Most OU fans know the great influences on Barry Switzer . Frank Broyles , his college coach and first football boss. Jim Mackenzie , who brought Switzer to Oklahoma in 1966. Merv Johnson , the "rock of Gibraltar ,” as Switzer calls him, and an Arkansas graduate assistant during Switzer's playing days.

But here are three people from long-gone Arkansas days who set Switzer on the road he traveled:

• I...