The 1956 All-Pacific Coast Conference football team consists of

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 ...

players chosen 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) and the

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) as the best

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 ...

players by position in the Pacific Coast region during the

1956 NCAA University Division football season The 1956 NCAA University Division football season saw the University of Oklahoma Sooners finish a third consecutive season unbeaten and untied to again win the national championship. The 1956 season saw the NCAA split member schools into two divi ...

. The AP team was limited to players form 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) and was based on votes of football writers of AP member newspapers on the west coast. The UP team included players from non-PCC schools. The

1956 Oregon State Beavers football team The 1956 Oregon State Beavers football team represented Oregon State College in the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) during the 1956 NCAA University Division football season. In the regular season, the Beavers outscored their opponents 184 to 131 o ...

won the PCC championship and placed two players on the first team: halfback Earnel Durden and tackle

John Witte John August Witte (January 29, 1933 – March 17, 1993) was an American football tackle who played one season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the ninth round of the 195 ...

. Witte was a consensus first-team player on the 1956 All-America college football team.

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 ...

and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

each placed three players on the first team. Stanford quarterback John Brodie was also a consensus first-team All-American.

Selections

Backs

* John Brodie, Stanford (AP-1; UP-1 uarterback * Earnel Durden, Oregon State (AP-1; UP-1 alfback *

C. R. Roberts Cornelius R. Roberts (February 29, 1936 – July 11, 2023) was an American professional football player who was a fullback in the Canadian Football League (CFL) and National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the USC Trojans. ...

, USC (AP-1; UP-1 ullback *

Dean Derby Clarence Dean Derby (June 11, 1935 – October 29, 2021) was an American football defensive back in the National Football League. He played six seasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers (1957–1961) and the Minnesota Vikings (1961–1962). He died on ...

, Washington (AP-1) *

Jon Arnett Jon Dwane "Jaguar Jon" Arnett (April 20, 1935 – January 16, 2021) was an American professional football player. He was a first-team All-American out of USC and Manual Arts High School. Arnett died on January 16, 2021, from heart failure in L ...

, USC (UP-1 alfback *

Bob Newman Bob Newman (born c. 1938) was an American football player. He played college football for Washington State Cougars football team from 1956 to 1958. He ranked second behind John Brodie among NCAA major college players with 1,240 passing yards in ...

, Washington State (AP-2; UP-2 uarterback *

Joe Francis Joseph R. Francis (born April 1, 1973) is an American entrepreneur, film producer and the founder and creator of the Girls Gone Wild entertainment brand. Francis worked as a production assistant on the syndicated program ''Real TV'' before rele ...

, Oregon State (AP-2; UP-2) *

Jim Shanley James H. Shanley (May 4, 1854 – November 4, 1904) was an American Major League Baseball outfielder. Shanley played two games for the 1876 New York Mutuals, and had one hit in eight at bats. Shanley died at the age of 50 in his hometown o ...

, Oregon (AP-2) * Barry Billington, UCLA (AP-2) * Paul Lowe, Oregon State (UP-2) * Bobby Mulgado, Arizona State (UP-2)

Ends

* Bill Steiger, Washington State (AP-1; UP-1) * Phil McHugh, Oregon (AP-1; UP-2) * Carl Isaacs, Stanford (UP-1) * Ron Wheatcroft, California (AP-2; UP-2) * Hal Smith, UCLA (AP-2)

Tackles

, Oregon State (AP-1; UP-1) * Paul Wiggin, Stanford (AP-1; UP-1) * George Strugar, Washington (AP-2; UP-2) * Dave Jesmer, Oregon State (AP-2) *

John Nisby John Edward Nisby (September 9, 1936 – February 6, 2011) was an American football guard in the National Football League. He played professionally for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Washington Redskins, and was one of the first African American pla ...

, Pacific (UP-2)

Guards

* Dick Day, Washington (AP-1; UP-1) * Esker Harris, UCLA (AP-1; UP-2) *

Galen Laack Galen William Laack (April 3, 1931December 31, 1958) of Abbotsford, Wisconsin was an American football guard in the National Football League for the Philadelphia Eagles. He played college football at the University of the Pacific and was draft ...

, College of the Pacific (UP-1) * Whitley Core, Washington (AP-2; UP-2) * Don Gilkey, California (AP-2)

Centers

Jim Matheny Jim Matheny (born February 16, 1936) is a former American football center who played one season with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was drafted by the Chicago Cardinals in the 20th round of the 1958 NFL Draft. He p ...

, UCLA (AP-1; UP-1) * Karl Rubke, USC (AP-2) * Dick Corrick, Oregon State (UP-2)

Key

AP =

, with newsmen and sportscasters making the selections UP =

References

{{All-Pac-12 Conference football teams All-Pacific Coast Football Team All-Pacific Coast football teams All-Pac-12 Conference football teams