If there was any doubt about Sooner magic coming through in a clutch, it has been crowded out by the sheer number of titles and accolades that have popped up like red tulips on the OU campus in the past couple of months. 

This spring University of Oklahoma teams collected four national championships in 53 days, from women’s gymnastics on April 15 to softball on June 6, besting last year’s record of three championships in a single semester. 

The women’s gymnastics program captured its second straight national title and third in four seasons under K.J. Kindler; men’s gymnastics claimed its third straight national crown, eighth under Mark Williams and 11th overall; men’s golf claimed its second in program history and first under Ryan Hybl; and softball won its fourth overall, third in five years and second straight under Patty Gasso.  

Also noteworthy, the Oklahoma men’s tennis duo of Andrew Harris and Spencer Papa won the NCAA Division I doubles championship May 29 in Athens, Ga., becoming the first Sooners to win an NCAA individual tennis title.

With four NCAA team championships, five individual NCAA titles and four team conference crowns, the 2017 spring semester represented the most productive athletics term in OU history. But the success of OU’s student-athletes the last several months transcended sports, as the Sooners also set a pair of significant collective standards in the classroom. OU student-athletes posted a 3.09 cumulative GPA for the spring semester, the best in recorded school history, which marked a record 11th consecutive semester of posting at least a 3.0 figure. 

Not coincidently, in August OU Athletics Director Joe Castiglione was voted the Best Division I AD in the nation according to a Sports Illustrated poll of sports media and peer athletic directors.