Football (1928-32); Football and Track Coach (1941-56)
David T. W. Stevens was the Savage head football coach from 1941 to 1956. During that span of years he produced some of the greatest teams in the history of Southeastern football.
Stevens was born April 16, 1910 in Mount Sterling, Kentucky. His family moved to Oklahoma the following year. He attended Okmulgee High School where he lettered in six sports in one year. His greatest success was with Coach Runt Ramsey’s football team where he earned All-State honors as an end.
Following graduation from high school in 1928 he enrolled at Southeastern. He played as a freshman on the football team for Coach Brennon Witt and then played three years under Coach Ramsey, who left the Okmulgee position to head the Savage grid program.
Stevens coached high school football teams at Checotah, Caddo, Morris, and Pryor from 1932 to 1940. He became head football and track coach at Southeastern in 1941. Except for three years during World War II in which he was an instructor in the armed forced, he coached the Savages until 1956.
Dave Stevens’ post-war teams were among the greatest the university has ever fielded. He won conference championships in 1946, 1947, and 1948. He produced many of the finest football players in Southeastern history.
Coach Stevens earned the masters and doctors degrees at Oklahoma State University, and retired from athletic coaching in 1956 to work as a professor of sociology until his retirement from the university n 1975.
Dr. Dave Stevens headed the Savage football program longer than any other coach and brought honor to Southeastern athletics. He was inducted into the Southeastern Athletic Hall of Fame on February 9, 1980.
