I have the same feeling after a Bedlam football game, no matter who wins. I work hard at being neutral, as I am a transplant from another state and have a lot of friends who are Oklahoma State Cowboy fans and a lot of friends who root for the Oklahoma Sooners. My thought is by being neutral I can say after the game, “I am happy for my friends who were rooting for the winner.”

This year I can look to my Cowboy friends and be happy for them. It was especially nice as their team has a legitimate shot at being invited to the playoffs. The way the SEC and Big 10 bias runs, however, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Alabama and Ohio State be invited to the playoffs even though they may have lost two or three games.

But all this aside, the news that Sooner Coach Lincoln Riley is leaving for the west coast has taken some of the focus off of Saturday’s game, which, by the way, was one of the better football games I have seen for a long time. Which team would win was in doubt until the very last play. That’s the mark of a great game.

With Riley’s departure having been announced, I began thinking back on OU coaches I remember. Of course, the first that come to mind are Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer, Bob Stoops and Riley. My inclination to look things up took me to explore the history of those who have coached Sooner football.

According to Wikipedia, Riley was the 23rd coach in Sooner football history which dates back to one game in 1895. The following is a complete list with the years and number of games in parenthesis:

John A. Harts (1 game, 1895); Vernon Parrington, (12 games, 1897-1900); Fred Roberts (5 games, 1901); Mark McMahon, 21 games, 1902-1903); Fred Ewing, 8 games, 1904); Bennie Owen (192 games, 1905-1926); Adrian Lindsey, 44 games, 1927-1931); Lewie Hardage, 27 games, 1932- 1934; Biff Jones, 18 games, 1935- 1936); Thomas E. Stidham, (38 games, 1937-1940); Dewey Luster (48 games 1941-1945); Jim Tatum (11 games, 1946); Bud Wilkinson 178 games, (1947-1963); Gomer Jones, 21 games, 1964-1965); Jim Mackenzie, 10 games (1966); Chuck Fairbanks (68 games, 1967-1972), Barry Switzer (190 games, 1973-1988); Gary Gibbs (69 games, 1989- 1994); Howard Schnellenberger (11 games, 1995); John Blake (34 games, 1996-1998); Bob Stoops, (238 games,1999-2016); Lincoln Riley (53 games, 2017-2021).

John Harts, who was the coach of the Sooners when they played their first game, was a little bit of a character, I learned. He was from Winfield, Kan., which doesn’t especially qualify him as being a character, but he was a teacher at OU, specializing in elocution. He volunteered when the intention was announced to field a football team to be its coach. He used his skills at elocution to recruit from among the student body, picking what he thought were good physical specimens. His efforts at persuasive elocution apparently didn’t make much difference as he didn’t find much interest among students to play in the game, so he recruited some Norman residents he thought could be good football players. The only game the Sooners played in 1895 was against a “town team” from Oklahoma City and was played in the City. The OKC town team dominated the upstart Sooners and won 34-0. After the school year in 1896, Harts left the OU campus to prospect for gold in the Arctic. No word on how well he did in his new venture. He stands in history as the only Sooner coach to not win a game. In fact his team didn’t score a point or even make a first down against the OKC “town team”.

The name Bennie Owen might ring some bells of name recognition as he is the namesake of the football stadium in which the Sooners play. The place was known for many years as Owen Field. Owen coached for 21 years at Norman, having the longest tenure of any Sooner coach. Like Harts, he had a Kansas connection, playing quarterback at KU, starting his coaching career at Washburn in Topeka and then for two years at Bethany College in Lindsborg. He went directly from Bethany to Norman where he took over the Sooner helm in 1905 and where he stayed until 1926. But Owen wasn’t just the football coach at OU--he also was head basketball coach from 1908 to 1921 and head baseball coach from 1906 to 1922. He was a winner in all three sports, putting together a record of 155-60 with 19 ties in football; a record of 113-49 in basketball and 142- 102 with four ties in baseball. As I have recounted over and over in the space, my Dad was a longtime OU fan, and I remember him saying that the Sooners were good in basketball back in the 1920s, which would have included part of Owen’s tenure. I learned more about Owen’s

Kansas connection as his family moved from St. Louis to Arkansas City, Kan., after his high school graduation. He worked as an apprentice for an Ark City doctor for three years and then enrolled at KU to study medicine. While there he was talked into playing football by his mentor for medical studies, Wylie Woodruff, who also was the Jayhawk football coach. Woodruff taught a tough, hard-hitting football style to his players. “Hurdle the wounded and step on the dead,” was his football philosophy. Apparently his style didn’t catch on with the school’s administrators and Woodruff was replaced by Fielding H. Yost, who taught the importance of speed, innovation and cunning to his players. Owen played one year for Yost and credited both Woodruff and Yost for his coaching style.

Thomas E. Stidham was significant among Sooner coaches because he was the first to take his OU team to a bowl game. His 1938 team was unbeaten during the regular season and won the Big 6 Championship. It went to the Orange Bowl, where it lost 17-0 to Tennessee. Stidham also had a Kansas connection, having played his college football at Haskell in Lawrence. He went from OU to Marquette and then became a coach in professional circles, working at Buffalo, Baltimore and Green Bay.

The first coach I remember is Jim “Big Jim’ Tatum, who was Sooner coach in 1946. I don’t remember him at OU, but he went to Maryland after his one year as Sooner coach and won a National Championship in 1953. The Terrapins were named National Champions by AP, INS and UPI, in December, but then lost to Bud Wilkinson and the Oklahoma Sooners in the New Year’s Day Orange Bowl. Dad had lots to say about Tatum, who he felt was a traitor for leaving Norman after one year. But he said Wilkinson was a better coach, so things worked out really well.

Wilkinson, of course, is a coaching legend. I remember those crisp fall days back in my childhood listening with Dad to Sooner games on the radio. Very seldom did OU lose in those years. When they did, it was a day of mourning in my house. I remember very clearly seeing Wilkinson on the sidelines when I was a student at K-State. His white hair shone in the sunlight, which was especially impressive to me then.

Gomer Jones took over as OU coach when Wilkinson decided to go into politics. Jones served as one of Wilkinson’s top assistants for 17 years and was defensive coordinator at the end. When he was hired to replace Wilkinson, Dad was very hopeful that Gomer would do quite well. But alas, Gomer Jones lasted only two years as head coach and had a losing record of 9-11. He was the athletic director along with his football responsibilities and fired himself as coach. He remained as AD until his death in 1971.

Jim Mackenzie was hired to replace Jones as head coach and accomplished a lot in one year. He took the Sooners from a dismal 3-7 record in Jones’ final season to 6-4. Among the accomplishments was a win over Texas (the first in nine years) and upset undefeated Nebraska on Thanksgiving Day. For his accomplishments, he was named Coach of the Year in the Big Eight Conference. The football world was shocked when Mackenzie died in April from a massive heart attack. He was only 37 at the time.

Since Mackenzie’s death, the Sooners had good experiences with coaches Chuck Fairbanks, Barry Switzer, Bob Stoops and Riley. Switzer, Bud Wilkinson and Bob Stoops were coaches who won national championships at OU and Switzer had the best winning percentage of any OU coach.

Two of the most recent coaches in Oklahoma history are ones the Sooner fans would just as soon forget--Howard Schnellenberger and John Blake. Schnellenberger was full of bluster declaring that they would write books and make movies about his tenure in Norman. He alienated his players and although his team won its first three games, they had a losing Big Eight record and lost to OSU for the first time in 20 years. He was out on his ear after just one year. The Sooners failed to win under Blake, who had the lowest winning percentage of any coach except for Harts -- 353 in 34 games.

Stoops came along to get the Sooner program back on track and Riley has kept it there in his years.

Who will be the next coach? Some say Stoops will come out of retirement. Others point to Kliff Kingsbury of the Arizona Cardinals as being a likely choice. Whatever decision is made about hiring a new coach, the one chosen will have some big shoes to fill.