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Bud Wilkinson
Wilkinson in 1961
Biographical details
Born(1916-04-23)April 23, 1916
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
DiedFebruary 9, 1994(1994-02-09) (aged 77)
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Playing career
1934–1936Minnesota
Position(s)Quarterback
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1938–1941Syracuse (line)
1942Minnesota (assistant)
1943–1944Iowa Pre-Flight (assistant)
1946Oklahoma (assistant)
1947–1963Oklahoma
1978–1979St. Louis Cardinals
Administrative career (AD unless noted)
1947–1964Oklahoma
Head coaching record
Overall145–29–4 (college)
9–20 (NFL)
Bowls6–2
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
As coach:

As player:

Awards
College Football Hall of Fame
Inducted in 1969 (profile)

Charles Burnham "Bud" Wilkinson (April 23, 1916 – February 9, 1994) was an American football player, coach, broadcaster, and politician. He served as the head football coach at the University of Oklahoma from 1947 to 1963, compiling a record of 145–29–4. His Oklahoma Sooners won three national championships (1950, 1955, and 1956) and 14 conference titles. Between 1953 and 1957, Wilkinson's Oklahoma squads won 47 straight games, a record that still stands at the highest level of college football. After retiring from coaching following the 1963 season, Wilkinson entered into politics and, in 1965, became a broadcaster with ABC Sports. He returned to coaching in 1978, as head coach of the St. Louis Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL) for two seasons. Wilkinson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1969.

Early life and playing career[edit]

Wilkinson's mother died when he was seven, and his father sent him to the Shattuck School in Faribault, Minnesota, where he excelled in five sports and graduated in 1933. He enrolled at the University of Minnesota, where, as a guard and quarterback for head coach Bernie Bierman, Wilkinson helped lead the Golden Gophers to three consecutive national championships from 1934 to 1936. He also played ice hockey for the University of Minnesota. Following his graduation in 1937 with a degree in English, he led the College All-Stars to a 6–0 victory over the defending NFL champion Green Bay Packers in Chicago on August 31. He was drafted in the third round of the 1937 NFL Draft.[1]

Coaching career[edit]

Wilkinson briefly worked for his father's mortgage company, then he became an assistant coach at Syracuse University and later at his alma mater, Minnesota. In 1943, he joined the U.S. Navy, where he was an assistant to Don Faurot with the Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks football team. He served as a hangar deck officer on the USS Enterprise. Following World War II, Jim Tatum, the new head coach at the University of Oklahoma, persuaded Wilkinson to join his staff in 1946. After one season in Norman, Tatum left the Sooners for the University of Maryland. The 31-year-old Wilkinson was named head football coach and athletic director of the Sooners.

Head coach at Oklahoma[edit]

In his first season as head coach in 1947, Wilkinson led Oklahoma to a 7–2–1 record and a share of the conference championship, the first of 13 consecutive Big Six/Seven/Eight Conference titles. Ultimately, Wilkinson became one of the most celebrated college coaches of all time. His teams captured national championships in 1950, 1955, and 1956, and they amassed a 145–29–4 (.826) overall record. Twice Minnesota attempted to hire him away from Oklahoma, in 1950 and 1953, but both times Wilkinson rebuffed his alma mater.[2] He got OU football placed on major NCAA probation twice in a five-year span (1955 and 1960) for illegally paying players out of a $125,000 slush fund for a decade and a half after World War II ended.[3]

The centerpiece of his time in Norman was a 47-game winning streak from 1953 to 1957, an NCAA Division I record that still stands. It has been moderately threatened only four times: by North Dakota State in Division I FCS (39 wins, 2017–2021), Toledo (35 wins, 1969–1971), Miami (FL) (34 wins, 2000–2003), and USC (34 wins, 2003–2005). Earlier, the Sooners ran off 31 consecutive wins from 1948 to 1950. Apart from two losses in 1951, Wilkinson's Sooners did not lose more than one game per season for 11 years between 1948 and 1958, going 107–8–2 over that period. His teams also went 12 consecutive seasons (1947–1958) without a loss in conference play, a streak which has never been seriously threatened. Wilkinson did not suffer his first conference loss until 1959 against Nebraska, his 79th conference game.

Wilkinson suffered only one losing season, in 1960. However, that season saw him pass Bennie Owen to become the winningest coach in Sooner history. He has since been passed by Barry Switzer and Bob Stoops.

While coaching at OU, Wilkinson began writing a weekly newsletter to alumni during the season, to keep them interested in Sooner football. He also became the first football coach to host his own television show. He and Michigan State University coach Duffy Daugherty partnered to sponsor a series of clinics for high school coaches nationwide. Later, they turned their clinics into a profitable business.[4]

Following the 1963 season, his 17th at Oklahoma, Wilkinson retired from coaching at the age of 47.

President's Council on Physical Fitness[edit]

President John F. Kennedy with Bud Wilkinson in the Oval Office in 1961

While at Oklahoma, Wilkinson served on the President's Council on Physical Fitness from 1961 to 1964. He designed 11 floor exercises for schoolchildren that were incorporated into the song "Chicken Fat",[5] the theme song for President John F. Kennedy's youth fitness program,[6] which was widely used in school gymnasiums across the country in the 1960s and 1970s.[7]

Later life and career[edit]

Politics[edit]

President Nixon meeting with golf pro Arnold Palmer, Al Kaline of the Detroit Tigers, the Green Bay Packers' Bart Starr, Coach Bud Wilkinson, and sportscaster Chris Schenkel on February 13, 1969

In February, 1964, Wilkinson announced that he would enter a special election to replace his friend, the late Robert S. Kerr, as U. S. Senator from Oklahoma. He had already resigned his position as head coach of the Oklahoma University Sooners. [a] Politicians and the Oklahoma press debated whether he was qualified to become a U. S. Senator, though all seemed to agree that his popularity as a cultural icon gave him an important edge. Easily winning the Republican primary, Wilkinson became the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1964, at which point he legally changed his first name to Bud, but narrowly lost to Democrat Fred R. Harris, then a State Senator in Oklahoma. Both parties involved political heavyweights from out of state to campaign for their candidates. Republicans invited former President Eisenhower and Senator Barry Goldwater. Illness made Eisenhower miss the occasion,[citation needed] so his former Vice President Richard Nixon served as substitute. Harris supporters got President Lyndon Johnson to make an appearance, as well as several other national Democrats. Wilkinson's Republican advisers brought in Senator Strom Thurmond to appeal to ultra-conservative voters in Little Dixie, which had recently turned reliably Republican. That effort backfired. Harris later said, "my campaign got an extra benefit from Senator Thurmond's Oklahoma visit … Thurmond wound up scaring the daylights out of even a lot of conservative white voters with his jingoist speeches, advocating for the escalation of the American war effort in Vietnam."[citation needed]

In the 1964 General Election, Wilkinson lost by a narrow 51% to 49% and could not overcome Republican presidential nominee, Senator Barry Goldwater’s loss to incumbent President Lyndon Baines Johnson by 55% to 45% in Oklahoma. Through 2020, Johnson is the last Democrat to carry Oklahoma in a presidential election.[9] Wilkinson entertained seeking the other Oklahoma U.S. Senate seat in 1968, but he did not run, and the position went to former Governor Henry Bellmon, also a Republican.

Broadcasting and NFL coaching[edit]

In 1965, Wilkinson joined ABC Sports as their lead color commentator on college football telecasts, teaming with Chris Schenkel and, later, Keith Jackson. Wilkinson was the color analyst for four of the greatest games in college football history, each commonly referred to as a "Game of the Century": Notre Dame vs. Michigan State in 1966, UCLA vs. USC in 1967, Texas vs. Arkansas in 1969, and Nebraska vs. Oklahoma in 1971.[10]

Wilkinson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1969.

In 1975, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[11]

In 1978, Wilkinson returned to coaching with the St. Louis Cardinals of the NFL. After less than two disappointing seasons, he was fired, and returned to broadcasting with ESPN.

Death[edit]

Wilkinson suffered a series of minor strokes and, on February 9, 1994, he died of congestive heart failure in St. Louis at the age of 77.[12] He is interred at Oak Grove Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.

Personal life[edit]

Wilkinson was married to the former Mary Schifflet in 1938, with whom he had two sons, Pat and Jay. They divorced in 1975. A year later, he married Donna O'Donnahue, 33 years his junior, who survived him in death.

Head coaching record[edit]

College[edit]

Year Team Overall Conference Standing Bowl/playoffs Coaches# AP°
Oklahoma Sooners (Big Six / Big Seven / Big Eight Conference) (1947–1963)
1947 Oklahoma 7–2–1 4–0–1 1st 16
1948 Oklahoma 10–1 5–0 1st W Sugar 5
1949 Oklahoma 11–0 5–0 1st W Sugar 2
1950 Oklahoma 10–1 6–0 1st L Sugar 1 1
1951 Oklahoma 8–2 6–0 1st 11 10
1952 Oklahoma 8–1–1 5–0–1 1st 4 4
1953 Oklahoma 9–1–1 6–0 1st W Orange 5 4
1954 Oklahoma 10–0 6–0 1st 3 3
1955 Oklahoma 11–0 6–0 1st W Orange 1 1
1956 Oklahoma 10–0 6–0 1st 1 1
1957 Oklahoma 10–1 6–0 1st W Orange 4 4
1958 Oklahoma 10–1 7–0 1st W Orange 5 5
1959 Oklahoma 7–3 6–1 1st 15 15
1960 Oklahoma 3–6–1 2–4–1 5th
1961 Oklahoma 5–5 4–3 4th
1962 Oklahoma 8–3 7–0 1st L Orange 7 8
1963 Oklahoma 8–2 6–1 2nd 8 9
Oklahoma: 145–29–4 93–9–3
Total: 145–29–4
      National championship         Conference title         Conference division title or championship game berth

NFL[edit]

Team Year Regular season[13] Post season
Won Lost Ties Win % Finish Won Lost Win % Result
SLC 1978 6 10 0 .375 4th in NFC East
SLC 1979 3 10 0 .231 Fired Mid-Season
SLC Total 9 20 0 .310
Total 9 20 0 .310

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ According to reporter Andrew McGregor, following the deaths of Senator Kerr, President John F. Kennedy and his own brother, all during the previous year, the former coach wanted to pursue "...what he considered to be a more impactful and significant career."[8]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "1937 NFL Draft Listing". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  2. ^ Madsen, Rob (Spring 2023). "The Cost of Conservatism: The University of Minnesota's Lofted Ideals and Fallen Football Teams". Journal of Sport History. 50 (1): 85–100.
  3. ^ "Fourth Time Hits Sooners Hardest". amp.oklahoman.com. 1988-12-19.
  4. ^ McGregor, Andrew."Wilkinson, Bud". American National Biography Online. February 2000. Accessed October 6, 2016.
  5. ^ Yagoda, Ben (June 13, 2014). "The Strange 1960s Gym-Class Anthem in Apple's New iPhone Commercial". Slate. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
  6. ^ "The Federal Government Takes on Physical Fitness". John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. p. 2. Retrieved June 19, 2014.
  7. ^ Riis, Richard (June 9, 2014). "Apple's "Chicken Fat" Ad Harks Back to a Political Era Long Gone". Daily Kos. Retrieved June 19, 2014.
  8. ^ McGregor, Andrew. "Beyond Football: The Political Career of Bud Wilkinson (Part 2)." Sport in American History. November 24, 2014. Accessed October 6, 2016
  9. ^ "Fred R. Harris: His political career". Carl Albert Center Archives at the University of Oklahoma. April 3, 2009. Archived from the original on February 3, 2012. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
  10. ^ #1 Nebraska at #2 Oklahoma - 1971. SoonersVideo.com: #1 Nebraska at #2 Oklahoma - 1971
  11. ^ "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
  12. ^ Nichols, Max. "Wilkinson, Charles Burnham (1916–1994)". Oklahoma Historical Society. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
  13. ^ "Bud Wilkinson Record, Statistics, and Category Ranks - Pro-Football-Reference.com". Pro-Football-Reference.com.

External links[edit]

Party political offices
Preceded by
B. Hayden Crawford
Republican nominee for United States Senator from Oklahoma
(Class 2)

1964
Succeeded by
Pat H. Patterson