The Undefeated : The Oklahoma Sooners and the Greatest Winning Streak in College Football History
by Jim Dent
 
 

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Editorial Reviews 

From Publishers Weekly 

The 1954-1956 University of Oklahoma Sooners played heroic, near-perfect football under the Patton-like command of Bud Wilkinson, leaving a towering legacy of college football records: 47 consecutive wins in Division I. It remains, almost 50 years later, "the greatest winning streak in college football history." The characters and the high (and sometimes low, and comic) moments of "the streak" bear recounting in this era of evanescent sports records. Dent (The Junction Boys) conveys different aspects of his story unevenly, but his earnest documentation of the players on their own heartland turf will make the book of interest to nonfans. The Sooners' three seasons unwind in a leisurely haze, a game-film of an America, a brand of college life, and a kind of player that no longer exist. The complex, handsome and stoic Wilkinson, who makes Tom Landry seem like a chorus line director, was known (without irony) by the players and campus officials as "Great White Father," ostensibly because of his regal head of silver hair. Perhaps the backroom reverence for Wilkinson, handed down across the High Plains generations, stops Dent from criticizing Wilkinson's womanizing and blatant recruiting corruption. For Dent and the Sooners, what matters is that Wilkinson's winning teams drew the entire region out of its dust-bowl Okie funk into the bright orbit of national sports respectability. His own booster instincts working against his terse style, Dent barely avoids falling into overwrought nostalgia peddling, and offers college football purists a look straight back at an astounding moment in a bygone era and a good primary-source record of "the streak." 16 pages b&w photos not seen by PW. 

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal 
 

Led by enigmatic coach Bud Wilkinson, the Oklahoma Sooner football team won 94 games between 1948 and 1957, with winning streaks of 31 and 47 games. The team's record of 47 straight victories still stands. According to Dent, to achieve this feat today would require a team to compile four consecutive undefeated seasons, plus bowl games, an accomplishment that appears virtually impossible. Dent, an award-winning journalist and author of the New York Times best seller The Junction Boys, effectively captures the character of Wilkinson and describes how the team evoked the passion of a state that was still haunted by the Depression. Complete with a 16-page black-and-white photo insert, plus bibliography, this publication will be appreciated by college gridiron aficionados. Recommended. Larry R. Little, Penticton P.L., BC

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Berry Tramel, The Daily Oklahoman 
"...ranks with Cross' PRESIDENT'S CAN'T PUNT and Switzer's BOOTLEGGER'S BOY as the best books about the Sooner football phenomenon." 

Kirkus Reviews 
"Like eavesdropping on the team bus, sports enthusiasts will enjoy reliving a time when college football was top national news." 

Book Description 
The Oklahoma Sooners won their seventh national championship on January 3, 2001, defeating Florida State in the Orange Bowl 13-2. But the story of greatness began long ago in the era of no facemasks when the game was the rallying post of a state still seeking an identity. 

The Undefeated is the story of phenomenal winning. From the third game of the 1953 season till the eighth game of '57, the Oklahoma Sooners never lost, compiling a forty-seven game winning streak that likely will never be matched in big-time college football. It is often compared to Joe DiMaggio's fifty-six game hitting streak. 

During this tremendous runk, the Sooners cleared every hurdle known in the world of competitive sports. They never wilted in the face of pressure, nor were stifled by the attention inspired by the streak. Coached by the legendary Bud Wilkinson, the Sooners came from behind in the second half on numerous occasions. Dent presents an absorbing character study of Wilkinson, the brilliant, complex coach who engineered the string of victories and whose starched-shirt public persona hid a man of many secrets. 

More than a football book, The Undefeated is the saga of how Oklahomans were was able to rebound from the Dust Bowl years and The Grapes of Wrath image. Over a million people left the state in the 1930s as the agrarian economy was battered by the drought and high winds. When World War II ended, the OU board of regents were compelled to rebuild the morale of the state by investing their faith in the football program. From this effort emerged Wilkinson who, during a nine-year stretch, compiled a record of 94-4-2. The Sooners football program became the model from which others were built, even surpassing Notre Dame in both reputation and winning tradition.
 

The players who compiled the streak were also children of The Depression, raising themselves from their own bootstraps and winning games the old fashioned way - through grit and blind faith. Through it all, the young men who accomplished this amazing feat shine in vivid life. Dent has crafted a book that goes far beyond merely college football. Indeed, he has crafted a work that is a classic piece of Americana for the book joins together such things as friendship, America in the fifties, the hopes and dreams of these men, and the driving passion of one coach. Possibly it is the greatest story in the history of college football and certainly one of the most glorious in the history of sport. 

About the Author 
JIM DENT is the author of the New York Times best-selling book The Junction Boys. He has written two other books, King of the Cowboys and You're out and You're Ugly, Too (with Durwood Merrill). Dent is an award-winning journalist who covered the Dallas Cowboys for eleven years and worked in the sports media for more than two decades. He is a graduate of Southern Methodist University. 
 

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