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

http://www.cfb-history.com/college-football-by-decade/college-football-the-1940s/

http://www.tiptop25.com/champ1940.html

940 #1: 8-0 Minnesota, 10-0 Stanford, or Minnesota and Stanford in a tie

National Co-champion: 11-0 Boston College, and Stanford/Minnesota if not rated #1

It's quite difficult to play 3 big games in a row, especially when the 3rd is on the road, and Minnesota's trip to Columbus was their worst game of the season. Ohio State outgained them 385 yards to 231, the kicking game was even, and Minnesota even had 3 turnovers to none for OSU, yet somehow Minnesota prevailed 13-7. Though the teams were in the same conference, they had only played each other 4 times prior to this season-- Minnesota had played Nebraska 21 times. The series stood 2-2. 63,000 attended on a rainy day.


Bruce Smith was the hero, rushing 16 times for 139 yards and scoring both of Minnesota's touchdowns. He ran it in from 10 yards out on a fake pass in the opening quarter, but he missed the extra point, leaving the score 6-0. Ohio State's answering drive featured a 57 yard run, and they pushed the ball all the way to the Minnesota 1 yard line, but they were stopped there. Not long after that, Minnesota fumbled at their own 20, and Ohio State cashed that opportunity in with a 4th down lateral and touchdown pass to take a 7-6 lead. In the 2nd quarter, Smith got loose for a pair of 23 yard runs to key a 69 yard drive that ended with his touchdown plunge. That provided the 13-7 final score.


Ohio State came very close to taking the win late in the game. They drove 64 yards, aided by a conversion on 4th and 5, advancing to first and goal at the Minnesota 1, but again they were denied there. Ohio State finished the season 4-4, but all of their losses came to rated teams (Minnesota, 7-1 Michigan, 6-2 Northwestern, and 6-2 Cornell), and the Buckeyes are rated #25 in the fixed AP poll.

Three undefeated teams with a claim.

1940 was a great season for the Huskers

opened the season with a 6 point loss to the Gophers in Minneapolis

finished the season with an 8 point loss to #2 Stanford in the Rose Bowl

finished ranked #7 at 7-1 before the Rose

Lincoln had to seem like it was in Oregon for kids back then.  Imagine being Pitt and hopping on a train, going all the way out to Nebraska.  Had to be the boonies.

In 1946, Minnesota grad and Bernie Bierman protege Bud Wilkinson arrived in Norman, Oklahoma, as the assistant head coach for new head coach Jim Tatum.  Sooner lore has it that the PTB only hired Tatum with the stipulation that he bring Wilkinson with him.

Tatum left after one season.  Apparently, he had an argument with the PTB over who would control the recruiting/slush fund, and he threatened to quit and take the Maryland HFC position.  The PTB took that as a resignation and immediately hired Wilkinson.  (Tatum went on to have a decent career as a head coach.)

Per the Font of All Wisdom and Knowledge:

Head coach at Oklahoma[edit]
In his first season as head coach in 1947, Wilkinson led Oklahoma to a 7–2–1 record and a share of the conference championship, the first of 13 consecutive Big Six/Seven/Eight Conference titles. Ultimately, Wilkinson became one of the most celebrated college coaches of all time. His teams captured national championships in 1950, 1955, and 1956, and they amassed a 145–29–4 (.826) overall record.
The centerpiece of his time in Norman was a 47-game winning streak from 1953 to 1957, an NCAA Division I record that still stands. It has been moderately threatened only three times: by Toledo (35 wins, 1969–1971), Miami (FL) (34 wins, 2000–2003), and USC (34 wins, 2003–2005). Earlier, the Sooners ran off 31 consecutive wins from 1948 to 1950. Apart from two losses in 1951, Wilkinson's Sooners did not lose more than one game per season for 11 years between 1948 and 1958, going 107–8–2 over that period. His teams also went 12 consecutive seasons (1947–1958) without a loss in conference play, a streak which has never been seriously threatened. Wilkinson did not suffer his first conference loss until 1959 against Nebraska, his 79th conference game.
Wilkinson suffered only one losing season, in 1960. However, that season saw him pass Bennie Owen to become the winningest coach in Sooner history. He has since been passed by Barry Switzer and Bob Stoops.
While coaching at OU, Wilkinson began writing a weekly newsletter to alumni during the season, to keep them interested in Sooner football. He also became the first football coach to host his own television show. He and Michigan State University coach Duffy Daugherty partnered to sponsor a series of clinics for high school coaches nationwide. Later, they turned their clinics into a profitable business.^[2]
Following the 1963 season, his 17th at Oklahoma, Wilkinson retired from coaching at the age of 47. Along with Owen, Switzer and Stoops, he is one of four football coaches to win over 100 games at the University of Oklahoma. No other college football program has had more than three coaches who accomplished the feat.
While at Oklahoma, Wilkinson served on the President's Council on Physical Fitness from 1961 to 1964. He designed 11 floor exercises for schoolchildren that were incorporated into the song "Chicken Fat",^[3] the theme song for President John F. Kennedy's youth fitness program,^[4] which was widely used in school gymnasiums across the country in the 1960s and 1970s.^[5]

If you are of a certain age, you might remember "Chicken Fat."

In Tatum's year of 1946, OU played defending-MNC Army at West Point.  This game, an Army victory that was closer than the final 21-7 score, is often cited by amateur historians of OU football as the Sooners' "coming out" party, demonstrating that they could hang with one of the best programs in all the land.

OU will play Army this fall for the 5th-all-time meeting of the two programs.  The Sooners lead it 3-1, but all three wins have been closer than the initial loss: 28-20 in 1959, 14-8 in 1961, and, in 2018, 28-21 in OT.

This is an MNC Alabama claims for some reason, perhaps the most dubious of the lot.  The world in 1941 was becoming a very troubled place obviously.  Germany had overrun France in May 1940 and then much of the rest of Europe.

http://www.tiptop25.com/champ1941.html

Duquesne also finished 8-0, including a big 16-0 win over SEC champion Mississippi State (8-1-1, #12 in fixed AP poll), but their schedule was otherwise bereft of competition, and they struggled to win against Villanova and St. Vincent's (Pennsylvania). They are ranked #6 in the fixed AP poll, and they are not a contender for the MNC.

Alabama actually claims an MNC for this season, despite the fact that they were 9-2, ranked #20 in the AP poll (they rise to #13 in the fixed poll), and they finished tied for 5th in the SEC with 8-2 Vanderbilt, who beat them. This has to be the worst MNC claim of all time, utterly senseless. The claim is based on Alabama finishing #1 in the relatively obscure Houlgate math formula, and it is the only MNC claim a school has made based on Houlgate (Sagarin is far more respected, and no school claims an MNC based on Sagarin). No school has ever rescinded an MNC claim, so I suppose Alabama is stuck with this one, but it seems to me that it would be much less embarrassing for Alabama to rescind the claim than to continue with their ridiculous "1941 national champions" charade.

For OSU Paul Brown won a National Championship in 1942.

In 1944 his hand picked successor Ryan Day, er, Carroll Widdoes went undefeated and finished second behind Army. QB Les Horvath was the first Heisman winner.

In 1946 Widdoes made the peculiar decision to switch jobs with his own OC Paul Bixler, and it didn't go too well. Both men got canned at the end of the season.

Wes Fesler coached out the decade. He collected the school's first Rose Bowl win in 1949. He was an All American as a player for OSU in the 20s and ran a creative offense as a HC, but struggled against the Wolverines like John Cooper.

not apples to apples, but Nebraska was only a 2.5 or 3.5 point favorite over Florida in that Fiesta Bowl.   I can see how the action could fall the way it did in that Army/Navy game.  Throw out the records OAM!!!   I wonder what the ELO/MasseyPeabody #s would say about that game.