Former Kentucky Wildcat to be inducted into Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame

by:Nick Roush•12/14/21•

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The Allstate Sugar Bowl will introduce seven legends, including former Kentucky Wildcat Walt Yowarsky, as the fourth class of the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame induction will coincide with this year’s Sugar Bowl in New Orleans between Ole Miss and Baylor.

Playing defense for just the second time in his career, Walt Yowarsky was the completely unexpected Most Outstanding Player for Kentucky’s upset of top-ranked Oklahoma in the 1951 Sugar Bowl. The burly lineman had a pair of key third-down stops, a fumble recovery that led to the Wildcats’ first touchdown, a touchdown-saving tackle of Billy Vessels (future Heisman Trophy winner) at the goal line, and another fumble recovery late in the game which allowed Kentucky to run out the clock in its shocking 13-7 victory.

The Wildcat win snapped the heavily-favored Sooners’ 31-game winning streak. “Coach Bryant wanted his biggest kids on defense to shoot gaps in the Oklahoma offense,” remembered Yowarsky, who was 6-foot-2, 208-pounds. “That’s why, I suppose, I was moved to defense. I think the feeling was that Oklahoma could probably move some on us until they got near the goal, but that they weren’t strong enough to move us out of there.”

A native of Cleveland, Yowarsky played in the NFL for seven years and then went onto over 40 years as a coach and scout in the NFL. He died on November 30, 2014, at the age of 86.