President John F. Kennedy and his good friend, OU football coach Bud Wilkinson (Ch. 8), in the White House. JFK decried what he called a nation full of “Soft Americans” becoming sports spectators rather than participants, and selected Bud to head a new President’s Council on Physical Fitness. Kennedy played football himself at Harvard and was a college gridiron fanatic. He not infrequently called the Sooner to Washington to discuss their fitness program in person. Bud remembered that the President invariably moved to the most important item on his agenda: asking the Coach for his personal recollections of big games! Kennedy’s last words to him: “I think you can win them all this year.” Only a couple of months later, JFK died. The next day, Bud, his head bowed to the ground all day on the sideline, coached his final college football game. Courtesy John F. Kennedy Library and Presidential Museum.

He wasn’t from Oklahoma and he never lived here, but he had historic collaborations with several of the state’s greatest leaders, and his impact on the Sooner State was colossal—and not yet finished. Learn the true legacy of “JFK – An American Patriot.”

Join John and KTOK/iHeartRadio star Gwin Faulconer-Lippert for one of American history’s most haunting tales, like you’ve never before heard it—the life and death of a decorated World War II hero and President whose legend grows with each passing year.

This is the 79th episode of our original OKLAHOMA GOLD! radio program! Thank you Atwoods Stores for making it possible! Go HERE to listen to them all! Future episodes explore more great heroes, events, and movements of Oklahoma History. Thank you Atwoods Stores for making it possible!

JFK visiting the southeast Oklahoma ranch of legendary Oklahoma oilman, governor, and U.S. senator Robert S. Kerr, with whom he had a complex but consequential and mutually respectful working relationship.

Though his powerful father arranged a desk job for him during World War II, John F. Kennedy enlisted in the Navy. He rose to command of PT-109, a lethal fast attack craft that the Japanese called “devil boats.” Kennedy’s legend began to grow when an enemy destroyer tore his boat in half in a Solomon Islands night battle. Some crewmen died and Kennedy led the survivors to the closest island. He saved his bloodied engineer by swimming for four hours, gripping a strap from the man’s life preserver in his teeth to tug his body. He nearly died in swimming and canoeing attempts into the sea for help before rescue came. Decorated for his exploits, Kennedy suffered from the effects of his wounds for the rest of his life.

With a fist clenched in conviction, President John F. Kennedy rallies a dejected nation reeling and fearful from Communist space successes: “We have vowed that we shall not see (space) governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace.”

Never before or since has the world come closer to nuclear destruction than during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Battle-hardened World War II veterans led both major adversaries, the United States and Communist Russia. The latter’s leader, Nikita Khrushchev, a Soviet commander at the Battle of Stalingrad, gambled that youthful American President John Kennedy would not risk nuclear war to stop Russian missile deployment and rearming. The Communist’s gamble failed—barely. Courtesy Oklahoma Publishing Co. and Oklahoma Historical Society.

Illustration Jim Lange. Courtesy Oklahoma Publishing Co.

Many thanks to Atwoods Stores, a farm and ranch supply company based in Enid, Oklahoma, for their support of the Red River Institute of History and OKLAHOMA GOLD! Please support them as you are able! Wherever you are, you can order online from thousands of quality products on their terrific website HERE. Atwoods also has 66 stores in 5 states: Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. In addition to farm and ranch supplies, Atwoods stores sell clothing, lawn and garden items, tools, hardware, automotive supplies, sporting goods, pet supplies, firearms, and seasonal items.

Zelia Page Breaux

As a TEENAGER in the 1890s, Oklahoma pioneer Zelia Page Breaux helped create the academic curriculum at Langston University, then built the musical program and band at Oklahoma City Douglass High School into among the best in the southwest, and taught and mentored some of the greatest American artistic talent of the 20th Century, including author Ralph Ellison, guitarist Charlie Christian, and singer Jimmy Rushing. Count Basie and Duke Ellington attended her funeral.

Join John and KTOK/iHeartRadio star Gwin Faulconer-Lippert and learn about one of Oklahoma’s greatest pioneers, creators, and champions of the young. This is the 94th episode of our original OKLAHOMA GOLD! radio program! Thank you Atwoods Stores for making it possible! Go HERE to listen to them all! Future episodes explore more great heroes, events, and movements of Oklahoma History. Thank you Atwoods Stores for making it possible!

The legendary Aldridge Theater on Northeast 2nd Street in Oklahoma City, the original “Deep Deuce.” Zelia Breaux utilized the Aldridge as a stage on which to nurture the musical talents of generations of young African Americans, as well as a top-flight movie theater for Oklahoma’s black community.

Three of Zelia Breaux’s greatest pupils—author Ralph Ellison, guitarist Charlie Christian, and Jimmie Rushing.

The Oklahoma City Douglass High School of 1934-1954, here identified as “High Street School,” and located at N.E. 6th and High Street. Many of Zelia Breaux’s greatest accomplishments took place in this building.

Many thanks to Atwoods Stores, a farm and ranch supply company based in Enid, Oklahoma, for their support of the Red River Institute of History and OKLAHOMA GOLD! Please support them as you are able! Wherever you are, you can order online from thousands of quality products on their terrific website HERE. Atwoods also has 66 stores in 5 states: Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. In addition to farm and ranch supplies, Atwoods stores sell clothing, lawn and garden items, tools, hardware, automotive supplies, sporting goods, pet supplies, firearms, and seasonal items.

Renowned Oklahoma artist Wayne Cooper’s depiction of Comanche Native Charles Chibitty and the Comanche Codetalkers at Utah Beach during the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Courtesy Cooper and the Oklahoma State Senate Historical Preservation Fund, Inc.

The action-packed OKLAHOMA GOLD! podcast saga of Oklahoma's Code Talkers—soldiers from the Choctaw, Comanche, Pawnee, Osage, and many other tribes—and how their frontline genius and daring helped win both World Wars.

Join John and KTOK/iHeartRadio star Gwin Faulconer-Lippert and learn about the Oklahoma Natives whom neither snipers, small arms fire, artillery, bombs from the skies, or death all around them could stop from leading the Allies as they stormed into Nazi Germany and liberated Europe. This is the 84th episode of our original OKLAHOMA GOLD! radio program! Thank you Atwoods Stores for making it possible! Go HERE to listen to them all! Future episodes explore more great heroes, events, and movements of Oklahoma History. Thank you Atwoods Stores for making it possible!

Joseph Oklahombi, Choctaw Indian and World War I code talker from McCurtain County. These Oklahoma Codetalkers sub­stituted their Choctaw words “big gun” for artillery, “little gun shoot fast” for machine guns, and one, two, and three “grains of corn” for battalion numbers. The Germans never deciphered the Choctaw language or codes, and it cost them dearly on the battlefield in the war’s climactic stages. Courtesy Oklahoma Historical Society.

Medicine Park, Oklahoma native Charles Chibitty, winner of the Bronze Star, wounded in action, and one of 16 World War II Comanche Codetalkers who comprised the U.S. Army’s 4th Signal Company. Their many fields of service included Normandy (D-Day) and the Battle of the Bulge. Courtesy Carol Bradshaw.

The Comanche Codetalkers, Oklahomans whose World War II Eu­ropean battlefront military code was never broken by the enemy. Courtesy Comanche Nation.

Many thanks to Atwoods Stores, a farm and ranch supply company based in Enid, Oklahoma, for their support of the Red River Institute of History and OKLAHOMA GOLD! Please support them as you are able! Wherever you are, you can order online from thousands of quality products on their terrific website HERE. Atwoods also has 66 stores in 5 states: Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. In addition to farm and ranch supplies, Atwoods stores sell clothing, lawn and garden items, tools, hardware, automotive supplies, sporting goods, pet supplies, firearms, and seasonal items.

Samuel Worcester, The Cherokee Messenger, a humble giant of a man it took two OKLAHOMA GOLD! podcasts to chronicle—and they are both contained in this podcast. The white Presbyterian missionary guided the founding and operation of the first Native publication, the CHEROKEE PHOENIX newspaper. He translated most of the New Testament into Cherokee. He suffered persecution and imprisonment for defending the tribe’s rights all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. And he and his family accompanied them on their Trail of Tears to modern-day Oklahoma, where he served them virtually until the moment of his death.

Join John and KTOK/iHeartRadio star Gwin Faulconer-Lippert for the inspiring saga of the white missionary whose decades-long service to the Cherokees only death could stop. These are the 87th and 88th episodes of our original OKLAHOMA GOLD! radio program and podcast. Thank you Atwoods Stores for making it possible! Go HERE to listen to them all! Future episodes explore more great heroes, events, and movements of Oklahoma History. Thank you Atwoods Stores for making it possible!

Southeastern homelands, removal dates and routes, and Western destinations of the Cherokees and other Indian republics who traveled the Trail of Tears.

The cover of an early CHEROKEE PHOENIX, the first Indigenous American newspaper,

founded in 1828 by white Presbyterian missionary Samuel Worcester. With Worcester’s aid, Cherokee and eventual Indian Territory immigrant Elias Boudinot edited it and translated the Cherokee text into English, the two versions appearing in alternating columns.

Presbyterian missionary and pastor Sam Worcester mounted a Herculean assault against the liquor use among the Cherokees and other Natives, stemming from white peddlers, that was ravaging them.

Many thanks to Atwoods Stores, a farm and ranch supply company based in Enid, Oklahoma, for their support of the Red River Institute of History and OKLAHOMA GOLD! Please support them as you are able! Wherever you are, you can order online from thousands of quality products on their terrific website HERE. Atwoods also has 66 stores in 5 states: Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. In addition to farm and ranch supplies, Atwoods stores sell clothing, lawn and garden items, tools, hardware, automotive supplies, sporting goods, pet supplies, firearms, and seasonal items.

Great, even iconic athletic teams, players, and coaches have brought Oklahomans thrills, inspiration, and, yes, heartbreak that run from generation to generation through our family histories just as they do our state history. Here is one of the most legendary chapters of them all—the 1977 OU-Ohio State showdown in The Horseshoe, a titanic contest best remembered simply as “The Kick.”

Join John and KTOK/iHeartRadio star Gwin Faulconer-Lippert for the tale of a legendary game, but also of the revered role that sports and our sports “heroes” play in the hearts of Oklahomans. This is the 85th episode of our original OKLAHOMA GOLD! radio program and podcast. Thank you Atwoods Stores for making it possible! Go HERE to listen to them all! Future episodes explore more great heroes, events, and movements of Oklahoma History. Thank you Atwoods Stores for making it possible!

Uwe von Schamann and perhaps the single most famous play in Oklahoma Sooner football history, at Ohio State in 1977.

With the Sooners trailing Ohio State, OU quarterback Dean Blevins leads them downfield on their climactic drive against Ohio State in the game's final seconds.

“The Horseshoe”

OU Heisman Trophy winner Billy Sims on the cover of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED the week after the 1977 OU-Ohio State game.

Many thanks to Atwoods Stores, a farm and ranch supply company based in Enid, Oklahoma, for their support of the Red River Institute of History and OKLAHOMA GOLD! Please support them as you are able! Wherever you are, you can order online from thousands of quality products on their terrific website HERE. Atwoods also has 66 stores in 5 states: Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. In addition to farm and ranch supplies, Atwoods stores sell clothing, lawn and garden items, tools, hardware, automotive supplies, sporting goods, pet supplies, firearms, and seasonal items.

Patrick Hurley cowboyed with Will Rogers, won the Silver Star in WW 1, was U.S. Secretary of War (now Defense), won the Distinguished Flying Cross in WW 2 as he rose to Major General, troubleshot for President Franklin Roosevelt all over the world during that war—though the two were political opposites—and as U.S. Ambassador to China, was America’s greatest defender of the Free Chinese against Mao’s barbaric Reds. The same Free Chinese who now shine the beacon of liberty from…Taiwan.

Join John and KTOK/iHeartRadio star Gwin Faulconer-Lippert for the rip-snorting, action-packed tale of one of the greatest men Oklahoma has ever produced. This is the 82nd episode of our original OKLAHOMA GOLD! radio program and podcast. Thank you Atwoods Stores for making it possible! Go HERE to listen to them all! Future episodes explore more great heroes, events, and movements of Oklahoma History. Thank you Atwoods Stores for making it possible!

Reunion of two legendary Oklahoman cowboys who rode the range together in Territorial days, after both became famous: “Favorite Son” Will Rogers and U.S. Secretary of War Pat Hurley. Courtesy Oklahoma Publishing Company and Oklahoma Historical Society.

Patrick J. Hurley, Secretary of War (now Defense) under President Herbert Hoover, the highest-ranking Oklahoma government official to that point in history.

Two of Communist China’s greatest Cold War enemies—Republic of China leader Chiang Kai-Shek and Oklahoma native, veteran of two World Wars, and Major General and U.S. Ambassador to China, Pat Hurley. Courtesy Associated Press and Oklahoma Historical Society.

The flags of the Republic of China, now the Republic of Taiwan, and the Communist People’s Republic of China, or Red China.

Oklahoman Pat Hurley, following World War II and his resignation as Ambassador to China, continued his dauntless efforts to save that nation from Communism. He charged Under Secretary of State Dean Acheson, according to the Associated Press, with “wrecking” policies “approved by the late President Roosevelt, during a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.” Courtesy Associated Press and Oklahoma Historical Society.

Many thanks to Atwoods Stores, a farm and ranch supply company based in Enid, Oklahoma, for their support of the Red River Institute of History and OKLAHOMA GOLD! Please support them as you are able! Wherever you are, you can order online from thousands of quality products on their terrific website HERE. Atwoods also has 66 stores in 5 states: Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. In addition to farm and ranch supplies, Atwoods stores sell clothing, lawn and garden items, tools, hardware, automotive supplies, sporting goods, pet supplies, firearms, and seasonal items.

Meet one of Oklahoma's most lionhearted couples, Walter and Frances Edwards. They overcame an inconceivable armada of obstacles, setbacks, and disappointments to build hospitals, homes, and hope for thousands, which no one else would build.

Join John and KTOK/iHeartRadio star Gwin Faulconer-Lippert for the story of a husband and wife who improved life for everyone in Oklahoma City and many beyond, and never stopped practicing their motto of, “If you give your best to life, life will give its best to you!” This is the 86th episode of our original OKLAHOMA GOLD! radio program and podcast. Thank you Atwoods Stores for making it possible! Go HERE to listen to them all! Future episodes explore more great heroes, events, and movements of Oklahoma History. Thank you Atwoods Stores for making it possible!

Walter Edwards with his crew at the Edwards Scrap Iron and Junk Yard in Oklahoma City, which earned him a fortune and sustained him through the 1929 Stock Market Crash and 1930s Great Depression.

Hassman Heights in Oklahoma City, the first FHA-insured housing project ever undertaken “by Negroes for Negroes.” Walter and Frances Edwards built 800 bargain priced, top quality homes in this housing addition. When advised by a Federal Housing Administration official, “These houses are worth more than you’re asking,” Walter agreed, but added, “Negroes can’t afford to pay any more.” By the third decade of occupancy, not one of the by-then more than 600 homes had been repossessed for delinquent payments. Courtesy Oklahoma Historical Society.

Edwards Memorial Hospital in Oklahoma City, the first hospital in the South built, owned, and run by African Americans.

An early edition of the Edwards Elementary School in Oklahoma City, named by the community in honor of Walter and Frances Edwards…

…and the modern day version.

Many thanks to Atwoods Stores, a farm and ranch supply company based in Enid, Oklahoma, for their support of the Red River Institute of History and OKLAHOMA GOLD! Please support them as you are able! Wherever you are, you can order online from thousands of quality products on their terrific website HERE. Atwoods also has 66 stores in 5 states: Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. In addition to farm and ranch supplies, Atwoods stores sell clothing, lawn and garden items, tools, hardware, automotive supplies, sporting goods, pet supplies, firearms, and seasonal items.

Founding father and first governor Charles Haskell led our big and brawling new Western state with a cocksure confidence that he backed up with action—and he might even have saved it a time or two. In a distant generation, he rises up as one of the great men in Oklahoma history.

Join John and KTOK/iHeartRadio star Gwin Faulconer-Lippert for the story of Oklahoma Founding Father Charles Haskell, who had the rare poise, savvy, and head to navigate a rough-and-tumble Southern Plains territory into a vibrant 20th Century American state. This is the 78th episode of our original OKLAHOMA GOLD! radio program and podcast. Thank you Atwoods Stores for making it possible! Go HERE to listen to them all! Future episodes explore more great heroes, events, and movements of Oklahoma History. Thank you Atwoods Stores for making it possible!

Charles Haskell, first governor of Oklahoma.

First Oklahoma Governor Charles Haskell at the colossal statehood barbecue he organized.

The Columbia Bank and Trust in Oklahoma City, the state’s largest financial institution at the time of its 1909 failure. Haskell’s bold, daring leadership and the Bank Deposit Guaranty Law he spearheaded prevented Columbia’s collapse from dragging Oklahoma into a disastrous economic depression like New York and others had recently experienced.

Merle DeLeon’s drawing from Foster’s Comic History of Oklahoma by C. D. Foster. If not historically precise, it splendidly captures the swashbuckling—and surreptitious—nature of the Charles Haskell Administration’s 1910 “transfer” of the state capital from Guthrie to Oklahoma City.

Many thanks to Atwoods Stores, a farm and ranch supply company based in Enid, Oklahoma, for their support of the Red River Institute of History and OKLAHOMA GOLD! Please support them as you are able! Wherever you are, you can order online from thousands of quality products on their terrific website HERE. Atwoods also has 66 stores in 5 states: Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. In addition to farm and ranch supplies, Atwoods stores sell clothing, lawn and garden items, tools, hardware, automotive supplies, sporting goods, pet supplies, firearms, and seasonal items.

One of the darkest, most enduring mysteries of Oklahoma History, the controversial life…and death…of Karen Silkwood.

Join John and KTOK/iHeartRadio star Gwin Faulconer-Lippert for the story of Oklahoma’s iconic Kerr McGee, nuclear power intrigue and contamination, and a tiny, troubled woman who lived, and died, trying to protect her fellow workers. It is the 83rd episode of our original OKLAHOMA GOLD! radio program and podcast. Thank you Atwoods Stores for making it possible! Go HERE to listen to them all! Future episodes explore more great heroes, events, and movements of Oklahoma History. Thank you Atwoods Stores for making it possible!

Karen Silkwood, whose 1974 death while she fought to protect her fellow workers in a Logan County nuclear production facility remains a controversial mystery.

Perhaps the most famous wrecked car in Oklahoma history—Karen Silkwood’s, November 1974. Photo Associated Press.CourtesyOklahoma Publishing Co. and Oklahoma Historical Society.

Oklahoma City attorney Jim Ikard and Bill Silkwood continue their decade-long quest for justice for Silkwood’s daughter Karen. Photo Paul Southerland. Courtesy Oklahoma Publishing Co. and Oklahoma Historical Society.

Many thanks to Atwoods Stores, a farm and ranch supply company based in Enid, Oklahoma, for their support of the Red River Institute of History and OKLAHOMA GOLD! Please support them as you are able! Wherever you are, you can order online from thousands of quality products on their terrific website HERE. Atwoods also has 66 stores in 5 states: Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. In addition to farm and ranch supplies, Atwoods stores sell clothing, lawn and garden items, tools, hardware, automotive supplies, sporting goods, pet supplies, firearms, and seasonal items.

No Oklahoma lawman ever put greater fear into the hearts of our most notorious outlaws, more courageously defended the terrorized Osages during the Osage Reign of Terror, or had his life end in greater mystery—and violence—than the legendary Luther Bishop. You’ll never forget his story.

Join John and KTOK/iHeartRadio star Gwin Faulconer-Lippert for a story of Oklahoma courage, and what doing right and defending the weak can sometimes cost. It is the 78th episode of our original OKLAHOMA GOLD! radio program and podcast. Go HERE to listen to them all! Future episodes explore more great heroes, events, and movements of Oklahoma History. Thank you Atwoods Stores for making it possible!

Oklahoma lawman Luther Bishop, right, and one of the many illegal liquor supplies that he—and the semi-automatic pistols he packed on both hips—captured.

The demolished home of Osage petroleum headrights’ owners Bill and Ruth Smith, whom a dynamite blast murdered, along with their white housekeeper Nettie Brookshire, during the Osage Reign of Terror. (Courtesy Bartlesville Area Historical Museum.)

Former Texas Ranger Tom White, head of the courageous undercover team of lawmen who took on a vicious and terrifying murder conspiracy that victimized oil rich Osage Indians. According to White, no lawman in the years-long pursuit of the Osage killers was more valuable than Oklahoma Crime Bureau Special Agent Luther Bishop.

Many thanks to Atwoods Stores, a farm and ranch supply company based in Enid, Oklahoma, for their support of the Red River Institute of History and OKLAHOMA GOLD! Please support them as you are able! Wherever you are, you can order online from thousands of quality products on their terrific website HERE. Atwoods also has 66 stores in 5 states: Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. In addition to farm and ranch supplies, Atwoods stores sell clothing, lawn and garden items, tools, hardware, automotive supplies, sporting goods, pet supplies, firearms, and seasonal items.