Lee Roy Selmon Was the Greatest Sooner Football Player, EVER!
Lee Roy was a monster on the football field and a gentleman when off the field. He will go down as the greatest football Sooner, just as Wayman Tisdale is the greatest Sooner basketball player.
LeRoy, the youngest Selmon, along with his older brothers from Eufaula, Lucious and Dewey, played during a time when I never missed a home game. They were all voted All-American players in their careers at OU.
The Selmons, Little Joe Washington, Steve Davis, and Jimbo Elrod were just a few of my favorite players. From their home games from the 1972 season through the end of their second National Title season in 1975, watching these great players on the home turf of Owen Field was the greatest pleasure of this Sooner fan. I never missed a home game during the careers of these players.
The picture I have included come from my 1974 OU scrapbook. (1971 season through the 1976 season, I cut newspaper stories of OU football, including the Sunday Daily Oklahoman and the Oklahoma Journal which included photos of the previous days’ action.)
The Sooners of 1974, the team that never played on TV during the regular season, was, in my opinion, the greatest Sooner team of all time. Yes, that team ended a three year mark of 32 wins, one loss, and one tie, with back-to-back National Titles. The home loss with Kansas was no fluke, as the Jayhawks were the better team that day as OU turned the ball over eight straight times in the 2nd half (four fumbles and 4 interceptions). Shit happens folks. And Nolan Cromwell was one hell of a player too.
Make no mistake, Lee Roy Selmon was the greatest player on that defense and the greatest player in OU Sooner history, any position.
I still think about what the Sooner crowd would roar after the National Anthem on Owen Field, “God Bless Mrs. Selmon.”
