It didn’t take long for Billy Vessels’ teammates to learn he was unique.

The track star from Cleveland, Oklahoma, was as good as any halfback in the old Big 7 Conference as just a sophomore, his former teammate Merrill Green says. The rest of the country remained in the dark on the special talent until Oklahoma football earned its first opportunity to play on national television against Notre Dame on Nov. 8, 1952.

Green, now in his 80s, struggles to recall much of the classic meeting between the Sooners and Fighting Irish. Green played opposite Vessels at halfback, but he knocked himself out of the contest after blindsiding a Notre Dame defender on a Vessels touchdown run. He’s certain, however, it was that game that won Vessels the 1952 Heisman Trophy.

“In 1952, there wasn’t that many televisions, but if you had one, you were watching Oklahoma play Notre Dame, and Vessels was the star,” said Oklahoma football historian Mike Brooks. “That really propelled him.”

Vessels was doing all of this in the infancy of Oklahoma football’s rise to national prominence.

Before Vessels, Oklahoma had neither a national championship nor a Heisman Trophy to its name. The kid from Cleveland helped the Sooners accomplish both, despite only playing two full seasons in Norman.

Vessels lifted Oklahoma to its first national title in 1950, rushing for 870 yards and 13 touchdowns. His junior season was curtailed by a knee injury, but he returned the next year to rush for a career-best 1,072 yards on 167 attempts and scored 17 touchdowns.

The Notre Dame game was the crown jewel of his Heisman-winning season — the season that earned Vessels’ real estate within Norman’s Heisman Park five decades later.