The 1961 Big Ten Conference football season was the 66th 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 ...

and was a part of the 1961 NCAA University Division football season. The 1961 Ohio State Buckeyes football team, under head coach

Woody Hayes Wayne Woodrow Hayes (February 14, 1913 – March 12, 1987) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Denison University (1946–1948), Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (1949–1950), and Ohio State University (1951 ...

, compiled an 8–0–1, won the Big Ten championship, and was recognized as the national champion by the

Football Writers Association of America The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) is an organization of college football media members in the United States founded in 1941. It is composed of approximately 1,200 professional sports writers from both print and Internet media out ...

. Fullback Bob Ferguson was a consensus first-team All-American and won the

Maxwell Award The Maxwell Award is presented annually to the college football player judged by a panel of sportscasters, sportswriters, and National Collegiate Athletic Association head coaches and the membership of the Maxwell Football Club to be the best all ...

and the

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and

Sporting News College Football Player of the Year The ''Sporting News'' College Football Player of the Year award is given to the player of the year in college football as adjudged by ''Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Hold ...

awards. The 1961 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team, under head coach

Murray Warmath Murray Warmath (December 26, 1912 – March 16, 2011) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Mississippi State University from 1952 to 1953 and at the University of Minnesota from 1954 to 1971, compili ...

, compiled an 8–2, was ranked No. 6 in the final AP Poll, and defeated UCLA in the 1962 Rose Bowl. Quarterback

Sandy Stephens Sanford Emory Stephens II (September 21, 1940 – June 6, 2000) was an American college football player and civic leader. Stephens was born and raised in the Pittsburgh area city of Uniontown, Pennsylvania and is best known for his career as a c ...

was a consensus first-team All-American and won 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 ...

award as the Big Ten's most valuable player. As of 2017, Stephens is the most recent Minnesota player to win the award. Ron Miller of Wisconsin received the

Sammy Baugh Trophy The Touchdown Club of Columbus was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1956 by Sam B. Nicola at the request of state auditor James A. Rhodes, who later became governor of the state. Nicola served as the club's president until his death in 1993. More ...

as the nation's top collegiate passer.

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 1961 season
AP high = Team's highest rank in the AP Poll throughout the 1961 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

trophy; trophy winner in bold

Preseason

On November 20, 1960, hours after the final game of the 1960 season, Iowa announced that

Forest Evashevski Forest "Evy" Evashevski (February 19, 1918 – October 30, 2009) was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He played college football at the University of Michigan from 1938 to 1940 and with the Iowa Pre-Flight ...

would be replaced as head football coach by

Jerry Burns Jerome Monahan Burns (January 24, 1927 – May 12, 2021) was an American college and professional football coach. He played in college for the Michigan Wolverines before becoming a coach. He was the head coach for the Iowa Hawkeyes from 1961 to ...

. Evashevski remained at Iowa as the athletic director. Burns, who signed a three-year contract, had been an assistant coach under Evashevski since 1954 and had played at Michigan from 1947 to 1950. In the preseason AP Poll, Iowa was ranked No. 1, and Ohio State was No. 2.

Regular season

Bowl games

Post-season developments

There were no changes in the conference's head football coaches between the 1961 and 1962 seasons.

Statistical leaders

The Big Ten's individual statistical leaders for the 1961 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. newspa ...

(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 20th ...

(UPI) as first-team players on the

1961 All-Big Ten Conference football team The 1961 All-Big Ten Conference football team consists of American football players chosen by various organizations for All-Big Ten Conference teams for the 1961 Big Ten Conference football season. All-Big Ten selections Quarterbacks * Sandy Ste ...

All-American honors

At the end of the 1961 season, Big Ten players secured two of the 11 consensus first-team picks for the 1961 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

Ohio State fullback Bob Ferguson won the

and the

and ''Sporting News'' College Football Player of the Year awards. He finished second in the voting for the

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 ...

behind

Ernie Davis Ernest Davis (December 14, 1939 – May 18, 1963) was an American football player who won the Heisman Trophy in 1961 and was its first African-American recipient. Davis played college football for Syracuse University and was the first pick in the ...

. Ron Miller of Wisconsin received the

as the nation's top collegiate passer. He was the first Big Ten player to receive the award.

1962 NFL Draft

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

1962 NFL Draft The 1962 National Football League draft was held on December 4, 1961 at the Sheraton Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. The Washington Redskins used the first overall pick of the draft to select running back Ernie Davis, then subsequently traded him ...

References

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