1939 college football season

1939 NCAA football season

Total # of teams

124^[1]

First AP #1 of season

Pittsburgh Panthers^[2]

Number of bowls

Champions

Texas A&M Aggies (AP)
USC Trojans (Dickenson)

Heisman

Nile Kinnick, Iowa HB

College football seasons
« 1938	1940 »

The 1939 NCAA football season concluded with the Aggies of The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (Texas A&M) being named as the national champions by the voters in the Associated Press writers' poll.

The Volunteers of the University of Tennessee were unbeaten and untied, and unscored upon, shutting out all of their opponents in ten games; but for the second straight year, they finished second in the poll. The final AP Poll in this era came out before postseason bowl games and, in the 1940 Rose Bowl, the Volunteers were unable to hold everyone scoreless, with the University of Southern California registering two touchdowns and beating them 14-0. As a consequence, the Dickinson System named USC, which had been ranked No. 3 in the final AP Poll before the bowl games, the national champion. As a result, the USC Trojans now claim a share of the 1939 title.^[3] However, USC did not begin recognizing 1939 as a national championship until 2004.^[4]

The first AP Poll of the season was taken after four weeks of play, starting with October 16. Each writer listed his choice for the top ten teams, and points were tallied based on 10 for first place, 9 for second, etc., and the AP then ranked the twenty teams with the highest number of points.

Conference and program changes

Conferences

One new conference began football play in 1939:
- California Collegiate Athletic Association – an active NCAA Division II conference that ended sponsorship of football in 1981

Programs

School	1938 Conference	1939 Conference
DePaul Blue Demons	Independent	Dropped Program
Grinnell Pioneers	Independent	Missouri Valley

September

September 30 Defending champion TCU lost at UCLA, 6–2, on 9/29, and finished 3–7–0. Tennessee won at N.C. State, 13–0. Duke beat Davidson 26–6. Oklahoma and SMU played to a 7–7 tie. Notre Dame beat Purdue 3–0. Tulane edged Clemson 7–6. Fordham defeated Waynesberg 34–7 in the first-ever televised football game.

October

October 7 Tennessee beat Sewanee 40-0. Duke defeated Colgate 37-0. Notre Dame beat Georgia Tech 17-14. Tulane beat Auburn 12-0. Oklahoma won at Northwestern, 23-0.

October 14 Pittsburgh beat Duke 14-13. Tennessee won at Chattanooga, 28-0. Notre Dame edged SMU, 20-19. Tulane beat Fordham 7-0. Oklahoma beat Texas 24-12.

October 21 #1 Pittsburgh lost to cross-town rival Duquesne, 21-13. In Cleveland, #2 Notre Dame defeated Navy, 14-7. #3 Oklahoma beat Kansas 27-7. #4 Tulane and visiting #14 North Carolina played to a 14-14 tie. #5 Tennessee continued shutting out its opponents, beating #8 Alabama 21-0, and was voted #1 in the next poll. #6 Michigan visited the Windy City and handed the University of Chicago an 85-0 defeat. #9 Texas A&M reached 5-0-0 with a 20-6 win over TCU, and rose to fifth in the next poll. #10 Ohio State won at Minnesota, 23-20.

October 28 #1 Tennessee defeated Mercer, 17-0. In Pittsburgh, #2 Notre Dame edged Carnegie Tech, 7-6. #3 Michigan beat Yale 27-7. #4 Ohio State lost to #7 Cornell, 23-14. #5 Texas A&M beat Baylor 20-0. Nebraska defeated Kansas State in the second televised football game 25–9.

November

November 4 #1 Tennessee won at #18 LSU, 20-0. #2 Michigan lost at unranked Illinois, 16-7. #3 Cornell beat Columbia 13-7. At Yankee Stadium, #4 Notre Dame beat Army 14-0. #5 Texas A&M won at Arkansas 27-0. #7 USC beat #11 Oregon State 19-7 in Portland.

November 11 #1 Tennessee shut out the Citadel, 34-0 #2 Texas A&M defeated #13 SMU 6-2. #3 Notre Dame, victor by one point in previous games, lost at unranked Iowa, 7-6. #4 USC beat Stanford 20-12. #5 Cornell narrowly beat Colgate 14-12. #6 Oklahoma won at Kansas State 13-10.

November 18 #1 Tennessee extended its shutout streak, beating Vanderbilt 13-0. Having outscored its opposition, 186-0, Tennessee had a record of 8-0-0, but fell to second in the poll that followed. #2 Texas A&M won at Rice 19-0, and was #1 in the next poll. #3 USC was idle. #4 Cornell won at #20 Dartmouth, 35-6, to stay unbeaten. #5 Oklahoma lost at #12 Missouri, 7-6. #6 Tulane beat Columbia 25-0.

In the next poll, Texas A&M-- which had gotten none of the first place votes the week before—was first, with 38 votes. Tennessee, which had had 66 of the 85 #1 votes the week before, had 33 on the new round of ballots, and finished second. There were 20 for Cornell, and 11 for USC.

November 25 #1 Texas A&M and #2 Tennessee were idle. In Philadelphia, #3 Cornell closed its season with a 26-0 over Penn, to finish unbeaten and untied at 8-0-0. #4 USC won at #7 Notre Dame, 20-12. #5 Tulane beat Sewanee 52-0. In the next round of voting, Texas A&M tied for first place, with 939 points apiece. A&M had more first place votes (27 to 25), but Cornell, with 34 votes, had more. Cornell had 909 points overall.

On Thanksgiving Day, which fell on November 30 in 1939, #1 Texas A&M beat Texas 20-0, to complete a 10-0-0 season, and #4 Tennessee won at Kentucky, 19-0. Two days later, December 2, #1 USC beat Washington 9-7. #5 Tulane beat LSU 33-20.

December 9 #1 Texas A&M had finished its season and accepted a bid to the Sugar Bowl. #2 Tennessee beat Auburn 7-0. #3 USC and #9 UCLA played to a 0-0 tie. #4 Cornell and #5 Tulane had both completed their seasons.

Conference standings

The following is a potentially incomplete list of conference standings:

1939 Big 6 football standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
#6 Missouri $	5	–	0	–	0	8	–	2	–	0
#18 Nebraska	4	–	1	–	0	7	–	1	–	1
#19 Oklahoma	3	–	2	–	0	6	–	2	–	1
Kansas	1	–	4	–	0	2	–	6	–	0
Iowa State	1	–	4	–	0	2	–	7	–	0
Kansas State	1	–	4	–	0	4	–	5	–	0

$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

1939 Big Ten football standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
#15 Ohio State $	5	–	1	–	0	6	–	2	–	0
#9 Iowa	4	–	1	–	1	6	–	1	–	1
#20 Michigan	3	–	2	–	0	6	–	2	–	0
Purdue	2	–	1	–	2	3	–	3	–	2
Northwestern	3	–	2	–	1	3	–	4	–	1
Illinois	3	–	3	–	0	3	–	4	–	1
Minnesota	2	–	3	–	1	3	–	4	–	1
Indiana	2	–	3	–	0	2	–	4	–	2
Wisconsin	0	–	5	–	1	1	–	6	–	1
Chicago	0	–	3	–	0	2	–	6	–	0

$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

1939 MSC football standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
Colorado $	5	–	1	–	0	5	–	3	–	0
Utah	4	–	1	–	1	6	–	1	–	2

$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

1939 New England Conference football standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
Maine $	3	–	0	–	0	5	–	2	–	0
Connecticut	1	–	1	–	0	5	–	3	–	0
New Hampshire	1	–	1	–	0	3	–	5	–	0
Rhode Island	1	–	2	–	0	3	–	4	–	1
Northeastern	0	–	2	–	0	0	–	6	–	1

$ – Conference champion

1939 PCC football standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
#3 USC $	5	–	0	–	2	8	–	0	–	2
#7 UCLA	5	–	0	–	3	6	–	0	–	4
Oregon State	6	–	1	–	1	9	–	1	–	1
Washington	4	–	4	–	0	4	–	5	–	1
Oregon	3	–	3	–	1	3	–	4	–	1
Washington State	3	–	5	–	0	4	–	5	–	0
Montana	1	–	2	–	0	3	–	6	–	0
California	2	–	5	–	0	3	–	7	–	0
Stanford	0	–	6	–	1	1	–	7	–	1
Idaho	0	–	3	–	0	2	–	6	–	0

$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

1939 SEC football standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
#2 Tennessee +	6	–	0	–	0	10	–	1	–	0
#16 Georgia Tech +	6	–	0	–	0	8	–	2	–	0
#5 Tulane +	5	–	0	–	0	8	–	1	–	1
Mississippi State	3	–	2	–	0	8	–	2	–	0
Ole Miss	2	–	2	–	0	7	–	2	–	0
Kentucky	2	–	2	–	1	6	–	2	–	1
Auburn	3	–	3	–	1	5	–	5	–	1
Alabama	2	–	3	–	1	5	–	3	–	1
Georgia	1	–	3	–	0	5	–	6	–	0
LSU	1	–	5	–	0	4	–	5	–	0
Vanderbilt	1	–	6	–	0	2	–	7	–	1
Florida	0	–	3	–	1	5	–	5	–	1
Sewanee	0	–	3	–	0	3	–	5	–	0

+ – Conference co-champions Rankings from AP Poll

1939 Southern Conference football standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
#8 Duke $	5	–	0	–	0	8	–	1	–	0
#12 Clemson	4	–	0	–	0	9	–	1	–	0
North Carolina	5	–	1	–	0	8	–	1	–	1
VMI	3	–	1	–	1	6	–	3	–	1
Richmond	3	–	1	–	1	7	–	1	–	2
Furman	3	–	3	–	0	5	–	4	–	0
Wake Forest	3	–	3	–	0	7	–	3	–	0
William & Mary	1	–	1	–	1	6	–	2	–	1
NC State	2	–	4	–	0	2	–	8	–	0
Washington and Lee	1	–	2	–	0	3	–	4	–	1
South Carolina	1	–	3	–	0	3	–	6	–	1
VPI	1	–	4	–	1	4	–	5	–	1
Davidson	1	–	7	–	0	2	–	7	–	0
Maryland	0	–	1	–	0	2	–	7	–	0
The Citadel	0	–	4	–	0	3	–	8	–	0

$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

1939 Southwest Conference football standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
#1 Texas A&M $	6	–	0	–	0	11	–	0	–	0
Baylor	4	–	2	–	0	7	–	3	–	0
SMU	4	–	2	–	0	6	–	3	–	1
Texas	3	–	3	–	0	5	–	4	–	0
Arkansas	2	–	3	–	1	4	–	5	–	1
TCU	1	–	5	–	0	3	–	7	–	0
Rice	0	–	5	–	1	1	–	9	–	1

$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

Minor conferences

Conference	Champion(s)	Record
California Collegiate Athletic Association	San Jose State	3–0–0
Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association	Albion	6–0–0

Final polls

Main article: 1939 NCAA football rankings

Bowl games

Bowl game	Winning Team	points	Losing Team	points
Rose Bowl	#3 USC Trojans	14	#2 Tennessee	0
Sugar Bowl	#1 Texas A&M Aggies	14	#5 Tulane Green Wave	13
Orange Bowl	#16 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	21	#6 Missouri Tigers	7
Cotton Bowl	#12 Clemson Tigers	6	#11 Boston College Eagles	3
Sun Bowl	Arizona State Sun Devils	0	Catholic Cardinals	0

References

↑ http://www.jhowell.net/cf/cf1939.htm
↑ http://www.appollarchive.com/football/ap/seasons.cfm?appollid=23
↑ This Just In: USC Also Is a 1939 Champion, Washington Post, July 28, 2004, Accessed October 16, 2008.
↑ USC Now Will Recognize Its 1939 Football Team As A National Champion. Trojan have 10 national champs in the sport, USC Trojans Athletic Department, July 24, 2004, Accessed October 16, 2008.

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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