The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Wilkinson, Charles Burnham
(Bud Wilkinson), 1916–94, American football coach, b. Minneapolis, Minn. He was an all-around athlete at the Univ. of Minnesota and later was assistant football coach at Syracuse Univ. and the Univ. of Minnesota before entering the U.S. Navy in 1943. He became assistant coach at the Univ. of Oklahoma in 1945 and head coach in 1947. His teams won 31 consecutive games in 1948–51, and in 1953–57 they won 47 consecutive games, the longest winning streak in modern football history. Wilkinson was College Coach of the Year in 1949, and his speedy Oklahoma teams were national champions in 1950, 1955, and 1956. From 1961 to 1964 he was head of President Kennedy’s youth fitness program. He coached the professional St. Louis Cardinals (1978–79) but left after winning just 11 of 32 games.
