I A'l Ja C !For 1Exv1 A'9 If~Ojught
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I A'L JA C A'9 IF~OJUGHT !FOR 1EXV1 0 E 00 _`c 00 n O 0a r U0 If a world war hadn't intervened, Oklahoma would have missed the first of its great modern-era quarterbacks. t's a scary thought for the Sooner faithful : OU's first Steve Davis, Thomas Lott, J. C. Watts, Jamelle Holieway All-AmericanI quarterback came that close to spending his and Cale Gundy. career at the University of Texas-and at one time, this During Mitchell's OU career-1946-47-48-the Sooners same fellow also desperately wanted toplay for Kansas. But established an efficient recruiting network that attracted a life, like footballs, takes funny bounces . Jack Mitchell came flood of blue-chip players to the campus, won the school's back from World War 11, tried out for the Sooners and spent first two bowl games, began to dominate their conference, his playing days in Norman, first for Jim Tatum and then turned the Texas series around, gained national prominence Bud Wilkinson . And gridiron history was altered . andlaid the groundworkforafirstnational championship in In his one year at OU-1946-Tatum, the fantastic 1950 . Would the Sooners have scaled the heights if Mitchell recruiter, laid the cornerstone for a football dynasty . had gone to KU or stayed at UT? Fortunately, no one will Wilkinson, the brilliant tactician, completed thejob. Mitchell ever know . starred for both, the first of the great Now 70 and living with his wife Sooner quarterbacks, names like Eddie Peggy in a rambling, ranch-style home Crowder, JimmyHarris, Jack Mildren, by Edgar L. Frost in Wellington, Kansas, Mitchell is the 1994 SUMMER 17 oil properties and drilling . How in- volved is he in the company's daily affairs? Mitchell laughs . "As little as possible ." Mitchell's son Jackson, who lives next door, is the driving force at the newspaper, the Wellington Daily News . Another son, Jud, lives across town and runs the cable TV part ofthe family business . Although Mitchell looks like defend- ersneverlaid ahand on him as aplayer, of course they did-as in the 1947 Ne- braska game in Lincoln, for instance . Cornhusker tackle Carl Samuelson hit Mitchell in the mouth with a forearm . According to Harold Keith's account in Forty-Seven Straight, the incident left Mitchell's teeth protrudingthrough his lower lip and required 32 stitches at halftime . The gritty Sooner signal call- er returned to action in the second half, and OU prevailed 14-13. So what is all this about KU and Texas? Mitchell was a Kansas boy, a tailback out of Arkansas City who dreamed of playing in Lawrence until reality set in-Kansas basically did not offer football scholarships at the time . KU basketball coach Phog Allen was interested but only grudgingly said Mitchell could also try football, and financial aid wouldbenegligible . Coach Dana X. Bible at Texas, by contrast, offered Mitchell a full ride and great football facilities. In one semester on the UT freshman squad, he started at tailback and began to demonstrate his particular wizardry as apuntreturner . But the year was 1942 . As the war in 1948), who made the team as Jack Mitchell (at right with Coach Bud Wilkinson intensified, Bible put the whole team a halfback, knew nothing about the Sooners' new split-To fense and thought he was f in the Army reserve . Mitchell was being miscast as its quarterback . Wilkinson prevailed, however, and General Jack Leavenworth learned the system well enough to lead the Big Red's rushing attack. activated andsent to Fort for basic training. He never returned to UT . Afterthe war, he followed scores of veterans to Tatum's tryout camp in picture ofhealth . At 170-175, he is near his playing weight Norman . Mitchell made the team, so he stayed . He liked of 45 years ago, and he still pivots gracefully when demon- Tatum, andNorman was closer to Ark City . Besides, he adds, strating an old play. Peggy, an attractive blonde from laughing, "Bobby Layne had two more years of eligibility at Phoenix, is Mitchell's second wife. His first wife, Jeanne, Texas. I would have sat on the bench ifI had gone back there." died in 1989 . The Mitchells divide their time between a As things turned out, Texas, with Layne directing traffic, home in Sun City, near Phoenix, and Wellington, where he whipped the Sooners both ofthoseyears. The second defeat, moved in 1968 after trading coaching for newspapering . 34-14 in 1947, was the infamous "Sisco" contest, named for Jack and Peggy's home is relaxed, decorated with football the referee whose bad calls many felt cost OU the game . memorabilia, artwork and plants, with a pool and some Today Mitchell admits, "They were probably better than we ponies in the back for Mitchell's four grandchildren . were and should have won it-but we didn't really get a very His business card reads "President and Chairman of the fair shake." Board of Mitchell Publications, Inc." and advertises a com- Despite only one success in three tries against the'Horns, pany dealing in newspapers, cable TV, printing, insurance, Mitchell recalls the series as special. The game was always 18 SOONER MAGAZINE the season highlight . "They knew it, and we knew it," poised on the bench nearby . OU had the ball on the first Mitchell says . "They'd win their conference, and we'd win series but soon had to punt to Army . Tatum was so frantic ours, and we'd play each other to see who was better ." By that he didn't even see McNabb . For his part, McNabb, who 1948, Mitchell's senior year, the Sooners were better, pre- stammered a bit, was rendered near-speechless by the vailing 20-14 to start a 9-1 run in the series before Mitchell's moment . OU teammate Darrell Royal resurrected the Texas pro- Racing up and down the sideline, Tatum handed the gram. phone to a confused McNabb, without noticing who he was, Mitchell made the 1946 team as a halfback, but Bud and roared, "McNabb! Where's McNabb? Oh, God, we left Wilkinson wanted him to play quarterback . Mitchell told McNabb at home!" McNabb still could not speak. Finally, Tatum's young offensive coordinator, "I'm not a passer-I other players pointed out McNabb to the flustered head like to run with the ball ." The man whom John Cronley of man, whose reaction was to shout at his player, "What are The Daily Oklahoman later dubbed "General Jack," for his you doing holding the phone, McNabb?" ability to march the team down the field, thought he was being miscast. Wilkinson insisted that, in the Sooner split-T formation, Mitchell would run itchell, All-American and bowl game NI",, with the ball . "I didn't know anything M about the split-T," he recalls . "Nobody can reflect that he has done it all in his career . did, except Tatum, Bud and Don Faurot at Missouri ." Mitchell, the running but when the chroniclers of the sport mention quarterback, learned the system well his name, one subject will always come up- enough to lead the Big Red's rushing attack in 1947, carrying the ball 125 those magical punt returns. times for 573 yards and 8 TDs . Part ofthe learning process came in the 1946 opener against Army at West Point. The game, Mitchell cannot tell his version of the story-as he does which OU lost 7-21, nevertheless earned Oklahoma a large whenever old timers gather-without springing up to imi- measure ofrespect for a grittyshowingagainst the two-time tate the pacing Tatum, for whom he obviously had a warm defending national champion Cadets, who had won 19 regard . straight games. Mitchell staunchly contends, "We were the The game was historically significant . It was the first best team on the field." Far from being bitter about the time an OU football team had flown to a game, as President outcome, Mitchell remembers the game most clearly for an Emeritus George Cross relates in his book Presidents Can't amusing incident involving the emotional Tatum . Punt. The game was attended by President Harry S. Truman . Talk was running high in the state that OU would be The Sooners gained tremendous national exposure and, by embarrassed by a powerhouse like Army, but Tatum, in his outrushing, outkicking and making more first downs than first game as the Sooner head coach, was determined that the defending champions, some very positive press nation- such would not be the case . He devised a simple plan for wide . The Eastern press sat up and took notice-no, it stood stopping Army's famed backfield duo of "Doc" Blanchard up and cheered . Despite the loss, OU had arrived in the big and Glenn Davis. (Tatum had no way of knowing that an time . injury would sideline Blanchard.) Mitchell, the All-American and bowl game MVP, can In Tatum's scheme, Mitchell and Dave Wallace, who reflect that he has done it all in his career, from his firsthead normally shared time at quarterback on offense and safety coaching post at Blackwell High School tobeing head man at on defense, would play only on offense. Whenever Army got Kansas-which always had been his ambition . In other the ball, the Sooner QB would be replaced on defense by stops along the way, Mitchell was head coach at Wichita Norman McNabb, a lineman . And, indeed, giving up a safety University (now Wichita State) and Arkansas, coaching in to gain a lineman gave Army fits. the Southwest Conference against Bear Bryantwhen Bryant For weeks before the game, Tatum took Wallace and was at Texas A&M .