Ken Cook was last angler from Oklahoma to win the Bassmaster Classic

Ken Cook of Meers, the 1991 Bassmaster Classic champion and one of Oklahoma's greatest anglers, died Friday in Oklahoma City of an apparent heart attack.

He was 68. Cook was born in Wilburton and lived in Oklahoma his entire life. He earned a zoology degree from Oklahoma State University and was hired by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation as a fisheries technician and then a biologist.

But he quit that job in 1983 after winning the Super B.A.S.S event on the St. John's River. That launched a pro fishing career which eventually landed him in the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame.

Cook won $100,000 in that tournament, a huge payday at the time, and used the money to buy his beloved Tarbone Ranch near the Wichita Mountains, where he lived for the past 20 years.