Sonny replaced Frank Elwood. Elwood. Frank was a former player for Woody Hayes at OSU and a long time OU assistant coach. Frank took a MAC approach in recruiting players. Sonny came in and tried to run off Frank's players and went with players who had speed, which was a southern approach to football. What always amazed me was that Sonny was a three yards and cloud of dust offense. One would think that Sonny, who was a former NFL wide receiver, would have had thrown the ball more. Sonny offenses were very boring.
Parrish came in and took Sonny's players and ran a wide open offense and the rest is history. Parrish took Carl Fodor, a Sonny recruit and and just threw the ball. I think Fodor was considering leaving MU until Parrish arrive on campus.
I would run into Sonny when I lived in Virginia. He was a character and ended up in radio in Virginia and calling The Herd games. He had a daily commentary on several Virginia radio stations. Sonny seem happy and he loved The Herd.