In The Undefeated: The Oklahoma Sooners and the Greatest Winning Streak in College Football, The Junction Boys author Jim Dent chronicles how Charles “Bud” Wilkinson helped the dust-bowl-depressed state of Oklahoma regain self-respect by building a program that became one of the most dominant in college sports history. From 1948 to 1957, an era when players played both sides of the ball–170-pounders played tackle, and some players smoked three packs a day–the Oklahoma Sooners dominated college football in incredible fashion: they tied twice and lost four times, and amid their 94 wins they compiled winning streaks of 31 and 47 games.
Dent has an eye for detail, and the book is equally the story of coach Wilkinson and his eccentricities, with halftime speeches and an innovative coaching style that implemented schemes not found in the NFL for decades. Also of interest are the plight of Prentice Gautt, the first black OU player during a time of racial intolerance; the hardscrabble backgrounds of the tough-as-nails players; and how preparation for big games included espionage and decoy playbooks. Most of all, Dent retells game highlights in dramatic fashion, including how an opposing receiver, after potentially ending one of OU’s streaks by scoring in the final seconds, confessed he had trapped, not caught, the ball. The refs discussed the matter, and “[w]hile the man in the gray flannel suit waited, watched and paced, a crowd of 50,878 held its collective breath, and prayed.”
As the wins accumulated, it became increasingly difficult for Wilkinson to motivate players and fend off all comers. In like fashion, Dent loses steam, but not before making the heartfelt case that Wilkinson’s Sooners fielded some of the greatest teams in history. –Michael Ferch
For three perfect seasons (1954-1956), the Oklahoma Sooners won every football game they played–home or away. This awesome record was the product of a genius and masterful coach named Bud Wilkinson and the spirited young men he led. “The Undefeated” details all the thrilling action on the field during this record winning streak, but it also reveals all the behind-the-scenes tumult and pressure swirling around it. More than just an exciting account of the greatest team acomplishment in college football history, “The Undefeated” is also: an absorbing character study of the brilliant, complex coach who engineered it all–Bud Wilkinson, the on-field genius whose starched-shirt public persona hid a man of many secrets; an in-depth look at a state and its people still suffering from a Depression hangover and an identity crisis, who took up the Sooners football banner almost as a religious cause; a perceptive examination of race in fifties America as seen through the microcosm of Normal, Oklahoma and the Sooners football program. Wilkinson recruited and played the first black to major college football in the South or Southwest and the ordeals that Prentice Gautt went through in order to play weren’t pretty. The story of his struggles is a triumphant one, and demands to be told. “The Undefeated” combines the gritty, evocative period detail of the author’s Junction Boys; the athletic heart and determination of a team as chronicled in that book and others such as Friday Night Lights; and the in-depth look at a great coach that made The Junction Boys, Season On the Brink, and When Pride Still Mattered such strong bestsellers. Simply put, Jim Dent has resurrected the historical sports genre. He established himself with his bestselling THE JUNCTION BOYS, and now he proves himself a master with his winning and powerful history of the Oklahoma Sooners’ run of glory.
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Other Kindle Books of Interest
Twelve Mighty Orphans
Pistol: A Biography of Pete Maravich
