The 1941 Columbia Lions football team was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team that represented the

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

during the

1941 college football season The 1941 college football regular season was the 73rd season of college football, intercollegiate football in the United States. Competition included schools from the 1941 Big Ten Conference football season, Big Ten Conference, the Pacific Coast ...

. In their 12th season under head coach

Lou Little Luigi "Lou Little" Piccirilli December 6, 1891 – May 28, 1979) was an American football player and coach born in Boston, Massachusetts. City of Boston, Birth Registrations, number 8583, December 6, 1891After Lou's birth, his father changed his ...

, the team compiled a 3–5 record and was outscored by a combined total of 103 to 81. The team was led by left halfback

Paul Governali Paul Vincent "Pitchin' Paul" Governali (January 5, 1921 – February 14, 1978) was a professional American football quarterback in the National Football League. An All-American at Columbia University, he was the 1942 recipient of the Maxwell Awa ...

who was selected 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 ...

as a second-team player on the

1941 All-Eastern football team The 1941 All-Eastern football team consists of American football players chosen by various organizations for All-Eastern United States, Eastern teams at the conclusion of the 1941 college football season. The organizations selecting teams in 1941 ...

. Governali went on to win the

Maxwell Award The Maxwell Award is presented annually to the college football player judged by a panel of sportscasters, sportswriters, and National Collegiate Athletic Association head coaches and the membership of the Maxwell Football Club to be the best all ...

in 1942 and was later inducted into the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...

. Columbia was ranked at No. 42 (out of 681 teams) in the final rankings under the Litkenhous Difference by Score System for 1941. The team played its home games at

Baker Field Robert K. Kraft Field at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium, officially known as Robert K. Kraft Field at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium at Baker Athletics Complex, is a stadium in the Inwood neighborhood at the northern tip of the island of Manhattan, New Y ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Schedule

References

{{Columbia Lions football navbox Columbia Columbia Lions football seasons

Columbia Lions football The Columbia Lions football program is the intercollegiate American football team for Columbia University. The team competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and are members of the Ivy League. The Columbia football ...