Who's #1? (1950) | Syracusefan.com

Who's #1? (1950)

Who was #1 for 1950?

  • Tennessee

    Votes: 2 66.7%
  • Kentucky

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Oklahoma

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Army or Princeton?

    Votes: 1 33.3%

  • Total voters
    3

SWC75

Bored Historian
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
32,263
Like
62,379
1950

1950 is one of the grand years for national championship controversies. Everybody got beat, well almost everybody. Princeton went 9-0-0 and wound up ranked #6. Wyoming went 10-0-0 and was ranked #12, Clemson went 9-0-1 and was ranked #10. U of Miami was 8-0-1 and ranked #11. In the final writer’s poll, which was conducted November 27th, not only didn’t include bowl games but also didn’t include the final regular season games for the top four teams in the poll. A ridiculous 14 teams got first place votes: Oklahoma 213, Army 38. Texas 4, Tennessee 15, California 8, Princeton 6, Kentucky 7, Michigan State 3, Clemson 9, Washington 4, Wyoming 4, Nebraska 2, Washington & Lee 2. Washington & Lee? They were good generals but….

Lots of things were happening this season. The World War II Era finally ended as the last of the guys who should have played in the early 40’s but enrolled as freshmen in 1946 because of war service graduated. College football was finally set to go back to ‘normal’, except that he Korean War began this year. That would produce some more military teams to play but not nearly so many as in WWII and none of them would invade the rankings. The subject of freshman eligibility was left to the conferences. The Ivy and SWC decided not to allow it. The other major conferences allowed it except for the Southern Conference, which was one of the things that caused the best football programs in that loop to break away and form the ACC in 1953. They all retracted it after the 1953 armestice and freshmen played on freshman teams until the NCAA allowed freshmen to play in 1972. Beyond that, the much smaller Korean conflict didn’t have nearly the impact of WWII on college sports.

The Associated Press (writer’s) poll got some competition this year. United Press International decided to poll the coaches, which created the possibility of a split national championship with the polls disagreeing with each other. That would happen in 1954, 1957 and later in 1965 and 1973, although those were because the AP started conducting polls after the bowls and UPI didn’t yet, and then in 1978, 1990, 1991 and 1997. Eventually the disagreements led to the BCS 1 vs. 2 game and the current playoffs.

Bowls were becoming more accepted and numerous and this was the first year that the #1 team, (in both polls) lost their bowl game, leading to the possibility or even the likelihood that a poll after the bowls, such as the one the AP did in after the 1948 season, would have had a different result. But there was not one for another 15 years.

The Notre Dame dynasty came to an end. They would return to power and win several more national titles but they never again had a run like 1946-49 when they went 36-0-2 and won three national titles. Part of it was the loss of all those WWII veterans Frank Leahy had convinced to follow him to the Golden Dome. Part of it was that the Irish became a victim of their own dominance. Some players decided they would rather be 1st string at another school than 6th string at Notre Dame. Beyond that, schools stopped scheduling Notre Dame because they could not compete with them. Leahy: “In 1948, Father Cavanaugh, (the Notre Dame President), told me that we were winning ourselves out of a schedule, that Army, Michigan, Illinois, and Northwestern and already dropped us and that Navy and USC were about to. He pressed the panic button and cut scholarships from 33 to 18 and ruled that we couldn’t make personal contact with prospects. I told him it wouldn’t work.” The piper got paid in 1950.

The Notre Dame Scholastic, (the student newspaper), reported on October 7, 1950: “Notre Dame’s dressing room that had echoed with whoops and hollers the past four years was silent a little before five tonight. The few intruders in the equipment room talked in whispers. When Coach Frank Leahy walked in they seemed reticent about asking questions. The coach apparently understood for he spoke first. “Gentlemen, we lost to a better team than we were today…Men, a lot of people will be watching how we take this adversity. It’s the test of real men to be able to lose like champions.” The Boilermaker’s 28-14 win over Notre Dame ended a 39 game Irish unbeaten streak. Leahy later said: The personal sadness of our first loss in five seasons was indescribable.” But it was the first of many disappointments in a 4-4-1 season in which the Irish scored as many as 20 points just once and also lost to Indiana, Michigan State and Southern California while being tied by Iowa.

Leahy used the new freshman eligibility rule to restock his team the next year but complained that his players weren’t shaving yet. 18 of his 35 1951 letter winners were freshmen. The Irish had consecutive 7-2-1 seasons before returning to the national championship race in 1953-54, when they went 18-1-1. But when that group of players graduated, the school went into a slump that didn’t end until the arrival of Ara Parseghian in 1964.

But the other top teams of 1949 kept rolling right along. Oklahoma had their second straight perfect regular season and rolled into the Sugar Bowl with a 10-0-0 record, a 31 game winning streak and a #1 national ranking. Army rolled through its first 8 opponents, giving the Cadets a record of 57-2-4 since the beginning of the 1944 season. Then they got upset by Navy 2-14 to end their bowl-less season. The following spring came the cribbing scandal, (tutors giving players and other cadets test answers to help them pass), which set West Point back to 2-7 in 1951 and 4-4-1 in 1952 before Red Blaik slowly built them back until they went undefeated in his final year of 1958. California, under SU grad Pappy Waldorf, had its third straight unbeaten regular season, although they did get tied by Stanford 7-7 in their last game.

Texas lost only to Arkansas 14-19 and won the SWC. Tennessee lost their opener their second game to Mississippi State and then began what would become 19 game winning streak as Bob Neyland had his best teams since before the war. One of those wins was a 7-0 decision over Kentucky, whose coach Bear Bryant was beginning to make a name for himself. The Wildcats had their best ever team, going 10-1 and being picked to take on Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl while the Vols played Texas in the Cotton Bowl.

Meanwhile Cal would try to finally win the Rose Bowl and completed an undefeated season after two straight 10-0 teams had lost there against the Big Ten’s Michigan, (they were 5-3-1 in a down year for the conference: 8-1 Michigan State was joining but hadn’t yet scheduled enough Big Ten games to qualify). In Miami, the Hurricanes would play Clemson in a battle of unbeaten but once tied, (Miami by Louisville 13-13, Clemson by South Carolina 14-14), teams. It was one of the greatest New Year’s Days for football fans.

Michigan State, led by former Syracuse coach Biggie Munn, was bursting onto the national scene, finally beating both Michigan (14-7) and Notre Dame (36-33), but they were unable to contain the split T option attack of another rising power, Jim Tatum’s Maryland team and lost 7-34 to finish 8-1. The Terps weren’t quite ready for prime time themselves, losing their opener to Georgia 7-27, then to NC State 13-16 and being tied 7-7 by North Carolina. But both team’s times were coming- rapidly. The Terps had started a 22 game unbeaten streak and the Spartans a 28 game winning streak. Both would wind up winning national championships early in the decade.

There was now a pre-season poll, (AP only). When everybody was 0-0, the Top Ten teams were Notre Dame, Army, Michigan, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, Stanford, Illinois , Cornell and Southern Methodist. The first week saw Michigan State beat Michigan 14-7 and Mississippi State beat Tennessee 7-0. The next week Purdue shocked Notre Dame 28-14 and Maryland crushed the Spartans 34-7. Army took over as the #1 team. Then Oklahoma nipped Texas 14-13. On October 21, UCLA bumped off Stanford 21-7. Army had crushed Harvard 49-0 but SMU beat #15 Rice 42-21 and that caused the writers to elevate them to #1 while the coaches kept the Black Knights in that spot. It was their first ever disagreement. The following week Army toyed with Columbia 34-0 while the Mustangs had a bye but the coaches decided to elevate them to #1 as well. That lasted a week as Texas won a classic over the Mustangs 23-20.

The Top Ten on November 6 was Army, Ohio State, (who had lost their opener to SMU, 27-32 but had won 5 in a row by a combined 231-42, including an incredible 83-21 win over Iowa), Oklahoma, Kentucky, Texas, California, SMU, Princeton, Miami and Illinois, (who had lost only to Wisconsin 6-7). That week the Mustangs lost another close one, 20-25 to Texas A&M and Miami got tied by Louisville 13-13. Army crushed New Mexico 51-0 but lost their #1 AP ranking again, this time to Ohio State, (who the coaches still had at #3), who had beaten Wisconsin 19-14. It illustrates the problem with ranking Army in this period: their schedule was noticeably weaker than the other contenders and one-sided wins over bad or mediocre opposition didn’t impress the pollsters. Ohio State then lost to Illinois, 7-14 for a second loss, which dropped them to #8 and elevated the Illini to #6. Then Kentucky, who had risen to #3, lost to their finale to Tennessee 0-7 and Illinois lost to Northwestern, 7-14. Ohio State lost to Michigan 3-9 in a famous ‘blizzard bowl’ game, which put the Wolverines on the train to Pasadena.

That left the final AP Top Ten, on November 27 as: Oklahoma 9-0-0, Army, 8-0-0, Texas 7-1-0, Tennessee 9-1-0, California 9-0-1, Princeton 9-0-0, Kentucky 10-1-0, Michigan State 8-1-0, Michigan 5-3-1, and Clemson 8-0-1 with 9-0-0 Wyoming at #12 and 8-0-1 Miami at #15. The Coaches had Cal at #3, Wyoming at #14 and Miami at #16 but were otherwise in agreement. But the regular season wasn’t over: Miami beat Missouri 27-9 on December 1st. Oklahoma beat Oklahoma State 41-14 on December 2nd. Tennessee crushed in-state rival Vanderbilt 43-0 on 12/2. Army’s 2-14 loss to Navy came the same day. Texas had two games left: they beat Texas A&M 17-0 on November 30 and LSU 21-0 on December 9th.

Then came the bowls. Army, Princeton and Michigan State stayed home. In the Orange Bowl, Clemson beat Miami 15-14. In the Cotton Bowl, Tennessee behind their great tailback, Hank Lauricella, won a classic from Texas 20-14. Cal still came up empty in the Rose Bowl, losing 6-14 to Michigan. But the earth-shaking result came in the Sugar Bowl where Bear Bryant’s Kentucky team topped Bud Wilkinson’s Oklahoma team, 13-7, making the Sooners the first ”national champion”, (according to the polls) to lose a bowl game.
Kentucky and Oklahoma look like they are wearing the same uniforms due to the old black and white film: the Sooners have the stripes on the sleeves and wore red while Kentucky was in blue. Bear Bryant and Bud Wilkinson faced each other as head coaches twice and Bryant won both. His Alabama team beat Oklahoma 17-0 in the 1/1/63 Orange Bowl. But Bryant never beat Tennessee’s legendary Bob Neyland, losing 5 games and tying 2. In fact, Bryant’s team’s never scored against Neyland’s until the final game in 1952.

The AP resisted the temptation to run a post-bowl poll and the UPI followed suit. But off of subsequent history, it’s likely a post bowl poll might have chosen someone else. But who? Kentucky, who had beaten them but was only ranked #7, (although they’d been as high as #3 before Tennessee beat them)? Tennessee, who had lost early but ended the season by beating Kentucky and then Texas in the Cotton Bowl? Would the #1 spot have reverted to Army, who had been #1 in three different weekly polls, more than any other team? Should Princeton, Michigan State, Clemson and Wyoming be given any consideration?

Michigan State had been briefly ranked #2 after beating Michigan in their second game but their crushing 7-34 defeat to Maryland knocked them down to 20th and they never got beyond their final #8 ranking. I can’t see them as a legitimate national championship contender. Wyoming was never rated higher than 12th. The one thing that makes them interesting here is that they beat Washington and Lee 20-7 in their bowl game and Tennessee had only beaten Washington and Lee 27-20. But if you never cracked the Top 10, you aren’t a national championship contender. Clemson did crack the Top 10- barely. They were 10th in the final poll. Their win over Miami might have moved them up but the lowest ranked team above them that lost was #5 California. And Miami had only been ranked #15. I don’t see them as a legitimate contender either.

Princeton is different. They won all their games and wound up #6, their highest rating all season. They would have moved ahead of California and maybe Texas in a final poll. But the big thing is their comparative scores against Army, who is a legitimate contender. Princeton beat Navy 20-14. Army lost to them, 2-14. Princeton beat Colgate 45-7. Army beat them 28-0. Princeton beat Harvard 63-26. Army beat them 49-0. Princeton was 9-0-0, Army 8-1-0. You can’t include Army without including Princeton.

Here are Richard Vautraver’s articles on the 1950 season:
Fixing the 1950 AP Poll
1950 College Football National Championship

He sees this as a “slam dunk” for Tennessee. I tend to agree with his choice but am not sure it’s a slam dunk. His math is that Kentucky is the only team to beat #1 Oklahoma, 13-7 and Tennessee was the only team to beat Kentucky, 7-0. He does mention that Tennessee lost to Mississippi State 0-7 and Kentucky beat the Bulldogs 46-21. He backs up his argument by pointing out that Tennessee had the most difficult schedule but he’s also said before that having a tougher schedule doesn’t necessarily mean you have a better team.

You can also play this game: rank the teams that beat them. Kentucky lost to #4 Tennessee, 11-1 by 7. Oklahoma lost to #7 Kentucky, 11-1 by 6. Tennessee lost to unranked Mississippi State, 4-5, by 7. Army lost to unranked Navy, 3-6, by 12. Princeton lost to no one.

It’s relevant that Tennessee only has to jump from the #4 spot to #1 while Kentucky would have to jump from #7, which is quite a gap even if you beat the #1 team. 9-1 Notre Dame didn’t jump from #6 after beating #1 Texas in 1970, (ok, 1/1/71). 10-1 Notre Dame did move up from #5 to #1 after beating the Longhorns in 1977. 10-1 Miami did the same after beating Nebraska in 1983. Every team that advanced to #1 by beating #1 in a bowl has been ranked in the Top 5.

I have read from several sources that Oklahoma players and coaches considered their 1949 team, which finished #2 in the polls, to have been clearly better than their1950 team that finished #1 because of all the players they had lost from the 1949, many of them military veterans in their mid-20’s. They honor the 1950team for extending their winning streak to 31 games and attaining the #1 ranking with less talent and depth than their predecessors. By the same token people at Tennessee tend to consider their 1950 team, that was ranked #4 to have bene superior to their 1951 team that was ranked #1 because they were superior defensively.

The selectors recognized by the NCAA split between Tennessee, (Billingsley, DeVold, Dunkel, Football Research, National Championship Foundation), Oklahoma (AP, Berryman Helms, Litkenhous, UPI and Williamson) and Princeton (Boand, Poling). Of the non-NCAA selectors I found on the net, Vautravers, Time Travel, Dolphin, Howell, Sorenson and Square Gear all went for Tennessee. Taylor went for Oklahoma. Waits and Wilson went for Princeton. That’s 10 for the Vols, 7 for the Sooners and 4 for the Tigers. The Wildcats and Cadets weren’t considered #1 by any of them.

TENNESSEE played 12 teams and beat 11 of them. Three of their opponents were not major college teams. Against the majors they were 8-1 against the major and out-scored them 190-57 (21-6). The 9 majors had a combined record of 63-30-2 (.677). The Vols had a PDR against those teams of 1.89. They were the best team 6 of their 9 major opponents played. They beat # Texas 20-14, #7 Kentucky 7-0, #16 Alabama 14-9 and #19 Washington & lee 27-20. They led the nation in passing defense with 67.5 yards per game. They 7th in total defense with 201 ypg. Bert Rechichar was 3rd in the country in punt returns with 17.5 yards per return. Tennessee beat Kentucky 7-0. They beat Mississippi 35-7. Kentucky beat them 27-0. Mississippi State beat Tennessee 7-0 but lost to Kentucky 21-46. Despite being in the same conference, those were their only common opponents. They had a 20 game winning streak between the loss to Mississippi State and their loss to Maryland in the 1/1/52 Sugar Bowl. They would be voted national champions in both polls for 1951 despite that loss.

TB Hank Lauricella would finish second in the 1951 Heisman Trophy race with 424 vote, 1,353 behind the winner, Princeton’s Dick Kazmaier. Lauricella is in the Hall of Fame, along with tackle Doug Atkins and guard John “Suff” Michels. Lauricella would be an All-American in 1951, Michels in 1952. The Vol’s future pros:
DE Doug Atkins 1953-1969 Cleveland Browns, Chicago Bears, New Orleans Saints
DB Jim Hill 1951-52, 1955 Detroit Lions
HB Hank Lauricella 1952 Dallas Texans
G John Michels 1953 Philadelphia Eagles, 1957 Winnipeg Blue Bombers
LB-G Gordon Polofsky 1952-54 Chicago Cardinals
DB/LB/HB/E/K Bert Rechichar 1952-1961 Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Colts, Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Titans
OE/DE Bud Sherrod 1952 New York Giants
T Roy Smith 1953-54 Ottawa Rough Riders
G Jack Stroud 1953-1964 New York Giants
That’s 9 players who played a total of 51 years, ((5.7 years per player). Doug Atkins in in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Rechichar in 1953 kicked a 56 yard field goal for the Colts, breaking a 29 year old NFL record. His record lasted until Tom Dempsey kicked his famous 63 yarder in 1970.

KENTUCKY played 12 teams and beat 11 of them, 8 of them major college. They won 7 of those games against teams with a combined record of 48-33-2, (.593), out-scoring them 174-62, (22-8). Their PDR against the majors was 2.00. They were the bets team four of their major opponents had played. Their loss was the Tennessee 0-7. They beat Mississippi State 46-21. Tennessee lost to them 0-7. They beat Mississippi 27-0. The Vols beat them 35-0. They beat #1 Oklahoma 13-7, lost to #4 Tennessee 0-7 but did not play another team in the final rankings. The Wildcats were #10 in the country in pass offense (156 ypg). They were #7 in rushing defense (93 ypg) and #2 in total defense (172). Babe Parilli was the #4 passer in the country (114/203 for 1,627 yards, 23TDs and 12 int.) See above for common opponents with Tennessee. The loss to the Vols ended an 11 game winning streak.

Parilli finished 4th in the Heisman voting that year with 214 votes, 419 behind winner Vic Janowicz of Ohio State, (Kyle Rote of SMU was 2nd and Red Bagnell of Penn were #2-3). The next year he finished 3rd with 344 votes, behind Kazmaier and Lauricella. Parilli, end Steve Mellinger and tackle Bob Gain are in the college Hall of Fame. Parilli and Gain were 1950 All Americans in 1950 and Parilli was again in 1951. The Wildcat’s future pros:
FL-DB Al Brumo 1953-56 Toronto Argonauts, Ottawa Rough Riders, Winnipeg Blue Bombers
G Gene Donaldson 1953 Cleveland Browns
T-G Bob Fry 1953-1964 Los Angeles Rams and Dallas Cowboys
T-G-C-DE Frank Fuller 1953-1963 Los Angeles Rams, Chicago/St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Eagles.
T-MG-DE Bob Gain 1951 Ottawa Rough Riders, 1952-1964 Cleveland Browns
QB Babe Parilii 1952-1953 Green Bay Packers 1954-1955 Ottawa Rough Riders 1956 Cleveland Browns, 1957-1958 Green Bay Packers 1959 Ottawa Rough Riders, 1960 Oakland Raiders, 1961-1967 Boston Patriots, 1968-1969 New York Jets
C-T-DE Walt Yowarsky 1951, 1954 Washington Redskins, 1955 Detroit Lions and New York Giants, 1956-1958
That’s 7 players who played 65 years (9.3 years per person). None are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

OKLAHOMA played 11 opponents and beat 10 of them. All were major colleges with a combined record of 56-52-7 (.519). The Sooners outscored them 352-148, (32-13). Their PDR was 1.73. They were the bets team 6 of their opponents faced. They beat 3rd ranked Texas 14-13, lost to #7 Kentucky 7-13 and beat #17 Nebraska 49-35. They were 7th in the country in total offense, (415 ypg), 9th in rushing, (293 ypg). Billy Vessels was the 9th rated rusher (870 yards on 135 carries and 9 scores. He was also 9th in scoring with 15TDs for 90 points. The Sooners lost to Kentucky 0-7. They beat Texas 15-14 who lost to Tennessee 14-20. The Kentucky loss ended a 31 game winning streak.

Fullback Leon Heath was 7th in the Heisman race with 125 votes. Two years later halfback Billy Vessels won the trophy with 525 votes. Center Tom Catlin was 10th with 150. Jim Weatherall won the 1951 Outland trophy as the nation’s best lineman. He was also the team’s placekicker. Both Vessels and Weatherall are in the college Hall of Fame. Heath and Weatherall were 1950 All-Americans. Weatherall repeated in 1951 and vessels won the honor in 1952. The Sooners future pros:
FB-HB Leon Heath 1951-53 Washington Redskins
C-LB Tom Catlin 1953-54, 1957-58 Cleveland Browns, 1959 Washington Redskins
DT-T Jim Weatherall 1954 Edmonton Oilers, 1955-57 Philadelphia Eagles, 1958 Washington Redskins, 1959-60 Detroit Lions
FB-K Buck McPhail 1953 Baltimore Colts
G-E Frank Anderson 1952-1957 Edmonton Oliers
QB Claude Arnold 1952-54 Edmonton Oilers
C/LB Bert Clark 1953 Calgary Stampeders
QB Eddie Crowder 1953 Edmonton Oilers
T Ed Rowland 1953 Ottawa Rough Riders
HB Billy Vessels 1953 Edmonton Oliers
That’s 10 players who played a total of 30 years, (3.0 per player). Non are in the pro Football Hall of Fame.

ARMY played 9 teams, all major college, and beat 8 of them, out-scoring them 267-40, (30-4). Those teams had a combined record of 37-41-2, (.474). Their PDR was 2.00. They were the best team 6 of their opponents faced. The Cadets beat #9 Michigan 27-6, (their second straight win over the Wolverines). They beat Stanford, who was #19 in the coach’s poll 7-0. Army was 10th in the country with 285 rushing yards per game. They led the country in scoring defense with 4.4 per game, were 9th in passing defense with 75 ypg and 4th in total defense with 189 ypg. See Princeton, below for three common opponents. The Navy loss ended a 17 game winning streak and a 27 game unbeaten streak. This season ended a run from 1944-1950 that totaled 57-3-4.

End Dan Foldberg finished 8th in the Heisman voting with 103 votes. None of the Army players are in the college Hall of Fame. Foldberg was a consensus All-American in 1950.Tackle J. S. Kimmel would be an All-American in 1952, but for Houston, not Army. FB/HB Al Pollard was the team’s leading rusher and scorer but was expelled in the cribbing scandal. He went on to play pro football from 1951-57 for the NY Yanks, the Philadelphia Eagles, the British Columbia Lions and the Calgary Stampeders. Kimmel played for the Redskins in 1955-56 and the Packers in 1958. Gene Filiski, a halfback, later played for Villanove and then the Giants (1956-57) and the Calgary Stampeders 1958-61. That's 3 players who played for 16 years, (5.3 per player). (The fact that Filipski and Kimmel later played other colelges suggests they may have bene part of the cribbing scandal, as well)

PRINCETON played 9 teams, 8 of whom were major colleges. They beat all of them, the 8 majors by a combined 283-94 (35-12). Those major college opponents had a combined record of 30-38-1. Their PDR is 2.38. They were the best team three of their opponents played. They didn’t play anybody in the final writer’s or coach’s ranking. They had three common opponents with Army, who beat Colgate 28-0 and Harvard 49-0 but lost to Navy 2-14. Princeton beat all three teams 45-7, 63-26 and 20-14. That’s a net +16 for Princeton. The Tigers would also go 9-0 in 1951, part of a 24 game winning streak. The Ivys didn’t de-emphasize down to what would now be an FCS level until 1956.

Tailback Dick Kazmaier and tackle Hollie Donan are in the Hall of Fame. Kazmaier won the 1951 Heisman Trophy. He was a 1951 All-American. End Frank McPhee was a 1952 AA. McPhee played for the 1955 Chicago Cardinals, the only 1950 Tiger who played pro ball. (As with Army, Ivy League players found something better to do.)


So….Who was #1 for 1950?

(Note: there's only room for four choices in the poll. if you choose Army or Princeton, please reply and say which one you prefer.)
 

Forum statistics

Threads
167,127
Messages
4,681,571
Members
5,900
Latest member
DizzyNY

Online statistics

Members online
42
Guests online
1,689
Total visitors
1,731




Top Bottom