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Note:
The 1950 Sugar Bowl is famous for more than an OU win and undefeated
season. It is remembered for a scouting espionage incident. On their way
to New Orleans, the Oklahoma Sooners set up camp in Biloxi, Miss., and
practiced on a high school field. A couple of days before the game, Bud
Wilkinson received a phone call from a neighbor who lived by the field.
He said he had witnessed a guy crawling up a ladder and watching OU
practice. Wilkinson dispatched about a half-dozen people to trap the
culprit. They found him wedged between two garages, covered by a tarp,
peeking over a fence with binoculars and a camera. They pulled the man
down and took his picture before he got loose and ran away. The man was
Walter "Piggy" Barnes, a former lineman at LSU in 1946-47, who later
played for the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL.
By Bill Bellamy
San Antonio Express
 New
Orleans, Jan. 2.- Aroused Oklahoma University tolled midnight for
Louisiana State's so-called "Cinderella" football team.
In astonishing fashion, the Big Red Sooners smashed the toothless
Tigers, 35-0, before a capacity Sugar Bowl throng that enjoyed the
straw-hat weather.
It was the 21st victory in a row for Bud Wilkinson's sharp Sooners and
their second tasting of the Sugar championship in as many years.
Oklahoma entered the game with a genuine bitterness and pulled all stops
in effort to demolish the Bayou Bengals, who were hapless in all but the
first quarter. From the opening kickoff it could be sensed that the
Okies were playing for keeps.
There were stars galore on this O.U. club. The winning offensive hand
was a "Darrell Royal Flush," filled with sensational performances by
Lindell Pearson, Leon Heath and George Thomas. From end to end the
Oklahoma line was all-American. In fact, the entire squad played as if
it could have licked any other team in the nation on this particular
day.
Acclaimed second in the nation, the Sooners proved that they have a
great all-round ball club. Everyone knew they had terrific defense- that
they had averaged 320 yards rushing per game this season, but on the
Sugar Bowl turf Monday they showed brilliance in every department.
It was the Sooners' passing artistry that actually opened up the Tiger
defense. The second quarter air attack had a psychological effect on
LSU, a team that had knocked off three conference champions in regular
play (Rice, North Carolina and Tulane).
The underdog Tigers were baffled completely by optional split-T trickery
once they were loosened up. Royal, an all-purpose dandy, was the
ringmaster for the Tiger taming. He scored once himself, while the other
four touchdowns were split between Thomas and Heath with two each. Ken
Tipps, veteran end, who shown on defense, added all five extra
Royal holding.
Thomas, the guy who broke Texas' back this year with a 40 yard touchdown
gallop, ran his total touchdowns for the season to 21. He had scored a
total of 129 points. But for long distance runs the Sooners turned to
Heath, who hit pay dirt after jaunts of 86 and 34 yards. The 86-yard
scamper set a Sugar Bowl record.
Individually, Heath also copped top honors as he carried the ball 15
times for 170 yards. Pearson had 57 net in 10 tries, Thomas 34 in 15
attempts and Royal carried seven times but only showed a net of six
yards.
The margin of victory was the widest in the pigskin history back of this
colorful event
Oddly enough, the brightest light for the L.S.U. cause was a Texan.
Effervescent Kenny Konz, slight blond from Weimar, turned in a very
creditable game, especially on defense.
No swami here in the mammoth stadium would have figured this 16th
clambake to be such a slaughter. The only smell the Tigers got all day
was in the initial quarter when they reached the O.U. 19-yard line.
 After
the scoreless first period, Oklahoma got the stiff warm breeze to its
back and started rolling. Their first real drive was stopped just a foot
short of the double-marker as, Royal failed to make it on fourth down.
L.S.U. was forced to punt out and the Okies got the ball on the Tiger
37. They scored in just three plays. The payoff was a astrike thrown by
Pearson after taking apitch out from Royal, with Thomas making a fine
catch on the three-yard line and going over. Automatic Tipps split the
uprights for the first of his five points.
Four minutes were gone in the second quarter when the scoring ice was
broken.
O.U. used the short kickoff successfully and Mel Lyle of the Tigers
fumbled, Tipp recovering his own kick on the L.S.U. 37. This time it
took nine plays to cash in. Thomas dropped a pass in the end zone like a
hot potato with no one within 15 yards of him. Heath and Pearson
alternated in taking the ball to the Tiger 5 and it was from that spot
that Mr. Thomas circled end on a lateral pitch out to tally. Heath's
crunching block along with one by Stan West, cleared the path.
At the half it was 14-0. Oklahoma ground out 123 yards rushing in the
first half to a net 27 for L.S.U.
The first time O.U. got their mittens on the ball after the second half
opened they went all the way. Big Heath plowed through the middle on a
quick opening trap and outran the Tiger secondary, eating up 86 yards
Tipps made it 21-0,
As the game progressed, tempers flared. Several times players squared
off on the verge of tossing some punches. An L.S.U. fumble set up the
next marker on the 14-yard line. An offside against L.S.U. moved the
ball to the flve where Royal called his own signal and sneaked across on
third down.
Bert Clark intercepted a pass and returned to the Tiger 29 as the Sooner
worked on their final TD. One play lost five yards before Heath ram-rodded
his way 34 yards into the promised land. That wound it up, 35-0.
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