Chuck Fairbanks, one of the best football coaches in OU history and maybe the toughest, died Tuesday in Scottsdale, Ariz., after battling brain cancer. He was 79.

“I think sometimes we forget what a great coach he was, because he was sandwiched between some pretty great coaches,” said Steve Owens, the 1969 Heisman Trophy-winning tailback for Fairbanks in 1969.

Fairbanks coached the Sooners from 1967-72, a period that ignited the OU renaissance and included the implementation of the wishbone-T offense. Barry Switzer, who took over for Fairbanks in 1973 when Fairbanks became head coach of the New England Patriots, convinced Fairbanks to install the wishbone in September 1970, and the Sooners became an offensive juggernaut most of the next 20 years.

“Chuck was smart to recognize we needed to do it and he did it,” Switzer said.

Fairbanks joined Jim Mackenzie’s OU staff in 1966 and became head coach in April 1967 when Mackenzie died of a heart attack.