Oklahoma's Billy Sims Named to SEC’s 2026 Football Legends Class

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If the SEC is going to start pulling Oklahoma’s all-timers into its Football Legends class, Billy Sims was always going to be near the front of the line.

The former Sooners running back and 1978 Heisman Trophy winner was announced Thursday as Oklahoma’s representative in the SEC’s 2026 Football Legends class. The group will be honored around the SEC Football Championship Game in Atlanta in December, and Sims lands there with the kind of career that does not need much help from the press release.

Sims played under Barry Switzer from 1975 to 1979 and was right in the middle of one of the best stretches in program history. Those Oklahoma teams went 52-7-1, won five Big Eight titles, and claimed the 1975 national championship. They also picked up three Orange Bowl wins and a Fiesta Bowl. Sims was not just along for the ride either. He was a unanimous first-team All-American in each of his final two seasons after rushing for a combined 3,566 yards and 45 touchdowns.

The 1978 season is still the one that defines him. As a redshirt junior, Sims ran for a Big Eight-record and nation-leading 1,896 yards at 7.4 yards per carry with 22 touchdowns. Oklahoma went 11-1 and beat Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. He cleared 100 yards in 11 of 12 games that year and left the season with the Heisman, the Walter Camp Trophy, the Davey O’Brien Award, and the Chic Harley Award.

That is not a good year. That is a permanent place in the program’s history.

He came right back in 1979 and nearly did it again, finishing as the Heisman runner-up after rushing for 1,670 yards and 23 touchdowns. By the time he was done, Sims had put together one of the best rushing résumés Oklahoma has ever had. He finished as the program’s all-time leading rusher before later settling into second behind Samaje Perine, 4,118 yards to 4,122.

He still owns the school records for 200-yard rushing games in a season with four in 1978 and in a career with seven. He ranks second in program history with 53 rushing touchdowns and third with 20 games over 100 yards.The recognition has kept coming long after the pads came off. 

The NFL side of the story was just as loud at the start. Detroit took him No. 1 overall in the 1980 draft, and he was Offensive Rookie of the Year after bursting onto the league scene. In five seasons with the Lions, Sims started 58 of 60 games and ran for 5,106 yards and 42 touchdowns before injuries cut the career short. He made the Pro Bowl in each of his first three seasons, earned first-team All-Pro honors in 1981, had his No. 20 retired by Detroit, and was named to the franchise’s all-time team in 2019.

The Hall of Fame trail followed the production. Sims went into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1995 and has also been honored by the Oklahoma, Michigan, and Texas Sports Halls of Fame, plus the Orange Bowl Hall of Fame. At Oklahoma, he is now the program’s third SEC Football Legend after Switzer in 2024 and Lucious Selmon in 2025. That is the right company.

The rest of the 2026 class is loaded too, with names like Nick Saban, Ricky Williams, Patrick Peterson, Mark Richt, and Randall Cobb in the mix. Sims still fits comfortably in that room. He was a dominant back on dominant teams, a Heisman winner with a second near-miss, and one of the clearest examples of what Oklahoma football looked like when the standard was not up for debate.

For a program still finding its footing in the SEC era, nights like this are useful. They drag the real history back into the present.

Billy Sims does not need a new honor to matter in Norman. The SEC giving him one still makes complete sense.

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