Billy Sims nearly walked away from football before he won the 1978 Heisman Trophy.
Sims appeared on Nashville Sports Radio WNSR during ‘Heisman Week’.
“The funny thing about that, I had no idea I was going to win it the first time. Believe it or not. Going into my junior year I had no preseason buildup,” said Sims. “I was just glad to be healthy for a change. All of a sudden [I]had a great supporting cast around me and we made it happen.”
Battling injuries his freshman and sophomore seasons while backing up Sooner great, Joe Washington,
“The following year I get hurt (1977), actually I quit, a lot of people don’t remember that. I was going back to my little town in Texas to pump gas for the rest of my life.” Sims said through a chuckle.
Barry Switzer played a huge roll in keeping Sims in the game.
“He [Barry Switzer] saw more in me at that time,” Sims said. “If you talk to one hundred guys, ninety-nine of them will take a bullet for him today and I’m one of them.”
Sims was asked how a kid from Texas ended up at Oklahoma and retold the legendary story of when Switzer called him at work at halftime of the 1974 Colorado beat down that swayed him from Baylor. The week prior to the game Sims, who was committed to Baylor at the time, was on a recruiting trip to Oklahoma, and Switzer wanted him to meet his family.
“We go to his house…they [Switzer’s kids] run out to meet him at the car and they all got on number 20, my jersey number and I’m thinking ‘wow, he’s bringing the Sooner magic to me now’,” Sims said laughingly. “Then they turn around and they have ‘Sims’ on the back of their jersey. I didn’t even have ‘Sims’ on the back of my jersey in high school.”
The rest is history. Sims won the 1978 Heisman Trophy and was runner-up for the 1979 Heisman before being selected first overall by the Detroit Lions in the 1980 NFL draft.
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