AUSTIN, Texas — On Saturday, the Texas Longhorns will host the Kentucky Wildcats in what will be the first time the now-SEC foes have ever met as members of the same conference.
The Longhorns enter Saturday’s game as massive favorites (currently sitting as 20.5-point favorites according to most online sportsbooks), and are in prime position to clinch a spot in the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 7 if they win their final two games.
The Wildcats, meanwhile, currently sit at 4-6 on the season, meaning a loss on Saturday would remove them from bowl game consideration, as they’d be guaranteed to finish with a record below .500.
Saturday’s game obviously carries high stakes for the trajectories of the two programs, but it’s a far cry from the last time – and the only time – the two squads previously met.
The only other time Texas and Kentucky have squared off on the gridiron was all the way back on Sept. 22, 1951, when the No. 6-ranked Wildcats traveled to Austin to battle the No. 11-ranked Longhorns at Texas Memorial Stadium in front of 47,000 fans.
The Longhorns were led by coach Ed Price, who was in his first year with the program. The team was coming off a loss to Tennessee in the previous season’s Cotton Bowl.
The Wildcats, meanwhile, were coming off their 1950 national championship campaign and were coached by perhaps the greatest college football coach of all-time – Paul “Bear” Bryant, in what was his sixth season with the team. Quarterbacking the squad that day was future College Football Hall of Famer and NFL first-round draft pick Babe Parilli, who would go onto win Super Bowl III with the New York Jets serving as Joe Namath’s backup.
The game ended with the Longhorns coming out on top in an old-fashioned, 1951-style defensive slugfest 7-6. The Longhorns battered Kentucky with a relentless rushing attack, gaining 169 of their 211 total yards on the ground. Similar to the 2024 Longhorns, the 1951 Longhorns also employed a committee approach at running back, with four players each hitting double figures on the ground. Byron Townsend lead the way 61 yards.
Given that they were led by a future College Football Hall of Famer, perhaps its unsurprising that the Wildcats were far more dominant through the air, as Parilli threw for 142 yards on 18-of-33 pass attempts with a third quarter touchdown pass to Bucky Gruner. The Longhorns threw for just 52 yards all game, but while quarterback James Carroll “T” Jones completed just 3-of-10 pass attempts, one of his completions was the decisive 13-yard scoring toss running back Don Barton in the first quarter. Kentucky would miss the extra point attempt following Gruner’s touchdown.
The Wildcats also gained 21 first downs to the Longhorns’ eight.
However, what decided the game for the Longhorns were turnovers, as the Wildcats committed six all game including three interceptions thrown by Parilli, with Don Menasco, Bobby Dillon and June Davis each accounting for a Parilli interception.
“I thought it was a good ballgame right down to the wire. Somebody had to lose it. I hated that it had to be us, of course,” Bryant said after the game. Bryant would leave Kentucky following the 1953 season, subsequently coaching Texas A&M from 1954 until 1957 and Alabama from 1958 until 1982, going on a dynastic run with the Crimson Tide winning six national titles during the 1960s and 1970s.
Historically, the game is relevant as it aired just a week prior to CBS broadcasting the first ever college football game in color.
Saturday’s matchup between Texas and Kentucky kicks off at 2:30 p.m. at DKR Stadium, the same site as that 1951 game – albeit much larger now. If you aren’t attending the game, you can watch it live on KVUE.