In Passing: Jack Mildren, Sooner quarterback

Jack Mildren, a former lieutenant governor of Oklahoma and the first quarterback in the University of Oklahoma’s vaunted wishbone offense, died Thursday, his brother said. He was 58.

Mildren had been undergoing treatment for stomach cancer. He’d been diagnosed two years ago but had continued to serve as a vice chairman for Arvest Bank and host a daily sports radio show on WKY 930-AM.

Legislators at the state Capitol observed a moment of silence for the former lieutenant governor, who served there in the 1990s. He ran for governor in 1994 as a Democrat but lost to Republican Frank Keating.

Mildren was the quarterback for Oklahoma’s high-powered offense in 1971, when the Sooners set an NCAA record that still stands by averaging 472.4 rushing yards. The Sooners finished 11-1 that season and defeated Auburn in the Sugar Bowl. Oklahoma’s only loss came in the so-called Game of the Century, when top-ranked Nebraska beat the second-ranked Sooners 35-31 despite four touchdowns from Mildren – two rushing and two passing. Mildren finished the season with 1,289 yards rushing and 20 touchdowns before being drafted by the Baltimore Colts.

Willis Lamb, noted physicist

Willis E. Lamb Jr., a Nobel prize-winning physicist whose work on the electron structure of the hydrogen atom revolutionized the quantum theory of matter, has died. He was 94.

Lamb died in a Tucson hospital from complications of a gallstone disorder May 15, according to an announcement from the University of Arizona, where he was professor emeritus of physics and optical sciences.

Lamb was awarded the Nobel prize for physics in 1955 for research he conducted while at Columbia University’s Columbia Radiation Laboratory. He was working on defense-related research into microwave sources for radar when he became interested in the properties of the hydrogen atom.

He designed and built a device in 1947 with Columbia graduate student R.C. Retherford to study the effect of microwave radiation on the hydrogen atom. That led to measurements that showed a change in the amount of energy emitted from the hydrogen atom in different states that became known as the “Lamb shift.”

The discovery led to changes in the basic concepts behind the application of quantum theory to electromagnetism. His work became one of the foundations of quantum electrodynamics.