Oklahoma Football: Sugar Bowl Fun Fact No. 2
The 2017 Sugar Bowl will be the 50th appearance by an Oklahoma football team in a postseason bowl game, but only seven of those have been to New Orleans, the host city of one of the four oldest college bowl games.
Dec 3, 2016; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners safety Ahmad Thomas (13) runs off the field with the Big 12 championship trophy after the game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Bob Stoops’ Big 12 champions are hoping to reprise their last visit to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and the Sugar Bowl, in 2014 (the 2013 postseason), when the Sooners shocked the college football world – not to mention the best team in arguably the best college football conference in the country – with a convincing 45-31 victory over the then two-time defending national champion Alabama Crimson Tide.
Perhaps not surprisingly, given that the Southeastern Conference has had a longtime contractual agreement with the Sugar Bowl, Alabama has made the most Sugar Bowl appearances of any school (15).
Although the Big Eight had a similar longtime agreement with the Orange Bowl – where the Sooners have appeared 19 times (three of those in BCS Championship games), walking away victorious on 11 of those occasions – their seven appearances in the Sugar Bowl are two more than Auburn, Oklahoma’s opponent in this year’s 83rd Sugar Bowl game on Jan. 2.
Oklahoma owns a 5-2 record in its seven previous trips to the Sugar Bowl; Auburn has three Sugar Bowl wins against two losses. One of those losses was a 40-22 drubbing by the Sooners in the 1972 Sugar Bowl. In that same season (1971), Auburn quarterback Pat Sullivan won the Heisman Trophy. OU running back Greg Pruitt was third in the Heisman voting that year, and quarterback Jack Mildren finished sixth.
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