Hope felt lost inside Oklahoma Memorial Union.

It was there Steve Owens and his wife, Barbara, awaited an important phone call on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 1969. He was told he would know around 11 a.m. if he had won the Heisman Trophy, the award annually given to college football’s most outstanding player.

The phone didn’t ring, and he knew the Downtown Athletic Club called only the winner. Owens had to get to football practice soon, so he departed the union under the impression he fell short of becoming Oklahoma’s second Heisman Trophy winner. As he walked across campus to go prepare for his final game as a Sooner, he was stopped by someone who broke the news to him.

Owens had won the Heisman.

A trio of quarterbacks were his biggest challengers — Purdue’s Mike Phipps, Ohio State’s Rex Kern and Ole Miss’ Archie Manning. Each played for teams with better records than the 6-4 Sooners of 1969, but team success carried less weight with Heisman Trophy voting in Owens’ era.