OUInsider - Owen Field

He didn't stay long and he left. Prior to those 11-1 seasons, there were "chuck, Chuck" bumper stickers in Norman.

And so did Bob Stoops. Weren't we given the tag initially "failure to monitor while under Stoops"? Really a cheap shot there.

Fairbanks was a very good leader. He was great in many areas and had stints at New England and Colorado. Fairbanks was also a very fine man and commanded respect from his peers and the national media much like Bob and not like Barry.

In those 11-1 years he must have had a pretty good offensive coordinator.

Fairbanks took over for McKenzie and in 1967 went 11-1, beat Tennessee in the Orange Bowl and finished 2nd in the nation. He then went to bowl games every year but 1969. He was the man in charge when OU made the momentous decision to switch to the wishbone. He was the man in charge of perhaps our greatest team: the 1971 team that still holds offensive records that may never be broken. He coached for 6 seasons, and brought us back to national prominence.
He did get us on probation, but not to the extent Barry did. I'll never understand why he has seemingly been ostracized, while Barry is the patron saint of Oklahoma football.
If Chuck had accomplished those feats at any other school, he would be in their Hall of Fame.
Not a slam towards Barry (he is a great coach and a great man), just a simple comparison.

From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_Sooners_football

Jones-MacKenzie-Fairbanks era (1964–1972)
Wilkinson's assistant coach, Gomer Jones, took over as head coach in 1964, a move Wilkinson engineered himself. His first year would prove to be a sharp contrast from Wilkinson's early years as the Sooners went 6–4–1.[16] The season saw them start 1–3 with three consecutive losses to Southern California, Texas and Kansas. But the hardest loss came in the Gator Bowl to Florida State. Prior to the game, it was found that four of the better players had signed professional football contracts before their college eligibility had expired. Those four were dismissed from the team prior to the bowl game.[17] Oklahoma lost this game 36–19. The next season's team fared no better, going 3–7, Oklahoma's worst record, percentage wise, since it went 0–1 its inaugural season in 1895. This brought the Jones era to a quick close, although he did remain at Oklahoma as the athletic director, a role he also held when he was head coach.
Following Jones's 9–11–1 record, Oklahoma brought in a young coach from the University of Arkansas named Jim Mackenzie. He wanted discipline for his team so he set a curfew for his players and required them to enroll in physical education class.[18] His season saw an improvement from the previous, but it still did not meet the expectations of Sooner football that Wilkinson had set. The 1966 team went 6–4 with a win in the Red River Shootout over rival Texas coached by former Oklahoma defensive back Darrell Royal, their first win over Texas since 1957. They also beat the number four team in the nation, rival Nebraska by a score of 10–9. The 1966 season showed promise for the young coach, but, on April 28, 1967, at the age of 37, Mackenzie died of a heart attack.
After the 1964 season, Chuck Fairbanks, an assistant coach at the University of Houston, was offered a job at Tennessee. He wanted to accept, but it was the middle of the summer and unusually late for a coaching move, so he decided to stay loyal to Houston and he remained there. After the next season, he was offered a position as an assistant on Mackenzie's staff at Oklahoma, a position he felt was a better job than the Tennessee position.[19] Immediately after the 1965 season, Fairbanks was offered a job at Missouri with the promise that he would be the head coach within four years.[19] He declined and stayed at Oklahoma. Four months later, Coach Mackenzie died and Fairbanks was named head coach. It did not take long for Fairbanks to turn the team around. His first season, in 1967, his squad went 10–1. They entered their sixth game with a 5–1 record (their only loss was a two point loss coming to rival Texas) and unranked[20] and beat ninth ranked Colorado, 23–0. This propelled Fairbanks's team to a number eight ranking. They continued their romp through the season and beat the number two team in the country Tennessee 26–24 in the Orange Bowl. They finished the season ranked number three in the country.
Fairbanks lost four games in each of the next three seasons. Despite the relatively mediocre record of those years, several great players came through Fairbanks' program. One of those players was Steve Owens. Owens was born in Gore, Oklahoma in 1947. After an impressive year in 1969, despite Oklahoma's record, Owens was named the Sooners' second Heisman Trophy winner. Many[who?] believe that Owens saved Fairbanks' career by helping defeat rival Oklahoma State.[8]
It did not take long for Fairbanks to return the team to form. His 1970 team tied Bear Bryant's Alabama team in the Bluebonnet Bowl to finish as the number 20 team in the country. They began the 1971 season ranked number ten. In consecutive weeks, they beat number 17 Southern California, number three Texas, and number six Colorado.
These early-season wins propelled them to a number two national ranking and set the stage for one of the great college football games of the century against top-ranked Nebraska.[21] Oklahoma was led by quarterback Jack Mildren and running back Greg Pruitt. The team was a scoring machine, averaging 44.5 points per game, the second highest in team history.[22] Equally impressive that season was Pruitt's nine yards per carry. On November 25, 1971, Nebraska edged Oklahoma, 35–31 in what was to be the only loss of the season for Oklahoma. Oklahoma went on to beat Oklahoma State and fifth ranked Auburn to finish the season ranked number two.
Fairbanks closed out his career at Oklahoma the following year with a win in the Sugar Bowl over Penn State after having lost once all season, to Colorado. Following this season, Fairbanks accepted a position with the NFL's New England Patriots....

The Wikipedia article goes on to deal with Switzer and OU's NCAA probation for altering transcripts (which Fairbanks denied knowing anything about)

My point exactly is we went on probation because a recruits transcript was altered to get him in by an assistant. Fairbanks is a straight arrow guy and likely was unaware. My point is that my response was to someone who said Fairbanks put us on probation. My response is it is no different than Stoops as we indeed went on probation under his watch as well.

He was an excellent coach and should be honored. After reading his accomplishments with OU anyone who says otherwise is just trying to tarnish and image that doesn't deserve to be tarnished.

Kerry Jackson's high school coach and administrators altered his transcript ! Not OU!

Loved Fairbanks of course coz of coming in after Mackenzie's passing and taking OU to the Orange Bowl and winning.
Living in Denver, didnt get to see much other than the sports page writeups till THE SEASON of 71.
Wished him well in the pros, was alittle disconcerted to see him go to Boulder?!?!?!
Still think its a funny story that in 1980 when OU clobbered CU 82-40 or something, that Fairbanks sent message across the field to Switzer to layoff the scoring, so Switzer more or less did.

Man great topic! I underestimated his career at OU! Thanks a ton for bringing this up. I have much more respect for Coach Fairbanks than I did this morning.

I was only in 9th grade when that happened, but I do remember it. And it STILL irks me to this day that the myth of that probation is that OU was paying players. I don't recall any official sanctions for that back then, but you sure heard the "OU cheats!" nonsense out of Austin and Stillwater constantly in the early 70's.