First, let me start this blog off with the disclosure that I have done my research BUT there may be a coach or coaches out there who say, "Nope, you are wrong, there was a quarterback...". I am very much ok with that. If I have missed something PLEASE contact me at chris@iwasatthegame.com Also, this is a tough number to track down. Did the quarterback START every game during that season, is always hard to determine. So we are looking at two numbers here : 4 and 51.
With Carl Albert winning their 5th consecutive Oklahoma Football State Championship AND accomplishing this with a Senior quarterback who started as a freshman, this brings up a HUGE question...
Is Carl Albert's Ben Harris the only starting quarterback to have led his team to four consecutive Oklahoma High School Football State Championships during his high school career?
First line of research was to determine whether Harris' accomplishment in leading his team to 4 straight championships as the starting QB has ever happened before. That research was pretty easy to determine. How? Simply find the Oklahoma High School Football teams that have had four or more consecutive championships, research their quarterbacks and see if any of them had one starting as a Freshman through their Senior year. Below is the list of schools who have accomplished winning four or more consecutive Oklahoma High School Football State Championships.
MOST CONSECUTIVE OKLAHOMA HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
7 : MORRISON-B (1988-1994)
6 : JENKS-6A (1996-2001), SHATTUCK-C (2003-2008)
5 : CARL ALBERT-5A (2016-2020) (1997-2001)
4 : ADA-5A-4A (1993-1996), UNION-6A (2008-2011), FREDERICK-3A-2A (1993-1996), JENKS-6A (2012-2015)
When I first posed this question to some people, the one person on many of their possibilities, was Ada's Brandon Daniels. Daniels did guide the Cougars during Ada's four-year run from 1993 to 1996 but he graduated in 1996, the 1995 football season. I have check out all of these streaks, via newspaper articles and talking to coaches and am confident that Carl Albert's Ben Harris is the only starting quarterback to lead his team to four consecutive state championships.
Has Carl Albert QB Ben Harris led his team to the most wins EVER in his high school career?
First, I had to track down the teams that had an incredible four year streak of winning games. I have a lot of that data so that took quite a bit of time, but it was fairly easy to calculate. Carl Albert won 52 games during Ben Harris' high school football career. Harris' "games started count" is pretty easy to calculate with being able to communicate with Carl Albert head coach Mike Corley. Coach Corley indicated that Harris did start every game during his 4-year career with the exception of game six of his freshman year. The starting QB for the Titans that game, had gotten hurt before the 1st game of the season and returned to start game six vs Bishop McGuinness but Harris came in for the third series of the game and led Carl Albert to a 21-6 victory. So, we can debate the actual number (51 or 52) at a later date but we can say that Carl Albert won 51 games with Ben Harris as their starting quarterback.
Next, the list. This list is as complete as I can find. It does not go back to years before the mid 1950's but is pretty complete. I was able to confirm Ada and Thomas' win totals previous to that because they had some very good teams in the 50's. The purpose of this list is to find a number of wins 51 or greater by a starting quarterback. So the team may have won 50+ games during 4-years but did not win 4 state championships, so this list is a little longer than the consecutive state championships list. Again, if anyone would like to add to this list, please contact me.
MOST WINS FOR AN OKLAHOMA HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL TEAM DURING A 4-YEAR SPAN
55 : Central Marlow (1992-1995) 13-1, 14-0, 14-0, 14-0
54 : Cashion (19-22), Fairfax (74-77), Ringling (89-92), Wynnewood (89-92), Jenks (96-00) (97-01), Morrison (05-08) (91-94), Shattuck (05-08) (04-07) (03-06)
53 : Ada (93-96), Thomas (99-02), Davis (12-15) (11-14), Heritage Hall (15-18) (14-17), Morrison (92-95) (90-93) (89-92), Shattuck (16-19)
52 : Okeene (05-08), Cascia Hall (07-10), Union (08-11) (07-10) (02-05), Jenks (98-01), Davenport (15-18), Carl Albert (17-20), Morrison (04-07) (03-06) (88-91), Shattuck (02-05), (17-20)
51 : Okeene (81-84), Velma-Alma (92-95), Thomas (97-00), Davis (00-03), Laverne (11-14), Tipton (11-14), Shattuck (15-18), Pond Creek-Hunter (16-19)
So, there it is. I've done some "spot checking" on a lot of these teams and have checked with a few former and current head coaches and have not found a quarterback that fits our criteria.
With what I have researched Ben Harris has started at quarterback for more wins for his team than any other player in Oklahoma High School Football History.
OTHER NUMBERS
Another number I found was very interesting during my research was that of Mike Wilson. Mike Wilson was the starting quarterback for Central Marlow for the 1993, 1994 and 1995 seasons. Central Marlow won the State Championship all three of those years AND went 14-0. So, during Mike Wilson's career as starting quarterback for Central Marlow, their record was an INCREDIBLE 42-0! Another number for Wilson, was that he also kicked 217 extra points during his career and that, at the time, was a National Record.
TWO OTHER "undefeated streaks"
Benton Longhofer who was 41-0 as the starting quarterback for Shattuck in 2003, 2004 and 2005 which was the first 3 state championships in Shattuck's run of six straight and their 92 game winning streak.
Blake Adams who was the starting quarterback for Heritage Hall in 2015, 2016 and 2017, finished his career with a 39-0 record for Chargers. Heritage Hall went 15-0, 11-1 and 14-0 during that run with 2 State Championships but Adams broke his collar bone in 2016 and missed the playoffs.
This maybe a family record, in consecutive years. From 1974 to 1977, Fairfax won 54 games (11-2, 15-0, 15-0, 13-1) and grabbed 3 state championships. The starting quarterbacks for that 4-year run were brothers. Roger Lance led the team for the 1974 and 1975 season and Craig Lance led the team from 1976 and 1977 for a total of 54 wins. Also, the first 3 seasons of that run was with head coach Larry Coker. Coker was probably best known for leading the Miami Hurricane to the 2001 National Championship, in his first year of head coaching.
MOST WINS FOR A TEAM BY A STARTING QUARTERBACK IN THEIR CAREER (updated 12/22/2020)
51-2 : Ben Harris (Carl Albert 2020)
47-5 : Joey Fowler (Dewar 2020)
41-0 : Benton Longhofer (Shattuck 2005)
39-0 : Blake Adams (Heritage Hall 2017)
Feel free to login/sign up to this blog and leave a comment. Tweet us at @IWasAtTheGame or shoot me an email at chris@iwasatthegame.com
Thanks to contributors to my research : Van Shea Iven, Mike Corley, Tim Allen, Corey Bales, Troy Bullard, Ray Soldan. Daily Oklahoman for the Ben Harris picture.
