Oklahoma's Brent Venables: Having So Many Lettermen Back 'Just Fills Your Heart Up'

More than 250 former players showed out for the spring game last Saturday and many expressed an appreciation for feeling included again.

NORMAN — Brent Venables wasn’t going to let the moment pass.

The unprecedented gathering of talent from seven different decades had to be recognized.

So, before Saturday’s Red/White Game, Venables pulled out his handy-dandy microphone and called them up – all 250 or so lettermen. 

Two hundred and fifty.

Oklahoma’s newest head coach wanted them all gathered at midfield for an historic photo.

And all 250 or so – from National Champions in the 1970s to Butkus Award winners in the 1980s, from All-Americans in the 1990s to future Pro Football Hall of Famers in the 2000s, from Heisman Trophy winners in the 2010s to NFL hopefuls in the 2020s – assembled.

Brent Venables (center) and some of the 250 Sooner lettermen who came to the spring game :: John E. Hoover / SI Sooners

“This place always has been and always will be about the players,” Venables told them. “This is the home that y’all have built.”

It’s never happened before. Never had this many former OU football players stood on the same field together. Never had this much adoration – from a record gathering of 75,360 – been felt by so many Sooners.

Was Baker Mayfield the centerpiece? Or was Venables? Or were all those high-profile recruits?

Actually, OU football was what drew them here and drew the cheers.

“I can’t wait to see what he does,” one former player told SI Sooners on the sidelines.

“Coach V is exactly what this place needed again,” said another. “He said it – ‘from good to great’ – and I believe it.”

“They talk about OU DNA,” said yet another. “Watch him. Just watch him. Who’s got it more than him?”

They came back for Venables, yes – at least the ones who played for him and marked this date on their calendar soon after he was hired back on Dec. 6 – but a lot of former Mayfield teammates came to watch their quarterback’s Heisman statue unveiled. Others – the old-timers who made this their home so many years ago – just came to be a part of something special again, a part of something they hadn’t felt so close to in a very long time.

“I played here, I went to school here, I met my wife here,” one old-timer said. “I brought my kids back when they were little. Now I bring my grandkids. I guess I’m just a Sooner for life, and it feels good to be back here with so many of my brothers. We never really did this until today. Makes you feel like you're wanted, you know?”

Venables was humbled by the turnout. So many current NFL players who never even played for him changed their schedules to come back to Norman. So many who did play for him came back with their own kids.

“They’re back because it’s the spring game,” Venables said. “We made it a big deal. It’s never about me. I think our former players, they’ve always been very supportive compared to what’s out there. But today, I think it showed the hunger, the thirst, the love for their university.

“You don’t come back unless you love your university. You don’t come back unless you had a great experience. You don’t come back unless this place means so much to you. Not only come back, a lot of ‘em live here. They live here throughout the state. So super humbled, very proud.”

Venables’ staff set up a ladder at the 50-yard line, and a photographer climbed skyward and recorded history just minutes before kickoff of the spring game. They posed, hugged, high-fived and laughed and laughed.

Many of them also got together Friday night and regaled some old stories.

“Brought back so many amazing memories and reconnected,” Venables said. “Just fills your heart up. Fills your heart up. And it’s a reminder of just keeping the main thing the main thing. It’s about relationships. That’s what it always has been, always will be about.”

Venables had a steady stream of alumni in his office just to introduce him to their children or just to catch up or just to congratulate him.

“I’ve talked to our players about it many times: I want that 35-, 40-year-old version of you, want to come back here and hug my neck,” Venables said. “Bring your children. Because you loved your college experience. Because people treated you the right way. Because they didn’t use you. OK? They empowered you and equipped you. Not entitled you.

“So again, that was another great opportunity to share with the guys, because again, some of the older guys that have been here and gone off – they’re living life right now. That is what keeping the main thing the main thing looks like.”