Oklahoma’s Cale Gundy era spanned 32 years, 27 college football seasons, 353 games, and countless blue-chip recruits.
It started with one of the most heralded homegrown recruits ever: Gundy himself.
Gundy — the OU receivers coach who unexpectedly resigned Sunday night after an apparently racially charged incident at a team meeting last week — was the most coveted high school player in the state of Oklahoma when he signed with the Midwest City High School Sooners in 1990, and was a top-five national quarterback recruit.
Gundy’s coming-out party in Norman, a two-sport star who also played baseball for the Sooners, unfolded dramatically halfway through his real freshman year.
With the program coming to an end after Barry Switzer’s resignation from the NCAA probation season after the 1988 season, Gundy could have followed his big brother Mike to the state of Oklahoma.
But Mike, who set countless Big Eight Conference records as a cowboy, had previously (and strongly) considered being a Sooner. A short drive down Sooner Road and Cale happily donned the Crimson and Cream when Gary Gibbs offered him a scholarship.
The 6-foot, 193-pound Gundy wasn’t quite ready for college football when his career began, but it didn’t last long.
After serving as sophomore Steve Collins’ backup in easy non-conference wins over UCLA, Pitt and Tulsa (he completed 7-of-18 passes for 66 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions), Gundy was on the bench against Kansas – the only game of his career in which he was healthy and did not play.
The following week – with big brother Mike watching from the sidelines as OSU coach – the legend of Cale Gundy was born
With the Cowboys leading 14-7 as halftime approached, Gundy was taken off the bench to carry out the Sooners’ two-minute attack.
On the fourth and sixth, Gundy threw a bomb at the tight end of Adrian Cooper, who made a jumping catch and drove across the goal line as the clock ran out.
Rather Magic? No, just the “Cale Mary.”