In Memoriam: OL Jerry Arnold Blocked for Sooner Legends and Won a National Title

Friends remember Barry Switzer's first left tackle as a fierce blocker, a wonderful teammate and a great family man
Photo:"The University of Oklahoma Football Vault"

Jerry Arnold, a first-team All-Big Eight left tackle on Oklahoma’s 1974 undefeated national champion team, died Thursday.

“Good kid,” former coach Barry Switzer told SI Sooners. “I liked him. Good man.”

Arnold, 67, was a starter on the Sooners’ 1973 team that went 10-0-1 in Switzer’s first season as head coach, and was a key member of the ’74 squad that went 11-0 and was crowned Associated Press national champs despite being on NCAA probation – no bowl game, no television, and no place in the UPI coaches poll.

Arnold played football and wrestled in high school and in 1971 became the first All-State athlete out of Putnam City West.

Arnold helped Oklahoma to a 7-0 record against ranked teams in his two years as a starter. The ’74 Sooners led the nation in scoring at 43 points per game.

OU that season also led the nation in rushing yards per game (438.8) and total offense (507.7 yards per game) as well as rushing attempts per game (73.9, an NCAA record that still stands). Joe Washington led the wishbone attack by rushing for 1,321 yards and 12 touchdowns and averaged 6.8 yards per carry.

“Jerry was a really good guy,” Washington told SI Sooners Monday. “Caring guy. Mild-mannered. We just had a lot of good guys on those teams – guys you didn’t mind being around.”

Arnold was the 355th player picked in the 1975 NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos, who selected him in the 14 round. Arnold didn’t make the final roster, however.

“I remember it well because I picked him up at the airport when he got back to Oklahoma City,” said Arnold’s lifelong best friend, Brad Yarbrough. “He was devastated for not making it. … He was a great run blocker. But Denver was a passing offense. That Senior Bowl, they did mostly passing, and you could see it in that bowl game – taking a step back, standing up and blocking to protect the quarterback was not something he was accustomed to.”

Arnold settled in Denver after his playing days and worked as an account manager and insurance agent. According to family, Arnold died suddenly from a heart attack while still sitting at his desk.

Friends and teammates remembered him Monday as a family man, an avid outdoorsman and a great teammate.

“Unassuming guy,” two-time All-American wide receiver Tinker Owens told SI Sooners. “Big, strong guy. But Jerry wasn’t out in the party scene much. Good guy. Really liked Jerry. Don’t know anybody that didn’t like Jerry. He just went out and played football.”

Former Sooner quarterback and KWTV-9 sports director Dean Blevins said he was writing a script about former player and coach John Blake, who also died on Thursday, and got to the part where Switzer had recently lost far too many former players.

Just as Blevins wrote the words, Switzer called with news of Arnold.

“He was a really, really good college tackle,” Blevins said. “Jerry as a football player was very strong and in terrific shape. He was a leader. Just an engaging personality, but had a motor that would go, go, go, just like several other of those guys up front that had great work ethics.”

Washington said he just spoke to Arnold in April as he was checking in with his old o-line.

“They had their own little bond,” Blevins said. “Joe doing that, it kind of speaks to something that helps you become champions. Relationships meant something.”

“Our whole offensive line was really underappreciated,” Washington said. “All the flash of running the wishbone, you forget about what it takes these days. We’re not back there ducking 11 people. A lot of these guys were just blockers.

“On plays I would lose yardage, I would tell them, ‘Hey, y’all gotta stop giving me so many choices.’ You knew you could depend on ‘em.”

With Arnold at left tackle and All-American John Roush at left guard, Washington loved running to the left side.

“Jerry and John were very, very good buddies,” Washington said. “They used to argue with each other like a married couple.”

Owens said teammates called them “Hulk and Bulk.”

“We joked we’d feed them raw meat because it made them meaner for the game,” Owens said.

Washington preferred the nicknames “Fred and Barney” because they reminded everyone of “The Flintstones.”

“It was fun being around those guys. Good guys,” Washington said. “They treated you like baby chicks, and they were the mother hens.”

Washington said fans recall the “glitz and glamor” of running out of the wishbone with sweeps and option pitches, but most of the Sooners’ yards came on tough, physical runs between the tackles.

“And those guys had to block. They were moving people. They were creating trenches,” Washington said. “And those guys didn’t expect accolades from the outside. All they wanted to hear was from us when we’d say, ‘Hey, good block.’ And then their eyes would just light up.”

Arnold is survived by his wife, Mimi Papantonio-Arnold, son Jerry, four stepsons and two grandchildren.

Services are set for 1 p.m. at Horan & McConaty Funeral Home in Denver.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.