The 1962 Ole Miss Rebels 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 wi ...

team that represented the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi ( byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment ...

in 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 o ...

(SEC) during the

1962 NCAA University Division football season The 1962 NCAA University Division football season was played by American football teams representing 140 colleges and universities recognized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as major programs. The remaining 370 colleges a ...

. In their 16th year under head coach

Johnny Vaught John Howard Vaught (May 6, 1909 – February 3, 2006) was an American college football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) from 1947 to 1970 and aga ...

, the Rebels compiled a perfect 10–0 record, outscored opponents by a total of 247 to 53, won the SEC championship, and defeated

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

in the

1963 Sugar Bowl The 1963 Sugar Bowl featured the 3rd ranked Ole Miss Rebels, and the 6th ranked Arkansas Razorbacks. Game summary Ole Miss took the early 3-0 lead in the second quarter, after a 30-yard Irwin field goal. Arkansas answered with a 30-yard field goal ...

. To date, it is the only undefeated and untied season in Ole Miss football history. Mississippi finished No. 1 in the season's final

Litkenhous Ratings The Litkenhous Difference by Score Ratings system was a mathematical system used to rank football and basketball teams. The Litrating system was developed by Vanderbilt University professor Edward E. Litkenhous (1907 – December 22, 1984) and his b ...

and was awarded the Litkenhous Ratings Championship trophy. This team was apparently the last Litkenhous champion to be awarded the traveling trophy, as the plaque remains at Ole Miss today. The team ranked No. 3 in the final AP and UPI coaches polls released in December 1962. USC was selected as the national champion by both the AP and UPI. In later retrospective analyses, Ole Miss was recognized as the 1962 national champion by the

Billingsley Report The Billingsley Report is a college football rating system developed in the late 1960s to determine a national champion. Billingsley has actively rated college football teams on a current basis since 1970. Beginning in 1999, Billingsley's ratings ...

and

Sagarin Ratings Jeff Sagarin is an American sports statistician known for his development of a method for ranking and rating sports teams in a variety of sports. His ratings have been a regular feature in the ''USA Today'' sports section since 1985, have been use ...

. In September 2012, Ole Miss athletic director

Ross Bjork Ross Bjork (born October 22, 1972) is the current athletics director for Texas A&M University. He previously served as the director of athletics for University of Mississippi and Western Kentucky University, where he was the youngest athletic dire ...

announced that the 1962 team would be receiving national championship rings to honor their accomplishments. Ole Miss tackle

Jim Dunaway James Kenneth Dunaway (September 3, 1941 – May 12, 2018) was an American football player. A defensive tackle, he played college football at the University of Mississippi, and played professionally in the American Football League for the Buffal ...

was a consensus first-team player on the 1962 All-America college football team. Quarterback

Glynn Griffing Wilburn Glynn Griffing (born December 1, 1940 in Bentonia, Mississippi) is a former American football quarterback who played one season for the New York Giants in the National Football League. He played college football at the University of M ...

was also selected as a first-team All-American by the Football Writers Association of America. The team's statistical leaders included Griffing with 882 passing yards and 278 rushing yards and Lou Guy with 295 receiving yards and 42 points scored. The Rebels' undefeated season was set against the backdrop of the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

taking place on their own campus as

James Meredith James Howard Meredith (born June 25, 1933) is an American civil rights activist, writer, political adviser, and Air Force veteran who became, in 1962, the first African-American student admitted to the racially segregated University of Missi ...

, aided by the United States government, was attempting to be the first African American student to enroll at the university. In 2012,

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

aired a documentary on the team, ''Ghosts of Ole Miss'', as part of its '' 30 for 30'' series.

Schedule

Roster

* Allen Brown, end * Willis Dabbs, end * Don Dickson, line * Kenny Dill, line *

, tackle * Perry Lee Dunn, Jr., fullback *

, quarterback * Lou Guy, back * Whaley Hall, line * Conrad Hitchler, end * Fred Kimbrell, line * Chuck Morris, back * Buck Randall, back * Frank Roberts, back * James Roberts, line * Richard Ross, line *

Jim Weatherly James Dexter Weatherly (March 17, 1943 – February 3, 2021) was an American singer-songwriter who wrote mostly pop and country music. He played quarterback at the University of Mississippi while also writing music with his own bands. He subseq ...

, quarterback

Awards

*SEC Coach of the Year:

* 1962 All-America college football team :* Tackle

, consensus first-team All-American :* Quarterback

, first-team All-America pick by Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) *

1962 All-SEC football team The 1962 All-SEC football team consists of American football players selected to the All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) chosen by various selectors for the 1962 NCAA University Division football season. All-SEC selections Ends * Tom Hutchinson, Ke ...

:* Quarterback

(AP-1, UPI-1) :* Halfback

Louis Guy Louis Guy (June 27, 1768 – February 17, 1850) was a notary and political figure in Lower Canada. He was born in Montreal in 1768, the son of a merchant there. Guy studied to be a land surveyor and learned English at the College of New ...

(UPI-3) :* Tackle

(UPI-1) :* Guard Don Dickson (AP-1, UPI-1)

References

{{Southeastern Conference football champions Ole Miss Ole Miss Rebels football seasons College football national champions Southeastern Conference football champion seasons Sugar Bowl champion seasons College football undefeated seasons

Ole Miss Rebels football The Ole Miss Rebels football program represents the University of Mississippi, also known as "Ole Miss". The Rebels compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Western Division of ...