O'Neal QBs latest to be honored at golf tourney

Joe Claxton ACS Publications Director Ada Evening News

Ada — Ada High School is hosting the second annual All-Sports Golf Tournament on Monday, July 12 at Oak Hills Golf and Country Club.

The tournament is limited to the first 72 golfers who sign up. Awards and contest prizes will be given to the top three finishing teams, Hole-in-One, Closest to the Pin and Longest Drive.

ACS Athletic Director Mike Anderson noted that the inaugural honoree, 1964 AHS quarterback Bob Warmack, who starred at the University of Oklahoma, will be followed by perhaps the Ada Cougars’ most famous brother act and a trio of OU quarterbacks as well.

“Each year of the tournament, we will honor former Cougars as our ‘Honored Guests’ and try to bring back as many former Cougars athletes as we can,” Anderson said.

“This year we will honor Pat, Jay and Benton O’Neal. Their contributions to the success of Cougar athletics is well known throughout the state of Oklahoma, and their days as Cougars are a special part of our tradition. This tradition is an asset that is unique to Ada High School and will always help lead the way to future success.”

Just Pat

The 1950 season saw the first of the three O’Neal brothers at quarterback for Ada High under Elvan George. Pat O’Neal was a senior that year.

“They switched to the split-T, and it was Pat’s first year to play quarterback. He won the job,” Benton O’Neal said recalling the trio’s days as Cougars.

It was the year that George, the legendary Ada High and East Central University coach, is said to have redevoted himself to Cougar football. Pat took them to a 10-win regular season before Shawnee derailed them, 26-19, in an 11th game. The following week in the playoffs the Cougars ran into what many still believe was one of the top teams ever in Oklahoma prep football. Muskogee won handily, 52-21.

Though he had a scholarship to Texas Tech, Pat went on to OU, the first of the three brothers to play there. He walked on at OU, then got a scholarship and played four years (1952-55). He was a graduate assistant at OU before coming back to Ada and ECU under George in 1960. He coached 12 years under George and became head coach in 1972.

He became the all-time winningest coach in school history, just four wins shy of 100 at 96-89-4. He led the Tigers to a No. 1 final season ranking in 1984.

While at ECU, he produced over 70 all-conference players, nine All-Americans and seven pro players.

He retired after the 1989 season and was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in 1991, the same year he was inducted into the ECU Hall of Fame.

Jay Too

Jay followed Pat’s one-year stand with a two-year, two-state championship seasons in 1951 and 1952, the first state title for Ada and the first time the state had back-to-back champs. The Cougars lost only one game in ‘51 and had a tie in ‘52 but advanced in the playoffs.

“He was Back of the Year in the state and All-State and, of course, went on to OU,” Benton said.

Jay was a quarterback on OU teams that won 31 straight games during his three years of eligibility, including the 1956 Orange Bowl and national championships in 1955 and 1956.

He was a graduate assistant coach on Bud Wilkinson’s coaching staff in 1958 and 1959 and returned to OU in January 1961 as an assistant football coach.

He was an area scout for the San Diego Chargers of the AFL in 1966 and 1967 and is a volunteer assistant football coach at Gunnison (Colo.) High School.

Jay has lived in Crested Butte (Colo.), since 1975 where he owns, operates and builds cable television systems. From 1966-75, he actively initiated and created several cable TV operating and construction companies.

Bent on three

The third Ada O’Neal QB took the stage when Benton was a safety and backup quarterback in ‘53 and ‘54 to Dan Wagner.

The ‘53 team went a respectable 7-3, but only the conference champ went to the playoffs in those day.

The ‘54 playoffs were a different story. There were none. Some schools protested that too much emphasis was put on football and bailed out of the playoffs. The OSSAA declined to have a playoff.

Ada was 11-0 and ranked No. 1 by The Oklahoman and the Tulsa World, but the Associated Press held out for Muskogee which had a tie.

Forty years later, in 1994, the OSSAA honored the team with a plaque and proclamation acknowledging the ‘54 club as ‘ ... mythical state champions of the largest class of Oklahoma High School football during the unusually controversial year of 1954.’

Ada recognizes only the 19 state titles won on the field, but in the trophy case is the OSSAA plaque.

Benton was a four-sport letterman with basketball, track and golf in addition to football.

Then it was on to OU for the third O’Neal quarterback.

“I had decided not to play college ball and just enrolled at OU. Then Port Robertson (legendary wrestling coach and assistant athletics director) called and said, ‘Where are you?’”

He earned a partial scholarship halfway through his freshman year and received a full in two years.

He outlasted a huge freshman class of scholarships and walk-ons.

“Pat and Jay had good careers there at OU. I made it up to third team quarterback in my time there (1955-58),” Benton said.

He was a graduate assistant at OU for a year, then decided to come home to make a living in banking.

He rose through the ranks and has had a long and distinguished career. He served as president of Oklahoma State Bank and now is chairman of Ada’s First United Bank.

Backstory: A couple of years ago at a Cougar banquet, Pat took off his coat to reveal his high school jersey. It still fit, though a bit tight according to observers, who also noted that the maroon and white color scheme had aged to a maroon and gold.

Backstory: Jay did not start for OU, backing up Jimmy Harris. He was the ‘alternate team’ QB. So powerful were the Sooners of ‘55 and ‘56, it was often said that the not only was OU the best team in the conference, the ‘alternates’  were the  No. 2 team.                     .

Backstory: Benton was an OU player that blackest of days in OU history in November 16, 1957, at Owen Field when an unheralded Notre Dame team snapped the Sooners’ 47-game winning streak, 7-0. After dressing, Sooner players remember seeing fans still sitting in the their seats, stunned by the loss.

“We didn’t leave the field right away because we were so stunned, and our fans stayed, too,” said Jerry Thompson, Sooner lineman form Ada.

Benton was a junior. He did not play in the game like Thompson, but he remembers the quiet and the fans still in the stands.

“In the locker room, Bud was red-eyed, but told us we had accomplished something that would never be done again ... and it hasn’t.”

For more information on the second annual All-Sports Golf Tournament, contact the following: Mike Anderson (580) 310-7215 or via e-mail at andersonm@adapss.com; or Mark Kedy (580) 310-7374 or via e-mail at kedym@adapss.com; or Dorcas Sandy (580) 310-7245 or via e-mail at sandyd@adapss.com.