By James S. Tyree

Transcript Staff Writer

The wheelchair was empty.

Its occupant, Bob Breeden, just had to get up and take a closer look at the bronze, life-sized statue of former University of Oklahoma running back Billy Vessels that was unveiled Friday. So with help, the long-retired newspaperman stood, touched the statue’s base, and looked up with pride at the bronze young man running with purpose in mid-stride.

The University of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Centennial Commission honored Vessels as OU’s first Heisman Trophy winner. Breeden remembered him when he was a schoolboy making a name for himself in Cleveland, Okla.

“There is good artwork on it,” Breeden said with moistened eyes after sitting back in his wheelchair. “He’s worthy of every bit of it.”

Vessels lettered for the OU football team from 1950 through 1952, helping the Sooners win their first national title in his first season and winning the Heisman in his final year. He finished with 2,085 rushing yards and 35 touchdowns back when the college season had fewer games.

The statue is the first on a grassy stretch along Jenkins Avenue, across from the Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, that’s now called Heisman Park. Statues of OU’s other Heisman Trophy winners will follow — Steve Owens (1969) next year and Billy Sims (1978) and Jason White (2003) in 2007.

The statues will be part of the state’s upcoming centennial celebration in 2007. Gov. Brad Henry, who arrived just as the ceremony was about to end, said “I don’t know of any other entity in the state of Oklahoma that instills more pride than Oklahoma football.”

Vessels’ widow, Susie, and their children and other relatives were among scores of people attending the unveiling ceremony. Vessels died in 2001 at age 70. Former teammates and other OU players and coaches through the years, including current head coach Bob Stoops and this year’s four captains, also were there.

A number of people in attendance wore red stickers with the white “35” in honor of Vessels. Edmond artist Shan Gray created the sculpture.

“Wow!” Susie Vessels said after the unveiling. “I don’t think Billy ever imagined in this wildest dreams that he’d have a statue like this. … We are exceedingly grateful.”

OU athletics director Joe Castiglione said Breeden once advised young Vessels to always think 25 years in the future and that Vessels took heed on and off the field. He lived the second half of his life in Florida, successful both in public service and private business. Castiglione called his life “a legacy achieved.”

Former teammate Eddie Crowder, who went on to become coach and athletics director at Colorado, said as much while reflecting on seeing the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

“It occurred to me it was there, not because he was president of the United States. He had a statue because he was Abraham Lincoln,” Crowder said. “Now I know Billy won the Heisman Trophy, but we are paying tribute to a guy for being Billy Vessels.”

Crowder also said he asked 12 members of Vessels family to describe him, and not one person mentioned anything that had to do with football. But Crowder’s own most poignant memory stretched back to a high school all-star game when he saw the 6-foot, 190-pound Vessels “explode on poor Harold West.”

“I had seen my first football fatality,” Crowder said in hyperbole.

OU President David Boren did not attend as he is still recovering from back surgery, but a letter was read during the ceremony.

“With the unveiling of this statue today,” Boren wrote, “we acknowledge that Billy Vessels will always be part of the Sooner tradition and will always call us to be the best that we can be.”

James S. Tyree366-3539jtyree@normantranscript.com