November 22, 2014, dawned cold, stormy and rainy in Norman. With lowly Kansas in town for a game on Owen Field, the crowd was subdued already, then lightning strikes delayed the 11 a.m. kickoff by 90 minutes. Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium was maybe half full as a steady downpour drenched the Sooners, the Jayhawks and the hearty fans who loved college football more than they hated to be miserable.

Sometimes the hearty are rewarded.

One of the beauties of sport is that you never know what you might see when you go to a ballgame. And the fans at that relatively meaningless OU-KU game of a decade ago — the Sooners were 4-3 in the Big 12 and out of title contention; the Jayhawks were 3-7 overall — got to witness history.

As the Sooners continue their 100th season at the stadium that Bennie Owen built, mostly with his vision and fundraising, but even a little with his bare hand, OU is commemorating the iconic venue with a variety of tributes.

Today? The record-setting achievements by Sooner heroes, some famous, some not. Some recent, some not. Some still standing as OU records, some not.

Here we count down from 14 to one, the record-setting moments that fans got to see if you happened to be at the right Sooner game in Norman.

Record Performances

#14

Kenneth Murray's 28 tackles vs. Army

In one of the strangest games in OU history, the fifth-ranked Sooners survived the Black Knights 28-21 in overtime. Murray, OU's sophomore linebacker, had a major-college record 28 tackles.

Somebody had to be tackling; Army had 87 snaps, including 78 running plays and three completed passes. That's 81 tackles to account for.

The Black Knights' time of possession was 44:41.

Murray's linebacker mate, Curtis Bolton, posted 23 tackles himself.

Murray watched Army video, saw the OU gameplan and figured he was going to be a busy man. In fact, Murray said he made it a goal to break Carl McAdams' stadium record of 24 tackles, in 1965 against Navy.

"I told probably 10 of my teammates that I was going to break it this week," Murray said after the game. "I told them, I was praying to God about it. Me and Buzzy (Bolton) are always competing, trying to see who's going to make the most plays."

Bolton didn't go down easy. He had 23 tackles against Army.

Lead, Kenneth Murray vs. Army

#13

Three blocked kicks

A blocked kick often can turn a game. Two blocked kicks usually guarantees victory. Three blocked kicks are a Haley's Comet. But on September 6, 1997, the Sooners blocked three Syracuse kicks and needed them all to survive the Orange, 36-34.

Travian Smith blocked two Syracuse punts. The second was returned for a go-ahead touchdown by Sedric Jones. Then Donovan McNabb led Syracuse into field-goal range.

The Orange's Nathan Trout came on for a 44-yard field-goal attempt on the game's final play, but linebacker Corey Ivy blocked the kick.

The Sooners broke an eight-game home losing streak. Not since Sept. 23, 1995, against North Texas, had OU won on Owen Field. And the fans released years worth of frustration, storming the field for one of the few times in OU history.

Not before or since have the Sooners blocked three kicks in a game.

#12

Cedric Jones' five sacks

Cedric Jones is an underrated Sooner. He was the only OU all-American between 1990 and 2000. Jones ended up being picked fifth overall, by the New York Giants, in the 1996 NFL Draft.

And Jones' finest hour as a Sooner came on September 17, 1994, during a 17-11 victory over Texas Tech. Jones recorded five sacks, plus a tackle for loss. Those five sacks and six tackles for loss both were school records that still stand.

"He was phenomenal," then-OU coach Gary Gibbs said. "He truly dominated the line of scrimmage, and yet that solid play has been consistent for Cedric. He has really elevated his game … he is truly playing super football."

If you remember Gibbs, you know he didn't talk in superlatives. But that night against Tech, Jones was superlative.

#11

Crowder's four touchdown passes

Sixty-three years before the rainy, stormy day in 2014, Norman endured a similarly miserable day. On October 27, 1951, OU hosted Colorado, and the weather finally relented after sweeping rains the night before and the morning of the game.

The biggest crowd of the 1951 season, 46,686, turned out on a frosty, 40something-degree day that included a blustery north wind. And they were rewarded with a new wrinkle in Bud Wilkinson's split-T that resulted in history.

Junior quarterback Eddie Crowder was not known as a passing whiz, but he was a magician with the football. His ballhandling was famous for fakes in the triple option; referees multiple times blew a play dead, not realizing Crowder still had the pigskin.

And Wilkinson had something new for the Colorado visitors: the counter option pass. Crowder would fake a handoff to his right halfback, then spin with his back to the line of scrimmage, and as the fullback came by, pretended to hand off to him.

"The key to the play was for Crowder to let the defense see the ball go into (fullback Buck) McPhail's stomach but not to let them see Crowder take it out again, and while holding it out of sight in his left hand, conceal it in his crotch," OU historian Harold Keith described in his book, 47 Straight.

Crowder would look back over his shoulder, surveying the Colorado defensive backfield. If the safety came up, Crowder would throw to the tight end deep. Otherwise, Crowder threw to the halfback in the flat.

Crowder, who ironically went on to become the highly successful coach at Colorado, told Keith that "my sensation was a sort of cowardly one, like a guy going into combat. 'If I just play dead, maybe they won't shoot me again,' I'd tell myself. Usually, they smacked old Bucko (McPhail). He was a master at pretending that he had the ball. There was a lot of sacrifice by him."

The counter option pass worked magnificently. In the first 17½ minutes of the game, Crowder threw five passes. He completed them all, for 167 yards and four touchdowns. Crowder threw a 27-yard TD to Dick Heatly, a 67-yard TD to wide open John Reddell, a 38-yard TD to Buddy Leake and a 28-yard TD to Jack Lockett.

A school record four touchdown passes, in barely more than a quarter and in a span of only five throws.
Keith reported that Wilkinson was notified that Crowder was within one touchdown pass of the NCAA single-game record held by Kentucky's Babe Parilli. But Wilkinson took Crowder out of the game, and the Sooners won 55-14.

#10

Tony DiRienzo's 60-yard field goal

The 1970s was the golden age for kickers. OU had the great Uwe von Schamann, who kicked a 58-yard field goal in 1977 Bedlam. Texas A&M had Tony Franklin, who in 1976 made field goals of 64 and 65 yards in the same game against Baylor. Arkansas had Steve Little, a 1977 all-American whose 67-yard field goal remains tied for the longest in NCAA history. And Texas had the all-time great Russell Erxleben, who kicked the original 67-yard field goal.

But on November 17, 1973, OU's Tony DiRienzo became just the second member of the 60-yard club. He nailed a 60-yard field goal in a 48-20 victory over Kansas; it was his only field goal of the season.

The late Frank Boggs, then writing for The Daily Oklahoman, described the scene this way: "They started to punt, in fact. However, wiser heads prevailed and DiRienzo came out to try the longest field goal in Big Eight conference history. He backed up half way to his native Brazil. He kicked with the 18 mile per hour south wind coming straight up the interstate from Sao Paulo. As the ball was traveling, folks got together to discuss whether it would be good. Some went out for Cokes. Then, when everybody settled down again, the football did, too, and a 60-yard field goal had been booted. Tony then jumped 60 yards straight up in celebration."

At the time, it tied the NCAA record for longest field goal. That record was set by Arkansas' Bill McClard, whose 60-yarder came in 1971 against Southern Methodist. By the way, McClard graduated from Norman High School.

#9

Jim Grisham's big Bedlam

Fullback Jim Grisham was one of those underrated Sooners who played at the wrong time. His final two seasons, 1963 and 1964, the Sooners were solid but not spectacular. Put him on a Wilkinson team of the 1950s, or a Switzer team of the 1970s, and Grisham likely would be a Sooner legend.

Instead, he was just a really good player remembered now only by the history books.

But Grisham was a great player, and he shined as the Sooners routed OSU 34-10, and Grisham ran for a school record 218 yards and four touchdowns.

Few knew it at the time, but that would be Wilkinson's final game on the OU sideline. He resigned a couple of months later. But Grisham had others to play for.

"This was the first college game my folks saw me play," Grisham told Keith. "I tried to do a good job for them."

#8

Kickoff returns for TDs

The great George Thomas returned a kickoff for an OU touchdown in old Braves Field against Boston College in 1949. In 1971 at old Pitt Stadium, Joe Wylie returned a kickoff for a touchdown against Pittsburgh. In between, there were no Sooner touchdowns from kickoff returns.

Sooner historian Mike Brooks had been on an odyssey. Brooks looked and looked to find OU kickoff return touchdowns before 1949. He still hasn't found any, and that's going back to at least 1925.

So on Oct. 18, 1980, it was a big deal when Buster Rhymes took a kickoff in the end zone and went 100 yards for a touchdown. No small play in what became a 35-21 Sooner victory over Kansas State.

Then six weeks later, on Nov. 29, 1980, Jerome Ledbetter caught an OSU kickoff on Owen Field, headed up field and turned it into a 100-yard touchdown return, as the Sooners rolled in Bedlam, 63-14.

Owen Field had never hosted a Sooner kickoff return for a touchdown, then it hosted two in six weeks.

#7

Josh Heupel's debut

When the OU offense took the field in Bob Stoops' first game as head coach on Sept. 11, 1999, against Indiana State, the Sooners lined up in the wishbone formation. It was Stoops' ode to OU's history and tradition.

Those Sooners quickly shifted into the Air Raid formation, and soon enough it was apparent why. Josh Heupel was no wishbone optioneer.

With Mike Leach calling the plays, Heupel started slinging the ball all over Owen Field. The Sooners beat Indiana State 49-0, and in his OU debut game, Heupel set school single-game records of 341 yards, 31 completions and five touchdown passes.

"It was something special to come out for your first game," Heupel said that night. "The one thing you don't concern yourself with is breaking records, throws or completions, you're just trying to move the ball and it's really insignificant how you do it."

Heupel, of course, was just getting started. So were the Sooners.

Lead, Heupel Debut

#6

The Billy Vessels Show

By the time the 1950 Nebraska game arrived, on Nov. 25, Billy Vessels already was a budding star as a sophomore. In fact, the game was billed as a Vessels-Bobby Reynolds showdown, the Nebraska star being quite the talent himself.

OU was 9-0; Nebraska was 6-1-1. A crowd of 53,066 showed up, including 5,000 Nebraskans, in an early example of traveling fan bases.

Reynolds gave the children of the corn something to cheer. He shined with a game for the ages, scoring 23 points.

But Reynolds didn't win the derby, or the game. OU beat Nebraska 49-35, and Vessels was sensational.

Vessels ran for a school-record 208 yards on 18 carries, with two touchdowns. He was the first Sooner ever to crack the 200-yard barrier, and he finished with 302 all-purpose yards, plus a 24-yard touchdown pass to John Reddell.

A star was born. Two years later, Vessels would win the Heisman Trophy.

#5

Royal's 96-yard punt return

Darrell Royal was the quarterback of OU's unbeaten 1949 team and the greatest coach in Texas Longhorn history. He's also all over the Sooner record book in other ways.

Who leads the Sooners in career interceptions? Royal, of course, with 18.

Who has the longest punt return in OU history? Royal, with a 96-yarder on Oct. 16, 1948, against Kansas State.

And it's one of the coolest plays to ever grace Owen Field.

Jack Mitchell, the quarterback who kept Royal on the second unit for three straight years and a premium punt returner himself (seven career touchdowns), chased down a KSU punt all the way to the 4-yard line, then handed off to the sweeping Royal.

The Sooners had a wall of blockers formed, and Royal sped to the historic touchdown, part of a 42-0 OU romp.

And two days later, at the Oklahoma City Quarterback Club's noon luncheon, Wilkinson gave his point of view.

"I had told the boys never to catch a punt inside the 10-yard line," Wilkinson said. "When Mitchell caught the ball around the 4, I ran down the sideline yelling, 'Don't catch it! Don't catch it!' Then Darrell took the ball from Mitchell on the crisscross, and suddenly he was open for a touchdown. I ran up the sideline with him, yelling, 'Way to go! Way to go!' I guess that's what you call being an adaptable coach."

#4

Jack Jacobs: Renaissance Man

Jack Jacobs played OU football before it captured the state's fancy or caught the national spotlight. His days after 1939-41 were spent in relative anonymity, though he went on to a long career in the Canadian Football League and the National Football League.

But any doubt about his greatness should be dispelled by his performance on Nov. 22, 1941. Any Sooner fan who saw it was witness to not only a record, but a display of some of the most versatile skills any Sooner ever showed.

In a 61-14 rout of Marquette, Jacobs ran for a touchdown and passed for two, befitting a player who would go on to a long pro career as a quarterback.

But there was more. Jacobs returned a punt for a touchdown. He also intercepted three passes, setting a modern-times OU record.

"Some think he could be the greatest Sooner to play the first half of the 20th century," said Brooks, the OU historian. "He was really kind of bigger than life. He could throw, he could run. He was a tailback in the single wing, but it's kind of like the offense today; he could do everything and do it at a high level."

Jacobs averaged 47 yards a punt, back in the days when a blocked punt counted against a punter's average. On the first play of the 1939 season, Jacobs returned the kickoff 64 yards. He could do it all.

But Jacobs' finest game came against Marquette, 15 days before Pearl Harbor.

#3

Billy Sims back-to-back

Fans in Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on Nov. 24, 1979, got to see more than a record broken. They got to see icons embrace. After the Sooners beat Nebraska 17-14 to win the Big Eight championship, Barry

Switzer jumped into the arms of his greatest tailback, Billy Sims, who had just played his final game on Owen Field.

Sims was the 1978 Heisman Trophy winner but didn't have a big senior season. Until it reached the backside of November.

On Nov. 17, Sims exploded for 282 yards at Missouri. Before that, through nine games, Sims hadn't even reached the 1,000-yard mark.

Then came the de facto Big Eight championship game against Nebraska. And Sims again was superb. He rushed for 247 yards on 28 carries, including a 71-yard run that set up the clinching touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Thus, Sims finished with 529 yards in back-to-back games, an OU record.

"Billy Sims is the greatest football player in the country," Switzer said postgame that day. "I know I've said that before, but he is the greatest clutch player there is. There will never be another player like that at Oklahoma — but I hope there is."

Lead, Billy Sims

#2

Antonio Perkins 3 punt return TDs

Questions we might never get answered: 1. Why does someone leave a country with ponies to come to a country with no ponies? 2. Where's the beef? 3. Who framed Roger Rabbit? 4. Why did UCLA keep punting the ball to Antonio Perkins?

On Sept. 20, 2003, OU's Antonio Perkins returned seven punts against the Bruins. Three went for touchdowns, on returns of 74, 84 and 65 yards. That's a major-college record, as was Perkins' 277 yards on punt returns.

"We couldn't believe they kept kicking it to him," Bobby Jack Wright, then OU's kicking-game coordinator, told The Athletic in 2018. "But that day just belonged to Antonio."

The Sooners won 59-24.

Perkins was chasing Jack Mitchell's school record of seven punt return touchdowns. Perkins eventually got to eight, an NCAA record that has since been broken.

#1

Samaje Perine's 427 yards

That chilly, rainy day in November 2014? That's the day tailback Samaje Perine rushed for an NCAA-record 427 yards against Kansas.

"Pretty monumental," said Brooks, OU's statistical historian. "Just a blast. For a stat guy…"

Think about it. A fan sucks it up and attends the lackluster game in dreary conditions and is rewarded with a performance for the ages. Perine rushed for at least 200 yards in each half.

"The great first quarter, I thought, he's on a roll," Brooks said. "Something could happen here."

The Sooners won easily, 44-7, and Perine scored five touchdowns, on runs of 49, 33, 34, 66 and 27. The muddy field scuffed the jerseys but didn't slow Perine. He broke the record of Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon, who gained 408 yards on 25 carries against Nebraska just a week before Perine's big game. Quite a treat for the fans who braved the elements and graced the ancient stadium, for a game we figured would be forgettable but instead will be remembered as long as the Sooners wear shoulder pads.

Lead, Samaje Perine 427

Record Performances and the Legends Behind Them

Record Performances