College Career
Sims attended the University of Oklahoma, where he played for coach Barry Switzer's Oklahoma Sooners football team from 1976 to 1979. After injuries kept him out of the lineup for most of his freshman and half of his sophomore seasons (rushing for only 545 yards in two seasons plus one game of 1976), he rushed for 1,762 yards on 231 carries as a junior, an excellent average of 7.6 yards per carry. Per game, he averaged 160.1 yards and 10.9 points during the regular season. Including the postseason, Sims had 1,896 yards, a total yardage school record that stood until 2004 when freshman Adrian Peterson ran for 1,925. In 1978 Sims was awarded the Heisman Trophy, becoming only the sixth junior to do so. He was runner up the following season in 1979.
In 1979 against then-unbeaten Nebraska, who had the No. 1 rushing defense in the country at the time, Sims ran for 247 yards and helped the Sooners to a 17–14 win. He led the nation in rushing with 1,896 yards and had 22 touchdowns. He also became the first running back in Big 8 Conference (now merged to form the Big 12 Conference) history to rush for 200-yards in three consecutive games, and had four 200-yard games in a single season.
After losing to the Arkansas Razorbacks 31–6 in 1978, Sims led the Sooners to two consecutive Orange Bowl titles in three straight appearances. In the Orange Bowl following the 1978 season, he scored two touchdowns in a 31–24 win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers. In his final game, he ran for 164 yards as Oklahoma defeated the Florida State Seminoles 24–7. Sims ended his career at OU with 3,813 yards; most of those yards came in his final two seasons.
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