Walt Barnes
Barnes on a 1950 Bowman football card
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| Date of birth | January 26, 1918 |
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| Place of birth | Parkersburg, West Virginia, U.S. |
| Date of death | January 6, 1998 (aged 79) |
| Place of death | Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Career information | |
| Position(s) | Guard |
| College | Louisiana State |
| Career history | |
| As player | |
| 1948–1951 | Philadelphia Eagles |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| Pro Bowls | 1 |
| Career stats | |
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Walter Lee Barnes (January 26, 1918 – January 6, 1998) was an American football offensive lineman in the National Football League for the Philadelphia Eagles. He played college football at Louisiana State University and was an actor in both American and European films. He appeared in several films with John Wayne, Lex Barker and Clint Eastwood.
Barnes earned his nickname of "Piggy" from catching a piglet when a boy. Playing football at Parkersburg High School, he was on the unbeaten 1938 team and played in the 1939 North-South Game. Following military service in the United States Army in World War II as an Army Sergeant he enrolled in Louisiana State University where he became not only a football player but a college weightlifting champion. Following graduation he joined the Philadelphia Eagles football team as a guard before retiring and becoming a coach of football teams of Columbia University and Arizona State University.
While playing for the Eagles, Barnes made time to help his alma mater, LSU, by spying on the practices of the University of Oklahoma football team prior to the 1950 Sugar Bowl. After being caught by members of the OU football staff and Biloxi, Mississippi residents, Barnes fled to hide in the house of a former LSU teammate, Elbert Manuel. Both Barnes and Manuel refused OU coach Bud Wilkinson's offer to present themselves for identification to clear their names. In the end, the spying incident would have little to do with the outcome of the game, as the superior OU team handled LSU very easily 35-0.
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