The 1947 Missouri Valley Vikings 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

Missouri Valley College Missouri Valley College is a private college that is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and located in Marshall, Missouri. The college was founded in 1889 and supports 40 academic majors and an enrollment close to 1,500 students. Misso ...

as a member of the

Missouri College Athletic Union The Missouri College Athletic Union (MCAU) was an intercollegiate athletic conference that existed from 1924 to 1971. It consisted primarily of private universities from the state of Missouri that departed the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Asso ...

(MCAU) during the

1947 college football season The 1947 college football season finished with Notre Dame, Michigan, and Penn State all unbeaten and untied, but the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame were the first place choice for 107 of the 142 voters in the final AP Poll in early December, and re ...

. In their eighth season under head coach

Volney Ashford Volney C. Ashford (November 15, 1907 – October 14, 1973) was an American football coach. He served as the head coach at Missouri Valley College for 28 season, from 1937 to 1942 and again from 1946 to 1967. He led the Missouri Valley Vikings to ...

, the Vikings compiled a perfect 12–0 record (4–0 against MCAU teams), won the MCAU championship and two bowl games, and outscored all opponents by a total of 372 to 98. In the final

Litkenhous Ratings The Litkenhous Difference by Score Ratings system was a mathematical system used to rank football and basketball teams. The Litrating system was developed by Vanderbilt University professor Edward E. Litkenhous (1907 – December 22, 1984) and his b ...

released in mid-December, Missouri Valley was ranked at No. 136 out of 500 college football teams. The season was part of a 41-game winning streak (1941–1942, 1946–1948) that still ranks as the fifth longest in college football history. Coach Ashford, who led the team during the streak, 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 ...

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References

{{Missouri Valley Vikings football navbox Missouri Valley Missouri Valley Vikings football seasons College football undefeated seasons

Missouri Valley Vikings football Missouri Valley College is a private college that is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and located in Marshall, Missouri. The college was founded in 1889 and supports 40 academic majors and an enrollment close to 1,500 students. Misso ...