The 1961 Northeast Louisiana State Indians football team was an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

team that represented Northeast Louisiana State College (now known as the

University of Louisiana at Monroe The University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM) is a public university in Monroe, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the University of Louisiana System. History ULM opened in 1931 as Ouachita Parish Junior College. Three years later it becam ...

) in the

Gulf States Conference The Gulf States Conference (GSC) was an intercollegiate athletic football conference that existed from 1948 to 1971. The league had members in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Many of the league's members from Louisiana joined after the Loui ...

(GSC) during the

1961 college football season The 1961 college football season was the 93rd season of intercollegiate football in the United States. Two teams have a claim to the 1961 major college national championship: * Alabama (11–0), led by Bear Bryant, won the Southeastern Conferen ...

. In their fourth year under head coach

Jack C. Rowan Jack C. Rowan (March 22, 1911 – August 31, 1990) was an American football coach and college athletics administrator. He was the third head football coach at Northeast Louisiana State College—now known as University of Louisiana at Monroe, ser ...

, the team compiled a 3–7 record (1–4 in conference games), finished in fifth place in the GSC, and were outscored by a total of 171 to 145. The team's statistical leaders included quarterback Ronnie Myrick (322 passing yards, 581 yards of total offense), fullback William Ragan (382 rushing yards, 31 points scored), and end Dewey Smith (118 receiving yards). The team played its home games at

Brown Stadium Richard Gouse Field at Brown Stadium is a football stadium located in Providence, Rhode Island. It is the home of Brown University's football and outdoor track teams. The athletic teams at Brown University, known as the Bears, compete in the Ivy ...

Monroe, Louisiana Monroe is the ninth-largest city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and is the parish seat and largest city of Ouachita Parish. With a 2020 census-tabulated population of 47,702, it is the principal city of the Monroe metropolitan statistical ...

Schedule

Statistics

The Indians gained 2,429 yards of

total offense Total offense, also called total yards, is a gridiron football statistic representing the total number of yards rushing and yards passing by a player or team. Total offense differs from yards from scrimmage, which gives credit for passing yardage ...

(242.9 per game), consisting of 1,899 rushing yards (189.9 per game) and 530 passing yards (53.0 per game). On defense, they allowed opponents to gain 2,572 yards (257.2 per game), including 1,544 rushing yards (154.3 per game) and 928 passing yards (92.8 per game). Quarterback Ronnie Myrick led the team in both passing and total offense. He completed 25 of 57 passes for 322 yards with no touchdowns and six interceptions. He also gained 259 rushing yards for 581 yards of total offense. He ranked second on the team in scoring with 30 points on five touchdowns. Fullback William Ragan led the team in both rushing and scoring. He gained 382 rushing yards on 75 carries and scored 31 points on two touchdowns, 17 extra points, and a two-point conversion run. End Dewey Smith was the team's leading receiver with four cathes for 118 yards. Gordon Salsman was the team's punter, averaging 34.08 yards on 48 punts.

Awards and honors

Guard Ross Nolan was selected by the writers as a first-team player on the 1961 All-Gulf States Conference football team. He was named to the second team by the coaches. Guard Larry Rambin received second-team honors from both the writers and coaches. Back Willie Ragan was also named to the second team by the writers.

References

{{Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks football navbox Northeast Louisiana Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks football seasons Northeast Louisiana State Indians football