The 1934 Big Ten Conference football season was the 39th season of

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

played by the member schools of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

(also known as the Western Conference) and was a part of the

1934 college football season The 1934 college football season was the 66th season of college football in the United States. Two New Year's Day bowl games were initiated to rival the Rose Bowl Game. On February 15, Warren V. Miller and Joseph M. Cousins organized the New Orl ...

. The 1934 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team, under head coach

Bernie Bierman Bernard W. Bierman (March 11, 1894 – March 7, 1977) was an American football player and coach of football and basketball. He coached from 1919 to 1950 except for a span during World War II when he served in the U.S. armed forces. Bierman was t ...

, compiled an undefeated 8–0 record, won the Big Ten championship, led the conference in scoring offense (33.8 points per game), and was selected as the national champion by eight of the selectors recognized as official by the NCAA. Fullback

Pug Lund Francis "Pug" Lund (April 18, 1913 – May 26, 1994) was an American football player. Lund was born in Rice Lake, Wisconsin and attended Rice Lake High School. As a Minnesota Gopher halfback, Lund was named All-Conference in both 1933 and ...

received the ''Chicago Tribune'' Silver Football as the most valuable player of the Big Ten. Three Minnesota players were selected as consensus first-team All-Americans: Lund, end

Frank Larson Frank "Butch" Larson (May 30, 1912 – September 1, 1983) was an American gridiron football player and coach. He was a consensus first-team All-American at the end position at the University of Minnesota in 1934. He later served as the head co ...

, and guard

Bill Bevan William Arnold Bevan, Sr. (March 26, 1913 – August 26, 1975) was an American football player and coach. He played college football at the University of Minnesota and was a consensus selection at the guard position on the 1934 College Football ...

. The 1934 Illinois Fighting Illini football team, under head coach

Robert Zuppke Robert Carl Zuppke (July 2, 1879 – December 22, 1957) was an American football coach. He served as the head coach at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign from 1913 until 1941, compiling a career college football record of 131–81 ...

, compiled a 7–1 record and was ranked No. 4 under the

Dickinson System The Dickinson System was a mathematical point formula that awarded national championships in college football. Devised by University of Illinois economics professor Frank G. Dickinson, the system crowned national champions from 1925 to 1940. Dicki ...

. The lone setback was a 7-3 loss at Wisconsin. Halfback Bud Lindberg was selected as the team's most valuable player. Quarterback

Jack Beynon John True Beynon (July 12, 1913 – October 17, 1989) was an American football player. He was the quarterback for the Illinois Fighting Illini football team from 1932 to 1934 and was selected as a first-team All-Big Ten player in 1933 and 1934. ...

was selected as a first-team All-Big Ten player. The 1934 Ohio State Buckeyes football team, in the program's first year under

Francis Schmidt Francis Albert Schmidt (December 3, 1885 – September 19, 1944) was an American football player and coach of football, basketball, and baseball. He served as the head football coach at the University of Tulsa (1919–1921), the University of Arka ...

, compiled a 7–1 record, led the Big Ten in scoring defense (4.3 points allowed per game), and was ranked No. 8 under the Dickinson System. Guard Regis Monahan and end

Merle Wendt Merle Wendt (April 7, 1915 – February 12, 2000) was an All-American football player at Ohio State University. Wendt played at the end position and became the fourth three-time All-American (1934–1936) at Ohio State, following Chic Harley, We ...

were selected as first-team All-Americans.

Season overview

Results and team statistics

Key
DS = Rankings from

. See

PPG = Average of points scored per game
PAG = Average of points allowed per game
MVP = Most valuable player as voted by players on each team as part of the voting process to determine the winner of the

Chicago Tribune Silver Football The Chicago Tribune Silver Football is awarded by the ''Chicago Tribune'' to the college football player determined to be the best player from the Big Ten Conference. The award has been presented annually since 1924, when Red Grange of Illinois w ...

trophy

Regular season

Bowl games

No Big Ten teams participated in any bowl games during the 1934 season.

All-Big Ten players

The following players were picked by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

(AP) and/or the

United Press United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th c ...

(UP) as first-team players on the 1934 All-Big Ten Conference football team.

All-Americans

Two Big Ten players were selected as consensus first-team players on the 1934 College Football All-America Team. They were: Other Big Ten players received first-team honors from at least one selector. They were:

References

{{Big Ten Conference football navbox