The 1947 Toledo Rockets 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 Toledo University (renamed the

University of Toledo The University of Toledo (UToledo or UT) is a public research university in Toledo, Ohio. It is the northernmost campus of the University System of Ohio. The university also operates a Health Science campus, which includes the University of T ...

in 1967) in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) 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 second season under head coach Bill Orwig, the Rockets compiled a 9–2 record (3–1 against OAC opponents), outscored all opponents by a combined total of 255 to 115, and defeated

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, 20–14, in the 1947 Glass Bowl game. The 1947 season was the first nine-win season in program history, a feat that no Toledo team repeated until 1967.

Emerson Cole Emerson Elvin Cole (December 10, 1927 – June 4, 2019) was an American football fullback and linebacker who played for the Cleveland Browns and Chicago Bears in the National Football League in the early 1950s. He played college football at the ...

, who later played four years in the NFL, twice rushed for at least 200 yards in a game during the 1947 season. Cole also set a school record (later broken) with 31 rushing touchdowns in 1947.

Lee Pete Leeland C. Pete (November 14, 1924March 25, 2010) was an American sports-talk radio broadcaster. After serving as an Army Air Force pilot in World War II, he played college football as a quarterback at the University of Toledo. Pete also played bas ...

established a school record with a 65.2% pass completion percentage, a record that stood until 2001. Peete also established a school record (later broken) with an 86-yard touchdown pass to Dave Hamlar. Tony Wolodzko was the team captain. Tackles Ted Zuchowski and Frank Pizza were selected in the

1948 NFL Draft The 1948 National Football League Draft was held on December 19, 1947, at the Fort Pitt Hotel in Pittsburgh. This was the second year that the first overall pick was a bonus pick determined by lottery, with the previous year's winner Chicago Bea ...

by the

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

and

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

, respectively. Toledo was ranked at No. 107 (out of 500 college football teams) in the final Litkenhous Ratings for 1947.

Schedule

After the season

NFL Draft

The following Rockets were selected in the

following the season.

References

Toledo Toledo most commonly refers to: * Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain * Province of Toledo, Spain * Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States Toledo may also refer to: Places Belize * Toledo District * Toledo Settlement Bolivia * Toledo, Orur ...

Toledo Rockets football seasons Toledo Rockets football {{collegefootball-1940s-season-stub