofilament polyethylene blend fibers tufted into a polypropylene backing. The infill is composed of a layer of silica sand, a middle layer which is a mixture of sand and cryogenic rubber. The fibers are meant to replicate blades of grass, while the acts as a cushion. This cushion is intended to improve safety when compared to earlier artificial surfaces and allows players to plant, each square foot of turf contains approximately 3 kg of sand and 1.5 kg of cryogenic rubber. FieldTurf does not use shock absorbency pads below its infill, the backing of the turf is a combination of woven and non-woven polypropylene. These materials are permeable and allow water to drain through the backing itself, jean Prévost bought the patent of the FieldTurf product in 1988 and originally named his Montreal-based company SynTenni Co. a name which would eventually be dropped in favor of FieldTurf Inc. In 1995, John Gilman, a former Canadian Football League player and coach, in 1997, FieldTurf made its first major installation for a professional team, at the training facility for the English Premierships Middlesbrough F. C. As of 2012, FieldTurf has installed over 7000 athletic fields, in 2005, French flooring manufacturer and minority shareholder Tarkett increased its share in FieldTurf, which led to the integration of the two companies. FieldTurf is now a part of the Tarkett Sports division, part of the holding company Tarkett SA, the FieldTurf head corporate office is located in Calhoun, Georgia. In May 2010, FieldTurf acquired EasyTurf of San Diego, California, by late 2016, press reports were describing the companys product as defective. A number of agencies in New Jersey had joined together to file a lawsuit against the firm. The suits allege that the DuraSpine product it sold was inferior, internal company documents showed the company knew its sales claims were false. There is evidence showing higher player injury on artificial turf, in a study performed by the National Football League Injury and Safety Panel, published in the October 2012 issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine, Elliott B. Hershman et al. reviewed injury data from NFL games played between 2000 and 2009. the injury rate of knee sprains as a whole was 22% higher on FieldTurf than on natural grass. While MCL sprains did not occur at a significantly higher than on grass. There are conflicting studies of the safety of FieldTurf, a five-year study funded by FieldTurf and published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine found that injury rates for high school sports were similar on natural grass and synthetic turf
3.
Stillwater, Oklahoma
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Stillwater is a city in north east Oklahoma at the intersection of US-177 and State Highway 51. It is the county seat of Payne County, Oklahoma, United States, as of 2012, the city population was estimated to be 46,560, making it the tenth largest city in Oklahoma. Stillwater is the city of the Stillwater Micropolitan Statistical Area which had a population of 78,399 according to the 2012 census estimate. Stillwater was part of the first Oklahoma Land Run held April 22,1889, the city charter was adopted on August 24 later that year. Stillwater has an economy with a foundation in aerospace, agribusiness, biotechnology, optoelectronics, printing and publishing. The city operates under a government system. The citys largest employer is Oklahoma State University and it was one of the 100 top places to live in 2010, according to CNN Money Magazine. Stillwater is located in the popularly known as Tornado Alley. It has a subtropical climate and the highest recorded temperature was 115 °F on August 11,1936. The city is home to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum, the north-central region of Oklahoma became part of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. In 1832, author and traveler Washington Irving provided the first recorded description of the area around Stillwater in his book A Tour on the Prairies and he wrote of “a glorious prairie spreading out beneath the golden beams of an autumnal sun. The deep and frequent traces of buffalo, showed it to be a one of their grazing grounds. ”According to one legend, local Native American tribes — Ponca, Kiowa, Osage. A second legend states that cattlemen driving herds from Texas to railways back east always found water still there, a third legend holds that David L. Payne walked up to Stillwater Creek and said, “This town should be named Still Water”. Members of the thought he was crazy, but the name stuck. Stillwater Creek received its name in 1884 when William L. Couch established his “boomer colony” on its banks. On April 22,1889, the cannons fired signaling the first Land Run that opened up the Unassigned Lands of the Oklahoma Territory, which included Stillwater. By the end of the day,240 acres had been claimed and designated as Stillwater township, the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture simply says that the name officiallybecame Stillwater only when the post office opened on May 28,1889. On Christmas Eve,1890, the legislature of Oklahoma Territory passed a bill certifying Stillwater as the land grant college site, in 1894, Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College held a dedication of its first brick building, Assembly Building, later known as Old Central
4.
NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision
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Division I is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the United States. This level was called the University Division of the NCAA, in contrast to the lower level College Division. For football only, Division I was further subdivided in 1978 into Division I-A, Division I-AA, in 2006, Division I-A and I-AA were renamed Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision, respectively. FCS teams are allowed to award scholarships, a practice technically allowed. FBS teams also have to meet attendance requirements, while FCS teams do not need to meet minimum attendance requirements. Another difference is post season play, starting with the 2014 postseason, a four-team playoff called the College Football Playoff, replaced the previous one game championship format. Even so, Division I FBS football is still the only NCAA sport in which a champion is not determined by an NCAA-sanctioned championship event. All D-I schools must field teams in at least seven sports for men and seven for women or six for men and eight for women, with at least two team sports for each gender. Division I schools must meet minimum financial aid awards for their athletics program, Several other NCAA sanctioned minimums and differences that distinguish Division I from Divisions II and III. Each playing season has to be represented by each gender as well, there are contest and participant minimums for each sport, as well as scheduling criteria. Mens and womens teams have to play all but two games against Division I teams, for men, they must play one-third of all their contests in the home arena. The NCAA has limits on the financial aid each Division I member may award in each sport that the school sponsors. Equivalency sports, in which the NCAA limits the total financial aid that a school can offer in a sport to the equivalent of a set number of full scholarships. Roster limitations may or may not apply, depending on the sport, the term counter is also key to this concept. The NCAA defines a counter as an individual who is receiving financial aid that is countable against the aid limitations in a sport. The number of scholarships that Division I members may award in sport is listed below. In this table, scholarship numbers for head-count sports are indicated without a point, for equivalency sports, they are listed with a decimal point. An exception exists for players at non-scholarship FCS programs who receive aid in another sport, participants in basketball are counted in that sport, unless they also play football
5.
Big 12 Conference
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The Big 12 Conference is a ten-school collegiate athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas. Its ten members, located in Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, additionally, the Big 12 has ten affiliate members, six for the sport of wrestling, one for womens gymnastics, and 3 for womens rowing. The Big 12 Conference is a 501 nonprofit organization incorporated in Delaware, the Big 12 was formerly composed of 12 schools, hence its name, it was formed in 1996 when four schools from the collapsing Southwest Conference joined with the pre-existing Big Eight Conference. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were grouped with the four newcomers in the Big 12 South, TCU and West Virginia joined from the Mountain West and Big East Conferences respectively to offset two of the departing schools, bringing the conference to its current strength. Attempts to rename the Big 12 to reflect its current strength would lead to confusion with the current Big Ten Conference, the Big 12 Conference commissioner is Bob Bowlsby. Full members Assoc. member Other Conference The Big 12 Conference sponsors championship competition in ten mens, nonetheless, it is an open coed sport in NCAA college athletics, with mens, womens, and coed teams in all NCAA divisions competing against each other. TCU and West Virginia both field coed teams, through 2017, West Virginia with 19 national titles and TCU with two, together have won over half of the NCAA titles awarded since the inaugural NCAA championship in 1980. West Virginia also won four national titles. The Big 12 began athletic play in the fall of 1996, from its formation until 2011, its 12 members competed in two divisions. Between 2011 and 2012 four charter members left the conference while two joined in 2013. The Big 12 is unique among the current Power Five conferences in that it only has 10 members, despite the name, causing some confusion. From 1987 to 2015,12 or more members were required for a championship game. Former Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds and former football coach Mack Brown, along with Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops, critics argued it was a competitive advantage over other contract conferences. Conferences with a game have their division champions typically play one of their toughest games of the year in the last week of the regular season. Unlike the other Power 5 conferences in which a team plays a portion of the other teams in the conference each season. This theoretically allows for the declaration of a de facto champion without the need for a rematch between the top two teams in the conference. On June 3,2016, the conference announced it would reinstate the football game in the 2017 season. This followed the passage of a new NCAA rule allowing all FBS conferences to hold football championship games regardless of their membership numbers, the Big 12 population base is centered on the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, West Virginia and Iowa
6.
Oklahoma Sooners football
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The Oklahoma Sooners football program is a college football team that represents the University of Oklahoma. The team is currently a member of the Big 12 Conference, the program began in 1895 and is one of the most successful programs since World War II with the most wins and the highest winning percentage since 1945. The program has 7 national championships,45 conference championships,154 All-Americans, Oklahoma is also the only program that has had four coaches with 100+ wins, including current head coach Bob Stoops. They became the sixth NCAA FBS team to win 850 games when they defeated the Kansas Jayhawks on November 22,2014, the Sooners play their home games at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma. Football at Oklahoma made its start in September 1895,12 years before statehood, the team was organized by John A. Harts, a student from Winfield, Kansas who had played the game in his home state. That first team was composed of mostly non-students, including a local fireman and that first season saw the team go 0–1, being blanked 0–34 by a more experienced Oklahoma City Town Team. The first game was played on a field of low prairie grass just northwest of the current site of Holmberg Hall. Several members of the Oklahoma team were injured, including Coach Harts, and by the end of the game, after that year, Harts left Oklahoma to prospect for gold in the Arctic. The team got its first real coach in 1897 when the new modern language professor, Parrington played some football at Harvard and was more exposed to football coming from the East coast. In his four years as coach, Parringtons teams racked up nine wins, one loss. After the 1900 season, football began interfering with Parringtons teaching and he stepped down as head coach shortly thereafter and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1928 at the University of Washington. The Sooners had three more coaches over the four seasons. Fred Roberts led the Sooners to a 3–2 season in 1901, the most notable event of those four years came in 1904 when Oklahoma had its first match against its instate rival, Oklahoma A&M. The game was played on November 6,1904 at Mineral Wells Park in Guthrie, the Oklahoma team soundly defeated the Oklahoma Aggies 75–0, but it was an unusual touchdown that is remembered most of that game. Bedlam football, the rivalry between the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University, was born that day. After ten years of football, the program began to get serious and they found Bennie Owen, a former quarterback of the undefeated Kansas team of 1899 led by famous coach Fielding H. Yost. Owens previous team beat Oklahoma twice in 1903 and 1904, so the Sooners were familiar with his ability, Owens first two years at Oklahoma were spent between Norman and Arkansas City as Oklahoma did not have a big enough budget to keep him there all year. The early years of Owens tenure were tough because of budget issues, due to a low travel budget, his teams would regularly have to play as many as three games in one trek
7.
Bedlam Series
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The Bedlam Series refers to the athletics rivalry between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and the Oklahoma State University Cowboys of the Big 12 Conference. Both schools were members of the Big 8 Conference before the formation of the Big 12 Conference in 1996. The Bedlam Series is, like most other intrastate rivalries, a rivalry that goes beyond one or two sports, both schools also have rivalries with other schools, though most of those rivalries are limited to one or two sports at the most. The rivalry is all the more intense since their games often decide the conference championship, when the Bedlam Series gained Ford and the Bank of Oklahoma as corporate sponsors, the series became much more formalized. A points system was adopted in order to award a winner of the all athletic competitions combined between the two schools, a crystal bell trophy is awarded to individual Bedlam game winners, in addition to a trophy for the overall series champion for that year. The Bedlam Bell is modeled after the clapper in Old Central. For a time, the bell clapper was a traveling trophy for the two schools, until the popularity of this tradition waned. The first Bedlam football game was held at Island Park, now known as Mineral Wells Park, in Guthrie and it was a cold, and very windy day with the temperatures well below the freezing mark. At one moment in the game when the Oklahoma A&M Aggies were punting, if the Oklahoma A&M squad recovered the ball it would be a touchback and if the University of Oklahoma squad recovered it, it would be a touchdown. The ball rolled down a hill into the half-frozen creek, since a touchdown was at stake, members of both teams dove into the icy waters to recover the ball. A member of the OU team came out with the ball, though this was not the source of the name Bedlam, the scene was clearly an apt beginning for the Bedlam Series in football. Author Steve Budin, whose father was a New York bookie, has recently publicized the claim that the 1954 Bedlam Game was fixed by mobsters in his book Bets, Drugs, and Rock & Roll. Allegedly, the threatened and paid off a cook to slip laxatives into a soup eaten by many OU Sooner starting players. OU was victorious in the end, but their 14–0 win did not cover the 20-point spread they had in their favor, however, many people involved in the 1954 contest do not recall any incident like the one purported by Budin to have occurred. Oklahoma currently leads the series 86–18–7, the series has historically been very lopsided in the Sooners favor, Oklahoma State has defeated OU twice in a row just three times since World War II, and has never done it three times in a row. Oklahoma owns the series record in mens basketball, 135–95. The Sooners swept the 2013–14, 2014–15 and 2015–16 regular season Bedlam series for the fourth and fifth time in the last 10 seasons, oSUs last series sweep came in 2017. OU is 17–6 in the last 23 Bedlam games and is now 25–18 vs. the Cowboys since the formation of the Big 12, Oklahoma State holds a large advantage in the schools wrestling rivalry, the original Bedlam Series
8.
Texas Tech Red Raiders football
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The Texas Tech Red Raiders football program is a college football team that represents Texas Tech University. The team competes, as a member of the Big 12 Conference, the program began in 1925 and has an overall winning record, including a total of 11 conference titles and one division title. On December 12,2012, former Red Raider quarterback Kliff Kingsbury became the teams 15th head coach, home games are played at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech fielded its first intercollegiate football team during the 1925 season, the team was known as the Matadors from 1925 to 1936, a name suggested by the wife of E. Y. Freeland, the first football coach, to reflect the influence of the Spanish Renaissance architecture on campus, in 1932, Texas Tech joined the Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association, also known as the Border Conference. That same year, the team won its first conference championship and was invited to the Sun Bowl, the game was played on January 1,1938, and resulted in a 7–6 loss to the West Virginia Mountaineers. Texas Tech suffered four more losses before their first postseason win in the 1952 Sun Bowl. Before withdrawing from the Border Conference in 1956, the Red Raiders won eight championships and one co-championship. In 1956, Texas Tech was admitted to the Southwest Conference and it gained full SWC membership and began official conference play in 1960. The Red Raiders won conference co-championships in 1976 and 1994, the team remained in the SWC until the conference dissolved in 1996. The university was invited and became a member in the South Division of the Big 12 Conference. Texas Tech was the member in the history of the Big 12 to boast a winning record every year since the conferences formation. In 2003, Texas Tech was the team to ever have 5 or more players with at least 60 receptions in a single season. In 2008, the Red Raiders were one of three teams involved in the first three way conference division tie. Texas Tech has competed as a member of three different conferences since 1925, the Red Raiders have won National Championships and 11 conference championships, the first 9 were Border Conference championships, and the most recent was the Big 12 South Championship won in 2008. The Red Raiders were previously members of the Big 12 South between its inception in 1996 and the dissolution of divisions within the Big 12 in 2011. † Denotes co-champions Texas Tech has played in 37 postseason bowl games with an record of 14 wins,22 losses. The 37 bowl game appearances by the Red Raiders rank the program 17th in all-time in bowl games played, Texas Techs first bowl game was at the conclusion of the 1937 season, only 13 years after the program was established
9.
Tulsa Golden Hurricane football
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The Tulsa Golden Hurricane football program represents the University of Tulsa in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Tulsa has competed in the American Athletic Conference since the 2014 season and was previously a member of Conference USA, the team is currently led by head coach Philip Montgomery. Tulsa plays its games at Skelly Field at H. A. Chapman Stadium in Tulsa. The University of Tulsa has the smallest undergraduate enrollment of all schools that participate at the FBS level, Tulsa was known as Henry Kendall College until the move from Muskogee to Tulsa was completed in 1907. It was during this time that the first football team would represent the University, the team would go 1–0, defeating the Bacone Indians. Both the exact date and score of the game were not recorded, over the next twelve years, Kendall would play 17 games, going 8–8–1, but not fielding a team for four years. The most common opponent was Arkansas, who met with Tulsa four times, now established in Tulsa, the football team began to grow. In 1913, Kendall went 5–2 under George Evans, sam P. McBirney, who coached the 2–31908 squad, would then return to coach the team in 1914. His first two years back would both be successful, a 6–2 record in 1914 and 6–1–1 the following year, but the undefeated 1916 squad would bring national recognition to Tulsa. The 1916 Hurricane outscored its opponents 566–40, including an 81–0 defeat of Cumberland, there were rumors of playing Notre Dame for the Mid-America Championship, but the two teams never met. Kendall College would return to form after World War I, to go 8–0–1 under Francis Schmidt, the new coach was known as Close the Gates of Mercy Schmidt because of his efforts to run up the score on inferior teams. The 1919 season gave Kendall their first defeat of the Oklahoma Sooners, ultimately, Schmidts style would cost Tulsa their coach, as he attracted the attention of University of Arkansas boosters with a 63–7 defeat of the Razorbacks in 1919. Schmidt would sign with and coach the Hogs from 1922–1928, howard Archer would leave his mark on the program in two ways. Tulsa did not miss a beat after Schmidts departure, and went 8–0 in 1922 and this included a 13–6 defeat of Schmidt-coached Arkansas in Fayetteville. Archer also gave the newly named University of Tulsa an athletic identity, previously, the team had been referred to as Orange and Black, Kendallites, Presbyterians, Tigers, and Tulsans. Archer put a vote to the team to replace Golden Tornadoes, the vote resulted in Golden Hurricane, which it has remained ever since. The coach would not have the power of his nickname, however. TU gave Henderson a large contract to leave the mighty Trojans of USC, the Hurricane had great success on and off the field under Henderson, going 62–17–3 in his first nine years, winning four Oklahoma Intercollegiate Conference championships
10.
Pistol Pete (Oklahoma State University)
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Pistol Pete is the athletics mascot of Oklahoma State University. The Pistol Pete mascot costume features traditional cowboy attire and a headpiece resembling Frank Eaton, Pistol Pete has been the mascot for the Oklahoma State Cowboys since 1923. From the 1890s on, Oklahoma A&M sports teams had been referred to as the Agriculturists or Aggies, the Farmers, and officially but unpopularly, the Tigers. By 1924 Charles Saulsberry, sports editor of the Oklahoma City Times, the Athletic Council authorized Athletic Director Edward C. Gallagher to have 2,000 balloons printed, Oklahoma Aggies - Ride Em Cowboy for sale at football games in 1926. Around 1923, when Oklahoma A&M College was searching for a new mascot to replace their tiger and he was approached to see if he would be interested in being the model for the new mascot, and he agreed. A likeness was drawn and began to be used on sweatshirts, stickers, etc. and that caricature was the basis for what is used today as the official Oklahoma State University mascot. For thirty-five years, the crusty old cowboy was a symbol of OSU. As such, he would attend OSU athletic events, building dedications, etc. and sign autographs, pose for photographs, in more recent years, the University of Wyoming and New Mexico State University began using variations of OSUs artwork as logos for their schools. To this day, his likeness is a reminder of the Old West to literally millions of people yearly as a symbol of colleges whose mascots pay homage to the cowboy. However, it was not until 1958 that Pistol Pete was adopted as the schools mascot, the familiar caricature of Pistol Pete was officially sanctioned in 1984 by Oklahoma State University as a licensed symbol. Each year, an average of 15 Oklahoma State students audition to portray Pistol Pete, a panel of former Petes conduct the tryouts and select two replacements based largely on an interview. Candidates are also asked to exhibit themselves as they would during in-game scenarios, as such, Pistol Pete is often asked to make appearances in parades, community festivals, corporate functions, weddings and birthday parties. Donkey-Hoté Pistol Pete at OSU traditions Pistol Pete Interview Series - Oklahoma Oral History Research Program Frank Eaton at OSUs Special Collections and University Archives
11.
Oklahoma State University Cowboy Marching Band
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The Cowboy Marching Band is the marching band of Oklahoma State University. The first band at Oklahoma A&M College was organized in 1905 by Harry Dunn, a student at the school, a tradition of the band was the use of the OSU Spirit Drum. It was purchased in the mid-1930s for the R. O. T. C and it was believed to be the largest drum in the country at that time
12.
College football
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It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. No minor league farm organizations exist in American football and it is in college football where a players performance directly impacts his chances of playing professional football. The best collegiate players will declare for the professional draft after 3 to 4 years of collegiate competition. Those not selected can still attempt to land an NFL roster spot as a free agent. Even after the emergence of the professional National Football League, college football remained extremely popular throughout the U. S, in many cases, college stadiums employ bench-style seating, as opposed to individual seats with backs and arm rests. This allows them to more fans in a given amount of space than the typical professional stadium. College athletes, unlike players in the NFL, are not permitted by the NCAA to be paid salaries, colleges are only allowed to provide non-monetary compensation such as athletic scholarships that provide for tuition, housing, and books. Modern North American football has its origins in various games, all known as football, by the 1840s, students at Rugby School were playing a game in which players were able to pick up the ball and run with it, a sport later known as Rugby football. The game was taken to Canada by British soldiers stationed there and was soon being played at Canadian colleges, the first documented gridiron football match was a game played at University College, a college of the University of Toronto, November 9,1861. One of the participants in the game involving University of Toronto students was William Mulock, a football club was formed at the university soon afterward, although its rules of play at this stage are unclear. In 1864, at Trinity College, also a college of the University of Toronto, F. Barlow Cumberland, modern Canadian football is widely regarded as having originated with a game played in Montreal, in 1865, when British Army officers played local civilians. The game gradually gained a following, and the Montreal Football Club was formed in 1868, early games appear to have had much in common with the traditional mob football played in England. The games remained largely unorganized until the 19th century, when games of football began to be played on college campuses. Each school played its own variety of football, Princeton University students played a game called ballown as early as 1820. A Harvard tradition known as Bloody Monday began in 1827, which consisted of a mass ballgame between the freshman and sophomore classes, in 1860, both the town police and the college authorities agreed the Bloody Monday had to go. The Harvard students responded by going into mourning for a figure called Football Fightum. The authorities held firm and it was a dozen years before football was again played at Harvard. Dartmouth played its own version called Old division football, the rules of which were first published in 1871, all of these games, and others, shared certain commonalities
13.
Boone Pickens Stadium
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Boone Pickens Stadium has been home to the Oklahoma State University Cowboys football team in rudimentary form since 1913, and as a complete stadium since 1920. The facility is the oldest football stadium in the Big 12 Conference but was largely neglected and enjoyed only modest renovations throughout its near-century of existence. An ambitious fund-raising project for the renovation dubbed The Next Level became the flagship effort of the Oklahoma State athletic department, Oklahoma State, then known as Oklahoma A&M, first began playing at the current site of Pickens Stadium in 1913. In addition to his duties as dean and instructor at OAMC, under his brief administration, OAMC established the first school of commerce and marketing in the nation and developed experimental stations around the state. In addition to naming the field after him, the students also dedicated the 1914 yearbook, its first, the school built a permanent 8, 000-seat grandstand—roughly corresponding to the lower level of the current facilitys north grandstand—in 1920. The stadium originally was positioned in the traditional north-south direction, but was reoriented east-west to avoid the prevailing winds. It remains one of a handful of stadiums in the United States with goals at the east and west ends. The university planned to build a stadium, similar to Ohio State Universitys Ohio Stadium. During the 1929–1930 seasons,8,000 permanent seats were built on the side for an overall capacity of 13,000. In 1947 the south stands were increased from 20 to 53 rows, for the first time, a permanent press box was then added. Prior to the 1950 season,10,600 seats were added to the north stands, after the 1971 season the cinder track was removed, lowering the field 12 feet and making the space between the field and the stadium retaining walls among the smallest in college athletics. Twenty rows of permanent seats were added to both sides of the stadium. This expansion, including conversion to an artificial turf playing surface. Press box construction was completed in 1980 at a cost of $1.8 million, a lighting system for night games was installed in time for the 1985 season and cost approximately $750,000. The all-time attendance record for Lewis Field is 51,458 for the Bedlam Series game in 1979, in a side note to history, the field hosted the Oklahoma Outlaws and the Houston Gamblers of the USFL professional football league in 1984. Due to a conflict at Tulsas Skelly Stadium, the Outlaws were forced to play their last Exhibition game in Stillwater, only 6,120 attended the cold February 19 game. Lewis Field was officially renamed Boone Pickens Stadium during a ceremony at the 2003 football game versus the University of Wyoming. The stadium’s name was changed to honor OSU alumnus T. Boone Pickens, the stadium turf was replaced in 2005
14.
Southwest Conference
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The Southwest Conference was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at times the conference included schools from Oklahoma. After a long period of stability, Arkansas left in 1991 to join the Southeastern Conference, by March 1,1914 a number of schools had responded favorably to the idea. The first organizational meeting of the conference was set to be held on April 30,1914, the date was changed because representatives from every school could not make it then. It was ultimately held on May 5 and 7,1914 at the Oriental Hotel in Dallas, Texas and it was chaired by L. Theo Bellmont. Originally, Bellmont wanted Louisiana State University and the University of Mississippi to join the conference as well, the Southwest Intercollegiate Athletic Conference became an official body on December 8,1914, at a formal meeting at the Rice Hotel in Houston. Rice University left the conference in 1916, only to re-join in 1918, phillips University was a conference member for one year. Oklahoma left in 1919 to join the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association, however, the series between Texas and Oklahoma would continue as a non-conference matchup in the annual Red River Rivalry game held in Dallas. From 1925 until 1991, the University of Arkansas would be the only member not located within the state of Texas. By 1925, the name was shortened to simply Southwest Conference. After its organizational years, the conference settled into regularly scheduled meetings among its members, the SWC would be guided by seven commissioners, the first of whom, P. W. St. Clair, was appointed in 1938. In 1940, the conference took control of the then five-year-old Cotton Bowl Classic, Texas Technological College joined the SWC in 1958, followed by the University of Houston for the 1976 season. The conference celebrated its glory years in the 1960s, dominated by two teams, Texas and Arkansas. Texas won the 1963 National Championship, and Arkansas won a National Championship in 1964 in the Football Writers Association of America, in 1969, Texas won another National Championship by beating #2-ranked Arkansas 15-14 in the regular seasons final game. The 1969 Arkansas-Texas game in Fayetteville, Arkansas, attended by President Richard Nixon, is counted among the greatest college football games ever played. Texas also won the 1970 United Press International National Championship, which until 1974 was awarded prior to the bowl games, opponents usually were the runners-up from the Big 8 Conference or the Southeastern Conference, although independents Penn State and Notre Dame were also often featured. From the 1940s onward, the Cotton Bowl Classic was counted among the four bowl games. However, in the 1990s, the game declined in importance, in 1977, Notre Dame became the last team to win a national championship in the Cotton Bowl Classic by beating Texas in the January 1978 game
15.
Missouri Valley Conference
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The Missouri Valley Conference is the second-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Currently, its members are located in the midwestern United States, the conference participates in the NCAAs Division I. The MVC was founded in 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association,12 years after the Big Ten, however, some consider the MVC to have been formed from a split of the MVIAA in 1928. Most of the schools formed a conference that retained the MVIAA name. The smaller schools, plus Oklahoma A&M, formed the MVC, during the Big Eights existence, both conferences claimed 1907 as their founding date, as well as the same history through 1927. During the 2006–07 college basketball season, MVC teams held a 74–27 non-conference record, including a record of 44–1 at home. The Valley finished in the top six of the RPI and ahead of a BCS conference for the second year, while also garnering multiple NCAA bids for the ninth straight year. The MVC has not sponsored football since 1985, when it was a hybrid I-A/I-AA, however, five members have football programs in the Missouri Valley Football Conference of Division I FCS, and a sixth competes in another FCS conference, the Pioneer Football League. The Missouri Valley Conference shares its name with the Missouri Valley Football Conference, however, the two are separate administratively. It has been reported that Wichita State will likely be leaving the conference to join the American Athletic Conference as soon as 2017–18 season, Bradley returned to the MVC for non-football sports in the 1955–56 school year, with Drake doing the same a year later. However, Bradley never returned to MVC football, dropping the sport in 1970, note, In the case of spring sports, the year of joining is the calendar year before the start of competition. Notes Notes Full members Assoc. members Assoc. member C. E. McClung Arthur E. Eilers Norvell Neve DeWitt T. Weaver Mickey Holmes David Price Richard D. Martin James A. Haney Doug Elgin The Missouri Valley Conference sponsors championship competition in eight mens, Central Arkansas and SIU Edwardsville are Affiliate members for mens soccer, Dallas Baptist is an Affiliate member for baseball, and Little Rock is an Affiliate member for swimming and diving. * = Baseball associate Dallas Baptist ** = Soccer associates Central Arkansas and SIU Edwardsville *** = Tennis associates Stony Brook, mens varsity sports not sponsored by the Missouri Valley Conference which are played by Valley schools, * = Affiliate Little Rock. † = To be added in 2017–18, NB, Missouri State was known as Southwest Missouri State until August 2005. One member sold out every game for the 2006–07 season. In 2010–11, 2011–12, and 2012–13, the Valley maintained its position as the eighth ranked conference in average attendance. The Valley made history in March 2007 with record attendance for four days at St. Louis Scottrade Center as 85,074 fans turned out to watch the five sessions of the tournament, Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame Official website
16.
Jim Lookabaugh
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Edwin M. Jim Lookabaugh was an American football player and coach. He served as the football coach at Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, now Oklahoma State University–Stillwater, from 1939 to 1949. Lookabaughs 1945 team went a perfect 9–0, winning the first National Championship for Oklahoma A&M. Lookabaugh was an OSU alumni, lettering in baseball, basketball, and football. Lookabaugh was one of three football coaches at Oklahoma State to have played for Oklahoma State, along with Floyd Gass. From 1925 to 1929, he coached at Jet High School and he is a member of the OSU Alumni Hall of Fame, the OSU Athletic Hall of Fame, and the National Football Hall of Fame. Jim Lookabaugh at the College Football Data Warehouse
17.
Alabama Crimson Tide football
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The Alabama Crimson Tide football program represents the University of Alabama in the sport of American football. The team competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the team is currently coached by Nick Saban. The Crimson Tide is among the most storied and decorated football programs in NCAA history, since beginning play in 1892, the program claims 16 national championships, including 11 wire-service national titles in the poll-era, and five other titles before the poll-era. From 1958 to 1982, the team was led by Hall of Fame coach Paul Bear Bryant, despite numerous national and conference championships, it was not until 2009 that an Alabama player received a Heisman Trophy, when running back Mark Ingram became the universitys first winner. In 2015, Derrick Henry became the universitys second Heisman winner, Alabama has 878 official victories in NCAA Division I, has won 30 conference championships and has made an NCAA-record 64 postseason bowl appearances. Other NCAA records include 23 winning streaks of 10 games or more and 19 seasons with a 10–0 start, the program has 34 seasons with 10 wins or more, and has 37 bowl victories, both NCAA records. Alabama has completed 10 undefeated seasons,9 of which were perfect seasons, the Crimson Tide leads the SEC West Division with 12 division titles and 11 appearances in the SEC Championship Game. Alabama holds a record against every current and former SEC school. The Associated Press ranks Alabama 4th in all-time final AP Poll appearances, Alabama plays its home games at Bryant–Denny Stadium, located on the campus in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. With a capacity of 101,821, Bryant-Denny is the 8th largest non-racing stadium in the world, Alabama has had 28 head coaches since organized football began in 1892. Adopting the nickname Crimson Tide after the 1907 season, the team has played more than 1,100 games in their 114 seasons, in that time,12 coaches have led the Crimson Tide in postseason bowl games, Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Harold D. Red Drew, Bear Bryant, Ray Perkins, Bill Curry, Gene Stallings, Mike DuBose, Dennis Franchione, Mike Shula, Joe Kines, and Nick Saban. Eight of those coaches also won championships, Wade, Thomas, Drew, Bryant, Curry, Stallings, DuBose. During their tenures, Wade, Thomas, Bryant, Stallings, of the 27 different head coaches who have led the Crimson Tide, Wade, Thomas, Bryant, and Stallings have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. The current head coach is Nick Saban, who was hired in January 2007, National championships in NCAA FBS college football are debated as the NCAA does not officially award the championship. Despite not naming an official National Champion, the NCAA provides lists of championships awarded by organizations it recognizes, beginning in 1936, the Associated Press began the best-known and most widely circulated poll of sportswriters and broadcasters. Before 1936, national champions were determined by research and retroactive ratings. The criteria for being included in this historical list of poll selectors is that the poll be national in scope, either through distribution in newspaper, television, since World War II, Alabama only claims national championships awarded by the final AP Poll or the final Coaches Poll
18.
Johnny Bright incident
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Bright had been the first African American football player to play at Lewis Field two years prior. In 1951, Bright was a pre-season Heisman Trophy candidate from Drake, Bright had never played for a losing team in his college career. Coming into the contest, Drake carried a winning streak. It was a secret that Oklahoma A&M players were targeting Bright. Although Oklahoma A&M had integrated in 1949, the Jim Crow spirit was still much alive on campus. During the first seven minutes of the game, Bright was knocked unconscious three times by blows from Oklahoma A&M defensive tackle Wilbanks Smith. While Smiths final elbow blow broke Brights jaw, he was able to complete a 61-yard touchdown pass to Drake halfback Jim Pilkington a few plays later. Soon afterward, the injury forced him to leave the game. Bright finished the game less than 100 yards, the first time in his three-year collegiate career at Drake. Bob Spiegel, a reporter with the The Des Moines Register, interviewed several spectators after the game, Spiegel also recounted the experiences of a businessman and his wife, who were seated behind a group of Oklahoma A&M practice squad players. At the beginning of the game, one of the turned around said. After the first blow to Bright was delivered by Smith, the player again turned around and told the businessman. That same guy gave me that the same way in practice. Robinson and Ultang had actually set up a camera focusing on Bright before the game after the rumors of him being targeted became too loud to ignore and they rushed the film to Des Moines as soon as Bright was knocked out of the game. The sequence won Robinson and Ultang the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for Photography, Oklahoma A&Ms president, Oliver Willham, denied anything happened even after evidence of the incident was published nationwide. This began a cover-up that would last over half a century, during time, whenever the story was discussed. The Bulldogs would not return to the MVC until 1956 for non-football sports, fellow member Bradley University pulled out of the league in solidarity with Drake and did not return for non-football sports until 1955, its football team never played another down in the MVC. The incident eventually provoked changes in NCAA football rules regarding illegal blocking, Bright finished fifth in the balloting for the 1951 Heisman Trophy, and played in the post-season East–West Shrine Game and the Hula Bowl
19.
African Americans
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African Americans are an ethnic group of Americans with total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. The term may also be used to only those individuals who are descended from enslaved Africans. As a compound adjective the term is usually hyphenated as African-American, Black and African Americans constitute the third largest racial and ethnic group in the United States. Most African Americans are of West and Central African descent and are descendants of enslaved peoples within the boundaries of the present United States. On average, African Americans are of 73. 2–80. 9% West African, 18–24% European, according to US Census Bureau data, African immigrants generally do not self-identify as African American. The overwhelming majority of African immigrants identify instead with their own respective ethnicities, immigrants from some Caribbean, Central American and South American nations and their descendants may or may not also self-identify with the term. After the founding of the United States, black people continued to be enslaved, believed to be inferior to white people, they were treated as second-class citizens. The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited U. S. citizenship to whites only, in 2008, Barack Obama became the first African American to be elected President of the United States. The first African slaves arrived via Santo Domingo to the San Miguel de Gualdape colony, the ill-fated colony was almost immediately disrupted by a fight over leadership, during which the slaves revolted and fled the colony to seek refuge among local Native Americans. De Ayllón and many of the colonists died shortly afterwards of an epidemic, the settlers and the slaves who had not escaped returned to Haiti, whence they had come. The first recorded Africans in British North America were 20 and odd negroes who came to Jamestown, as English settlers died from harsh conditions, more and more Africans were brought to work as laborers. Typically, young men or women would sign a contract of indenture in exchange for transportation to the New World, the landowner received 50 acres of land from the state for each servant purchased from a ships captain. An indentured servant would work for years without wages. The status of indentured servants in early Virginia and Maryland was similar to slavery, servants could be bought, sold, or leased and they could be physically beaten for disobedience or running away. Africans could legally raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom and they raised families, married other Africans and sometimes intermarried with Native Americans or English settlers. By the 1640s and 1650s, several African families owned farms around Jamestown and some became wealthy by colonial standards and purchased indentured servants of their own. In 1640, the Virginia General Court recorded the earliest documentation of slavery when they sentenced John Punch. One of Dutch African arrivals, Anthony Johnson, would own one of the first black slaves, John Casor
20.
Drake Bulldogs football
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The Drake Bulldogs football program represents Drake University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision level. Drake began competing in football in 1893. The 1922 Drake Bulldogs football team is considered by many to be the greatest in Drake history and is, to date, Drake capped the historic season with a 48–6 triumph over Mississippi State on November 25,1922. They received votes as the one team in the College Football Researchers Association poll and were invited to the White House for their accomplishments. The Bulldogs were coached by legend Ossie Solem, during the 1926 Homecoming activities, Babe Ruth visited and suited up for a Drake scrimmage. Head coach Ossie Solem extended the invitation stating We finally inquired had he ever indulged in the dirt eating pastime known as football, the answer was sort of a woeful No. It was evident that the Big Bimbo had missed something in his days. Ruth scored a 20-yard touchdown in the mock scrimmage, while it was not the official Rose Bowl Game, Drake was the first Iowa school to play in the Rose Bowl Stadium. The Bulldogs defeated UCLA 25–6 in front of a capacity crowd of 40,000 on November 28,1927. At the time, UCLA played major games at the Rose Bowl Stadium, the Bruins did not officially move on a permanent basis to the Rose Bowl Stadium until 1982. The game was highlighted as one of the NCAA Football Thanksgiving Special Games that year, following the 1931 season head coach Ossie Solem schedule a game in Honolulu, Hawaii in which the bulldogs squared off against Hawaii. Solem frustrated by the lack of rewards, called the trip a reward for his teams fourth straight Missouri Valley Conference championship. In a close encounter at Honolulu Stadium on December 19,1931, the game was the first by an Iowa school in the state of Hawaii. It was also the last game for Solem as Bulldog coach and he left the next season taking the head football coach vacancy at Iowa. Drake was the first school of its size to install lights, on October 6,1928, the Bulldogs defeated Simpson College 41–6 in the first night game at Drake Stadium. In 1951, Johnny Bright was named a First Team College Football All-American and he was invited to the Heisman Trophy festivities and finished fifth in the voting. In 1969, Bright was named Drake Universitys greatest football player of all time, in February 2006, the football field at Drake Stadium, in Des Moines, Iowa, was named in his honor. In November 2006, Bright was voted one of the CFLs Top 50 players of the modern era by Canadian sports network TSN
21.
Johnny Bright
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Johnny D. Bright was a professional Canadian football player in the Canadian Football League. He played college football at Drake University, in 1951, Bright was named a First Team College Football All-American, and was awarded the Nils V. Swede Nelson Sportsmanship Award. In 1969, Bright was named Drake Universitys greatest football player of all time, in February 2006, the football field at Drake Stadium, in Des Moines, Iowa, was named in his honor. In November 2006, Bright was voted one of the CFLs Top 50 players of the modern era by Canadian sports network TSN. Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana on June 11,1930, Bright was a three-sport star at Fort Waynes Central High School. Bright eventually lettered in football, track, and basketball, during his career at Drake. In Brights junior year, the halfback/quarterback rushed for 1,232 yards and passed for 1,168 yards, setting an NCAA record for total offense in 1950, Brights senior year began with great promise. During the first seven minutes of the game, Bright had been knocked unconscious three times by blows from Oklahoma A&M defensive tackle Wilbanks Smith. Bright finished the game with 75 yards, the first time he had finished a game less than 100 yards in his three-year collegiate career at Drake. Oklahoma A&M eventually won the game 27-14 and it had been an open secret before the game that A&M was planning to target Bright. Even though A&M had integrated two years earlier, the Jim Crow spirit was still much alive in Stillwater. Ultang and Robinson had actually set up their camera after rumors of Bright being targeted became too loud to ignore. When it became apparent that neither Oklahoma A&M nor the MVC would take any action against Smith, Drake withdrew from the MVC in protest. The Johnny Bright Incident, as it widely known, eventually provoked changes in NCAA football rules regarding illegal blocking. Recalling the incident without apparent bitterness in a 1980 Des Moines Register interview three years before his death, Bright commented, Theres no way it couldnt have been racially motivated. Bright went on to add, What I like about the deal now. It made the NCAA take a look and clean up some things that were bad. As a senior, Bright earned 70 percent of the yards Drake gained and scored 70 percent of the Bulldogs points, following his final football season at Drake, Bright was named a First Team College Football All-American and finished fifth in the balloting for the 1951 Heisman Trophy
22.
Big Eight Conference
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The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association -affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. Additionally, the University of Iowa was an member of the MVIAA. The conference was dissolved in 1996, the Big Eight kept its headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri. In February 1995, the Big Eight and the Southwest Conference announced that the two leagues had reached an agreement to form a new conference. The eight members of the Big Eight joined with SWC schools Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, and Texas Tech to form the Big 12 Conference the following year. A vote was conducted on whether to keep the new headquarters in Kansas City. The two Oklahoma schools, all four Texas schools, and Colorado voted for the move while both Kansas schools, Nebraska, Missouri, and Iowa State voted for Kansas City. The University of Iowa who was also a member of the Western Conference was also a joint member of the conference, Iowa only participated in football and outdoor mens track and field. In 1908, Drake University and Iowa Agricultural College joined the MVIAA, Iowa who was a joint member departed in 1911 to only compete in the Western Conference, but Kansas State University joined the conference in 1913. Nebraska left in 1918 to play as an independent for two seasons before returning in 1920, in 1919, the University of Oklahoma and Saint Louis University applied for membership, but were disapproved due to deficient management of their athletic programs. The conference then added Grinnell College in 1919, with the University of Oklahoma applying again, Oklahoma A&M University joined in 1925, bringing conference membership to ten, an all-time high. At a meeting in Lincoln, Nebraska, on May 19,1928, Six of the seven state schools formed a conference that was initially known as the Big Six Conference. Just before the start of practice, the six schools announced they would retain the MVIAA name for formal purposes. However, fans and media continued to call it the Big Six, the three private schools – Drake, Grinnell, and Washington University – joined with Oklahoma A&M, becoming known as the Missouri Valley Conference. For the remainder of the Big Eights run, both conferences claimed 1907 as their date, as well as the same history through 1927. To this day, it has never been established which conference was the original. Conference membership grew with the addition of the University of Colorado on December 1,1947, later that month, Reaves E. Peters was hired as Commissioner of Officials and Assistant Secretary and set up the first conference offices in Kansas City, Missouri. With the addition of Colorado, the unofficial name became the Big Seven Conference, coincidentally
23.
Bear Bryant
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Paul William Bear Bryant was an American college football player and coach. He was best known as the head coach of the University of Alabama football team. During his 25-year tenure as Alabamas head coach, he amassed six national championships, upon his retirement in 1982, he held the record for most wins as head coach in collegiate football history with 323 wins. The Paul W. Bryant Museum, Paul W. Bryant Hall, Paul W. Bryant Drive, before arriving at Alabama, Bryant was head football coach at the University of Maryland, the University of Kentucky, and Texas A&M University. Paul Bryant was the 11th of 12 children who were born to Wilson Monroe and Ida Kilgore Bryant in Moro Bottom, Cleveland County and his nickname stemmed from his having agreed to wrestle a captive bear during a carnival promotion when he was 13 years old. His mother wanted him to be a minister, but Bryant told her Coaching is a lot like preaching. He attended Fordyce High School, where 6 ft 1 in tall Bryant, during his senior season, the team, with Bryant playing offensive line and defensive end, won the 1930 Arkansas state football championship. Bryant accepted a scholarship to play for the University of Alabama in 1931, Bryant played end for the Crimson Tide and was a participant on the schools 1934 national championship team. Bryant himself was second team All-Southeastern Conference in 1934, and was third team all conference in both 1933 and 1935, Bryant played with a partially broken leg in a 1935 game against Tennessee. Bryant pledged the Sigma Nu social fraternity, and as a senior, he married Mary Harmon, Bryant was selected in the fourth round by the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1936 NFL Draft, but never played professional football. After graduating from the University of Alabama in 1936, Bryant took a job under A. B. Hollingsworth at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, but he left that position when offered an assistant coaching position under Frank Thomas at the University of Alabama, over the next four years, the team compiled a 29–5–3 record. In 1940, he left Alabama to become an assistant at Vanderbilt University under Henry Russell Sanders, during their 1940 season, Bryant served as head coach of the Commodores for their 7–7 tie against Kentucky as Coach Sanders was recovering from an appendectomy. After the 1941 season, Bryant was offered the coaching job at the University of Arkansas. However, Pearl Harbor was bombed soon thereafter, and Bryant declined the position to join the United States Navy, in 1942 he served as an assistant coach with the Georgia Pre-Flight Skycrackers. Bryant then served off North Africa, seeing no combat action, however, his ship, the converted liner USAT Uruguay, was rammed by an oil tanker near Bermuda and ordered to be abandoned. Bryant disobeyed the order, saving the lives of his men, allen Barra claims that two hundred others died in the collision. He was later granted an honorable discharge to train recruits and coach the North Carolina Navy Pre-Flight football team, one of the players he coached for the Navy was the future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Otto Graham
24.
SMU Mustangs football
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The SMU Mustangs football program is a college football team that represents Southern Methodist University. The team competes in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision as a member of the American Athletic Conference, in June 1915, Ray Morrison became SMUs football, baseball, basketball, and track coach, in addition to being to a math instructor. The football team began as a member of the Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the first game played by SMUs football team was a 13-2 victory over Hendrix College. After winning two games in a span of two seasons, Morrison left SMU for Fort Oglethorpe upon the United States’ entry into World War I, during this time, the football team was known as the Parsons, due to the large number of theology students on the team. On October 17,1917, the name Mustangs was selected as the schools mascot, for the 1917 season, Morrison would be replaced by J. Burton Rix, who would lead the Mustangs to a 3-2-3 record in their final season in the TIAA. The Mustangs’ first season in the conference ended with a 4-2 record. J. Burton Rix would continue to coach the team until the 1921 season, in which he was replaced by W. A. Cunningham and Victor Kelly, his co-coaches that season, as the team went on to lose six games. Ray Morrison would return to SMU in 1922, co-coaching the team with former Vanderbilt teammate Ewing Y, for the 1922 and 1923 seasons, Morrison would focus on the backfield and ends, while Freeland focused on the linemen. The team became known as the Aerial Circus by sportswriters because of Morrisons passing offense, Morrison would become known as the father of the forward pass, due to the teams use of passing on first and second downs, instead of as a play of last resort. At the time, most teams utilized the forward pass five to six times in one game, in the 1922 season, the Mustangs would compile a 6-3-1 record. Furthermore, end Gene Bedford and back Logan Stollenwerck were named first-team All-Southwest Conference, Bedford would go on to be the first player to play in the National Football League for the Rochester Jeffersons. In the 1923 season, the SMU Mustangs would go on to compile a perfect 9-0 record, after this season, Freeland would leave the SMU football team, later becoming head coach for the Texas Tech University football team, leaving Morrison as the sole head coach for SMU. SMU would go on to play in their first bowl game in 1924, playing in the Dixie Classic against West Virginia Wesleyan College, by 1926, the team began playing their home games at Ownby Stadium. In their first game at Ownby Stadium, the Mustangs defeated North Texas State Teachers College 42-0, the first Homecoming game would also be played in 1926, resulting in a 14-13 victory over Texas Christian University. The team would continue to have winning seasons until the 1932 season, the Mustangs would win their second conference title in 1926, compiling an 8-0-1 record, and a third conference title in 1931, compiling a 9-0-1 record. In 1928, guard Choc Sanders would become SMUs first All-American, in 1929, tackle Marion Hammon would become SMUs second All-American. After a winning 1934 season, Morrison left SMU to take over the Vanderbilt Commodores football team after the retirement of Dan McGugin, Morrison would be replaced by Matty Bell in 1935. Known as a coach, Bell brought discipline to his team
25.
Jim Stanley (American football)
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Jim Stanley was an American football player and coach. He served as the football coach at Oklahoma State University–Stillwater from 1973 to 1978. Stanley was also the coach of the USFLs Michigan Panthers in 1983 and 1984. The Panthers won the USFL Championship in 1983, Stanley was a three-year starter for Bear Bryants Texas A&M Aggies teams in the 1950s. He was a member of the undefeated 1956 A&M team and he began his coaching career in Amarillo, Texas, coaching high school football from 1959 to 1960. Stanley returned to Stillwater to become the coach of the Oklahoma State University Cowboys in 1973. He coached at Oklahoma State from 1973 to 1978, amassing a record of 35–31–2. His Cowboys earned a Fiesta Bowl victory in 1974 and his 1976 team ended the season 9–3 finishing as a Big Eight co-champions on their way to a Tangerine Bowl victory. His success at Oklahoma State earned him accolades, including being invited to coach three collegiate all-star games, the 1973 East–West Shrine Game, the 1977 Hula Bowl. Stanley successfully filed suit against the conference to require them to provide due process protections in their final hearing on the charges. Stanley served as the line coach for the New York Giants in 1979. Stanley was in the running to be the coach of the USFLs Birmingham Stallions. Stanley was later signed by the Michigan Panthers to serve as their head coach and his 1983 team won the league championship after starting off 1–4. Management addressed the issue by signing a bevy of experienced offensive linemen, Tyrone McGriff and Thom Dornbrook of the New York Giants, Dornbrook and McGriff made USFL all-league teams in 1983 and Pinney was considered one of the best tackles in the league. The team finished the regular season 11–2 and then ran through the playoffs defeating Jim Moras Philadelphia Stars and his 1984 squad looked like a favorite to repeat, going 6–0 to start the season, but then star wide receiver Anthony Carter was lost for the season. Combined with reports of player complaints, that led the team to go 4–8 for the remainder of the season. The Panthers were eliminated in the first round by Steve Youngs Los Angeles Express, 27–21, in a hard fought and it was pro footballs longest game and the Panthers last. Stanley finished with a 24–15 record in the USFL, after the season the majority of USFL owners, led by New Jersey Generals owner Donald Trump and Chicago franchise owner Eddie Einhorn voted to move the league to a fall schedule
26.
Fiesta Bowl
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The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Between its origination in 1971 and 2006, the game was hosted in Tempe, as of November 2016, it is sponsored by PlayStation. From 1996 through the January 2014 game, Frito-Lay was the title sponsor through its Tostitos tortilla chip brand. Other previous sponsors include Sunkist and IBM, in 1998, the Fiesta Bowl became part of the Bowl Championship Series, and before 2006 every four years was the designee for the national championship game. The Fiesta Bowl was born from the Western Athletic Conferences frustrated attempts to obtain bowl invitations for its champions, in 1968 and 1969 respectively, champions Wyoming and Arizona State failed to secure any bowl selection. The next year, undefeated Arizona State was bypassed by the bowls and had to settle for an appearance in the less prestigious Peach Bowl. The Fiesta Bowl therefore initially provided a berth for the WAC champion. In its first decade of existence, the Fiesta Bowl was played in the last week of December, the 1971 inaugural game featured another top-ten Arizona State squad against top-twenty opponent Florida State. The 1974 game featured WAC champ BYU and their new coach, BYU was in control until BYUs first All-American quarterback Gary Sheide went down with a leg injury and eventually lost 16–6. By 1975, the game was able to attract Big Eight co-champion Nebraska to play undefeated Arizona State in a matchup of top-five teams. In 1977, the game was able to attract a top-five opponent in Penn State, despite WAC champion #16 BYU refusing to play in the bowl due to its being held on Sunday. In 1978, Arizona and Arizona State both joined the Pac-10 Conference and the Fiesta Bowls tie-in with the WAC ended. The game continued to attract high quality matchups, so beginning with the 1981 game the Fiesta Bowl shifted to New Years Day alongside the major bowl games—the Cotton, Orange, Sugar, and Rose. The Fiesta Bowl was the first bowl game to acquire a title sponsor when it became the Sunkist Fiesta Bowl starting with the 1986 game. A major breakthrough occurred after the 1986 season when the top two teams in the country, Miami and Penn State, agreed to play for the de facto national championship in the Fiesta Bowl. At the time, the four major bowl games granted automatic bids to their conference champions. Both Miami and Penn State were independents at that time, and were free to choose a bowl. The Fiesta Bowl won the bidding and the game was set to be played on January 2, Penn State won 14–10 over Miami, and the game drew the largest television audience in the history of college football at the time
27.
Citrus Bowl
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The Citrus Bowl, also known as the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl for sponsorship purposes, is an annual college football bowl game played at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. It was previously known as the Tangerine Bowl, the Florida Citrus Bowl, the bowl is operated by Florida Citrus Sports, a non-profit group that also organizes the Russell Athletic Bowl and Florida Classic. Since becoming one of the bowls, the Citrus Bowl is typically played at 1 p. m. EST on New Years Day, immediately before the Rose Bowl. When January 1 is a Sunday, the game has played on January 2 or December 31. As of 2015, at $4.25 million per team, in nearly every year since 1985, the game has featured two teams ranked in the Top 25. The game, which play in 1947, is one of the oldest of the non-CFP bowls, along with the Gator Bowl. By 1952, the game was dubbed the Little Bowl with the Big Heart, from 1964 through 1967, it was one of the four regional finals in the College Division, along with the Pecan, Grantland Rice, and Camellia bowls. In 1968, the Boardwalk Bowl in Atlantic City took over as a final. In 1986, it was one of the bowl games considered for the site of the winner take all championship game between Penn State and Miami, before the Fiesta Bowl was eventually chosen. The 1990 season game had national implications, Georgia Tech won the Florida Citrus Bowl, finished 11–0–1. The 1997 season game, which featured nearby Florida beating Penn State, in 2004, the bowl bid to become the fifth BCS game, but was not chosen, primarily due to the stadiums aging condition. Following the 2014 game, Capital One ceased its sponsorship of the bowl, Buffalo Wild Wings was announced as the new title sponsor of the bowl game in 2014. Buffalo Wild Wings had previously been the sponsor of what is now the Cactus Bowl. The 2016 season game was played on December 31, the first time in 30 years that the game was not played on January 1st or 2nd. From 1968 through 1975, the featured the Mid-American Conference champion against an opponent from the Southern Conference. MAC teams were 6–2 during those games, from the 1987 season through the 1991 season, the bowl featured the Atlantic Coast Conference champion against an at-large opponent. ACC teams were 3–2 during those games, from the 1992 season through the 2015 season, the bowl featured an SEC vs. Big Ten matchup – the SEC won 14 of those games, during the 1990s, the second-place finisher in the SEC typically went to this bowl
28.
Jimmy Johnson (American football coach)
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James William Johnson is an American football broadcaster and former player, coach, and executive. He served as the football coach at Oklahoma State University–Stillwater from 1979 to 1983. As of 2016, he is an analyst for Fox NFL Sunday, Johnson was the first and one of only three football coaches to lead teams to both a major college football championship and a Super Bowl. Johnsons coaching tree includes a number of head coaches such as Butch Davis, Norv Turner, Tommy Tuberville, Dave Campo. In 1993, Johnson wrote Turning the Thing Around, My Life in Football, Johnson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2012. Born in Port Arthur, Texas, Johnson graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School—renamed Memorial High School—where two of his classmates were future rock icon Janis Joplin and actor G. W. Bailey, other teammates included Ken Hatfield, Jim Lindsey, Ronnie Caveness, and Loyd Phillips. Several future head coaches were assistant coaches for Broyles and the Razorbacks during Johnsons career in Fayetteville, Hayden Fry, Johnny Majors, the 1964 Razorbacks squad went undefeated and was recognized as a national champion by the Football Writers Association of America. Johnson was nicknamed Jimmy Jumpup because he never stayed down on the ground for long during football practices or games as it was said his determination was boundless, Johnson began as an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech University in 1965. During this time, Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame was the starting quarterback and he then became an assistant coach at Picayune Memorial High School in Picayune, Mississippi, in 1966. In 1967, he was an assistant at Wichita State University, then in 1968 and 1969, in 1973, he returned to Arkansas, where he served as defensive coordinator through the 1976 season. There, he coached such players as Brison Manor and Dirt Winston, Johnson had hopes of being named head coach when Broyles retired, but was passed over for Lou Holtz. Holtz offered to retain Johnson on his staff, but Jimmy decided to move on, Johnson became assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at the University of Pittsburgh under Jackie Sherrill in 1977 and 1978. There, he coached Randy Holloway, David Logan, Al Chesley, wilson, and Hugh Green, and was introduced to a Pitt alumnus and assistant coach Dave Wannstedt, who later teamed up with Johnson again at the University of Miami, the Cowboys, and the Dolphins. In 1979, Johnson became head coach at Oklahoma State, Johnson coached for five seasons at Oklahoma State, from 1979 to 1983, before taking the head coaching job at the University of Miami. Johnson interviewed for the coaching job at Arkansas when Lou Holtz left following the 1983 season. Upset that Frank Broyles made no mention of this during the interview, as payback for the snub, a home-and-home series was scheduled with Arkansas. In 1987, Miami gave Arkansas its worst home loss ever at that time, in 1979, Jimmy Johnson got his first head coaching job at Oklahoma State University. His tenure there is noteworthy for his rebuilding of an inconsistent program
29.
Baylor Bears football
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The Baylor Bears football team represents Baylor University in Division I FBS college football. They are a member of the Big 12 Conference, after 64 seasons at the off-campus Floyd Casey Stadium, the Bears opened the new on-campus McLane Stadium for the 2014 season. Initially, starting in the year 1898, the university played its games on an undetermined field near the university campus. Beginning in 1905, the home games were played at Carroll Field. Baylor did not adopt a mascot until December 14,1914, additionally, Baylor did not join an athletic conference until 1914 after the conclusion of the football season, when it became a founding member of the Southwest Conference. Baylor played its first home game against Tobys Business College in 1899, its first away game on 4 November 1900, at Austin College, and its first neutral-site game against Texas A&M in 1901. Texas Christian University was located in Waco from 1895 to 1910 and was one of Baylors greatest football rivals until the dissolution of the Southwest Conference in 1995, the 1901 season also welcomed Baylors first Thanksgiving Day football game, with a 28–0 win over St. Edwards University. J. C. Ewing took control of the team in 1902, watts restored Baylors winning tradition in 1903, with a record of 4–3–1. No team was fielded in 1906 following a ban opposing the violence of football, luther Burleson headed the restored football team in 1907, and managed a 4–3–1 record. To this day, Baylor claims the honor of having the largest homecoming parade in the world, in 1966, John Hill Westbrook of Elgin, Texas became the first African American to play varsity football in the Southwest Conference when he joined the Baylor team. Baylor won the SWC Championship in 1915,1916,1922, in 1956 Baylor came close to the SWC title again but finished second and was sent to face the undefeated #2 Tennessee Volunteers in the 1957 Sugar Bowl. Baylor defeated Johnny Majors and the #2 Volunteers 13-7 and this was the highest ranked opponent Baylor had ever defeated until defeating #1 ranked Kansas State in 2012. The 1924 SWC Championship would be the last for decades until Baylor won the conference again in 1974 under the leadership of third year head coach Grant Teaff. From the late 1940s until the mid-1960s, Baylor also played in the 1952 Orange Bowl, twice in the Gator Bowl, Baylor had finished in last place in 4 of the last 7 seasons including the year before and had not won the conference championship in 50 years. Also, prior to season, they had never appeared in the Cotton Bowl. Furthermore, coming into the 1974 season Baylor had lost 16 consecutive games to the Texas Longhorns, the 1974 Texas vs Baylor game looked like another easy win for Texas as the Longhorns took quick control of the game and went into halftime leading 24-7. Baylor was energized starting the 2nd half however, sparked by a punt early in the 3rd quarter. The Bears rallied to a thrilling 34-24 victory over the Longhorns, Baylor went on to win the conference title that year and a first ever trip to the Cotton Bowl
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Arizona State Sun Devils football
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The Arizona State Sun Devils football team represents Arizona State University in the sport of American football. The Sun Devils team competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Arizona State University has fielded a football team since 1897 and has an all-time record of 600-382-24. The Sun Devils are currently led by head coach Todd Graham and play their games at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe. The Sun Devils have won seventeen conference titles, including three Pac-12 titles, a number of successful and professional football players once played for ASU. The school has 3 unanimous All-Americans and 16 consensus selections, among the most lauded players the school has produced are Pat Tillman, Terrell Suggs, Mike Haynes, Darren Woodson, Charley Taylor, and John Henry Johnson. In addition to its players, ASUs football program has been noted for its coaches, most notably Frank Kush, Kush also led the Sun Devils on their longest winning streak against the University of Arizona, ASUs traditional rival. Frederick M. Territorial Normal did not field a team in 1897,1898. George Schaeffer served as the football coach at Tempe Normal School from 1914 to 1916. Aaron McCreary oversaw the schools football program from 1923–1929, during this time, the school changed its nickname from the Owls to the Bulldogs and the name of the school was changed to Arizona State University. McCreary left ASU with a 25–17–4 record, Ted Shipkey led the Arizona State football program from 1930–1932, compiling a record of 13–10–2. Shipkey was replaced by Rudy Lavik, who led Arizona State to a less impressive 13–26–3 mark in his five seasons, dixie Howell served as ASUs head coach from 1938-1941, compiling a record of 23–15–4. In 1947, Ed Doherty became head coach at Arizona State and he left after ASU five days after defeating rival Arizona, 47–13, because he felt that he didnt have enough job security. Clyde Smith took over the reins of the Arizona State football program in 1952, Smith resigned following the 1954 season. On February 5,1955, Michigan State assistant coach Dan Devine accepted the coaching position at Arizona State. Joining him as an assistant was Frank Kush, who would have greater success at the school after Devines departure. During his three years, Devine compiled a record of 27–3–1, including a spotless 10–0 mark during his final campaign, in that last season, Devines team led the nation in total offense and scoring, averaging just under 40 points per game in the latter category. Devines success at Arizona State resulted in an offer from Missouri, Frank Kush was promoted to the position of head coach at Arizona State, which he would hold for the next 22 years. During his time at Arizona State, Kush was known for being one of the most physically demanding coaches in the game and his daily football practices in the heat of the Arizona desert are still the stuff of legend today
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Tempe, Arizona
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Tempe, also known as Haydens Ferry during the territorial times of Arizona, is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2010 population of 161,719. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece, Tempe is located in the East Valley section of metropolitan Phoenix, it is bordered by Phoenix and Guadalupe on the west, Scottsdale on the north, Chandler on the south, and Mesa on the east. Tempe is also the location of Arizona State University, the Hohokam lived in this area and built canals to support their agriculture. They abandoned their settlements during the 15th century, with a few individuals, fort McDowell was established approximately 25 mi northeast of present downtown Tempe on the upper Salt River in 1865 allowing for new towns to be built farther down the Salt River. The two settlements were Haydens Ferry, named after a service operated by Charles T. Hayden, and San Pablo. The ferry became the key river crossing in the area, the Tempe Irrigating Canal Company was soon established by William Kirkland and James McKinney to provide water for alfalfa, wheat, barley, oats, and cotton. Pioneer Darrell Duppa is credited with suggesting Tempes name, adopted in 1879, after comparing the Salt River valley near a 300-foot -tall butte, to the Vale of Tempe near Mount Olympus in Greece. The Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad, built in 1887, crossed the Salt River at Tempe, the Tempe Land and Improvement Company was formed to sell lots in the booming town. Tempe became a hub for the surrounding agricultural area. The completion of Roosevelt Dam in 1911 guaranteed enough water to meet the needs of Valley farmers. Less than a later, Arizona was admitted as the 48th state. In the 20th and 21st centuries, Tempe has expanded as a suburb of Phoenix, Tempe is the headquarters and executive office of one Fortune 500 company, Insight Enterprises. Limelight Networks, LifeLock, First Solar, the Salt River Project, Circle K, Fulton Homes, cold Stone Creamery was originally headquartered in Tempe and location #0001 is still in operation today at 3330 S McClintock Drive in Tempe. Tempe is also home to the first and largest campus of Arizona State University and it was the longtime host of the Fiesta Bowl, although the BCS game moved to University of Phoenix Stadium, located in Glendale, in 2007. It then began hosting the Insight Bowl which is now known as the Cactus Bowl, edward Jones Investments has a regional headquarters in Tempe. China Airlines operates the Phoenix office in Tempe, Tempe houses several great performance venues including Gammage Auditorium and the Tempe Center for the Arts. On New Years Eve, the city hosts the Fiesta Bowl Block Party, the event typically has a national band heading a concert, along with several other local and national bands. Gammage Auditorium was also the site of one of the three Presidential debates in 2004, and Super Bowl XXX was played at Sun Devil Stadium, additionally, Tempe is the spring training host city of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
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Oklahoma Sooners
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The Oklahoma Sooners feature 19 varsity sports teams, each of which represents the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman. The universitys athletic teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association s Division I, the universitys current athletic director is Joe Castiglione. In 2002, the University of Oklahoma was ranked as the third best college sports program in America by Sports Illustrated. When combined with Blake Griffins John Wooden Award and Sam Bradfords Heisman Trophy, the University of Oklahoma was a charter member of the Southwest Athletic Conference during its formation in 1914. Five years later, in 1919, OU left the SWC, in 1928, this conference split, and OU remained aligned with the teams that formed the Big Six Conference. Over the next 31 years, more schools were added and the conference underwent several name changes, four more universities were added then and the name was changed one more time to its current form, the Big 12 Conference. The Oklahoma Sooners are represented in the following NCAA Division I varsity sports, Oklahoma has scored the most points in Division I-A football history despite the fact they have played over 60 fewer games than the second place school on that list. OU also has the highest winning percentage of any team since the start of the AP poll in 1936. This number is 3rd only to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, watts, Keith Jackson and Jammal Brown. More than a dozen Sooner players have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, Oklahoma has more Butkus award winners than any other school. Coaches Bennie Owen, Bud Wilkinson, and Barry Switzer have passed through the tunnel for the Sooners. Owen was the first highly successful coach at OU and was an advocate of the forward pass. The playing surface at Oklahomas Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium is popularly known as Owen Field in honor of his long tenure, the record of 47 straight wins is widely regarded as one of the great achievements in sports, and a streak that is unlikely to be broken. Switzer won three championships and forged arguably the fiercest rushing offense ever, the Oklahoma wishbone formation. Though the end of Switzers tenure at Oklahoma was marked by controversy and poor player behavior, during his 16 years as the Sooners head coach, Switzer led his team to 12 conference championships and never lost more than two games in a row. His winning percentage of.837 stands as the fourth-highest in the history of 1-A football, other Hall of Fame coaches whose tenure included stints at the University of Oklahoma are Lawrence Biff Jones and Jim Tatum. The mens basketball team is successful and rose to national prominence since the early 80s with head coach Billy Tubbs. It currently plays in the Lloyd Noble Center, which came to be known as the house Alvan Adams built, while the team has never won a national championship, it ranks second in most tournament wins without a championship behind Illinois
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Barry Sanders
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Barry Sanders is a former American football running back who spent his entire professional career with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League. Averaging over 1,500 rushing yards per season, Sanders left the game 1,457 yards short of breaking the NFL all-time rushing record at the time, born in Wichita, Kansas, Sanders attended Wichita North High School. Sanders started at tailback his sophomore year, but his brother Byron started before him in position the following year. Sanders did not become the running back until the fourth game of his senior year. He rushed for 1,417 yards in the seven games of the season. During that seven-game span, Sanders averaged 10.2 yards per carry, although he was a stellar athlete, Sanders received scholarship offers from only Emporia State University, University of Tulsa, and Oklahoma State University-Stillwater. Enrolling at Oklahoma State University, Sanders played for the Oklahoma State Cowboys from 1986 to 1988, during his first two years, he backed up All-American Thurman Thomas. In 1987, he led the nation in yards per return, while also rushing for over 600 yards. Thomas moved on to the NFL, and Sanders became the starter for his junior year, despite his massive workload of 344 carries, Sanders was still used as the teams punt and kickoff returner, adding another 516 yards on special teams. Sanders also ran for 222 yards and scored 5 touchdowns in his three quarters of action in the 1988 Holiday Bowl, a game that is not included in the official NCAA season statistics. Sanders learned of his Heisman Trophy win while he was with the team in Tokyo and he chose to leave Oklahoma State before his senior season to enter the NFL draft. The Detroit Lions selected Sanders with the 3rd overall pick in the 1989 Draft, the Lions management considered drafting another Sanders, cornerback Deion Sanders, but Fontes convinced them to draft Barry instead. Though there were concerns about his size, it turned out these concerns were unfounded, Sanders was far too quick for defenders to hit solidly on a consistent basis, and too strong to bring down with arm tackles. Though short at 58, his weight was 203 lb -- the same as Walter Payton. Further, Sanders had unusual explosiveness, demonstrated by his ability to be competitive in the 1991 Footlocker slam dunk contest despite his short stature, in, Sanders missed his rookie year training camp due to a contract dispute. He ran for eighteen yards his first carry during the regular season, Sanders was the featured running back on the Lion teams that made the playoffs five times during the 1990s. He was a member of the 1991 and 1993 squads that won the NFC Central division title, in 1994, Sanders rushed for 1,883 yards, on a 5.7 yards per carry average. He also totaled 283 receiving yards, which him a combined 2,166 yards from scrimmage for the season
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Thurman Thomas
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Thurman Lee Thomas is a former American college and professional football player who was a running back who spent most of his National Football League career with the Buffalo Bills. Thomas was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2007, Thomas was an important part of the Bills no-huddle offense that won four consecutive AFC championships. Thomas was born in Houston, Texas and he grew up playing football on the Missouri City Junior High School and Willowridge High School teams. During the 82-83 season at Willowridge High School, Thomas led the team to a Texas Class 4A State Title. Thomas attended college at Oklahoma State University where he was a teammate of running back Barry Sanders, at Oklahoma State, Thomas had 897 rushes for 4,595 yards,43 touchdowns,5,146 total yards, and 21 100-yard rushing games. He was also a Heisman Trophy candidate in his senior year and he was a first team selection on the College Football All-America Team in 1985 and 1987. Thomas led the Big Eight in rushing and scoring in 1985 and 1987 and was voted the conferences Offensive Player of the Year both seasons, Thurman Thomas starred as a sophomore in 1985 when he posted 1,553 yards rushing, fourth best in the country. Between his sophomore and junior seasons he suffered a tear to his ACL in his left knee and he bounced back his senior season, rushing for 1,613 yards and finishing third nationally in rushing. From 1984-87, Thomas carried the ball a remarkable 898 times for the Cowboys, in the 1987 Sun Bowl, Thomas ran for 157 yards and four touchdowns in the 35-33 comeback victory over West Virginia, keeping freshman Barry Sanders on the sidelines for the majority of the game. Thomas left OSU as the schools all-time leading rusher and his number 34 is one of only three jerseys retired at Oklahoma State, in 2008, Thomas was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame. A knee injury damaged Thomass certain first round pick status and caused him to slip into second round of the 1988 NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills, their first choice in the draft. Thomas is well known as part of the offense that included Jim Kelly and Andre Reed, Thomas was the AFC rushing leader in 1990,1991, and 1993. In the first three seasons of his career, Thomas had a total of 12 games with at least 100 yards rushing, the Bills won every one of those games. In 1989 and 1990, his total yards from scrimmage was 3,742. This was more than 200 yards better than any player in the NFL. Currently, he is 12th on the NFL all-time list for most rushing yards in a career, Thomas currently holds the all-time Buffalo Bills rushing record with 11,938 yards and the team record for yards from scrimmage with 16,279 over 12 years. He is also 4th overall in team scoring, overall, Thomas finished his 13 seasons with 12,074 rushing yards,472 receptions for 4,458 yards, and 88 touchdowns with 16,532 total yards from scrimmage. Thomas is the player in NFL history to lead the league in total yards from scrimmage for four consecutive seasons
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