Oklahoma's Bob Stoops Receives Bear Bryant Lifetime Achievement Award

The Sooners' coaching legend owns one of college football's great turnarounds, 10 conference titles, a national championship, a spot in the Hall of Fame and lots more.

Bob Stoops’s coaching legend continues to grow.

Oklahoma’s all-time leader in coaching victories and the Sooners’ newest member of the College Football Hall of Fame added another accolade to his list on Wednesday when the Paul “Bear” Bryant Award presented Stoops with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award.

The honor is given annually and recognizes college football’s finest coaches, celebrating their outstanding achievements and extraordinary contributions. The Lifetime Achievement Award is one of four national coaching honors given during the Bryant Awards ceremony on Jan. 11, 2023, in Houston.

“It is an honor to receive the Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Heart Association,” said Stoops. “I have spent my career dedicated to developing players both on and off the field.”

Sponsored by the American Heart Association, the Bryant Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award is presented by Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston.

It’s poignant for Stoops, who’s father Ron, a successful high school coach in Youngstown, OH, collapsed during a game and died at the age of 54 from heart disease. Stoops always maintained a high degree of awareness about his personal fitness, diet and stress as he navigated 17 successful seasons at OU.

Bryant retired as major college football’s career wins leader, then died from a heart attack in 1983, just 28 days after his final victory and retirement.

“To receive this award alongside Coach Mark Dantonio receiving the Heart of the Champion award, and to be named amongst the coaches that have come before me that have made a legacy in college football, is a distinction that I do not take for granted,” Stoops said.

Stoops coached OU to 191 career victories, most in OU history, including last year's return for the Alamo Bowl after Lincoln Riley left for USC. Stoops was hired Dec. 1, 1998, and immediately rebuilt a program that hadn't posted a winning record for five years. The Sooners were 7-5 in 1999 after Stoops arrived as Florida's defensive coordinator, and then went 13-0 and won the program's seventh national championship before retiring in June 2017 with 10 Big 12 Conference championships under his belt. 

Last year, Stoops was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

The Lifetime Achievement Award specifically honors a coach for their outstanding career accomplishments both on and off the field. Now in its 37th year, The Paul “Bear” Bryant Lifetime Achievement Award is given based on three areas of criteria as determined by the Bryant family and the National Sports Media Association:

• Integrity both on and off the field above reproach,
• Leadership, dedication and developing the character, integrity and sportsmanship of young people on and off the football field, and
• Inspiration and instruction in the development of skills of the game and physical fitness in their players.

Stoops joins a list of football coaching legends that includes John Robinson (2022), Howard Schnellenberger (2021), Bill Snyder (2020), Frank Beamer (2019) among those honored most recently.