The 1959 Big Ten Conference football season was the 64th season of college football 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 ...

and was a part of the 1959 NCAA University Division football season. The

1959 Wisconsin Badgers football team The 1959 Wisconsin Badgers football team was an American football team that represented the University of Wisconsin in the 1959 Big Ten Conference football season. In its fourth season under head coach Milt Bruhn, Wisconsin compiled a 7–3 reco ...

, under head coach Milt Bruhn, won the Big Ten championship, was ranked No. 6 in the final AP Poll, and lost to Washington in the 1960 Rose Bowl. Tackle

Dan Lanphear George Daniel Lanphear (January 24, 1938 – March 23, 2018) was an American football player. He was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and played college football for the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He was a member of the 1959 Wisconsin Badgers ...

was a consensus first-team All-American. Quarterback

Dale Hackbart Dale Leonard Hackbart (born July 21, 1938) is a former American football defensive back who played twelve seasons in the National Football League (NFL) for the Green Bay Packers, Washington Redskins, Minnesota Vikings, St. Louis Cardinals (NFL), S ...

led the Big Ten with 1,121 yards of total offense.

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 broad ...

of the 1959 season
AP high = Team's highest rank in the AP Poll throughout the 1959 season
PPG = Average of points scored per game
PAG = Average of points allowed per game
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

On November 14, 1958,

Bennie Oosterbaan Benjamin Oosterbaan ( ; February 24, 1906 – October 25, 1990) was a three-time first team College Football All-America Team, All-American American football, football End (gridiron football), end for the Michigan Wolverines football team, two-tim ...

resigned as Michigan's head football coach with two games remaining in the program's worst season since 1936.

Bump Elliott Chalmers William "Bump" Elliott (January 30, 1925 – December 7, 2019) was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He played halfback at Purdue University (1943–1944) and the University of Michigan (1946–19 ...

, who had been Michigan's backfield coach for two years, was hired to replace him.

Regular season

Bowl games

Post-season developments

Shortly before the end of the 1959 season, Illinois 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 ...

retired after 18 years in the position. On December 22, 1959, Illinois hired 33-year-old

Pete Elliott Peter R. Elliott (September 29, 1926 – January 4, 2013) was an American football player and coach. Elliott served as the head football coach at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (1956), the University of California, Berkeley (1957–1959), ...

as its new head football coach. Elliott had played for Michigan and served as California's head coach from 1957 to 1959.

Statistical leaders

The Big Ten's individual statistical leaders for the 1959 season include the following:

Passing yards

Rushing yards

Receiving yards

Total yards

Scoring

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. ne ...

(AP) and/or the

United Press International 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 20t ...

(UPI) as first-team players on the

1959 All-Big Ten Conference football team The 1959 All-Big Ten Conference football team consists of American football players chosen by various organizations for All-Big Ten Conference teams for the 1959 Big Ten Conference football season. All-Big Ten selections Quarterbacks * Dean Loo ...

All-American honors

At the end of the 1959 season, Big Ten players secured three of the 11 consensus first-team picks on the 1959 College Football All-America Team. 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

Four Big Ten players finished among the top 10 in the voting for the 1959 Heisman Trophy: offensive lineman

Bill Burrell William Burrell (1938? – March 22, 1998) was an American football player at the University of Illinois. A linebacker and guard, in 1959 Burrell won the Chicago Tribune Silver Football as the MVP of the Big Ten Conference. Burrell also finished f ...

of Illinois (fourth); running back

Dean Look Dean Zachary Look (born July 23, 1937) is an American former football and baseball player. He played college football as quarterback at Michigan State University and professional football for the New York Titans of the American Football Leagu ...

of Michigan State (sixth); quarterback

of Wisconsin (seventh); and running back

Ron Burton Ronald E. Burton (July 25, 1936 – September 13, 2003) was an American football player in the American Football League (AFL) for the Boston Patriots. He was a consensus All-American running back at Northwestern University, and is a member of ...

of Wisconsin (10th).

1960 NFL Draft

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

1960 NFL Draft The 1960 National Football League Draft in which NFL teams take turns selecting amateur college American football players and other first-time eligible players, was held at the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia on November 30, 1959. Many players, in ...

References

{{Big Ten Conference football navbox