The 1944 college football season was the 76th season of intercollegiate football in the United States. Competition included schools from 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 ...

, 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), the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC), the

Big Six Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associat ...

, the

Southern Conference The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly ...

, the

Southwestern Conference The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United States. It participates in t ...

, and numerous smaller conferences and independent programs. The season was played at the height of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, starting less than three months after the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

and as battles raged throughout Europe and the Pacific. As in 1943, the

Associated Press 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 ...

included service teams, drawn from flight schools and training centers which were preparing men for fighting in the war. Half of the final top 20 teams were composed of service teams, in addition to the Army and Navy service academies. Many colleges that had suspended their programs in 1943 returned to competition in 1944, including the entire SEC. The teams ranked highest in the final

in December 1944 were: The year's statistical leaders included Bob Fenimore of Oklahoma A&M with 1,758 yards of total offense,

Wayne Williams Wayne Bertram Williams (born May 27, 1958) is an American convicted murderer and suspected serial killer who is serving life imprisonment for the 1981 killing of two men in Atlanta, Georgia. Although never tried, he is nonetheless believed to be ...

of Minnesota with 911 rushing yards,

Paul Rickards Paul Edward Rickards (June 30, 1926 – July 26, 1999) was an American football player. Rickards was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1926, and attended Wheeling High School. He was selected as the quarterback on the All-West Virginia team an ...

of Pittsburgh with 997 passing yards, Reid Moseley of Georgia with 424 receiving yards, and Glenn Davis of Army with 120 points scored.

Season timeline

September

On September 16 the Great Lakes Naval Training Center team defeated Fort Sheridan, 62–0, before a crowd of 25,000 at its base north of Chicago. Michigan beat Iowa Pre-Flight, 12–7 before a crowd of 22,000 in Ann Arbor. September 23 Great Lakes won at Purdue, 27–18. In Milwaukee, Michigan beat Marquette 14–0. At San Antonio, Randolph Field defeated Abilene Field, 67–0. September 30 Notre Dame won at Pittsburgh 58–0. Great Lakes and Illinois played to a 26–26 tie. Michigan lost to Indiana, 20–0. In Houston, Randolph Field beat Rice 59–0. Army beat North Carolina, 46–0. North Carolina Pre-Flight, quarterbacked by

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 ...

(formerly of Northwestern, and a future Cleveland Browns star) upset Navy, 21–14.

October

October 7 Notre Dame beat Tulane 26–0 and Army defeated Brown 59–7. In games between service teams and colleges, the servicemen triumphed, as North Carolina Pre-Flight won at Duke, 13–6, Great Lakes won at Northwestern 25–0, and Randolph Field won at Texas 42–6. In the poll that followed, Notre Dame was first and Army third, with service teams occupying the other spots in the top five: No. 2 North Carolina Pre-Flight, No. 4 Randolph Field, and No. 5 Great Lakes. October 14 In Boston, No. 1 Notre Dame beat Dartmouth, 64–0. No. 2 North Carolina Pre-Flight was tied by Virginia, 13–13. No. 3 Army beat Pittsburgh, 69–7. No. 4 Randolph Field, quarterbacked by “Bullet Bill” Dudley, beat SMU at home in San Antonio, 41–0. No. 5 Great Lakes beat Western Michigan 38–0. No. 8 Ohio State won at No. 19 Wisconsin, 20–7 and No. 11 Iowa Pre-Flight won at No. 7 Purdue, 13–6. N.C. Pre-Flight and Great Lakes fell out of the top five, which was now No. 1 Notre Dame, No. 2 Army, No. 3 Randolph Field, No. 4 Ohio State, and No. 5 Iowa Pre-Flight. October 21 No. 1 Notre Dame defeated Wisconsin 28–13. No. 2 Army beat the Coast Guard Academy, 76–0. No. 3 Randolph Field and Camp Polk played a Sunday game at Fort Worth, Texas, with Randolph's Ramblers winning 67–0. No. 4 Ohio State beat No. 6 Great Lakes, 26–6. No. 5 Iowa Pre-Flight defeated Fort Warren, 30–0. In Atlanta, No. 8 Georgia Tech defeated No. 9 Navy 17–15 and moved up to No. 5 behind Notre Dame, Army, Randolph Field, and Ohio State. October 28 No. 1 Notre Dame won at No. 14 Illinois, 13–7. At a war bonds fundraiser at the Polo Grounds in New York, No. 2 Army beat Duke 27–7. No. 3 Randolph Field defeated Morris Field 19–0. No. 4 Ohio State beat Minnesota 34–14. No. 5 Georgia Tech reached 5–0–0 after a 13–7 win over the flight training school located on the U.Ga. campus, Georgia Pre-Flight. Army moved up to No. 1 in the next poll--the first time since the 1942 season that Notre Dame did not hold the top spot. The Fighting Irish fell to No. 2, followed by No. 3 Ohio State, No. 4 Randolph Field, and No. 5 Georgia Tech.

November

November 4 No. 1 Army rolled over Villanova, 83–0. In six games, the Cadets had outscored their opponents by an average of 60 to 3. In Baltimore, No. 2 Notre Dame lost to No. 6 Navy, 32–13. No. 3 Ohio State beat Indiana 21–7. No. 4 Randolph Field beat North Texas Agricultural (later called the University of Texas-Arlington) 68–0. No. 5 Georgia Tech lost at Duke, 19–13. The new top five were No. 1 Army, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Navy, No. 4 Randolph Field, and No. 5 Notre Dame. November 11 At Yankee Stadium in New York, No. 1 Army crushed No. 5 Notre Dame, 59–0. No. 2 Ohio State beat Pittsburgh 54–19. No. 3 Navy beat Cornell, 48–0. No. 4 Randolph Field defeated Maxwell Field, 25–0. No. 8 Michigan, which beat No. 10 Illinois 14–0, took Notre Dame's place at No. 5 behind No. 1 Army, No. 2 Randolph Field, No. 3 Navy, and No. 4 Ohio State. November 18 In Philadelphia, No. 1 Army beat Pennsylvania, 62–7. In Georgetown, Texas, No. 2 Randolph Field beat Southwestern University, 54–0. No. 3 Navy defeated No. 14 Purdue in Baltimore, 32–0. In Cleveland, before a crowd of 83,627 fans, No. 4 Ohio State beat Illinois 26–12. No. 5 Michigan defeated Wisconsin, 14–0. In a Sunday game between service teams, No. 6 United States Naval Training Center Bainbridge, Maryland defeated Camp Lejeune, 33–6. The next top five was No. 1 Army, No. 2 Navy, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 4 Randolph Field, and No. 5 Bainbridge Naval. November 25 No. 1 Army (8–0–0) and No. 2 Navy (6–2–0) were both idle as they prepared for the annual

Army–Navy Game The Army–Navy Game is an American college football rivalry game between the Army Black Knights of the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York, and the Navy Midshipmen of the United States Naval Academy (USNA) at Annapo ...

. No. 3 Ohio State beat No. 6 Michigan 18–14. The next day, No. 4 Randolph Field beat Amarillo Field, 33–0, and No. 5 Bainbridge Naval beat No. 14 Camp Peary, 21–13. The top five remained the same.

December

December 2 No. 1 Army and No. 2 Navy met in Baltimore. Army's offense was held to its lowest score of the season, but won 23–7 to cap a perfect season. Army had scored 59 points or more in seven of its nine games, with a 504 to 35 aggregate over its opponents. No. 3 Ohio State had finished its season and moved up to No. 2 after Navy's loss, while No. 4 Randolph Field and No. 5 Bainbridge Naval were idle. After the release of the final poll, Randolph Field participated in two more games for the sale of bonds. In Los Angeles, the "Ramblers" beat the Fourth Air Force team (March Field), 20–7, on December 10. Six days later, Randolph Field met the Second Air Force Superbombers at the Polo Grounds in New York for the “Treasury Bond Bowl”, and won 13–6 to complete their season at 11–0–0. Their final ranking was No. 3, ahead of No. 4 Navy and No. 5 Bainbridge Naval.

Bowl games

Conference standings

Major conference standings

Independents

Minor conferences

Minor conference standings

Rankings

Awards and honors

All-Americans

The consensus

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

team included:

Statistical leaders