BISON FOOTBALL REFLECTIONS

VICTOR C. HURT

By John W. Parrish

The OBU football coach with the longest tenure and the greatest number of wins was Victor C. Hurt, who came to OBU from Kansas in 1923. Hurt's football teams compiled a record of 63 wins, 29 losses, and 7 ties in eleven seasons, including a home mark of 36-10-3.

Known as "the gentleman coach," Hurt was coach of all sports and athletic director at OBU from 1923-30 and 1931-35. (He left OBU for one year to serve as president of a Shawnee bank.) His 1925 team won at the University of Arkansas, 6-0, on two Raymond Fox field goals. Bob Mastin, grandfather of OBU track coach Ford Mastin, intercepted three Razorback passes that day.

In basketball Hurt's teams recorded 81 wins against 86 losses. His track teams were dominant, tying for the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Conference championship in 1925; winning the OIC title outright from 1926-1929; and capturing Big Four Conference titles from 1932-1935. In addition, his relay teams of 1927, 1928, and 1929 won numerous titles at the Texas, Kansas, Drake, Oklahoma, Rice, and Southern Methodist University Relays. He recruited and coached such outstanding track stars as Riley Williamson, Sam Allen, and Harold Cagle.

Hurt was a graduate of the College of Emporia (Kan.) where he participated in track, football, and basketball. He coached in Kansas high schools at Coldwater and Topeka, before coming to OBU. He left OBU in 1935 to become track coach and first assistant football coach at Southern Methodist University. He was head football coach at the University of Tulsa from 1936-38, winning or sharing three Missouri Valley Conference titles. He then was line coach and first assistant coach at the University of Kansas from 1939-42.

A member of the Helms Foundation Hall of Fame, Hurt in 1944 became president of the Southwestern Art Association in Tulsa-the organization which owns and operates Philbrook Museum.