The 1936 Slippery Rock Rockets football team represented Slippery Rock State Normal School—now known as
Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania
Slippery Rock University, formally Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania (The Rock or SRU), is a public university in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. SRU is a member of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE). The university ...
—in the
1936 college football season
The 1936 college football season was the first in which the Associated Press writers' poll selected a national champion. The first AP poll, taken of 35 writers, was released on October 20, 1936. Each writer listed his choice for the top ten teams ...
.
History
In
N. Kerr Thompson's 16th year as head coach, the Rockets compiled a 6–3 record and outscored their opponents 93 to 70. The Rockets went 3–1 against conference opponents, finishing fourth in the
Pennsylvania State Teachers conference.
The team is most famous for a news story that circulated around the United States and used the
transitive property
In mathematics, a relation on a set is transitive if, for all elements , , in , whenever relates to and to , then also relates to . Each partial order as well as each equivalence relation needs to be transitive.
Definition
A homog ...
to declare Slippery Rock the
national champion.
Slippery Rock made its case by beating the
Westminster Titans
Westminster College is a private liberal arts college in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1852, it is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The student population is approximately 1,307 undergraduate and graduate students.
His ...
, which defeated
West Virginia Wesleyan
West Virginia Wesleyan College is a private college in Buckhannon, West Virginia. It has an enrollment of about 1,400 students from 35 U.S. states and 26 countries. The school was founded in 1890 by the West Virginia Conference of the Methodist E ...
, which beat
Duquesne, which upset
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, which beat
Notre Dame, which upset former #1
Northwestern, which defeated
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
, who was crowned national champions 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 ...
. The humorous story was widely popular, and gave Slippery Rock college a good deal of notoriety.
Schedule
References
Slippery Rock
Slippery Rock football seasons
Slippery Rock Football
The Slippery Rock football program, nicknamed The Rock, represents Slippery Rock University in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania in the sport of college football. Slippery Rock competes in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference which is a part of ...
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