The 1942 college football season was the 74th season of intercollegiate football in the United States. Competition included schools from 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 ...
, the
Pacific Coast Conference
The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was a college athletic conference in the United States which existed from 1915 to 1959. Though the Pac-12 Conference claims the PCC's history as part of its own, with eight of the ten PCC members (including a ...
(PCC), the
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...
(SEC), the
Big Six Conference
The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associat ...
, the
Southern Conference
The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly ...
, the
Southwestern Conference
The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United States. It participates in t ...
, and numerous smaller conferences and independent programs. The season was the first after the entry of the United States into
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
The teams ranked highest in the final
Associated Press poll
The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...
in December 1942 were:
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Ohio State
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...
- Ohio State won the Big Ten championship with a 9–1 record, its one loss coming against No. 3 Wisconsin. The Buckeyes ranked second nationally in scoring offense (33.7 points per game) and fourth in total offense (397.5 yards per game). They were ranked No. 1 in the final AP poll but did not appear in a bowl game.
Gene Fekete
Eugene H. Fekete (August 31, 1922 – April 28, 2011) was an American football fullback and linebacker who played for the Cleveland Browns for one season in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) before launching a coaching and education care ...
led the Big Ten with 910 rushing yards. Ohio State was selected as national champions by the Associated Press (AP) poll.
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Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
- Georgia won the SEC championship with an 11–1 record, including a victory over UCLA in the 1943 Rose Bowl. The Bulldogs ranked first nationally with 429.5 yards of total offense per game and were voted second in the final AP poll in December 1942, prior to the Rose Bowl. A majority of selectors (including Billingsley and
Houlgate
Houlgate () is a small tourist resort in northwestern France along the English Channel with a beach and a casino. It is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region.
History
Pre-19th century
Houlgate developed as a hamlet in t ...
) later named the Bulldogs as the national champion.
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Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
- The Wisconsin Badgers finished second in the Big Ten with an 8–1–1 record, including a 17–7 victory over eventual AP national champion Ohio State. They were ranked No. 3 in the final AP poll. The
Helms Athletic Foundation
The Helms Athletic Foundation, founded in 1936, was a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to the promotion of athletics and sportsmanship. Paul H. Helms was the organization's founder and benefactor, funding the foundation via his ownership ...
selected Wisconsin as 1942 national champions following the bowl games.
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Tulsa
Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...
- Tulsa won the
Missouri Valley Conference
The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the third-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the midwest.
History
The MVC was established ...
championship with a 10–1 record and was ranked No. 4 in the final AP poll. They ranked first nationally in scoring offense (39.5 points per game) and passing offense (233.9 yards per game).
Glenn Dobbs
Glenn Dobbs Jr. (July 12, 1920 – November 12, 2002) was a professional American football player in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC). A skilled running back, quarterback, and punter, Dobbs was named the AAFC's MVP in 1946. After sitti ...
ranked fourth nationally with 1,427 yards of total offense.
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Georgia Tech
The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...
- The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets finished second in the SEC and compiled a 9–2 record, including a loss to Texas in the 1943 Cotton Bowl. They were ranked No. 5 in the final AP poll.
Frank Sinkwich
Frank Francis Sinkwich Sr. (October 10, 1920 – October 22, 1990) was an American football player and coach. He won the Heisman Trophy in 1942 playing for the University of Georgia, making him the first recipient from the Southeastern Conferen ...
of Georgia won the
Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard ...
and led the nation with 2,187 yards of total offense (including 1,392 passing yards), making him the first major-college player to tally more than 2,000 yards in a season.
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 ...
of Columbia won 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 ...
. The year's other statistical leaders included Rudy Mobley of Hardin-Simmons with 1,281 rushing yards, Ray Evans of Kansas with 1,117 passing yards, Harding Miller of SMU with 531 receiving yards, and
Bob Steuber
Robert James Steuber (October 25, 1921November 29, 1996) was an American football halfback who has the distinction of having played NCAA college football after playing professional football in the NFL. Steuber played four seasons in the Nation ...
NCAA Division II
NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...
conference now known as the
Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference
The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, which operates in the western Midwestern United States. Nine of its ...
On September 19, in Louisville, Georgia defeated Kentucky, 7–6. The following Friday, Georgia defeated the Jacksonville Naval Air Station, 14–0, in Macon. The soldiers at the Flight School at the University of Iowa, organized as the Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks, overwhelmed Kansas, 61–0.
Most schools got their seasons underway on September 26. Defending champion Minnesota beat Pittsburgh, 50–7. Duke beat Davidson 21–0. Notre Dame and Wisconsin played to a 7–7 tie in Madison. Illinois beat South Dakota 46–0. In Montgomery, Alabama beat South Louisiana Institute (later
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette (UL Lafayette, University of Louisiana, ULL, or UL) is a public research university in Lafayette, Louisiana. It has the largest enrollment within the nine-campus University of Louisiana System and the s ...
), 54–0. Texas beat the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station, 18–7. Michigan beat the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, 9–0. Before its smallest crowd since 1933 (22,555) Ohio State defeated a service team, the Fort Knox Armoraiders, 59–0."Ohio State Triumphs Over Fort Knox Soldiers," ''The Sunday Times-Signal'' (Zanesville, O.), Sep. 27, 1942, pII-6 Iowa Pre-Flight won again, at Northwestern, 20–12.
October
October 3
Minnesota's winning streak ended when the defending national champs lost their first game in almost four years, to the Seahawks of Iowa Pre-Flight (who just happened to be coached that season by "former" Minnesota head coach Bernie Bierman who had taken leave from Minnesota to serve as an officer in the military during World War II), 7–6. Ohio State beat Indiana 32–21. Michigan beat Michigan State 20–0. Illinois defeated Butler 67–0. Texas beat LSU 27–14. Notre Dame lost to Georgia Tech 13–6. Georgia defeated Furman 40–7. Alabama beat Mississippi State 21–6. Duke lost at Wake Forest, 20–7.
October 10
Minnesota lost at Illinois, 20–13. Ohio State beat visiting USC, 28–12. Michigan lost to Iowa Pre-Flight, 26–14. Georgia beat Ole Miss, 48–13, at Memphis. In Mobile, Alabama defeated the Pensacola NAS, 27–0. Texas lost at Tulane, 18–7. In the poll that followed, the Top Five consisted of three teams from the Big Nine (No. 1 Ohio State, No. 3 Michigan, and No. 5 Illinois) and two from the SEC (No. 2 Georgia and No. 4 Alabama).
October 17
No. 1 Ohio State beat Purdue 26–0. No. 2 Georgia beat Tulane 40–0. No. 3 Michigan defeated Northwestern 34–16. In Birmingham, No. 4 Alabama beat No. 15 Tennessee, 8–0. No. 5 Illinois won at No. 19 Iowa, 12–7. Losing also that day was Iowa Pre-Flight, which sustained its first loss at Notre Dame, 28–0.
In the next poll, the Top Five shuffled slightly, with Alabama and Michigan trading places: Ohio State (No. 1), Georgia (No. 2), Alabama (No. 3), Michigan (No. 4), Illinois (No. 5).
October 24
No. 1 Ohio State won at Northwestern 20–6. No. 2 Georgia won at Cincinnati 35–13. No. 3 Alabama won at Kentucky, 14–0. No. 4 Michigan lost at No. 13 Minnesota, 16–14. No. 5 Illinois lost to No. 8 Notre Dame, 21–14. No. 6 Georgia Tech won at Navy, 21–0.
In the poll that followed, Notre Dame and Georgia Tech replaced Michigan and Illinois: Ohio State (No. 1), Georgia (No. 2), Alabama (No. 3), Notre Dame (No. 4), Georgia Tech (No. 5).
October 31
No. 1 Ohio State lost at No. 6 Wisconsin, 17–7. In Atlanta, No. 2 Georgia beat No. 3 Alabama, 21–10. No. 4 Notre Dame beat Navy in Cleveland, 9–0. No. 5 Georgia Tech won at Duke, 26–7. No. 7 Boston College beat Georgetown, 47–0. The Georgia Bulldogs took over first place in the poll that followed, and Wisconsin and Boston College moved in while Ohio State and Alabama fell out: 1. Georgia 2. Wisconsin 3. Georgia Tech 4. Notre Dame 5. Boston College.
November
November 7
In Jacksonville, No. 1 Georgia beat Florida, 75–0. No. 2 Wisconsin lost at unranked Iowa, 6–0. No. 3 Georgia Tech beat Kentucky 47–7. No. 4 Notre Dame beat Army 13–0 at Yankee Stadium. No. 5 Boston College beat Temple, 28–0. No. 8 Alabama beat South Carolina 29–0 and moved into the Top Five as Wisconsin dropped out. The nation's top two teams were Georgia and Georgia Tech: Georgia (No. 1), Georgia Tech (No. 2), Boston College (No. 3), Notre Dame (No. 4), Alabama (No. 5).
November 14
No. 1 Georgia won at Chattanooga, 40–0. In Atlanta, No. 2 Georgia Tech beat No. 5 Alabama 7–0. No. 3 Boston College beat Fordham at home, 56–6. No. 4 Notre Dame lost to No. 6 Michigan, 32–20, while in Cleveland, No. 10 Ohio State beat No. 13 Illinois 44–20. The poll: Georgia (No. 1), Georgia Tech (No. 2), Boston College (No. 3), Michigan (No. 4), Ohio State (No. 5).
November 21
In Columbus, Georgia, No. 1 Georgia lost to unranked Auburn, 27–13. No. 2 Georgia Tech beat Florida 20–7. No. 3 Boston College defeated Boston University, 37–0. No. 4 Michigan and No. 5 Ohio State met in Columbus, with OSU winning 21–7, capturing the Big Nine championship. No. 7 Wisconsin beat No. 10 Minnesota 21–6 to finish its season at 8–1–1. In the next poll, the Boston College Eagles were No. 1: Boston College (No. 1), Georgia Tech (No. 2), Ohio State (No. 3), Wisconsin (No. 4), Georgia (No. 5).
November 28
No. 1 Boston College lost to unranked Holy Cross, 55–12. No. 2 Georgia Tech visited No. 5 Georgia, and lost 34–0. No. 3 Ohio State defeated the Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks, 41–12, finishing 9–1–0 and capturing the No. 1 ranking in the final AP poll, ahead of No. 2 Georgia, No. 3 Wisconsin, No. 4 Tulsa, and No. 5 Georgia Tech.
Conference standings
Major conference standings
Independents
Minor conferences
Minor conference standings
Rankings
Top 10 in final AP poll
1. Ohio State (9–1)
2. Georgia (10–1)
3. Wisconsin (8–1–1)
4. Tulsa (10–0)
5. Georgia Tech (9–1)
6. Notre Dame (7–2–1)
7. Tennessee (8–1–1)
8. Boston College (8–1)
9. Michigan (7–3)
10. Alabama (7–3)
Bowl games
Statistical leaders
Team leaders
Total offense
Total defense
Rushing offense
Rushing defense
Passing offense
Passing defense
Scoring
Individual leaders
Total offense
Rushing
Passing
See also
*
1942 College Football All-America Team
The 1942 College Football All-America team is composed of college football players who were selected as All-Americans by various organizations and writers that chose College Football All-America Teams in 1942. The nine selectors recognized by the ...
*
List of World War II military service football teams
This List of World War II military service football teams includes all those top-level American football teams consisting of active duty military personnel of the United States Armed Forces that played against collegiate or professional opponents ...