| Year Game Played: | 1951 |
| Game Name: | Sugar Bowl |
| Subheader: | 17th Sugar Bowl |
| Football Season: | 1950 |
| Visitor Name Short: | Kentucky |
| Visitor Nickname: | Wildcats |
| Visitor School: | University of Kentucky |
| Home Name Short: | Oklahoma |
| Home Nickname: | Sooners |
| Home School: | University of Oklahoma |
| Visitor Record: | 10–1 |
| Visitor Conference: | SEC |
| Home Record: | 10–0 |
| Home Conference: | Big 7 |
| Visitor Coach: | Bear Bryant |
| Home Coach: | Bud Wilkinson |
| Visitor Rank Ap: | 7 |
| Visitor Rank Coaches: | 7 |
| Home Rank Ap: | 1 |
| Home Rank Coaches: | 1 |
| Visitor 1Q: | 7 |
| Visitor 2Q: | 6 |
| Visitor 3Q: | 0 |
| Visitor 4Q: | 0 |
| Home 1Q: | 0 |
| Home 2Q: | 0 |
| Home 3Q: | 0 |
| Home 4Q: | 7 |
| Date Game Played: | January 1 |
| Stadium: | Tulane Stadium |
| City: | New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Odds: | Oklahoma by 6 to 7 points[1] |
| Referee: | Ronald Gibbs (Big Seven; split crew: Big Seven, SEC) |
| Attendance: | 80,206[2] |
The 1951 Sugar Bowl was a college football bowl game played on January 1, 1951. The 17th playing of the Sugar Bowl, it was one of the 1950–51 bowl games concluding the 1950 college football season.
See main article: 1950 Kentucky Wildcats football team. Kentucky entered the bowl with a 10–1 record. The Wildcats were 5–1 in SEC play, thus winning the conference title. The Wildcats' lone loss was to Tennessee. This was the Wildcats' first appearance in a Sugar Bowl.
See main article: 1950 Oklahoma Sooners football team. Oklahoma entered the Sugar Bowl top-ranked with a 10–0 record, having won all 6 of their Big Seven regular season games, thus clinching the conference title. Both major polls (AP writers, UP coaches) awarded the Sooners with their first national championship at the end of the regular season.[3] [4] There were no post bowl polls at the time, but asked by the NCAA (who doesn’t officially recognize champions in football) to retroactively apply his methods to name a champion for each year prior to the beginnings of his rankings in 1978, Jeff Sagarin named Kentucky the champion for the 1950 season. Oklahoma had a record of 2–0 in prior Sugar Bowl games, having won in 1949 and 1950.
Kentucky fielded three defensive tackles for much of the game, which caused Oklahoma quarterback Claude Arnold to hurry his handoffs and passes. One Wildcat tackle was Bob Gain, winner of the Outland Trophy that season. The third was Walt Yowarsky, who had played less than five minutes on defense during the regular season. Yowarsky recovered a fumble on the Oklahoma 22-yard line, leading to Kentucky's first score: on the next play after Yowarsky's fumble recovery, Kentucky quarterback Babe Parilli threw a touchdown pass to Wilbur Jamerson for a 7–0 lead at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Wildcats drove 81 yards for a touchdown, a run by Wilbur Jamerson, and led 13–0 at halftime.
In the third quarter, Oklahoma had the ball, first and goal on the Kentucky 3-yard line. The Wildcat defense held on first and second down; on third down Yowarsky tackled the Oklahoma ball carrier for a five-yard loss. On fourth down, the Sooners were stopped and Kentucky took possession.
In the fourth quarter, Yowarsky recovered a fumbled punt. With seven minutes left in the game, Oklahoma quarterback Billy Vessels threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Merrill Green. Kentucky, however, retained possession of the football for the rest of the game, with the exception of one play, for a 13–7 victory. Yowarsky was named the game's Most Valuable Player.