Former Oklahoma Head Coach Gary Gibbs on Brian Bosworth Turning 60

Next week, one of the most colorful and flamboyant personalities will celebrate his 60th birthday. Most people know him simply as "The Boz," or these days, as the sheriff from the fictional town of Fansville, USA, holding up a can of Dr Pepper. I am, of course, referring to Brian Bosworth. To reflect on his career, I spoke with one of the individuals who helped mold and shape him into the only two-time recipient of the Dick Butkus Award and one of the greatest players to ever grace the football field.

I caught up with former Oklahoma Sooners player and head coach, Gary Gibbs, to talk about the legacy of Boz.

Craig: When you hear that Brian is turning 60, what goes through your mind?

Coach Gibbs: He's held up pretty good for a guy who is 60. (laughs) I'm just twelve years older. It's remarkable really.

Craig: When did you first know that Brian would be really special?

Coach Gibbs: Honestly during recruiting. We redshirted Brian and the majority of that freshman class. We really didn't evaluate them to the degree that we probably should've. It didn't take long into his first year of competition to recognize that Brian had some special traits and kept getting better and better. When it was all over, he wound up being one of the best inside linebackers to ever play college football.

Craig: Peel back the curtain for our readers. What type of practice player and day to day leader was Brian?

Coach Gibbs: We had some great leaders back then who all led in different ways. Brian had great feet, great instincts and was really smart. We were good physically, but we were also a really smart football team. Brian and his teammates studied the game, they knew the game, and they took it from the practice field onto the field on Saturday's. He was a dream player to coach and the 1985 Sooners were a dream team all around.

Craig: If Brian had healthy shoulders, how much better would he have been?

Coach Gibbs: From my perspective, he was awfully good. I don't know if anyone has been better at his position than him as an inside linebacker and we're going back forty years. He was a unique player. He could strike you, he could run, he was a great tackler, and never false stepped. I don't remember him ever getting fooled on a play. Everybody on that 85' team helped each other. It was Brian, but also Tony Casillas, Darrell Reed, Rickey Dixon, I could go on and on. Those guys kept each other humble and hungry. They were a competitive bunch.

Craig: You saw more Brian and less Boz than right?

Coach Gibbs: He was never "Boz" on the football field. Boz was a guy who made a lot of money as an off the field persona which Brian created. Brian was the guy I was around each day.