1987 Sun Bowl The 1987 John Hancock Sun Bowl was the 54th annual Sun Bowl games . The contest featured the West Virginia Mountaineers and the 11th ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys . Oklahoma State edged out West Virginia , 35 - 33 . The game was decided with 1 : 13 to play . It was arguably one of the most entertaining games of the 1987 - 88 bowl season . The game was played on snowy , cold Christmas Day of 1987 before a crowd of 43 , 240 in front of a CBS national television audience . The game featured West Virginia ' s exciting new quarterback Major Harris , who had defeated Browning Nagle in the offseason for the Mountaineers ' starting quarterback position . It was also the final college game for Oklahoma State running back Thurman Thomas , who would go on to a Hall of Fame NFL career . Oklahoma State also featured tailback Barry Sanders . The game featured a lot of offense , with teams trading touchdowns in the first quarter . Cowboys quarterback Mike Gundy and wide receiver Hart Lee Dykes completed a long pass off of a flea flicker to set up a 5 - yard touchdown by Thomas . West Virginia ' s Anthony " A . B . " Brown answered with a touchdown to tie the game at 7 - 7 . Thomas would score again on a 9 - yard run to take a 14 - 7 lead for Oklahoma State . West Virginia , however , would then score 17 unanswered points in the second quarter . West Virginia ' s Brown would score on a 5 - yard run to tie the game at 14 , and the Mountaineers would extend their lead to 17 - 14 on a Charlie Baumann field goal . West Virginia defensive lineman Darnell Warren intercepted Mike Gundy to extend the Mountaineer lead to 24 - 14 at the end of the first half . OSU reverted back to Thomas to begin the second half , and he carried the ball six consecutive times , marching the Cowboys 56 yards down the field and scoring from 5 yards out to pull the Cowboys to within three at 24 - 21 . West Virginia would answer with a Baumann field goal to extend the lead to 27 - 21 . Oklahoma State took at 28 - 27 lead with 1 : 43 left in the third quarter , by virtue of a six - yard touchdown pass from Gundy to J . R . Dillard . Thomas ' s dominance continued in the fourth quarter , as he capped a 13 - play , 74 - yard OSU drive with his fourth touchdown of the game , giving Oklahoma State a 35 - 27 lead with time running out in the fourth quarter . With just 1 : 13 remaining , West Virginia ' s Craig Taylor scored a touchdown on a 6 - yard run to pull the game to within two . West Virginia attempted to tie the game on a two - point conversion attempt . West Virginia quarterback Harris completed his two - point attempt pass to tight end Keith Winn , but Winn was tackled just shy of the goal line by Oklahoma State ' s Shawn Mackey . With the win , Oklahoma State finished its season 10 - 2 , lost only to No . 1 Oklahoma and No . 5 Nebraska . Thurman Thomas was named the C . M . Hendricks Most Valuable Player , while Sanders would go on to win the Heisman Trophy one year later . West Virginia ' s Darnell Warren was named the Jimmy Rogers Jr . Most Valuable Lineman . Thurman Thomas still holds three Sun Bowl records : most rushing attempts ( 33 ) , most points ( 24 ) and most touchdowns ( 4 ) . Scoring Summary . First Quarter OSU - Thomas 5 run ( Blanchard kick ) : OSU 7 , WVU 0 WVU - Brown 1 run ( Baumann kick ) : OSU 7 , WVU 7 OSU - Thomas 9 run ( Blanchard kick ) : OSU 14 , WVU 7 Second Quarter WVU - Brown 5 run ( Baumann kick ) : OSU 14 , WVU 14 WVU - FG Baumann 33 : OSU 14 , WVU 17 WVU - Warren 23 pass interception ( Baumann kick ) : OSU 14 , WVU 24 Third Quarter OSU - Thomas 4 run ( Blanchard kick ) : OSU 21 , WVU 24 WVU - FG Baumann 38 : OSU 21 , WVU 27 OSU - Dillard 6 pass from Gundy ( Blanchard kick ) : OSU 28 , WVU 27 Fourth Quarter OSU - Thomas 4 run ( Blanchard kick ) : OSU 35 , WVU 27 WVU - Taylor 6 run ( Two - point conversion failed ) : OSU 35 , WVU 33 ( FINAL ) Individual Statistics . Rushing OSU - Thomas 33 - 157 , Sanders 6 - 19 , Gundy 8 - 9 WVU - Brown 32 - 167 , Harris 24 - 103 , Taylor 12 - 58 , Napoleon 2 - 3 Passing OSU - Gundy 12 - 18 - 161 WVU - Harris 7 - 21 - 54 Receiving OSU - Dykes 3 - 72 , Thomas 3 - 20 , Williams 1 - 19 , Dillard 3 - 18 , Keith 1 - 16 , Green 1 - 16 WVU - Bell 1 - 45 , Winn 1 - 9