The 1951 Big Ten Conference football season was the 56th season of

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

played by the member schools of 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 ...

(also known as the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) and was a part of the

1951 college football season The 1951 college football season finished with seven unbeaten major college teams, of which five were unbeaten and untied. Ultimately, the Tennessee Volunteers were voted the best team by the Associated Press, followed by the Michigan State Sparta ...

. The 1951 Illinois Fighting Illini football team, under head coach

Ray Eliot Raymond Eliot "Butch" Nusspickel (June 13, 1905 – February 24, 1980) was an American football and baseball player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Illinois College from 1934 to 1936 and at th ...

, compiled a 9–0–1 record, won the Big Ten championship, was ranked No. 4 in the final AP poll, and defeated

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

40–7 in the

1952 Rose Bowl The 1952 Rose Bowl was the 38th edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Held on Tuesday, January 1, at the end of the 1951 college football season, it was the first nationally televised col ...

. The lone setback was a scoreless tie with

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 ...

. Halfback

Johnny Karras John J. Karras (January 29, 1928 – November 6, 2008) was an American football halfback who played one season with the Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Chicago Cardinals in the second round of the 1952 NFL ...

was the Big Ten's only consensus first-team All-American. Linebacker Chuck Boerio was selected as the team's most valuable player. The 1951 Wisconsin Badgers football team, under head coach

Ivy Williamson Ivan B. "Ivy" Williamson (February 4, 1911 – February 19, 1969) was a player and coach of American football and basketball, and a college athletics administrator. He played college football and basketball at the University of Michigan from 193 ...

, compiled a 7–1–1 record, led the conference in scoring defense (5.9 points allowed per game), and was ranked No. 8 in the final AP poll. Quarterback

John Coatta John Coatta (April 5, 1929 – December 26, 2000) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at the Wisconsin Badgers from 1967 to 1969 and at Mankato State College, now Minnesota State University, Mankato, from 1970 t ...

was the first-team All-Big Ten quarterback. Defensive end

Pat O'Donahue James Patrick Michael "Pat" O'Donahue (October 7, 1930 – July 18, 2017) was an American football defensive end in the National Football League (NFL). He played for the San Francisco 49ers (1952) and the Green Bay Packers (1955). He played ...

was selected as a first-team All-American by multiple selectors.

Season overview

Results and team statistics

Key
AP final = Team's rank in the final

AP 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 ...

of the 1951 season
AP high = Team's highest rank in the AP Poll throughout the 1951 season
PPG = Average of points scored per game; conference leader's average displayed in bold
PAG = Average of points allowed per game; conference leader's average displayed in bold
MVP = Most valuable player as voted by players on each team as part of the voting process to determine the winner of the

Chicago Tribune Silver Football The Chicago Tribune Silver Football is awarded by the ''Chicago Tribune'' to the college football player determined to be the best player from the Big Ten Conference. The award has been presented annually since 1924, when Red Grange of Illinois w ...

trophy; trophy winner in bold

Preseason

Regular season

September 29

* ''Illinois 27, UCLA 13''. * ''Texas 14, Purdue 0''. * ''Wisconsin 22, Marquette 6''. * ''Michigan State 25, Michigan 0''. * ''Ohio State 7, SMU 0''. * ''Northwestern 35, Colorado 14''. * ''Washington 25, Minnesota 20''. * ''Notre Dame 48, Indiana 6''. * ''Iowa 16, Kansas State 0''.

October 6

* ''Illinois 14, Wisconsin 10''. * ''Purdue 34, Iowa 30''. * ''Stanford 23, Michigan 13''. * ''Michigan State 24, Ohio State 20''. * ''Northwestern 20, Army 14''. * ''California 55, Minnesota 14''. * ''Indiana 13, Pittsburgh 6''.

October 13

* ''Illinois 41, Syracuse 20''. * ''Miami (FL) 7, Purdue 0'' (game played Friday, October 12). * ''Ohio State 6, Wisconsin 6''. * ''Michigan 33, Indiana 14''. * ''Ohio State 6, Wisconsin 6''. * ''Northwestern 21, Minnesota 7''. * ''Iowa 34, Pittsburgh 17''.

October 20

* ''Illinois 27, Washington 20''. * ''Wisconsin 31, Purdue 7''. * ''Michigan 21, Iowa 0''. * ''Indiana 32, Ohio State 10''. * ''Northwestern 16, Navy 7''. * ''Nebraska 39, Minnesota 20''.

October 27

* ''Illinois 21, Indiana 0''. * ''Notre Dame 30, Purdue 9''. * ''Wisconsin 41, Northwestern 0''. * ''Michigan 54, Minnesota 27''. * ''Ohio State 47, Iowa 21''.

November 3

* ''Illinois 7, Michigan 0''. * ''Purdue 28, Penn State 0''. * ''Wisconsin 6, Indiana 0''. * ''Ohio State 3, Northwestern 0''. * ''Iowa 20, Minnesota 20''.

November 10

* ''Illinois 40, Iowa 13''. * ''Purdue 35, Northwestern 14''. * ''Wisconsin 16, Pennsylvania 7''. * ''Cornell 20, Michigan 7''. * ''Ohio State 16, Pittsburgh 14''. * ''Minnesota 16, Indiana 14''.

November 17

* ''Illinois 0, Ohio State 0''. * ''Purdue 19, Minnesota 13''. * ''Wisconsin 34, Iowa 7''. * ''Northwestern 6, Michigan 0''. * ''Michigan State 30, Indiana 26''

November 24

* ''Illinois 3, Northwestern 0''. * ''Purdue 21, Indiana 13''. * ''Wisconsin 30, Minnesota 6''. * ''Michigan 7, Ohio State 0''. * ''Iowa 20, Notre Dame 20''.

Bowl games

Post-season developments

Awards and honors

All-Big Ten honors

The following players were picked 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 ...

(AP)as first-team players on the 1951 All-Big Ten Conference football team. The AP picked separate offensive and defensive units, whereas the UP selected a single, eleven man unit. AP offense and UP overall selections AP defensive unit

All-American honors

At the end of the 1951 season, only one Big Ten player secured a consensus first-team pick on the

1951 College Football All-America Team The 1951 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 1951. The eight selectors recognized by the ...

. The Big Ten's consensus All-Americans were: Other Big Ten players who were named first-team All-Americans by at least one selector were:

Other awards

Illinois running back

finished sixth in the voting for the 1951

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 ...

1952 NFL Draft

The following Big Ten players were among the first 100 picks in the

1952 NFL Draft The 1952 National Football League Draft was held on January 17, 1952, at Hotel Statler in New York. Selections made by New York Yanks were assigned to the new Dallas Texans. This was the sixth year that the first overall pick was a bonus pick de ...

References

{{Big Ten Conference football navbox