It was amazing to see Bennie Owen's statue proudly stand close to Owen Field last weekend. OU President David L. Boren and Director of Athletics Joe Castiglione did an amazing introduction. Following is a video and some David L. Boren quotes from the ceremony:
"Our first real coach is one of the two people we celebrate today. It was Bennie Owen who came here in 1905, he'd been a quarterback in Kansas, he'd coached at Washburn, he'd coach at Bethany college in Kansas and he came here and he set the standard that he would try to reach as having the best football program in the United States. And before he was through he achieved that. And we had so little to try and start the program with that for his first year, his first paycheck, he accepted IOUs, literally IOUs on paper from the University."
"He served here for 22 years as head football coach, that record today still stands, Bennie Owen was not only the first real football coach,he was the longest serving football coach of the Oklahoma Sooners in the history of this University. And his record, and that record has been carried on, that tradition which was said earlier has been carried on by Bud and Barry and Bob and others that have come after him. 128 wins, 52 losses, 13 ties, we had ties obviously in those days of course, and nine undefeated teams while he was a coach at the University of Oklahoma. I only wish, I only wish that they had had the National Championships declared in the Bennie Owen days or we'd have a good dozen up there on the score board and not just 7 but we are going to continue to add to those. He was an amazing man he in many ways was the creator of the forward pass."
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