The NCAA granted Oklahoma permission Tuesday to specially mark Owen Field this week as the university pays tribute to its first black football player, the late Prentice Gautt.
OU plans to place a solid crimson line on the field’s 38-yard-line from sideline to sideline for the Sooners’ game against Colorado at 6 p.m. Saturday.
Gautt wore jersey No. 38 for the Sooners, and that number was not issued to an Oklahoma player this season.
More than 30 players from Oklahoma’s 1956 team — which Gautt played on under coach Bud Wilkinson — will be honored at halftime.
Gautt, who attended Oklahoma City’s Douglass High School, played in the first integrated high school football game in Oklahoma and was the first black player in the annual All-State game. He first played for the Sooners in 1956, the season in which Oklahoma won the third of its seven national championships.
Gautt was a two-time All-Big 8 Conference player and the MVP of the 1959 Orange Bowl. He played for seven seasons in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns and St. Louis Cardinals and later coached at Missouri.
After moving into administration, Gautt became an assistant commissioner for the Big 8 and later a special assistant to the commissioner of the Big 12 Conference. Gautt died in March 2005 at age 67.
The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame posthumously honored Gautt as a recipient of its Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award. The academic center for student athletes at Oklahoma is named in his honor.
Lifting the load
OU coach Bob Stoops said Allen Patrick and Jacob Gutierrez will have their special teams roles reduced now that they will become bigger parts of the offense.
Both are Sooners’ special teams captains and play on nearly every unit.
Stoops said fear of injuries isn’t the reason for the switch.
“We don’t go out there fearing injuries, it’s more the conditioning and trying to keep their legs fresh,” he said.
Time to step up
OU safety Darien Williams had two sacks last Saturday against Iowa State and is now tied with middle linebacker Zach Latimer for the team lead.
The Sooners have nine as a team, but surprisingly, only one has come from defensive ends Larry Birdine, Calvin Thibodeaux or C.J. Ah You.
Birdine, who has one sack, said that must change.
“It’s time for the guys who weigh over 250 pounds to step up,” he said.
For now, it’s Holmes
Lendy Holmes and D.J. Wolfe have been battling for the boundary cornerback spot all season. So far, each has made three starts.
But Holmes, who had five tackles (two for losses) against Iowa State, is on pace to take the lead Saturday against Colorado.
“It is a competition,” he said. “No one wants to be on the bench looking at the game. I know that we all want to be in there and play. Every week I go out there and go hard, that’s how I know how I can get on the field.”
Defensive backs coach Bobby Jack Wright said the competition for the two won’t stop.
“No one owns any positions out there,” he said. “You have to earn them every week.”
John Shinn366-3536jshinn@normantranscript.com
OU Sports
John Shinn's Oklahoma Football Notepad
Honoring Gautt
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