Elmer Zen "E.Z.” Million, a multifaceted activist who pushed hard for the Oklahoma-Texas football game to be played in Norman every other year, died Saturday in his Norman home. He was 68.
A graduate of Weatherford High School, Million became a Norman resident in 1957 and earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and master’s degree in engineering from OU.
He ran for public office on numerous occasions, but never won.
Million was a Republican nominee for state House District 44 in 1968 and 1970 and ran as an independent in 2000; was a Republican nominee for state Senate District 16 in 1973; was an Oklahoma delegate in the 1980 Republican Convention in Detroit.
He also ran as an independent in the lieutenant governor race in 2004; and as a retired computer consultant competed in the Norman mayoral race in 2007.
Million formed the Sooner Chamber of Commerce in 1993 to promote local tourism and to get the OU-Texas football rivalry moved away from the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
At the 2002 OU Board of Regents meeting in Lawton, Million was granted five minutes to plead his case, but to no avail.
"No more sending $25 million of Oklahoma’s dollars southward,” Million said two years ago.
Born in Moscow, Idaho, in 1940, Million became paralyzed with polio at age 4 and at one point was confined to an iron lung machine.
Despite a miraculous recovery, his left arm had to be amputated when he was 19.
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