Former OU coach Chuck Fairbanks has brain cancer

"I'm feeling good and I'm confident we're going to win this," Fairbanks said Saturday morning. "I never went into a tough fight thinking I was going to lose. I'm not going into this one that way, either."

The 79-year-old Fairbanks said he was diagnosed in late August and is scheduled for 42 days of radiation and chemotherapy treatments.

Fairbanks played collegiately for coach Duffy Daugherty at Michigan State and served as head coach of the Sooners from 1967-72 before leaving to coach the NFL New England Patriots (1973-78). Fairbanks later replaced Bill Mallory as head coach at Colorado (1979-81) and coached the inaugural season of the USFL New Jersey Generals (1983).

Fairbanks' coaching career began at Ishpeming High School in Michigan. He later served as an assistant under Frank Kush at Arizona State (1958-61) and Bill Yeoman at Houston (1962-65) before arriving at OU in 1966.

Fairbanks was promoted to Sooners head coach following the death of Jim Mackenzie in April 1967.