Benjamin Gilbert Owen (July 24, 1875 – February 26, 1970) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player and coach of football,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

, and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

. He served as the head football coach at Washburn College, now

Washburn University Washburn University (WU) is a public university in Topeka, Kansas, United States. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and business. Washburn has 550 faculty members, who teach more than 6,100 u ...

, in 1900, at Bethany College in

Lindsborg, Kansas Lindsborg is a city in McPherson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 3,776. Lindsborg is known for its large Swedish, other Nordic and Scandinavian Americans ( Nordic- Scandinavian), and German ...

from 1902 to 1904, and at the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

from 1905 to 1926, compiling a career

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

record of 155–60–19. Owen was also the head basketball coach at Oklahoma from 1908 to 1921, tallying a mark of 113–49, and the head baseball coach at the school from 1906 to 1922, amassing a record of 142–102–4. He was inducted into the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...

as a coach in 1951.

Early life and playing career

Owen was born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1875 and his family moved to

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

when he was 12. After he finished school, his family again moved, this time to

Arkansas City, Kansas Arkansas City () is a city in Cowley County, Kansas, United States, situated at the confluence of the Arkansas River and Walnut River in the southwestern part of the county. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 11,974. The n ...

. There Owen served as an apprentice to a local doctor for three years. He then enrolled in the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

in 1897 to pursue his medical studies and he soon discovered his knack for football. Owen played football at Kansas under two excellent, but contrasting coaches. Wylie G. Woodruff, an All American player from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

came to Kansas to coach football in the fall of 1897. Owen got a part-time job working as a medical assistant for Woodruff and it was Woodruff who encouraged Owen to try out for the Kansas football team. Owen played under Woodruff for two seasons. Woodruff specialized in a tough, hard-hitting style of football. Woodruff's message to his players was "hurdle the wounded, step on the dead." Woodruff was released at the end of the 1898 season and Kansas hired

Fielding H. Yost Fielding Harris Yost (; April 30, 1871 – August 20, 1946) was an American football player, coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at: Ohio Wesleyan University, the University of Nebraska, the University ...

from the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

. Unlike, Woodruff, Yost's style of football was based on innovation, speed, and cunning. Owen was the star

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

for Yost's undefeated 1899 team.

Coaching career

Upon graduating from Kansas, Owen took his first head coaching job at

Washburn College Washburn University (WU) is a public university in Topeka, Kansas, United States. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and business. Washburn has 550 faculty members, who teach more than 6,100 u ...

. Following a one-year stint there, he spent the 1901 season as Yost's assistant at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. While at Michigan, he helped Yost develop the famous "Point-a-Minute" teams built around halfback

Willie Heston William Martin Heston (September 9, 1878 – September 9, 1963) was an American football player and coach. He played halfback at San Jose State University and the University of Michigan. Heston was the head football coach for Drake University ...

. Owen got his first exposure to the Oklahoma football team while head coach at Bethany College in

. His Bethany Swedes met and defeated two Sooner teams in 1903 and 1904. Owen took over the Oklahoma football team in 1905, succeeding one-year coach

Fred Ewing Fred E. "Buck" Ewing (October 23, 1880 – March 2, 1968) was an American football coach and physician. He coached the University of Oklahoma during the 1904 season and amassed a 4–3–1 record.Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and a ...

. Owen was loved by the players as he regularly would involve himself in scrimmages when he felt his players were lagging. Owen's first two years at Oklahoma were spent back and forth between

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

and Arkansas City. Due to a reduced financial budget, Owen only remained on campus during the football season. In 1907, Owen lost his right arm in a hunting accident. Early in Stratton D. Brooks's tenure as president of the University of Oklahoma, Owen was fired by the state legislature. They believed his salary of $3,500 () was far too great for an athletics coach and used the loss of his arm as an excuse for dismissal. They recommended he be terminated and shortly thereafter, he was. However, when Brooks heard of this news, he quickly got the decision rescinded. Owens did not learn of his "dismissal" until a week after his "re-hiring." Early in Owen's tenure as head coach, funding for athletic teams were very much an issue. Due to costs involved in travel, Owen's teams would regularly go out on long, grueling road trips. In 1905, his Sooners played three games in five days and in 1909 they played three games in six days. Owen is also known for introducing the

forward pass In several forms of football, a forward pass is the throwing of the ball in the direction in which the offensive team is trying to move, towards the defensive team's goal line. The forward pass is one of the main distinguishers between gridiron ...

to football in the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...

. This allowed his team to quickly score against lesser opponents. In 1911, his team defeated Kingfisher College, 104–0. Largely because of their accomplishments during Owen's era as head coach, the Oklahoma Sooners have scored the most points of any team in college football history. In 1,154 games through the 2009 season, the Sooners have scored 30,897 points with over 5,000 of those being contributed by Owen's teams. Owen's Sooners twice scored over 150 points in a game and won three games in 1915 by a combined score of 258–0. Owen's overall record at Oklahoma was 122–54–16. Along with

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 ...

Barry Switzer Barry Layne Switzer (born October 5, 1937) is a former American football coach and player. He served for 16 years as head football coach at the University of Oklahoma and four years as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football Le ...

and

Bob Stoops Robert Anthony Stoops (born September 9, 1960) is an American football coach. He was the head football coach at the University of Oklahoma from 1999 through the 2016 season, and on an interim basis during the 2021 Alamo Bowl. He led the Oklahoma ...

, he is one of four coaches to win over 100 games at the University of Oklahoma. No other college football program has had more than three coaches accomplish the feat. In addition to coaching football, Owen also spent 13 seasons as the Oklahoma men's

head coach. In those 13 years, he won nearly 70% of his games, had two undefeated seasons and only two losing seasons. In 1910, Owen became an initiated member of the Delta Epsilon chapter of

Sigma Nu Sigma Nu () is an undergraduate Fraternities and sororities in North America, college fraternity founded at the Virginia Military Institute on January 1, 1869. The fraternity was founded by James Frank Hopkins, Greenfield Quarles and James McIlva ...

at the

. Owen had been living in the

chapter house's basement at 526 South University Boulevard during this time. Because he was taking several classes at the university, he was eligible to become an initiated member at the request of several of his players that had become members themselves. Owen would go onto be very active with

for many years, notably helping found the Epsilon Epsilon chapter of

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

in 1920.

Honors and death

While the name of the Oklahoma football stadium is the

Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, also known as Owen Field or The Palace on the Prairie, is the football stadium on the campus of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. It serves as the home of the Oklahoma Sooners football team. ...

, they originally played at

Boyd Field Boyd Field was a stadium in Norman, Oklahoma that hosted the University of Oklahoma Sooners football team from 1905 until they moved to Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in 1923. The stadium held 11,000 people at its peak and was opened in 1905. The stad ...

during Owen's tenure and later moved and renamed Owen Field in his honor. The playing surface itself still retains the name Owen Field and many still refer to the stadium as a whole as such. Owen was a charter member of the

, elected in 1951. He died February 26, 1970 in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

at age 94.

Head coaching record

Football

Men's basketball

Baseball

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Owen, Bennie 1875 births 1970 deaths American football quarterbacks Bethany Swedes football coaches College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Kansas Jayhawks football players Michigan Wolverines football coaches Oklahoma Sooners athletic directors Oklahoma Sooners baseball coaches Oklahoma Sooners football coaches Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball coaches College Football Hall of Fame inductees Washburn Ichabods football coaches People from Arkansas City, Kansas Baseball coaches from Kansas Basketball coaches from Kansas Coaches of American football from Kansas Players of American football from Kansas Players of American football from Chicago Players of American football from St. Louis American people of Welsh descent