Barry Switzer

Early life and career

Switzer was born on October 5, 1937, in Crossett, Arkansas, to parents Frank Mays Switzer and Mary Louise Switzer. In early February 1954, Switzer and his younger brother Donnie were home in rural Ashley County, Arkansas with their mother and father when it was raided by the Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission and the Arkansas State Police, which found untaxed contraband liquor. Frank made bond but was later tried and convicted of illegal trafficking in alcohol for purposes of resale ("bootlegging"). He was sentenced to five years in prison but the conviction was reversed on appeal. Frank did serve five months of the term and therefore missed seeing Barry play his senior season of high school football.

Switzer and his brother Donnie were at home with their mother on August 26, 1959, when she took her own life with a .38 caliber pistol on the back porch. On November 16, 1972, after they each commenced professional careers, their father was murdered by a jealous lover.

Barry accepted an athletic scholarship and played football at the University of Arkansas, where he joined Pi Kappa Alpha. During his senior season in 1959, he was a Razorbacks "Tri-Captain", leading Arkansas to a 9–2 record, a share of the Southwest Conference championship, a victory over Georgia Tech in the 1960 Gator Bowl, and a No. 9 final ranking in the polls, all in Frank Broyles' second season as head coach. After graduation, he did a brief stint in the U.S. Army and then returned to Arkansas as an assistant coach under Broyles.

University of Oklahoma

Following the 1966 season, Switzer moved to the University of Oklahoma as an assistant coach under new head coach and good friend, Jim Mackenzie. After Mackenzie died of a heart attack following spring practice of 1967, Switzer continued as an assistant under former University of Houston assistant and new Oklahoma head coach Chuck Fairbanks.

Switzer made a name for himself when he was OU's offensive coordinator by perfecting the wishbone offense and developing it into the most prolific rushing offense in college football history. Under Switzer, the Sooners set an NCAA rushing record of 472 yards per game in 1971 and scored over 500 points in two different seasons, 1971 and 1986. When Fairbanks accepted the position of head coach of the New England Patriots following the 1972 season, Switzer was the obvious choice to succeed him.

Switzer became head coach at Oklahoma in 1973. Prior to Fairbanks' departure, he interviewed for the vacant head coaching positions at Michigan State and SMU. He was so successful that by his seventh season in 1979, the St. Petersburg Times wrote that Switzer was the high priest of what Billy Sims, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1978, described as the church of OU football. Switzer led the team to undefeated seasons in 1973 and 1974. Oklahoma won national championships in 1974, 1975, and 1985 under Switzer's leadership. The team won or shared in the Big Eight Conference championship every year from 1973 to 1980. During his sixteen years as head coach at Oklahoma, his teams won eight of the thirteen post-season bowl games they played in, and 54 of his players were selected as All-Americans.

In 1983, Switzer was sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an alleged civil violation of the laws prohibiting insider trading of securities. He defended himself as having innocently overheard the information while lounging on the bleacher behind some corporate insiders—at a stadium where Switzer was watching his elder son compete in a track meet. The case was tried in Oklahoma City United States District Court (before a special U.S. District Judge appointed from Kansas). The case was dismissed at the conclusion of the Government's case for its failure to demonstrate that there had been any purposeful disclosure to Switzer.

In 1989, Oklahoma was placed on probation by the NCAA amidst several scandals involving Oklahoma players, including Charles Thompson's arrest for soliciting the sale of cocaine to undercover FBI agents. One of the players Switzer and his staff illegally paid money to was Hart Lee Dykes. OU booster, Bill Lambert, illegally paid between 100 and 150 OU football players. OU recruiting coordinator, Shirley Vaughan, illegally paid dozens of OU football players through a ticket-scalping scheme. In his autobiography, Switzer said he paid $100 an hour to Joe Washington, OU's leading rusher during the 1974 and 1975 national championship seasons. OU 1985 national championship members Keith Jackson, Jamelle Holieway, and Brian Bosworth all openly admitted to accepting illegal payments during their time at OU. In 1989, after sixteen years as Oklahoma's head coach, Switzer chose to resign. OU would have received the death penalty if they had committed just one more violation in any sport over the next five years.

Dallas Cowboys

Switzer had seemed content with not being a head coach within the college ranks, once stating, "Every year the coach gets a year older but the product stays the same age. Recruiting has always been something like pimping, I guess, but it never bothered me until I looked in the mirror one day and said to myself, 'Hey, Switzer, what is a fifty-year-old man doing chasing eighteen-year-old boys around the country?'" On March 30, 1994, he was hired by the Dallas Cowboys. Switzer was hired the day after Jimmy Johnson, who had won the last two Super Bowls with Dallas, announced his departure from the team. Many felt that owner Jerry Jones, who had clashed with Johnson, hired Switzer due to wanting a coach who would be more apt to go along with Jones' ideas. He stated that Switzer had the qualities needed in "leadership, charisma, motivation, and a proven winner" to serve as coach; he also once stated that "500 coaches who could win with the talent assembled in Dallas." Incidentally, Switzer had been an assistant coach on the 1964 Arkansas Razorback team that had both Jones and Johnson on the roster. It was reported that one of the first things Switzer did was to ask each of his assistant coaches to name him any jerks that were on the team. The response was that there were none.

Switzer did not get to hire his own staff, as the assistant coaches from the previous season were retained. His first season with the Cowboys was successful; they went 12–4 and advanced to the NFC Championship Game against the San Francisco 49ers for the third straight year. However, the game did not turn out well for the Cowboys, who were down 21–0 after two turnovers in the first five minutes of play. While the Cowboys did narrow the score to 24–14 (after a missed field goal from 27 yards) with a minute to play before halftime, Switzer elected to try and reach for more points with passes on the suggestion of offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese rather than his own idea to run the ball. The result was three incompletions, after which Dallas punted the ball away, leaving enough time and favorable field position for San Francisco to score a touchdown pass to lead 31–14 at halftime. With less than seven minutes remaining in the game, the Cowboys were down 38–28 and driving past midfield when Switzer committed a costly error. When Michael Irvin was bumped by Deion Sanders while being targeted for a pass, leading to an incompletion, Switzer was livid that pass interference wasn't called and made his plea to the officials. While making the plea, to demonstrate the bump, he bumped the official, incurring a 15-yard penalty and leaving the Cowboys with a 3rd and 25 and an eventual loss on downs. The Cowboys failed to score on their next (and last) drive and lost 38–28.

After coaching

In late 2000, Switzer was initiated as an honorary member of the Oklahoma Kappa chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Switzer was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2004, he received the Jim Thorpe Lifetime Achievement Award. Switzer still resides in Norman, Oklahoma with his wife Becky, a coach on the 1988 U.S. Olympic team and OU gymnastics coach from 1984 to 2001. In August 2007, XMSN added Switzer as a part of the channel's expanded college sports coverage. On September 9, 2007, Switzer joined the Fox NFL Pregame show. Switzer got into acting after coaching, playing the part of the head coach of the Prattville Pirates in the 1998 movie Possums. Switzer also guest-starred in an episode of TNT's Saving Grace titled "Do You Love Him?", which first aired August 11, 2008. In 2006, Switzer and Toby Keith helped found First Liberty Bank in Oklahoma City. He owns Switzer's Locker Room, Switzer's Vineyards, and a number of other small businesses in the Norman area.

Head coaching record

Coaching tree

Head coaches under whom Switzer served:

Frank Broyles: Arkansas (1961–1965)

Jim Mackenzie: Oklahoma (1966)

Chuck Fairbanks: Oklahoma (1967–1972)

Assistant coaches under Barry Switzer who became NCAA or NFL head coaches:

Tim Billings: Southeast Missouri State (2000–2005), Southern Mississippi (2020)

John Blake: Oklahoma (1996–1998)

Mack Brown: Appalachian State (1983), Tulane (1985–1987), North Carolina (1988–1997, 2019–2024), Texas (1998–2013)

Dave Campo: Dallas Cowboys (2000–2002)

Jim Donnan: Marshall (1990–1995), Georgia (1996–2000)

Donnie Duncan: Iowa State (1979–1982)

Gary Gibbs: Oklahoma (1989–1994)

Galen Hall: Florida (1984–1989)

Larry Lacewell: Arkansas State (1979–1989)

Brad Lambert: Charlotte (2011–2018)

Wendell Mosley: Texas Southern (1976–1978)

Jerry Pettibone: Northern Illinois (1985–1990), Oregon State (1991–1996)

Charlie Sadler: Northern Illinois (1991–1995)