Longtime Oklahoma high school, college football coach Bill Blankenship announces retirement

Owasso promotes defensive coordinator Antonio Graham as Rams' new head coach

One of the greatest coaches in modern-day Oklahoma high school football history officially called it a career Thursday. 

Bill Blankenship, most recently the head coach at Owasso, announced his retirement during a press conference at the school Thursday afternoon. At that same press conference, Owasso announced it has promoted defensive coordinator Antonio Graham as the Rams' new head coach, with Blankenship personally making the introduction. 

Blankenship spent 40 seasons in coaching, 35 of which were as head coach. He won state championships at both Owasso and Tulsa Union, as well as at Arkansas school Fayetteville.

In addition, Blankenship spent several seasons as an assistant and head coach at the University of Tulsa, his alma mater, where he played as a quarterback. During his stint as head coach from 2011-14, he led the Golden Hurricane to the 2012 Conference USA championship and a Liberty Bowl victory.

He finishes his overall coaching career with 311 wins, counting both high school and college. As an Oklahoma high school head football coach, Blankenship won 275 games, the ninth-most among all-time coaches in the state.

A Spiro native, Blankenship returned to his hometown and coached the Bulldogs from 1985-89 after a two-year stint as coach at Tulsa Eastwood Baptist. He left Spiro in 1990 to take over as coach at Edmond Memorial.

Blankenship was at Edmond Memorial for two seasons before becoming the coach at Tulsa Union, in 1992, where he achieved his greatest success.

He led Union to three Class 6A championships and was also part of an epic rivalry with Jenks, with those two schools by far the most dominant teams in Oklahoma's biggest classification.

Blankenship left Union after the 2005 season. After a year away from coaching, he became an assistant coach at Tulsa in 2007, and spent four seasons there before being promoted as the Golden Hurricane's head coach.

In 2016, Blankenship returned to the high school ranks at Fayetteville, and led the Bulldogs to the 7A state title that season. As it turned out, it was his only season at Fayetteville, and Blankenship returned back to Oklahoma when he became Owasso's coach in 2017.

Blankenship made it a personal daily double when he led the Rams to the 6AI state title in his first season there, and also won state in 2019 while compiling a 69-18 record in his seven seasons at the helm. In 2022, he led Owasso to the 6AI championship game after defeating his old school, Union, in an epic six-overtime contest in the 6AI semifinals.

This past season, Owasso finished 9-3 and lost to Bixby in the 6AI semifinal round.

Graham, the Rams' new coach, played for Blankenship at Tulsa Union, and was an All-State linebacker in 2004, a season in which Union won state. Graham had been an assistant at Owasso for all seven seasons under Blankenship.

Photo of Bill Blankenship by Karen Schwartz

-- Buck Ringgold | buck@scorebooklive.com | @SBLiveOK