One of the all-time great college running backs, the first from Oklahoma to win the Heisman Trophy, and part of the 21-game winning streak that preceded the 47-game OU winning streak that still hasn't been duplicated in Division I college football, Vessels was an Oklahoma hero in the 1950s, an icon in a state that had ben battered by dust, depression, and prize-winning novels that some people didn't read as fiction. You could see film of Vessels even today and be amazed at how fast he was.