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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 4179055, member: 289"] 1961 [URL unfurl="true"]http://www.tiptop25.com/champ1961.html[/URL] [URL unfurl="true"]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_NCAA_University_Division_football_rankings[/URL] [URL unfurl="true"]http://www.tiptop25.com/fixing1961.html[/URL] What interests me most about Vautraver’s article on the national championship is the uniforms. First we see a shot of Alabama playing Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl. The Tide is playing in white helmets, giving them a “Penn State look”, except that the color is crimson, not blue. Yet below we see a shot of quarterback Pat Trammell in a crimson helmet. The Tide sometimes used both in those days. Then we see a shot, taken from the back of the end zone of Alabama running a play against arch-rival Auburn. Both are wearing colored jerseys, as many shots form the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s show. But this one is from 1961. I’ve never read a confirmation of this but I’ve always assumed that it was normal for both teams to wear jerseys with their school colors during the era when most of the money was coming from paid attendance and the fans could see that, in this case, Alabama was in crimson and Auburn in dark blue. Newsreels were in black and white and couldn’t tell the difference but they were not a source of revenue. When television became the primary source of viewership and was in black and white, the practice was started to have on team, (usually the road team in football but usually the home team in other sports) wear white jerseys so that fans watching on black and white TVs could tell the difference. By the 1960’s color TV sets were available, but they’ve never switched back and I think a lot of interesting color combinations were lost in the process. But ‘Bama and Auburn were still going old-school in 1961. Then there are the shots of the Ohio State team wearing what was known as the MacGregor Helmet. The hard plastic helmets we are used to were first produced by the Riddell company in the late 30’s, although some schools were still going with leather helmets as late as the mid 1950’s: [URL="https://www.sportscollectibles.com/autographed_signed_paul_hornung_8x10_photo_notre_dame_certified_authentic_c_p2871185.htm"]Autographed Signed Paul Hornung 8x10 Photo Notre Dame - Certified Authentic[/URL] the Riddle helmet with the hard surface and straps to support the head on the inside was supposed to prevent concussions and did so compared to the leather helmets but there were still too many of them. The McGregor company came up with the idea of putting a wide strip of heavy padding on the outside of the helmet. This further reduced concussions but it also tended to increase neck and back injuries. Collisions bounced off of Riddell helmets but, even though lessened by the McGregor helmet, the padding tended to lengthen their duration as the strip provided too much traction and that transferred the force of the blow from the brain to the neck and back. So they were abandoned by the end of the decade. But you can see them in old pictures of the schools that used them, including Ohio State, Duke, Harvard and Cornell. It seems amazing that this was the first year Alabama finished atop one of the two polls, 25 years after they AP poll started. They were 4th in 1936 and 1937 and 3rd in 1945 but had fallen on hard times in the 1950’s, incredibly going 0-10 in 1955. But Bear Bryant came to the rescue beginning in 1958 and his rebuilding program reached fruition in 1961 when the Tide rolled over 11 opponents buy a combined 297-25. Nobody since has given up that few points. They were in a stretch of 28 straight games where they gave up single digits in points, including 12 shutouts, which included the last 5 games of the 1961 regular season. It ended when they gave up exactly 10 points in an 6-10 loss to Florida in 1963. This site has “the bear Bryant Show” after every one of their games: [MEDIA=youtube]list=PLe-C7sgReOazTWLC8m7fDWR2rvaOlRulp[/MEDIA] (I wish we still had “Coaches Corner”, Coach Mac’s old show., going over each game play by play.) Here is Ohio State’s 1961 highlight film: [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q01ceiqW_fo"]Buckeye Classics Episode 203 1961 Season[/URL] I feel that Vautravers was a littler too dismissive of Ohio State’s case for at least sharing the national championship with Alabama. Sure they had a tie but it was in their first game to a team that later defeated Texas when they were ranked #1. They then won 8 in a row and they’d have bene favored to beat UCLA had they gone to the Rose Bowl. Woody Hayes’ rolling up the score in Michigan was ugly but t he fact that Ohio State played the more difficult schedule is more important. Alabama played one team that Vautravers ranked during their regular season and that was aa 7-4, 16th tanked Georgia Tech team. They then played #9 Arkansas in the bowl game. State didn’t get to play a bowl game and yet beat four ranked teams. The obvious thing it to match the Tide and the Buckeyes for the title. But I’m a big-tent guy. Alabama actually tied for the SEC title with Louisiana State, (10-1, 259-57)who dropped their open to Rice but then ripped out 10 wins in a row, including a 25-7 win over Colorado’s 9-1 Big 8 champs in the Orange Bowl. Yes, Alabama won the SEC by playing one more game but they both won all their conference games and that’s a tie in my book. Then there’s Texas, (10-1, 303-66), who was ranked #1 for two weeks before losing, 0-6 to the same TCU team that had tied Ohio State 7-7, (they were the greatest 3-5-2 team in history). Is there a huge difference in those scores? The Longhorns then beat the highest scoring team in the country, Mississippi, (9-2, 333-52), in the Cotton Bowl. How about having “Bama play the Tigers to decide the SEC and then match TCU’s two victims in the other semi-final? Orange Bowl: not available Sugar Bowl: [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JL29cxzrTU"]1962 Sugar Bowl, #9 Arkansas vs #1 Alabama (Highlights)[/URL] Cotton Bowl: not available Alabama beat Tulane 9-0 who lost to Louisiana State 0-62 = +53 for Louisiana State Alabama beat Mississippi State 24-0 who lost to Louisiana State 6-14 = +16 for Alabama Alabama beat Georgia Tech 10-0 who lost to Louisiana State 0-10 = Even Alabama beat Arkansas 10-3 who lost to Mississippi 0-16 who lost to Louisiana State 7-10 = +12 Louisiana State Alabama beat Tennessee 34-3 who lost 21-22 to North Carolina who lost to U of Miami 0-10 who lost to Colorado 7-9 who lost to Louisiana State 7-25 = Even Result: +49/5 for Louisiana State wins by 10 points. Ohio State tied Texas Christian 7-7 who beat Texas 6-0 = +6 for Ohio State Ohio State beat Michigan 50-20 who beat Duke 28-14 who lost to Georgia Tech 0-21 who lost to Louisiana State 0-10 who beat Mississippi 10-7 who lost to Texas 7-12 = +11 for Ohio State Ohio State beat Wisconsin 30-21 who lost to Michigan State 0-20 who beat Notre Dame 17-7 who beat Pittsburgh 26-20 who lost to Baylor 13-16 who lost to Arkansas 13-23 who lost to Texas 7-33 =+34 for Texas Ohio State beat UCLA 13-3 who beat Air Force 19-6 who lost to Baylor 7-31 who lost to Texas 7-33 = +27 for Texas Ohio State beat Iowa 29-13 who beat California 28-7 who lost to Kansas 7-53 who beat Rice 33-7 who lost to Texas 7-34 = +10 for Texas Result: +54/5 for Texas who won by 11 points. Louisiana State lost to Rice 3-16 who lost to Texas 7-33 = +39 for Texas Louisiana State beat Texas A&M 16-7 who lost to Texas 0-25 = +16 for Texas Louisiana State beat Mississippi 10-7 who lost to Texas 7-12 = +2 for Texas Louisiana State beat Colorado 25-7 who beat Oklahoma 22-14 who lost to Texas 7-28 = +5 for Louisiana State Louisiana State beat Georgia Tech 10-0 who beat Rice 24-0 who lost to Arkansas 0-10 who lost to Texas 7-33 = +2 for Texas Result: +54/5 = Texas wins by 11 and are the national champions. [/QUOTE]

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