1941 college football season

1941 NCAA football season

Total # of teams

119^[1]

First AP #1 of season

Minnesota Golden Gophers^[2]

Number of bowls

Champions

Minnesota Golden Gophers (AP, Consensus)

Heisman

Bruce Smith, Minnesota HB

College football seasons
« 1940	1942 »

The 1941 NCAA football regular season ended with the Golden Gophers of the University of Minnesota repeating as the AP Poll national champion. This was Minnesota's fifth national championship in eight years. The Big Ten Conference did not allow their teams to participate in the post-season bowl games, therefore the undefeated, untied Duke Blue Devils, faced the #12-ranked Oregon State Beavers in the Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowl game had been temporarily moved from Pasadena, California to Durham, North Carolina following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Oregon State beat Duke, 20-16, but postseason games were played after the AP Poll rankings. Each writer listed his choice for the top ten teams, and points were tallied based on 10 for first place, 9 for second, etc. The AP then ranked the twenty teams with the highest number of points. Mississippi State, who won the SEC championship, was unable to participate in the post-season due to the wartime airport and train station closings. Therefore, the Georgia Bulldogs and the Alabama Crimson Tide were selected to play in the Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl, respectively. Georgia defeated TCU 40-26 and Alabama defeated the Texas A&M Aggies 29-21.^[3]

In addition to Minnesota's regular season AP national championship, the Golden Gophers were also selected national champions by Billingsley,^[4] Boand, DeVold, Dunkel, Football Research, Helms, Litkenhous, the National Championship Foundation, Poling,^[4] Sagarin and Sagarin (ELO-Chess).^[5] The Alabama Crimson Tide were selected national champions by the Houlgate Poll.^[5] The Texas Longhorns were selected national champions by the Berryman^[4] and Wilson polling systems.^[5] The University of Texas doesn't claim this season as a national championship though. All selectors of national title teams are documented in the official 2010 NCAA FBS College Football Record Book. These selectors were nationally syndicated in newspapers and magazines during the 1941-1942 football season.,^[6]

Conference and program changes

School	1940 Conference	1941 Conference
Hardin–Simmons Cowboys	Independent	Border
Long Island Blackbirds	Independent	Dropped Program
Sewanee Tigers	SEC	Independent
Washburn Ichabods	Missouri Valley	Independent
West Texas State Buffaloes	Alamo	Border

September

September 20 Tennessee beat Furman 32-6 and Boston College beat St. Anselm, 78-0.

September 27 In Seattle, defending champion Minnesota beat Washington 14-6, while in New Orleans, Boston College fell to Tulane, 21-7. Stanford beat Oregon 19-15, Michigan beat Michigan State 19-7, Texas won at Colorado, 34-6 and Duke beat Wake Forest 43-14. Tennessee was idle

October

October 4 Minnesota was idle. Tennessee lost at Duke, 19-0. In New York, Fordham beat SMU 16-10. Elsewhere, it was Stanford over UCLA 33-0, Michigan over Iowa 6-0, Northwestern beating Kansas State 51-3 and Texas defeating LSU 34-0.

October 11 Minnesota beat Illinois 34-6, Northwestern beat Wisconsin 41-14, and Michigan beat Pittsburgh 40-0. In Baltimore, Duke beat Maryland 50-0, while in Dallas, Texas beat Oklahoma 40-7. Fordham won at North Carolina 27-14. Stanford lost at Oregon State 10-0. In the poll that followed, Minnesota was ranked #1, followed by Texas, Duke, Fordham, Northwestern and Michigan.

October 16 the penalty flag is used for the first time in the 1941 Oklahoma City vs. Youngstown football game in Youngstown, Ohio.

October 18 #1 Minnesota beat Pittsburgh 39-0. #2 Texas defeated Arkansas 48-14. #3 Duke beat visiting Colgate 27-14, and #4 Fordham beat West Virginia 27-0. In Ann Arbor, #6 Michigan beat visiting #5 Northwestern 14-7. #7 Navy beat Cornell 14-0 in Baltimore. In the next poll, Michigan and Navy moved up while Fordham and Northwestern dropped out of the top five.

October 25 The biggest game of the year took place in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as #1 Minnesota defeated #3 Michigan, 7-0. #2 Texas beat Rice 40-0. #4 Duke won at Pittsburgh 27-7. #5 Navy and Harvard played to a 0-0 tie. #6 Fordham beat TCU 28-14, while #9 Texas A&M won at Baylor 48-0, to reach 5-0-0. In the vote that followed, Minnesota received 60 first place votes, and Texas received 53. When the points were tallied, they both had 1,161 points and were tied for #1.

November

November 1 In Dallas, #1 Texas beat SMU 34-0, while in Minneapolis, the other #1, Minnesota, edged #9 Northwestern 8-7. In New York, #3 Fordham defeated Purdue 17-0, and in Atlanta, #4 Duke won at Georgia Tech 14-0. In Little Rock, #5 Texas A&M beat Arkansas 7-0. Texas was the new #1 the following week, followed by Minnesota, Fordham, Duke and Texas A&M, all unbeaten and untied.

November 8 #1 Texas and Baylor played to a 7-7 tie. #2 Minnesota beat Nebraska 9-0. #3 Fordham lost at Pittsburgh 13-0. #4 Duke won at Davidson 56-0. #5 Texas A&M beat SMU 21-10. #7 Notre Dame beat Navy 20-13 in Baltimore and moved into the Top Five as Fordham dropped out.

November 15 #1 Minnesota won at Iowa 34-13. #2 Texas lost to Texas Christian (TCU) 14-7. #3 Duke beat North Carolina 20-0. In Houston, #4 Texas A&M beat Rice 19-6. #5 Notre Dame won at #8 Northwestern 7-6. #7 Michigan, which beat Columbia, 28-0, moved up as Texas dropped out.

November 22 #1 Minnesota closed its season with a 41-6 win over Wisconsin in Minneapolis. #2 Texas A&M was idle as it prepared for its Thanksgiving game. #3 Duke won its season closer at N.C. State 55-6 to get a bid to Pasadena’s Rose Bowl. Fifteen days later, the bombing of Pearl Harbor called into question whether Southern California would be safe from a Japanese attack on New Year's Day. On December 15, bowl officials and U.S. Army officers met in San Francisco and decided to hold the game at Duke's stadium in Durham, North Carolina.^[7]

#4 Notre Dame beat USC 20-18. #5 Michigan closed its season with a 20-20 tie #14 against Ohio State. The Top four remained the same, but #6 Duquesne (which had finished its season at 8-0-0) replaced Michigan at #5. On Thanksgiving Day #2 Texas A&M lost to Texas 23-0.

Conference standings

The following is a potentially incomplete list of conference standings:

1941 Big 6 football standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
#7 Missouri $	5	–	0	–	0	8	–	2	–	0
Nebraska	3	–	2	–	0	4	–	5	–	0
Oklahoma	3	–	2	–	0	6	–	3	–	0
Kansas	2	–	3	–	0	3	–	6	–	0
Kansas State	1	–	3	–	1	2	–	5	–	2
Iowa State	0	–	4	–	1	2	–	6	–	1

$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

1941 Big Ten football standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
#1 Minnesota $	5	–	0	–	0	8	–	0	–	0
#5 Michigan	3	–	1	–	1	6	–	1	–	1
#13 Ohio State	3	–	1	–	1	6	–	1	–	1
#11 Northwestern	4	–	2	–	0	5	–	3	–	0
Wisconsin	3	–	3	–	0	3	–	5	–	0
Iowa	2	–	4	–	0	3	–	5	–	0
Purdue	1	–	3	–	0	2	–	5	–	1
Indiana	1	–	3	–	0	2	–	6	–	0
Illinois	0	–	5	–	0	2	–	6	–	0

$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

1941 New England Conference football standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
Rhode Island $	2	–	0	–	0	5	–	2	–	1
Maine	2	–	1	–	1	3	–	2	–	2
New Hampshire	0	–	0	–	1	4	–	3	–	1
Northeastern	0	–	1	–	0	4	–	3	–	0
Connecticut	0	–	2	–	0	2	–	6	–	0

$ – Conference champion

1941 MSC football standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
Utah $	4	–	0	–	2	6	–	0	–	2
Colorado	3	–	2	–	1	3	–	4	–	1

$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

1941 PCC football standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
#12 Oregon State $	7	–	2	–	0	8	–	2	–	0
Washington	5	–	3	–	0	5	–	4	–	0
#19 Washington State	5	–	3	–	0	6	–	4	–	0
Stanford	4	–	3	–	0	6	–	3	–	0
Oregon	4	–	4	–	0	5	–	5	–	0
UCLA	3	–	4	–	1	5	–	5	–	1
California	3	–	4	–	0	4	–	5	–	0
USC	2	–	4	–	1	2	–	6	–	1
Montana	1	–	3	–	0	6	–	3	–	0
Idaho	0	–	4	–	0	4	–	5	–	0

$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

1941 SEC football standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
#16 Mississippi State $	4	–	0	–	1	8	–	1	–	1
#18 Tennessee	3	–	1	–	0	8	–	2	–	0
#20 Alabama	5	–	2	–	0	9	–	2	–	0
#14 Georgia	3	–	1	–	1	9	–	1	–	1
#17 Ole Miss	2	–	1	–	1	6	–	2	–	1
Vanderbilt	3	–	2	–	0	8	–	2	–	0
LSU	2	–	2	–	2	4	–	4	–	2
Tulane	2	–	3	–	0	5	–	4	–	0
Georgia Tech	2	–	4	–	0	3	–	6	–	0
Florida	1	–	3	–	0	4	–	6	–	0
Auburn	1	–	3	–	0	4	–	6	–	0
Kentucky	0	–	4	–	0	5	–	4	–	0

$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

1941 Southern Conference football standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
#2 Duke $	5	–	0	–	0	9	–	1	–	0
South Carolina	4	–	0	–	1	4	–	4	–	1
Clemson	5	–	1	–	0	7	–	2	–	0
William & Mary	4	–	1	–	0	8	–	2	–	0
VMI	4	–	2	–	0	4	–	6	–	0
VPI	4	–	2	–	0	6	–	4	–	0
Wake Forest	4	–	2	–	1	5	–	5	–	1
NC State	3	–	4	–	2	4	–	5	–	2
Furman	2	–	3	–	2	3	–	4	–	2
Washington and Lee	1	–	2	–	2	1	–	6	–	2
North Carolina	2	–	4	–	0	3	–	7	–	0
Maryland	1	–	2	–	0	3	–	5	–	1
Davidson	1	–	5	–	2	1	–	6	–	3
The Citadel	0	–	2	–	1	4	–	3	–	1
George Washington	0	–	4	–	1	1	–	7	–	1
Richmond	0	–	6	–	0	2	–	7	–	0

$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

1941 Southwest Conference football standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
#9 Texas A&M $	5	–	1	–	0	9	–	2	–	0
#4 Texas	4	–	1	–	1	8	–	1	–	1
TCU	4	–	1	–	1	7	–	3	–	1
Rice	3	–	2	–	1	6	–	3	–	1
SMU	2	–	4	–	0	5	–	5	–	0
Baylor	1	–	4	–	1	3	–	6	–	1
Arkansas	0	–	6	–	0	3	–	7	–	0

$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

Minor conferences

Conference	Champion(s)	Record
Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association	Alma	4–0–1

Final polls

Main article: 1941 NCAA football rankings

Bowl games

Bowl	Winning team	points	Losing team	points
Rose Bowl	#12 Oregon State Beavers	20	#2 Duke Blue Devils	16
Sugar Bowl	#6 Fordham Rams	2	#7 Missouri Tigers	0
Orange Bowl	#14 Georgia Bulldogs	40	TCU Horned Frogs	7
Cotton Bowl	#20 Alabama Crimson Tide	29	#9 Texas A&M Aggies	21
Sun Bowl	Tulsa Golden Hurricane	6	Texas Tech Red Raiders	0

References

↑ "1941 NCAA Division IA Football Power Ratings". Jhowell.net. 1999-06-10. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
↑ "www.appollarchive.com". www.appollarchive.com. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
↑ "Yearly Bowl Games". Cfbdatawarehouse.com. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
1 2 3 http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_records/2011/FBS.pdf
1 2 3 "National Poll Champions" (PDF). NCAA. p. 71. Retrieved 2011-07-29.
↑ "National Poll Champions" (PDF). NCAA. p. 70. Retrieved 2011-07-29.
↑ "Rose Bowl Grid Game is Transferred To Durham, N.C. By Duke, Beavers," Fresno Bee, Dec. 15, 1941, p2-B

NCAA football seasons

Pre-regulation	1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905

IAAUS/NCAA	1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955

NCAA University Division/ Division I	1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977

NCAA Division I-A/FBS	1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

NCAA Division I-AA/FCS	1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

NCAA Division II	1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

NCAA Division III	1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

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