Forty-Seven Straight: The Wilkinson Era at Oklahoma

by Harold Keith

Football tradition at the University of Oklahoma still runs strong, as does the record of forty-seven consecutive victories that legendary coach Bud Wilkinson and his players set in the 1950s. Approached but never equaled by teams such as Washington, Miami, and Texas, the streak contributed to the acclaim Wilkinson garnered by amassing an impressive three national championships (1950, 1955, and 1956), twelve consecutive conference titles, twenty-three straight wins on opposing fields, Top Ten rankings for eleven successive years, and a thirty-one game winning streak before the unforgettable “forty-seven straight.â

Forty-seven Straight details how the record grew, season by season, as told by sixty-one of Wilkinsonâ s players during interviews with Harold Keith, the universityâ s sports publicist who witnessed all 178 football games during the Wilkinson era at OU. The players recall Wilkinsonâ s and his staffâ s style, methods, and strategies while vividly recalling their most dramatic games. The scholastic integrity of Wilkinsonâ s program, which included high academic standards and graduation rates, produced a successful group of career-minded players.

Hardcover

First published December 31, 1984

About the author

Harold Keith lived his entire life in Oklahoma, a state that he greatly loved and which served as the setting for many of his books.
Perhaps his best known story, the historical novel "Rifles for Watie", was first released in 1957. It went on to win the 1958 John Newbery Medal and the 1964 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award.
In 1998, Harold Keith died of congestive heart failure, in Norman, Oklahoma.

Reviews

[Andy Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best football books I have ever read.