The 1943 Big Ten Conference football season was the 48th 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 ...

(also known as the Western Conference) and was a part of the 1943 college football season. The 1943 Purdue Boilermakers football team compiled a perfect 9–0 record, tied for the Big Ten championship, led the conference in scoring defense (6.1 points per game), and were ranked No. 5 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 ...

. Guard

Alex Agase Alexander Arrasi Agase (March 27, 1922 – May 3, 2007) was an American football guard and linebacker who was named an All-American three times in college and played on three Cleveland Browns championship teams before becoming head football coac ...

was a consensus first-team pick on the 1943 College Football All-America Team. Another guard,

Dick Barwegen Richard J. Barwegen (December 25, 1921 – September 3, 1966) was an American professional football player who was an offensive lineman for five seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected to four Pro Bowls during his career ...

, received the team's most valuable player award.

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, under head coach

Fritz Crisler Herbert Orin "Fritz" Crisler (; January 12, 1899 – August 19, 1982) was an American college football coach who is best known as "the father of two-platoon football," an innovation in which separate units of players were used for offense and ...

, compiled an 8–1, tied with Purdue for the conference championship, led the conference in scoring offense (33.6 points per game), and was ranked No. 3 in the final AP Poll. The team's sole loss was to consensus national champion Notre Dame. Bill Daley was a consensus first-team All-American and finished seventh in the voting for the Heisman Trophy.

Bob Wiese Robert Lee Wiese (January 25, 1923 – November 19, 1971) was an American football player. He played college football for Fritz Crisler's University of Michigan Wolverines football teams in 1942, 1943, 1944 and 1946—missing the 1945 season du ...

received the team's most valuable player award. Northwestern, under head coach

Pappy Waldorf Lynn Osbert "Pappy" Waldorf (October 3, 1902 – August 15, 1981) was an American college football player and coach. He received the first national collegiate football coach of the year award in 1935. Waldorf became known for his motivational coa ...

, compiled a 6–2 record and was ranked No. 9 in the final AP Poll. Quarterback

Otto Graham Otto Everett Graham Jr. (December 6, 1921 – December 17, 2003) was an American professional football player who was a quarterback for the Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL). Graha ...

received 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 as the most valuable player in the Big Ten. Northwestern's two losses were to No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 3 Michigan.

Season overview

Results and team statistics

Key
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

Regular season

Bowl games

During the 1943 season, the Big Ten maintained its long-standing ban on postseason games. Accordingly, no Big Ten teams participated in any bowl games.

All-Big Ten players

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 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 ...

(UP) as first-team players on the

1943 All-Big Ten Conference football team The 1943 All-Big Ten Conference football team consists of American football players selected to the All-Big Ten Conference teams selected by the Associated Press (AP) and United Press (UP) for the 1943 Big Ten Conference football season. All Big-Te ...

. * Herb Hein, end, Northwestern (AP, UP) *

Pete Pihos Peter Louis Pihos (; October 22, 1923August 16, 2011) was an American football player and coach. Pihos played college football, principally as an end and fullback, for Indiana University from 1942 to 1943 and 1945 to 1946. He was selected as a ...

, end, Indiana (AP, UP) * Paul A. Mitchell, tackle, Minnesota (AP, UP) * Bill Willis, tackle, Ohio State (AP, UP) *

, guard, Purdue (AP, UP) *

Fred Negus Frederick Wilson Negus (November 7, 1923 – April 18, 2005) was an American football player. He played college football for Wisconsin and Michigan and professional football in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and the National Footbal ...

, center, Michigan (AP, UP) * Bob Hoernschemeyer, quarterback/halfback, Indiana (AP, UP) *

, quarterback, Michigan (UP) *

, halfback, Northwestern (AP, UP) * Tony Butkovich, halfback, Purdue (AP) * Bill Daley, fullback, Michigan (AP, UP)

All-Americans

At the end of the 1943 season, Big Ten players secured two of the consensus first-team picks for the 1943 College Football All-America Team. The Big Ten's consensus All-Americans were: *

, guard, Purdue (AAB, FN, INS, LK, SN, UP, CP) * Bill Daley, halfback, Michigan (AAB, AP, CO, FN, INS, LK, SN, UP, CP, NYS, SS) Other Big Ten players who were named first-team All-Americans by at least one selector were: *

, end, Indiana (AAB, SN, CO, NYS) * Herb Hein, end, Northwestern (CO) *

Merv Pregulman Mervin Pregulman (October 10, 1922 – November 30, 2012) was an All-American football player, businessman, and philanthropist. He played football as a tackle and center for the University of Michigan Wolverines from 1941 to 1943 and was se ...

, tackle, Michigan (CO, FN, LK, SN, SS) *

, quarterback, Northwestern (AAB, AP, FN, CP) * Tony Butkovich, fullback, Purdue (SN, UP, CP, SS)

1944 NFL draft

The following Big Ten players were selected in the first six rounds of the

1944 NFL draft The 1944 National Football League Draft was held on April 19, 1944, at the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. With the first overall pick of the draft, the Boston Yanks selected quarterback Angelo Bertelli. Player selections Round ...

References

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