SOONERGUYS Blog

On his last day, Jack Mildren came on the radio and performed as a sports talk show host.

 The tenor of his voice gave a small clue as to the battle he was waging against a cancer that would take his life on Thursday night. But the words from his voice were every bit as sharp, witty and pertinent as they had been in the huddle on Owen Field 37 years ago, in business circles, or later at the state capitol.

On Thursday, Mildren died like he lived.

In the game.

With toughness and with class. With an “aaaw shucks” humility.

Mildren will always be known as the first wishbone quarterback at Oklahoma, beginning an era that introduced the most powerful and dominating rushing offense to exist in the history of college sports.  Fans have nicknamed him the “Godfather” of the wishbone option.

He was the first OU quarterback to appear in living color in my house.  The famous Game of the Century in 1971 between Oklahoma and Nebraska was the first Oklahoma telecast I saw after my parents purchased a color television. The image was a bit grainy, since you had to manually turn that TV antenna a certain way to pick up the KTUL broadcast.  Nevertheless, right there on that 19-inch RCA was No. 11 Jack Mildren running the option and throwing the football on the tartan turf of Owen Field. 

He carried the Sooners on his shoulders.

He had presence. He had command. And despite his legendary status since then, Jack Mildren had a connection with the common guy. You believed he was just a regular fellow.  His voice on the radio was the voice of reason.  He was what we call in my business, one of the “good guys.”

Jack Mildren may well be the best quarterback to ever play at Oklahoma.

There certainly has been no better person to put on the uniform.  

—-

“Don’t try to kid yourself. If you try to say, ‘It’s just another game.’ Oh, give me a break. Embrace what it is. It’s an opportunity. There’s nothing like it. And smile. You don’t have to have an all-serious look. We know you’re going to be serious. But there’s some fun to it because there’s so much excitement. Shoot, that’s why you go to a place like OU, to have that kind of experience. Big-time games against big-time opponents.” — Jack Mildren, on giving Sooner teams advice on OU-Texas week.

The Longhorns have had 10 players arrested for all sorts of criminal conduct this year, but that fact did not stop an assistant athletic director from trying to suppress the student newspaper’s reporting that backup QB John Chiles was a suspect in an Austin police investigation into an assault.  

Assistant AD John Bianco wrote threatening emails to the Daily Texan, claiming its reports of public statments made by the Austin Police Department were “untruthful”, and further stating the Texan’s relationship with the football program would be hurt.  Bianco said that when potential employers of the student newsmen would learn of the reporting it would “hurt you in the long run,” the newspaper editor reported.

Of course many Texas fans probably think the student paper is wrong for reporting any wrongdoing by its elite athletes.  And one can question whether reporting that someone who has not been arrested is a “suspect” is a good idea or not; but, the big bad athletic department trying to coerce student journalists from reporting a fact about something which is of great public interest is far worse. 

I imagine the folks in Austin are bit testy about their public image right now.  They have probably seen too many of those t-shirts floating around the rest of the conference showing the broken longhorns in handcuffs.  — Mike

The NCAA has released their Academic Progress Report (APR) numbers.  The report shows Oklahoma’s football team leads the Big 12 with a score of 942.  Texas matched that 942 and Nebraska followed with a score of 941. 

These scores reflect the eligibility, retention and graduation rates of scholar athletes. A score below 922 may result in the NCAA taking away scholarships.  Kansas, with a score of 919, has faced that fate.

As you might suspect, Stanford, Duke and Rutgers top the last nationwide. Arizona, Washington State and South Florida are stuck at the bottom.

We have this notion that the high-brow elite schools struggle to field competitive teams; and that the top performers on the field are the D-students in the classroom. But these numbers do not reflect such an easy correlation.  In fact, perhaps the opposite is true. Those programs that consistently succeed pass the NCAA minimum score easily; but the occasional football darlings, such as Kansas and South Florida, score poorly. 

This all may be a difference which is determined during recruiting season.  It would be good if the so-called expert recruiting services would rate the academic “stars” of recruits like they do their athletic ability. It is becoming increasingly important.  — Mike