YUKON — Former OU football player Paul Benien Jr., who played for the Sooners from 1959-61, died Wednesday.
He was 80.
Benien was one of a large group of Sooners who suffered from food poisoning before the 1959 opener at Northwestern.
The team went out to dinner at Chicago's Chez Paree nightclub two nights before the game. By the time the main course was served, Benien and 12 of his teammates had became violently ill.
The players were herded into cabs to head back to the team hotel, but quickly redirected to a local hospital — with several stops on the way as the illness got worse.