Not All Are Made to be Broken : COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Who could have known?

Oklahoma began the 1953 season with a 28-21 home loss to Notre Dame, then struggled to a 7-7 tie the next week on the road against Pittsburgh.

Beginning of the end?

Actually, the end of a beginning.

Starting with a 19-14 victory over Texas on Oct. 3, Bud Wilkinson’s Oklahoma teams would not lose another game until Nov. 16, 1957, a 7-0 home loss to Notre Dame.

In between those Notre Dame losses--after the tie with Pitt--the Sooners won 47 consecutive games, an NCAA record.

It was a golden era for Sooner football under the legendary Wilkinson. During the winning streak, the Sooners outscored their opponents by an average of 34-6.

They won national championships in 1955 and ’56 and those squads were ranked by the Sporting News among the top five college football teams of all time.

Remarkably, Oklahoma nearly escaped the decade without a defeat in Big Seven Conference play. The Sooners were 58-0 in league play before an Oct. 31, 1959 defeat at Nebraska. They finished the decade 58-1.

Wilkinson, the dynasty’s architect, was only 31 years old when he became Oklahoma coach in 1947. In 17 years, his teams went 145-29-4, winning 14 conference titles and three national championships.

His Sooners also won 31 straight games in a stretch that began in October 1948 and was ended by a 13-7 loss to Kentucky in the 1950 Sugar Bowl. Since that time, Toledo is the only other Division I-A team to have won more than 30 in a row, winning 35 from 1969 into ’71.

Wilkinson left Oklahoma in 1963 and later coached the NFL’s St. Louis Cardinals.

In the modern era, Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden is on a run that may never be matched. Bowden’s Seminoles have finished ranked fourth or higher in the final Associated Press poll for 11 consecutive seasons.

On the flip side, Prairie View A&M; begins this season with a record 77 consecutive losses. Prairie View’s last victory came in 1989 against Mississippi Valley State.