1950 Kentucky Wildcats football team
The 1950 Kentucky Wildcats football team represented the University of Kentucky in the 1950 college football season. The offense scored 393 points while the defense allowed 69 points. Led by head coach Bear Bryant, the Wildcats were the SEC champions and by winning the Sugar Bowl were listed as the #1 ranked team 40 years later in a computer ranking produced by Jeff Sagarin, declaring them national champions, however this is not recognized by College Football Data Warehouse.
| 1950 Kentucky Wildcats football | |
|---|---|
Sugar Bowl, W 13–7 vs. Oklahoma | |
| Conference | Southeastern Conference |
| Ranking | |
| Coaches | No. 7 |
| AP | No. 7 |
| 1950 record | 11–1 (5–1 SEC) |
| Head coach |
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| Home stadium | Stoll Field/McLean Stadium |
| 1950 Southeastern Conference football standings | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team | W | L | T | W | L | T | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No. 7 Kentucky $ | 5 | – | 1 | – | 0 | 11 | – | 1 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No. 4 Tennessee | 4 | – | 1 | – | 0 | 11 | – | 1 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No. 16 Alabama | 6 | – | 2 | – | 0 | 9 | – | 2 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No. 20 Tulane | 3 | – | 1 | – | 1 | 6 | – | 2 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Georgia Tech | 4 | – | 2 | – | 0 | 5 | – | 6 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Georgia | 3 | – | 2 | – | 1 | 6 | – | 3 | – | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mississippi State | 3 | – | 4 | – | 0 | 4 | – | 5 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vanderbilt | 3 | – | 4 | – | 0 | 7 | – | 4 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| LSU | 2 | – | 3 | – | 2 | 4 | – | 5 | – | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Florida | 2 | – | 4 | – | 0 | 5 | – | 5 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ole Miss | 1 | – | 5 | – | 0 | 5 | – | 5 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Auburn | 0 | – | 7 | – | 0 | 0 | – | 10 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1950 Kentucky team concluded its season with a victory over Bud Wilkinson's #1 ranked and NCAA champion Oklahoma Sooners in the Sugar Bowl. The living players from the 1950 Wildcats team were honored during halftime of a game during the 2005 season as the #1 ranked team for the 1950 season, even though they finished the season ranked #7 by the AP. In 1990, Jeff Sagarin released a retroactive ranking of teams for the 1950 season and Kentucky was listed #1.
Head Coach
Bear Bryant was known for having the most Collegiate wins of any head coach ever with 323 wins. 60 of those wins being at Kentucky. Bryant coached for Kentucky for a total of 8 seasons, 1950 being his fifth. After being inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa in 1949, Bryant went on to win his first Southeastern Conference Championship and Sugar Bowl as a Head Coach, before going on to win more with the University of Alabama and Texas A&M University. The Wildcats also had help from some other coaches. Carney Laslie, Frank Mosely, Ermal Allen, Clarence Underwood, Richard Holway, and George Chapman.
Stadium
McLean Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium open from 1880 to 1972, before the University of Kentucky replaced it with Kroger Field, formally known as Commonwealth Stadium. [1] The stadium had a capacity of 37,000 fans.
Schedule
| Date | Opponent | Rank | Site | Result | Attendance | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 16 | North Texas State* | No. 13 | W 25–0 | 24,000 | [2] | |
| September 23 | LSU | No. 13 |
| W 14–0 | ||
| September 30 | Ole Miss | No. 13 |
| W 27–0 | ||
| October 7 | Dayton* | No. 6 |
| W 40–0 | [3] | |
| October 14 | Cincinnati* | No. 5 |
| W 41–7 | ||
| October 21 | at Villanova* | No. 4 | W 34–7 | |||
| October 28 | at Georgia Tech | No. 4 | W 28–14 | 35,000 | ||
| November 4 | No. 17 Florida | No. 5 |
| W 40–6 | ||
| November 11 | at Mississippi State | No. 4 | W 48–21 | |||
| November 18 | North Dakota* | No. 5 |
| W 83–0 | ||
| November 25 | at No. 9 Tennessee | No. 3 | L 0–7 | |||
| January 1 | vs. No. 1 Oklahoma* | No. 7 | W 13–7 | 80,206 | ||
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1951 NFL Draft
| Player | Position | Round | Pick | NFL Club |
| Bob Gain | Tackle | 1 | 5 | Green Bay Packers |
| Walt Yowarsky | Tackle | 3 | 29 | Washington Redskins |
| Al Bruno | End | 3 | 32 | Philadelphia Eagles |
| Bob Hope | Tackle | 11 | 130 | Philadelphia Eagles |
| Bill Leskovar | Back | 14 | 163 | Chicago Cardinals |
| Clay Webb | Back | 15 | 176 | Pittsburgh Steelers |
| Bill Wanamaker | Guard | 15 | 179 | New York Yanks |
| Dom Fucci | Back | 18 | 210 | Washington Redskins |
| Dick Martin | Back | 28 | 331 | Chicago Cardinals |
Awards and honors
- Bob Gain, Outland Trophy[7]
- Bob Gain, All-America selection[8]
- Bob Gain, College Football Hall of Fame[9]
References
- Riddle, Becky. "Stoll Field". Kentucky History. ExploreKYHistory. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
- "Crowd of 24,000 fans see Wildcats blank North Texas, 25–0, in opener". Lexington Herald-Leader. September 17, 1950. Retrieved November 5, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Parilli flips 4 touchdown passes as U.K. overpowers Dayton 40–0". The Courier-Journal. October 8, 1950. Retrieved August 21, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
- 1997 Kentucky Wildcats Football Media Guide
- "Kentucky in the 1950 AP polls at AP Poll Archive". Archived from the original on October 5, 2009. Retrieved October 3, 2009.
- "Reference at www.pro-football-reference.com".
- "Do You Know Which Team Has the Most College Football Championships?".
- "Bob Gain, Star Defensive Lineman on Browns Title Teams, Dies at 87". The New York Times. The Associated Press.
- "Bob Gain, Star Defensive Lineman on Browns Title Teams, Dies at 87". The New York Times. The Associated Press.