The 1946 Ole Miss Rebels 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
University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment.
...
in 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) during the
1946 college football season
The 1946 college football season was the 78th season of intercollegiate football in the United States. Competition included schools from the Big Ten Conference, the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC), the Southeastern Conference (SEC), the Big Six C ...
. In their first year under head coach
Harold Drew
Harold Delbert "Red" Drew (November 9, 1894 – October 20, 1979) was an American football, basketball, and track and field coach for over 40 years. He was the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide football team from 1947 to 1954, compiling a r ...
, the Rebels compiled a 2–7 record (1–6 against SEC opponents) and were outscored by a total of 144 to 76.
Two Ole Miss player ranked among the national leaders.
Charlie Conerly
Charles Albert Conerly Jr. (September 19, 1921 – February 13, 1996) was an American football quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Giants from 1948 through 1961. Conerly was inducted into the College Football Hall ...
ranked sixth nationally with 641 passing yards.
End
Barney Poole ranked fifth nationally with 28 pass receptions.
Several Ole Miss players received honors from 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) or
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) on the
1946 All-SEC football team: Poole at end (AP-1, UP-1); Conerly at halfback (UP-1);
Shorty McWilliams
Thomas Edward "Shorty" McWilliams (May 12, 1926 – January 9, 1997) was an American football player who played one season with the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the eighth roun ...
at halfback (AP-1, UP-3); Al Sidorik at tackle (UP-1); end Bill Hildebrand at end (UP-2); Elbert Corley at center (UP-3); and Mike Mihalic at guard (UP-3).
Ole Miss was ranked at No. 45 in the final
Litkenhous Difference by Score System rankings for 1946.
The team played its home games at
Crump Stadium
Crump Stadium is a sports stadium in Memphis, Tennessee, built in 1934 and significantly downsized in 2006. It was built as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project with a capacity of 7,500. In 1939 it was enlarged to hold 25,000 spectators. ...
in
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
(three games) and at
Hemingway Stadium
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fi ...
in
Oxford, Mississippi
Oxford is a city and college town in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Oxford lies 75 miles (121 km) south-southeast of Memphis, Tennessee, and is the county seat of Lafayette County. Founded in 1837, it was named after the British city of Oxf ...
(two games).
Schedule
Roster
*T Oliver Poole
*G Phillip Poole
*E Ray Poole
After the season
The
1947 NFL Draft
The 1947 National Football League Draft was held on December 16, 1946, at the Commodore Hotel in New York City, New York.
The National Football League in this draft made the first overall pick, a bonus pick determined by lottery. The Chicago B ...
was held on December 16, 1946. The following Rebel was selected.
References
Ole Miss
Ole Miss Rebels football seasons
Ole Miss Rebels football
The Ole Miss Rebels football program represents the University of Mississippi, also known as "Ole Miss". The Rebels compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Western Division of ...
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