1944 college football season

The 1944 college football season was played during the Second World War. The football team of the United States Military Academy (West Point), more popularly known as Army, was crowned as the nation’s #1 team by 95 of the 121 writers who participated in the AP Poll.

1944 college football season
First AP No. 1 of season	Notre Dame[1]
Number of bowls	5
Champion(s)	Army (AP)
Heisman	Les Horvath (halfback/quarterback, Ohio State)
football seasons

As in 1943, the AP poll included service teams, drawn from flight schools and training centers which were preparing men for fighting in World War II, and the teams played against the colleges as part of their schedules. Half of the final Top 20 teams were composed of service teams, in addition to the two service academies at West Point and Annapolis. Most colleges that had suspended their programs in 1943 were back in 1944, including the entire Southeastern Conference (SEC). The Pacific Coast Conference again fielded only four teams (out of ten).

In the AP poll, each participating 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 top twenty results.

September

On September 16 the Great Lakes Naval Training Center team defeated Fort Sheridan, 62–0, before a crowd of 25,000 at its base north of Chicago. Michigan beat Iowa Pre-Flight, 12–7 before a crowd of 22,000 in Ann Arbor.

September 23 Great Lakes won at Purdue, 27–18. In Milwaukee, Michigan beat Marquette 14–0. At San Antonio, Randolph Field defeated Abilene Field, 67–0.

September 30 Notre Dame won at Pittsburgh 58–0. Great Lakes and Illinois played to a 26-26 tie. Michigan lost to Indiana, 20–0. In Houston, Randolph Field beat Rice 59–0. Army beat North Carolina, 46–0. North Carolina Pre-Flight, quarterbacked by Otto Graham (formerly of Northwestern, and a future Cleveland Browns star) upset Navy, 21–14.[2]

October

October 7 Notre Dame beat Tulane 26-0 and Army defeated Brown 59-7. In games between service teams and colleges, the servicemen triumphed, as N.C. Pre-Flight won at Duke, 13-6, Great Lakes won at Northwestern 25-0, and Randolph Field won at Texas 42-6. In the poll that followed, Notre Dame was first, and Army third, with the service teams occupying the other spots.

October 14 In Boston, #1 Notre Dame beat Dartmouth, 64-0. #2 North Carolina Pre-Flight was tied by Virginia, 13-13. #3 Army beat Pittsburgh, 69-7. #4 Randolph Field, quarterbacked by “Bullet Bill” Dudley, beat SMU at home in San Antonio, 41-0.[3] #5 Great Lakes beat Western Michigan 38-0. #8 Ohio State won at Wisconsin, 20-7 and #11 Iowa Pre-Flight won at Purdue, 13-6. N.C. Pre-Flight and Great Lakes fell out of the top five: 1.Notre Dame 2.Army 3.Randolph Field 4.Ohio State 5.Iowa Pre-Flight.

October 21 #1 Notre Dame defeated Wisconsin 28-13. #2 Army beat the Coast Guard Academy, 76-0. #3 Randolph Field and Camp Polk played a Sunday game at Fort Worth, Texas, with Randolph's Ramblers winning 67-0. #4 Ohio State beat Great Lakes, 26-6. #5 Iowa Pre-Flight defeated Fort Warren, 30-0. In Atlanta, #8 Georgia Tech defeated Navy 17-15.

October 28 #1 Notre Dame won at Illinois, 13-7. At a war bonds fundraiser at the Polo Grounds in New York, #2 Army beat Duke 27-7. #3 Randolph Field defeated Morris Field 19-0. #4 Ohio State beat Minnesota 34-14. #5 Georgia Tech reached 5-0-0 after a 13-7 over the flight training school located on the U.Ga. campus, Georgia Pre-Flight.

November

November 4 #1 Army rolled over Villanova, 83-0. In six games, the Cadets had outscored their opponents by an average of 60 to 3. In Baltimore, #2 Notre Dame lost to #6 Navy, 32-13. #3 Ohio State beat Indiana 21-7. #4 Randolph Field beat North Texas Agricultural (later called the University of Texas-Arlington) 68-0. #5 Georgia Tech lost at Duke, 19-13, and fell out of the top five, as Navy moved up.

November 11 At Yankee Stadium in New York, #1 Army crushed #5 Notre Dame, 59-0. #2 Ohio State beat Pittsburgh 54-19. #3 Navy beat Cornell, 48-0. #4 Randolph Field defeated Maxwell Field, 25-0. #8 Michigan, which beat Illinois, 14-0, took Notre Dame's place in the Top Five.

November 18 In Philadelphia, #1 Army beat Pennsylvania, 62-7. In Georgetown, Texas, #2 Randolph Field beat Southwestern University, 54-0. #3 Navy defeated Purdue in Baltimore, 32-0. In Cleveland, before a crowd of 83,627 fans, #4 Ohio State beat Illinois 26-12. #5 Michigan defeated Wisconsin, 14-0. In a Sunday game between service teams, #6 Bainbridge NTC of Maryland defeated Camp Lejeune, 33-6.

November 25 #1 Army (8-0-0) and #2 Navy (6-2-0) were both idle as they prepared for the annual Army–Navy Game. #3 Ohio State beat Michigan 18-14. The next day, #4 Randolph Field beat Amarillo Field, 33-0, and #5 Bainbridge Naval beat Camp Perry, 21-13.

December 2 #1 Army and #2 Navy met in Baltimore. Army's offense was held to its lowest score of the season, but won 23-7 to cap a perfect season. Army had scored 59 points or more in seven of its nine games, with a 504 to 35 aggregate over its opponents. #3 Ohio State had finished its season, while #4 Randolph Field and #5 Bainbridge Naval were idle. After the release of the final poll, Randolph Field participated in two more games for the sale of bonds. In Los Angeles, the "Ramblers" beat the Fourth Air Force team (March Field), 20-7, on December 10. Six days later, Randolph Field met the Second Air Force Superbombers at the Polo Grounds in New York for the “Treasury Bond Bowl”, and won 13-6 to complete their season at 11-0-0.

Conference standings

Major conference standings

1928 Big Six Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Oklahoma $ 4 – 0 – 1     6 – 3 – 1 Iowa State 3 – 1 – 1     6 – 1 – 1 Missouri 2 – 1 – 2     3 – 5 – 2 Nebraska 2 – 3 – 0     2 – 6 – 0 Kansas 1 – 4 – 0     3 – 6 – 1 Kansas State 1 – 4 – 0     2 – 5 – 2 $ – Conference champion	1944 Big Ten Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T No. 2 Ohio State $ 6 – 0 – 0     9 – 0 – 0 No. 8 Michigan 5 – 2 – 0     8 – 2 – 0 Purdue 4 – 2 – 0     5 – 5 – 0 Minnesota 3 – 2 – 1     5 – 3 – 1 Indiana 4 – 3 – 0     7 – 3 – 0 No. 15 Illinois 3 – 3 – 0     5 – 4 – 1 Wisconsin 2 – 4 – 0     3 – 6 – 0 Northwestern 0 – 5 – 1     1 – 7 – 1 Iowa 0 – 6 – 0     1 – 7 – 0 + – Conference co-champions Rankings from AP Poll	1944 Border Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Texas Tech 2 – 0 – 0     4 – 7 – 0 West Texas State 1 – 1 – 0     4 – 3 – 0 New Mexico 0 – 2 – 0     1 – 7 – 0 Arizona State–Flagstaff 0 – 0 – 0     2 – 2 – 0 $ – Conference champion
1944 Middle Three Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Lafayette $ 4 – 0 – 0     6 – 1 – 0 Rutgers 2 – 2 – 0     3 – 2 – 0 Lehigh 0 – 4 – 0     0 – 6 – 0 $ – Conference champion	1944 Missouri Valley Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Oklahoma A&M $ 1 – 0 – 0     8 – 1 – 0 Tulsa 0 – 1 – 0     8 – 2 – 0 Drake 0 – 0 – 0     7 – 2 – 0 $ – Conference champion	1944 Mountain States Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Colorado $ 2 – 0 – 0     6 – 2 – 0 Denver 2 – 1 – 1     4 – 3 – 2 Utah 1 – 2 – 1     5 – 2 – 1 Utah State 0 – 2 – 0     3 – 3 – 0 $ – Conference champion
1944 Pacific Coast Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T No. 7 USC $ 3 – 0 – 2     8 – 0 – 2 Washington 1 – 1 – 0     5 – 3 – 0 UCLA 1 – 2 – 1     4 – 5 – 1 California 1 – 3 – 1     3 – 6 – 1 $ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll	1944 Southeastern Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T No. 13 Georgia Tech $ 4 – 0 – 0     8 – 3 – 0 No. 12 Tennessee 5 – 0 – 1     7 – 1 – 1 Georgia 4 – 2 – 0     7 – 3 – 0 Alabama 3 – 1 – 2     5 – 2 – 2 Mississippi State 3 – 2 – 0     6 – 2 – 0 LSU 2 – 3 – 1     2 – 5 – 1 Ole Miss 2 – 3 – 0     2 – 6 – 0 Tulane 1 – 2 – 0     4 – 3 – 0 Kentucky 1 – 5 – 0     3 – 6 – 0 Florida 0 – 3 – 0     4 – 3 – 0 Auburn 0 – 4 – 0     4 – 4 – 0 Vanderbilt 0 – 0 – 0     3 – 0 – 1 $ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll	1944 Southern Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T No. 11 Duke $ 4 – 0 – 0     6 – 4 – 0 Wake Forest 6 – 1 – 0     8 – 1 – 0 Clemson 3 – 1 – 0     4 – 5 – 0 NC State 3 – 1 – 0     7 – 2 – 0 William & Mary 2 – 1 – 1     5 – 2 – 1 Maryland 1 – 1 – 0     1 – 7 – 1 South Carolina 1 – 3 – 0     3 – 4 – 2 VMI 1 – 5 – 0     1 – 8 – 0 North Carolina 0 – 3 – 1     1 – 7 – 1 Richmond 0 – 4 – 0     2 – 6 – 0 $ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll
1944 Southwest Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T TCU $ 3 – 1 – 1     7 – 3 – 1 Texas 3 – 2 – 0     5 – 4 – 0 Arkansas 2 – 2 – 1     5 – 5 – 1 Texas A&M 2 – 3 – 0     7 – 4 – 0 SMU 2 – 3 – 0     5 – 5 – 0 Rice 2 – 3 – 0     5 – 6 – 0 $ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

Independents

1944 Eastern college football independents records Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T No. 1 Army   –       9 – 0 – 0 Yale   –       7 – 0 – 1 Penn State   –       6 – 3 – 0 Harvard   –       5 – 1 – 0 Penn   –       5 – 3 – 0 Boston College   –       4 – 3 – 0 Cornell   –       5 – 4 – 0 Villanova   –       4 – 4 – 0 Drexel   –       2 – 2 – 0 Pittsburgh   –       4 – 5 – 0 Brown   –       3 – 4 – 1 Temple   –       2 – 4 – 2 Syracuse   –       2 – 4 – 1 Princeton   –       1 – 2 – 0 Dartmouth   –       2 – 5 – 1 Colgate   –       2 – 5 – 0 NYU   –       2 – 5 – 0 Columbia   –       2 – 6 – 0 Tufts   –       1 – 4 – 1 Franklin & Marshall   –       1 – 8 – 0 Rankings from AP Poll	1944 Midwestern college football independents records Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Miami (OH)   –       8 – 1 – 0 Michigan State   –       6 – 1 – 0 No. 9 Notre Dame   –       8 – 2 – 0 Central Michigan   –       5 – 2 – 0 Wichita   –       5 – 2 – 1 Bowling Green   –       5 – 3 – 0 Western Michigan   –       4 – 3 – 0 Wayne   –       1 – 1 – 0 Ohio Wesleyan   –       1 – 8 – 1 Marquette   –       1 – 7 – 0 Rankings from AP Poll	1944 Southern college football independents records Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Virginia   –       6 – 1 – 2 No. 4 Navy   –       6 – 3 – 0 West Virginia   –       5 – 3 – 1 Miami (FL)   –       1 – 7 – 1 Rankings from AP Poll
1944 Western college football independents records Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Nevada   –       4 – 4 – 0 Idaho Southern Branch   –       4 – 5 – 0 Saint Mary's   –       0 – 5 – 0	1944 military service football records Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T No. 3 Randolph Field   –       12 – 0 – 0 No. 5 Bainbridge   –       10 – 0 – 0 No. 18 Fort Pierce   –       9 – 0 – 0 No. 13 Norman NAS   –       6 – 0 – 0 No. 6 Iowa Pre-Flight   –       10 – 1 – 0 No. 16 El Toro Marines   –       8 – 1 – 0 Bunker Hill NAS   –       6 – 1 – 0 No. 3 Great Lakes Navy   –       9 – 2 – 1 No. 10 March Field   –       7 – 2 – 2 North Carolina Pre-Flight   –       6 – 2 – 1 No. 20 Second Air Force   –       10 – 4 – 1 Camp Peary   –       5 – 2 – 0 Third Air Force   –       7 – 3 – 1 Alameda Coast Guard   –       4 – 2 – 2 No. 19 Saint Mary's Pre-Flight   –       4 – 4 – 0 Rankings from AP Poll

Minor conferences

Conference	Champion(s)	Record
California Collegiate Athletic Association	No champion	—
Central Intercollegiate Athletics Association	Morgan State College	4–0
Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference	No champion	—
Far Western Conference	No champion	—
Indiana Intercollegiate Conference	Wabash College	4–0–1
Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference	No champion	—
Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference	No champion	—
Lone Star Conference	No champion	—
Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference	No champion	—
Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference	No champion	—
Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association	No champion	—
Nebraska College Athletic Conference	No champion	—
New Mexico Intercollegiate Conference	No champion	—
North Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference	No champion	—
North Dakota College Athletic Conference	No champion	—
Ohio Athletic Conference	No champion	—
Oklahoma Collegiate Athletic Conference	No champion	—
Pacific Northwest Conference	No champion	—
Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference	No champion	—
Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference	No champion	—
South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference	No champion	—
Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference	No champion	—
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference	Florida A&M College	5–0
Southwestern Athletic Conference	Langston Texas College Wiley (TX)	5–1
State Teacher's College Conference of Minnesota	No champion	—
Texas Collegiate Athletic Conference	No champion	—
Washington Intercollegiate Conference	No champion	—
Wisconsin State Teachers College Conference	No champion	—

Minor conference standings

1944 Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Northern Illinois State $ 3 – 0 – 0     7 – 0 – 0 Illinois State 1 – 0 – 0     3 – 4 – 1 Southern Illinois 2 – 1 – 0     3 – 3 – 0 Eastern Illinois 1 – 2 – 0     1 – 3 – 0 Western Illinois 0 – 4 – 0     0 – 8 – 0 $ – Conference champion

1944 New England Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T New Hampshire + 1 – 1 – 0     1 – 3 – 0 Maine + 1 – 1 – 0     2 – 2 – 0 Connecticut 0 – 0 – 0     7 – 1 – 0 + – Conference co-champions

1944 Southwestern Athletic Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Texas College + 5 – 1 – 0     8 – 1 – 0 Wiley + 5 – 1 – 0     8 – 1 – 0 Langston + 5 – 1 – 0     6 – 2 – 1 Southern 2 – 4 – 0     4 – 4 – 0 Samuel Huston 2 – 4 – 0     3 – 5 – 0 Prairie View State 2 – 4 – 0     3 – 6 – 0 Arkansas AM&N 0 – 6 – 0     1 – 7 – 0 + – Conference co-champions

Rankings

Main article: 1944 NCAA football rankings

Bowl games

Bowl game	Winning team		Losing team
Rose Bowl	No. 7 USC	25	No. 12 Tennessee	0
Sugar Bowl	No. 11 Duke	29	Alabama	26
Orange Bowl	Tulsa	26	No. 13 Georgia Tech	12
Cotton Bowl Classic	Oklahoma A&M	34	TCU	0
Sun Bowl	Southwestern (TX)	35	Pumas CU	0

Awards and honors

All-Americans

Main article: 1944 College Football All-America Team

The consensus All-America team included:

Position	Name	Height	Weight (lbs.)	Class	Hometown	Team
QB	Les Horvath	5'10"	173	Sr.	Parma, Ohio	Ohio State
HB	Glenn Davis	5'9"	175	So.	Claremont, California	Army
HB	Bob Jenkins	6'1"	195	Jr.	Talladega, Alabama	Navy
FB	Doc Blanchard	6'0"	205	Jr.	Bishopville, South Carolina	Army
E	Phil Tinsley	6'1"	188	Sr.	Bessemer, Alabama	Georgia Tech
E	Paul Walker	6'3"	203	Jr.	Springfield, Missouri	Yale
T	Don Whitmire	5'11"	215	Sr.	Giles Co., Tennessee	Alabama
G	Bill Hackett	5'9"	191	Jr.	London, Ohio	Ohio State
C	John Tavener	6'0"	220	Sr.	Newark, Ohio	Indiana
G	Ben Chase	6'1"	195		San Diego, California	Navy
T	John Ferraro	6'4"	245	So.	Los Angeles, California	USC
E	Jack Dugger	6'3"	210	Sr.	Canton, Ohio	Ohio State

Statistical leaders

• Team scoring most points per game: Army, 56.0

References

1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-02-29. Retrieved 2009-01-20.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
2. “Navy Upset”, The Amarillo Sunday News-Globe, Oct. 1, 1944, p17
3. “Randolph Field Steamrolls Over Southern Methodist 41-0”, Amarillo Sunday Globe-Times, Oct. 15, 1944, pB-6