Bud Wilkinson Charles Burnham " Bud " Wilkinson ( April 23 , 1916 – February 9 , 1994 ) was an American football player , coach , broadcaster , and politician . He served as the head football coach at the University of Oklahoma from 1947 to 1963 , compiling a record of 145 – 29 – 4 . His Oklahoma Sooners won three national championships ( 1950 , 1955 , and 1956 ) and 14 conference titles . Between 1953 and 1957 , Wilkinson ' s Oklahoma squads won 47 straight games , a record that still stands at the highest level of college football . After retiring from coaching following the 1963 season , Wilkinson entered into politics and , in 1965 , became a broadcaster with ABC Sports . He returned to coaching in 1978 , helming the St . Louis Cardinals of the National Football League for two seasons . Wilkinson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1969 . Early life and playing career . Wilkinson ' s mother died when he was seven , and his father sent him to the Shattuck School in Faribault , Minnesota , where he excelled in five sports and graduated in 1933 . He enrolled at the University of Minnesota , where , as a guard and quarterback for head coach Bernie Bierman , Wilkinson helped lead the Golden Gophers to three consecutive national championships from 1934 to 1936 . He also played ice hockey for the University of Minnesota . Following his graduation in 1937 with a degree in English , he led the College All - Stars to a 6 – 0 victory over the defending NFL champion Green Bay Packers in Chicago on August 31 . Coaching career . Wilkinson briefly worked for his father ' s mortgage company , then became an assistant coach at Syracuse University and later back at his alma mater , Minnesota . In 1943 , he joined the U . S . Navy , where he was an assistant to Don Faurot with the Iowa Pre - Flight Seahawks football team and served as a hangar deck officer on the USS Enterprise . Following World War II , Jim Tatum , the new head coach at the University of Oklahoma , persuaded Wilkinson to join his staff in 1946 . In fact , the OU Board of Regents stipulated that Tatum make Wilkinson his top assistant , or else their offer was null and void . After one season in Norman , Tatum left the Sooners for the University of Maryland . The 31 - year - old Wilkinson was named head football coach and athletic director of the Sooners . Head coach at Oklahoma . In his first season as head coach in 1947 , Wilkinson led Oklahoma to a 7 – 2 – 1 record and a share of the conference championship , the first of 13 consecutive Big Six / Seven / Eight Conference titles . Ultimately , Wilkinson would become one of the most celebrated college coaches of all time . His teams captured national championships in 1950 , 1955 , and 1956 , and amassed a 145 – 29 – 4 ( . 826 ) overall record . An organized innovator , Wilkinson would post practice schedules that were broken down to the minute . The centerpiece of his time in Norman was a 47 - game winning streak from 1953 to 1957 , an NCAA Division I record that still stands today and has only been seriously threatened three times : by Toledo ( 35 wins , 1969 – 1971 ) , Miami ( FL ) ( 34 wins , 2000 – 2003 ) , and USC ( 34 wins , 2003 – 2005 ) . Earlier , the Sooners ran off 31 consecutive wins from 1948 to 1950 . Except for two losses in 1951 , the Wilkinson - coached Sooners did not lose more than one game per season for 11 years between 1948 and 1958 , going 107 – 8 – 2 over that period . His teams also went 12 consecutive seasons totaling 74 games ( 1947 – 1958 ) without a loss in conference play , a streak which has never been seriously threatened . Wilkinson did not suffer his first conference loss until 1959 against Nebraska , his 79th conference game . Wilkinson ' s 1955 Oklahoma team is widely considered to be one of the greatest teams in college football history , regardless of era . He was also the first collegiate football coach to host a television show , aptly named " The Bud Wilkinson Show " . Wilkinson was also remarkable for compiling this record while showing a genuine interest and concern for the performance of his players in the classroom . Following the 1963 season , his 17th at Oklahoma , Wilkinson retired from coaching at the age of 47 . Along with Bennie Owen , Barry Switzer and Bob Stoops , he is one of four football coaches to win over 100 games at the University of Oklahoma . No other college football program has had more than three coaches to accomplish the feat . While at Oklahoma , Wilkinson served on the President ' s Council on Physical Fitness from 1961 to 1964 . Later life and return to coaching . Wilkinson ran as a Republican for the U . S . Senate in 1964 , at which point he legally changed his first name to Bud , but narrowly lost to Democrat Fred R . Harris during the same election in which Republican presidential nominee , Senator Barry Goldwater lost to incumbent President Lyndon Baines Johnson 55 - 45 percent in Oklahoma . Wilkinson served as Republican National Committee man from Oklahoma , and was considered for the position of committeeman chairman by Richard Nixon but was not selected . Wilkinston entertained seeking the other Oklahoma U . S . Senate seat in 1968 , but he did not run , and the position went to former Governor Henry Bellmon , also a Republican . In 1965 , Wilkinson joined ABC Sports as their lead color commentator on college football telecasts , teaming with Chris Schenkel and , later , Keith Jackson . Wilkinson was the color analyst for three of the greatest games in college football history , each commonly referred to as a " Game of the Century " : Notre Dame vs . Michigan State in 1966 , Texas vs . Arkansas in 1969 , and Nebraska vs . Oklahoma in 1971 . Wilkinson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1969 . In 1978 , Wilkinson returned to coaching with the St . Louis Cardinals of the NFL . After less than two disappointing seasons , he was fired and returned to broadcasting with ESPN . Wilkinson suffered a series of minor strokes and , on February 9 , 1994 , he died of congestive heart failure in St . Louis at the age of 77 . Personal life . Wilkinson was married to the former Mary Schifflet in 1938 , with whom he had two sons , Pat and Jay . They divorced in 1975 . A year later , he married Donna O ' Donnahue , 33 years his junior , who survived him in death .