Bud Wilkinson - Coaching Career

Coaching Career

Wilkinson briefly worked for his father's mortgage company, then became an assistant coach at Syracuse University and later back at his alma mater, Minnesota. In 1943, he joined the U.S. Navy, where he was an assistant to Don Faurot with the Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks football team and served as a hangar deck officer on the USS Enterprise. Following World War II, Jim Tatum, the new head coach at the University of Oklahoma, persuaded Wilkinson to join his staff in 1946. In fact, the OU Board of Regents stipulated that Tatum make Wilkinson his top assistant, or else their offer was null and void. After one season in Norman, Tatum left the Sooners for the University of Maryland. The 31-year-old Wilkinson was named head football coach and athletic director of the Sooners.