The 1949 Santa Clara Broncos football team was an

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

team that represented

Santa Clara University Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university's campus surrounds the historic Mis ...

as an independent during the

1949 college football season The 1949 college football season finished with four teams that were unbeaten and untied-- Notre Dame, Oklahoma, California, and Army had won all their games at season's end. Notre Dame, however, was the overwhelming choice for national champion ...

. In their fourth season under head coach

Len Casanova Leonard Joseph Casanova (June 12, 1905 – September 30, 2002) was an American football and baseball player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Santa Clara University (1946–1949), the University ...

, the Broncos compiled an 8–2–1 record, were ranked No. 15 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 ...

, and outscored all opponents by a combined total of 222 to 114. The Broncos' victories included a 14–0 besting of

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, a 19–6 victory over Saint Mary's, and a 21–13 victory over

Bear Bryant Paul William "Bear" Bryant (September 11, 1913 – January 26, 1983) was an American college football player and coach. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, and best known as the head coach of ...

Kentucky Wildcats The Kentucky Wildcats are the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic squads of the University of Kentucky (UK), a founding member of the Southeastern Conference. The Kentucky Wildcats is the student body of the University of Kentucky. 30,473 ...

in the

1950 Orange Bowl 1950 Orange Bowl was the sixteenth edition of the bowl game, played at Burdine Stadium in Miami, Florida, on Monday, January 2, 1950. The game featured the Kentucky Wildcats of the Southeastern Conference and the Santa Clara Broncos, an independen ...

. The team's two losses came against

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 ...

champion

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

(ranked No. 3 in the final AP Poll) and undefeated

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

(ranked No. 2 in the AP Poll). Guard Vern Sterling was selected by both 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 ...

and

International News Service The International News Service (INS) was a U.S.-based news agency (newswire) founded by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1909.

as a first-team player on the 1949 All-Pacific Coast football team. After the 1949 season, coach Casanova left Santa Clara to become head coach at Pittsburgh. He also served as head coach at Oregon from 1951 to 1966.

Schedule

References

{{Santa Clara Broncos football navbox Santa Clara Santa Clara Broncos football seasons Orange Bowl champion seasons

Santa Clara Broncos football The Santa Clara Broncos football program was the intercollegiate American football team for Santa Clara University located in Santa Clara, California. Santa Clara played its first football game against St. Mary's College in San Francisco in 1 ...