1946 Oklahoma Sooners football team
| 1946 Oklahoma Sooners football | |
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Big Six co-champion
Gator Bowl champion |
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Gator Bowl, W 34–13 vs. NC State
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| Conference | Big Six Conference |
| 1946 record | 8–3 (4–1 Big Six) |
| Head coach | Jim Tatum |
| Offensive scheme | Split-T |
| Home stadium | Memorial Stadium (Capacity: 32,000) |
| 1946 Big 6 football standings | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team | W | L | T | W | L | T | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| #14 Oklahoma + | 4 | – | 1 | – | 0 | 8 | – | 3 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kansas + | 4 | – | 1 | – | 0 | 7 | – | 2 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Missouri | 3 | – | 2 | – | 0 | 5 | – | 4 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nebraska | 3 | – | 2 | – | 0 | 3 | – | 6 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Iowa State | 1 | – | 4 | – | 0 | 2 | – | 6 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kansas State | 0 | – | 5 | – | 0 | 0 | – | 9 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1946 Oklahoma Sooners football team represented the University of Oklahoma in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) college football. The team was led by Jim Tatum in his first and only season as head coach. Along with first-year backfield coach Bud Wilkinson, who became the head coach himself the following year, Tatum installed the new split-T offense. An intensive recruiting effort, largely focused at veterans returning from the Second World War, helped Oklahoma to on-field success and eight of the team's new recruits eventually earned first-team All-America honors. The team improved from the previous season to an 8–3 record and a share of the Big Six Conference championship.
Tatum launched an intensive recruiting drive that included open tryouts that attracted an estimated 600 prospects. He largely rejected the players from the previous season and focused instead on building a new team. The recruiting effort targeted returning servicemen who had been athletes at other colleges before the war, rival universities, and graduating high school seniors. Tatum's recruiting paid dividends, and nine of his players would earn All-American honors at Oklahoma: Plato Andros, Buddy Burris, Jack Mitchell, Jim Owens, John Rapacz, Darrell Royal, George Thomas, Wade Walker, and Stan West. Burris became the first Sooner to receive that honor three times.
In 1945, head coach Dewey Luster missed part of the season due to illness, and had struggled to recruit quality players during the Second World War when many University of Oklahoma athletes were serving overseas. His Sooners finished the year with a 5–5 record that included a finale loss, 0–47, to Oklahoma A&M (now known as Oklahoma State). At the conclusion of the 1945 season, Luster tendered his resignation.
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