Word: oklahomas
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Wilkinson also had to prove that he could communicate with a breed of player far different from the arrow-straight, eager-to-please and crewcut young man he had marshaled at Oklahoma. In years, at least, the generation gap was very wide indeed. End Dave Stief, who was born eleven years after the end of World War II, was startled whenever Wilkinson began reminiscing about his days on a carrier in the South Pacific: it all seemed so long ago. Yet Wilkinson had no trouble joining in the team's revelry. He adroitly managed to get through the initiation...
...Wilkinson looked far younger than his 62 years, erect and athletic. As he took off his coat and coached in his shirtsleeves (collar but toned, tie neatly in place), the decades slipped away, and I suddenly remembered sports-page pictures of a generation ago, when he was cheering on Oklahoma to that remarkable record...
...football from 1965 to 1976. He had kept in close touch with the game. One of his first moves in St. Louis was to install the basic 3-4 defense used by many pro teams. He knew it well, and for good reason: he had invented its prototype at Oklahoma...
...risk he is gladly taking. Wilkinson could have made a lot more money as a businessman (his four-year contract reportedly carries an annual salary of $100,000), and he could still be a formidable political candidate: in 1964 he was nearly elected to the U.S. Senate from Oklahoma, a heavily Democratic state. But he is a restless and supercharged man, although he usually fools people by keeping his emotions tightly reined, and he could find no more heady challenge than football. He accepts the frustrations and the sleepless Sunday nights, when he replays a loss so vividly...
...named Jeb Blount was brought in to meet Wilkinson. A free agent, Blount was being given a tryout (which he flunked) to become Steve Pisarkiewicz's backup. The 24-year-old Blount was obviously impressed by meeting Wilkinson. When Blount left, Bud recalled that he had once coached Oklahoma against a Texas team that had Peppy Blount, Jeb's father, on its roster. That was 31 years ago, and Wilkinson laughed at the coincidence, and the passage of time, and the bonds of the game that had drawn him back to football...