Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

https://tiptop25.com/champ1939.html

The star of this team was huge Hall of Fame fullback John Kimbrough (pictured running with the ball below), a consensus All American in 1939 and 1940. He also finished 2nd in the Heisman voting in 1940. He rushed for 475 yards and 10 touchdowns this season.

Tackle Joe Boyd was a nonconsensus AA, and guard Marshall Robnett would be named a consensus AA in 1940. Halfback Derace Moser would be named a nonconsensus AA in 1941, as well as the SWC MVP.

Texas A&M led the nation in points allowed during the regular season, 18, and in yards allowed per game, 76.3, and this team still holds the NCAA record for yards allowed per play, 1.7. Needless to say, that record won't be broken.
 


The Sugar Bowl



Had Tulane won this game, they would be my choice for 1939 national champion. They came into the game 8-0-1 and ranked #5 in the AP poll, their tie coming against 8-1-1 North Carolina. They had beaten 9-1 Clemson 7-6, 5-5-1 Auburn 12-0, 6-2 Fordham 7-0, 7-2 Mississippi 18-6, and 5-3-1 Alabama 13-0.

Though Texas A&M was the favorite, this game was made more difficult by the fact that it was played on Tulane's home field, which had just been greatly expanded. The previous year's Sugar Bowl attracted 44,000, but this year 73,000 fans attended. Tulane Stadium was now the largest stadium in the South.

This was the year the Orange Bowl, held in a stadium that had only been dedicated a year prior, became a major event. 10-0 Oklahoma, champion of the Big 6 and ranked #4 in the AP poll, reportedly fielded more lucrative offers from the Rose, Sugar, and Cotton bowls, but Orange Bowl committee member Earnie Seiler went all out to woo the Sooners to Miami. He went to Norman and covered the campus with posters of beaches and pretty girls, then gave a speech to the players, after which they voted to go to Miami. Seiler then asked Oklahoma coach Tom Stidham to call close friend Bob Neyland to set up a game between the two, and thusly the Orange Bowl found itself with #2 Tennessee facing #4 Oklahoma, the best matchup of the bowl season.

Oklahoma's schedule was as weak as TCU's schedule was, and they hadn't played any top 25 opponents, but their defense was stellar, as they only gave up 12 points all season. Tennessee had only given up 16, albeit against a far tougher schedule, so this was looking like a defensive battle. Tennessee's chief concern was that Oklahoma outweighed them by quite a bit, and the Sooners played a rough, "dirty" style typical of their conference at that time. Outside observers wondered if Tennessee could stand up to 4 quarters of punishment. But stand up they did, and in fact they gave out better than they got.

The teams tussled quite a bit, combining for 25 penalties and 220 yards, and one player from each team was ejected for slugging. Surprisingly, Tennessee ended up being the worst transgressor, 16 penalties for 130 yards. The actual game was all Tennessee, as they outgained the Sooners 260 yards to 94 and tallied 15 first downs to 6, and they shut Oklahoma out 17-0.

In the opening quarter, an Oklahoma penalty and a strong George Cafego punt return gave Tennessee the ball at the Sooner 27. They drove for a touchdown from there, Bowden Wyatt hitting the extra point for a 7-0 lead. An Oklahoma fumble in the 2nd quarter gave the Volunteers the ball at the Sooner 27 again, and from there they drove to a Wyatt field goal and 10-0 halftime lead. In the final period Tennessee quickly moved 73 yards for another touchdown against a worn-down Oklahoma defense, finishing the scoring. George Cafego rushed for 114 yards and had 260 in total offense.

Re the 1938 Sooners, per the Font of All Wisdom and Knowledge:

Waddy Young
Walter Roland Young (September 14, 1916 – January 9, 1945) was a professional football player who later served in World War II.

Football and war[edit]
Young was the first consensus All-American football player out of the University of Oklahoma. He led the team to its first Big Six Conference championship as well as its first bowl berth ever, the 1939 Orange Bowl. He also starred as a heavyweight wrestler for the Sooners. After college, he played professionally for the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National Football League, where he played in the league's first televised game. He voluntarily gave up his NFL career to become a member of the elite flying club who piloted America’s B-24 Liberator bombers over the European Theatre, flying 9,000 hours against mighty German Luftwaffe. Afterwards he volunteered to go back into combat in the Pacific Theatre against the Empire of Japan, where he flew a B-29 Super Fortresses. He was killed on January 9, 1945, in a plane crash during a B-29 raid over Tokyo as he attempted to assist a comrade whose plane had one engine on fire. The planes collided, and all crew on board were killed.
Young was inducted posthumously into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1986 and named the recipient of the Robert Kalsu Freedom Award, presented by the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, in 2007. The University of Oklahoma Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps Arnold Air Society squadron and Silver Wings chapter is named in honor of Waddy Young.
Personal life[edit]
While living in New York City and playing professional football prior to America’s entry into World War II, he met Maggie Moody, a well-known blonde model who attended Oklahoma A&M, and the two fell in love. During halftime of a Brooklyn-New York Giants game in which he was playing, Young had the public address announcer voice his proposal to Maggie, who was sitting in the stands, and the two were later married.

His B-29 was "Waddy's Wagon."

[img width=500 height=395.994]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/89/3a/52/893a52cef9ee5d339529f3ccef5ed21b.jpg[/img]

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Wildlife advocates on Wednesday asked a U.S. judge to force the government into deciding if the snow-loving wolverine should be federally protected as the rare predator becomes vulnerable to a warming planet.

The request comes in a lawsuit filed in Montana almost four years after U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen ordered wildlife officials to take swift action to protect the animal.

Wolverines, also known as “mountain devils." need deep snows to den. Scientists warn such habitat could shrink as the Earth heats up.

Once found throughout the Rocky Mountains and in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, wolverines were wiped out across most of the U.S. by the 1930s following unregulated trapping and poisoning campaigns.

An estimated 250 to 300 wolverines survive in remote areas of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington state, according to wildlife officials. Populations also are in Canada and Alaska.

Wednesday's lawsuit was filed by attorneys for the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife and more than a half dozen other groups. The case was assigned to Christensen.

In the judge's April 2016 order, he chastised government officials for rejecting the views of many of its own scientists when it decided not to protect wolverines in 2014. The judge declared in his order that “the time is now” to protect a species “squarely in the path of climate change."


But in a Feb. 28 letter to an attorney for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, a senior U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official said “the court did not set a time frame” for a decision.

A final determination on whether the wolverine should be protected is expected by late summer 2020, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Deputy Assistant Director Gina Shultz said in the letter to Earthjustice attorney Amanda Galvan.

here's your top 20 by winning percentage to 1939 according to Stassen



1 Yale 0.83194 
2 Princeton 0.81105
3 Notre Dame 0.80000
4 Harvard 0.77665
5 Michigan 0.76380
6 Minnesota 0.73897
7 Southern Cal 0.73478
8 California 0.73067
9 Nebraska 0.73002 
10 Army 0.72673 290

11 Vanderbilt 0.72406 
12 Alabama 0.72237
13 Pennsylvania 0.71483
14 Pittsburgh 0.70698
15 Texas 0.70324 272
16 Dartmouth 0.70021
17 Washington 0.69405 
18 Stanford 0.69375
19 Arizona 0.68288
20 Texas A&M


http://football.stassen.com/cgi-bin/records/calc-wp.pl?start=1869&end=1939&rpct=30&min=5&se=on&by=Win+Pct

this is why I ask.........

Throwback Thursday: Go all the way back to Thanksgiving Day of 1922, when the Huskers played the final game at Nebraska Field and upset the Fighting Irish.

https://www.huskermatwitter.com/huskers-brawn-beats-notre-dames-finesse-nebraska-football-1922/

As the fourth quarter began, it was gut-check time at Nebraska Field.

Nebraska had run roughshod over Notre Dame during the first 30 minutes of play, but that was a distant memory. The 1922 Cornhuskers were now hanging on for dear life.

The Fighting Irish and their budding “Four Horsemen” had unleashed a dizzying passing game after intermission. Nebraska’s offense, so powerful in the first half, had managed a measly three yards the entire third quarter. The resurgent visitors had trimmed the Huskers’ lead to 14-6 and were knocking on the door again with a first down at the Nebraska 10.

Three times the Irish smashed into the Nebraska line. Each thrust moved the ball closer to paydirt, and now it was fourth-and-goal at the 3. The Huskers needed one more stop.

Harry Stuhldreher took the snap from center and dropped back to pass. From his left end position, Nebraska’s Andy Schoeppel stormed through, and the native Kansan known as “Shep” tossed the Notre Dame quarterback for a 10-yard loss.

The overflow Thanksgiving Day crowd at Nebraska Field rejoiced. That would be the Irish’s last, best chance, and the Huskers went on to salt away a 14-6 victory over a nationally prominent rival they hadn’t beaten in their last four tries.

The goal-line stand clearly energized the Cornhuskers. Inside your own 15 is no place to be in the final period of a tight game, and Nebraska used punishing run after punishing run to move the ball safely into Irish territory.

That was more like the Huskers of old. The first-half Huskers.

1910: With spring practices about to begin, rule changes add to the learning curve. Games will be divided into quarters for the first time, and freer substituting will be allowed.[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)] ([/color]Full story here[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)].)[/color]

ugly, but I wanted the links to work