Houlgate System

The Houlgate System, also known as the Deke Houlgate collegiate football rating system, was a mathematical rating system for determining annual college football national championships. The ratings, which rated teams according to the strength of their opponents, were created by Carroll Everard "Deke" Houlgate, Sr., a sports publicist and statistician.[1] Houlgate used his system to select national champions on a current basis from 1929 to 1958. He also applied his ratings methodology retroactively to select national champions for each year from 1885 to 1926.[2] His selections were published in newspapers in the 1930s and 1940s.[3][4][5]

The "Houlgate System" is one of the selectors of historic national champions recognized as a major selector by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in its Football Bowl Subdivision record book.[2][6]

In 1945, Houlgate also initiated his selections for the Futility Bowl matching the two worst college football teams in a fictional football game to be played in Death Valley.[7] His annual picks for the Futility Bowl included: (1) Worcester Polytechnic Institute and College of Wooster in 1945;[7] (2) Kansas State and Carnegie Tech in 1947; (3) Kansas State and Montana State in 1948;[8] (4) BYU and Rhode Island State in 1949;[9] and (5) Davidson and Montana in 1951.[10]

Houlgate also published a book titled "The Football Thesaurus" starting in 1946.[11][12][13]

Deke Houlgate was born in Peru, Nebraska, on May 8, 1905. He graduated from Ventura High School and attended the University of Southern California. He served in the Air Force during World War II and died at the Wadsworth Veterans Administration Hospital in Los Angeles, California, on July 31, 1959, at age 54.[14][15] Houlgate's wife, Dorothy P. Houlgate, was considered "one of the leading feminine football experts" and assisted with the annual football ratings; she died in August 1959, less than a month after the death of her husband.[16]

Houlgate national champions

The following list identifies the college football national champions as selected by the Houlgate System.[1][2]

SeasonChampion
1885Princeton
1886Not listed in NCAA record book
1887Yale
1888Yale
1889Princeton
1890Harvard
1891Yale
1892Yale
1893Princeton
1894Princeton
1895Penn
1896Princeton
1897Penn
1898Harvard
1899Harvard
1900Yale
1901Michigan
1902Michigan
1903Princeton
1904Penn
1905Chicago
1906Not listed in NCAA record book
1907Yale
1908Penn
1909Yale
1910Harvard
1911Princeton
1912Harvard
1913Harvard
1914Army
1915Cornell
1916Pittsburgh
1917Georgia Tech
1918Pittsburgh
1919Harvard
1920California
1921Cornell
1922California
1923California
1924Notre Dame
1925Alabama
1926Navy
1927Notre Dame
1928Georgia Tech
1929USC
1930Notre Dame
1931USC
1932USC
1933Michigan
1934Alabama
1935SMU
1936Pittsburgh
1937Pittsburgh
1938Tennessee
1939Texas A&M
1940Minnesota
1941Alabama
1942Georgia
1943Notre Dame
1944Army
1945Army
1946Army
1947Michigan
1948Michigan
1949Notre Dame
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See also
  • NCAA Division I FBS national football championship

References
  1. "Deke Houlgate Dead at 54". Pasadena Independent. August 1, 1959. p. 9.
  2. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2015). "National Poll Rankings" (PDF). NCAA Division I Football Records. NCAA. pp. 105–106. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  3. "Houlgate Also Ranks Pitt Tops". San Bernardino Sun. November 30, 1937. p. 17.
  4. "Houlgate Ranks Tulane at Top". Santa Cruz Evening News. December 6, 1939. p. 7.
  5. "Houlgate Football Ratings". Santa Cruz Sentinel. October 17, 1945. p. 4.
  6. "John Houlgate's College Football Ratings". John Houlgate. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  7. "Futility Bowl Game Is Proposed To Determine Champ Underdog". The Ogden Standard-Examiner. December 18, 1945. p. 12.
  8. "Kansas State Selected For 'Futility' Contest". Tucson Daily Citizen. December 21, 1948. p. 13.
  9. "Futility Bowl: Bids Sent to Losingest Teams; No Ducat Worries". Daily Independent Journal. December 16, 1949. p. 9.
  10. "No Crowd, No Teams -- Futility Bowl Billed For Death Valley Site". The Eugene Guard. December 26, 1951. p. 13.
  11. "Grid Thesaurus Out". The Waco News-Tribune. November 5, 1946. p. 8.
  12. Deke Houlgate (1946). The Football Thesaurus: 77 years on the American gridiron. Nash-U-Nal Pub. Co. OCLC 1487183.
  13. Deke Houlgate (1954). The Football Thesaurus: 85 Years on the American Gridiron. Houlgate House.
  14. "Carroll Everard "Deke" Houlgate, Sr". Find a Grave. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  15. "Grid Expert Houlgate Dies". Independent (Long Beach, CA). August 1, 1959. p. 10.
  16. "Deke Houlgate's Widow Dies". Redlands Daily Facts. August 26, 1959. p. 8.
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