WISHBONE STAR GREG PRUITT SAYS HELLO AND GOODBYE.
During his sophomore season at Oklahoma, Greg Pruitt may have made or lost his football career based on a phone call to his mother.
When OU decided to go to the wishbone before the Texas game, Pruitt was a starting wide receiver at the start of the 1970 season, but he was reduced to a backup role at running back because there was only one wide receiver on the field. Pruitt was considering quitting the Sooners after working hard to earn a spot on the first team as a receiver—that is, until he called his parents.
“My mother would usually rant and rave if you said something that didn’t make sense”, said Pruitt. “But when I told her I was thinking about transferring, she just calmly asked me if I had a pencil and paper.”
When Pruitt told her he did, she told him to write down a phone number. It was in the 713 area code, the area of Houston where Pruitt grew up.
Pruitt recalls, “I asked her whose number it was, and she told me it was my uncle.” “I didn’t raise any quitters, so you’d better find somewhere to go if you can’t stay with him when you get home,” she remarked.
Pruitt made the hasty decision to change his mind and stay at OU. After starting halfback Everett Marshall suffered an injury three weeks later against Iowa State, Pruitt took over and didn’t look back. He went on to become a two-time All-American and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999.
