1937 college football season

1937 NCAA football season
Total # of teams	126
First AP #1 of season	California Golden Bears
Number of bowls	5
Champions	Pittsburgh Panthers (AP) California Golden Bears (Various)
Heisman	Clint Frank, Yale HB
College football seasons « 1936 1938 »

The 1937 NCAA football season ended with the Panthers of the University of Pittsburgh being named the nation’s #1 team (and "mythical national champion") by 30 of the 33 voters in the Associated Press writers' poll. The AP poll was in its second year, and seven votes were taken during the final weeks of the 1937 season, starting with October 18. 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. With 33 writers polled, Pitt received 30 first place votes and 3 second-place, for a total of 327 points.

The NCAA began keeping official game statistics in 1937.

Conference and program changes

School	1936 Conference	1937 Conference
Saint Louis Billikens	Independent	Missouri Valley

September

September 25 The defending champion Minnesota Gophers opened their season with a 69-7 win over visiting North Dakota State. LSU beat Florida, 19-0. Alabama beat Samford 41-0. California won 30-7 over St. Mary’s. In Seattle, Washington beat Iowa, 14-0. The day before, Pittsburgh had opened with a 59-0 win over Ohio Wesleyan.

October

October 2 Minnesota lost at Nebraska, 14-9. LSU defeated Texas 9-0. Pittsburgh won at West Virginia, 20-0. In Birmingham, Alabama beat Sewanee, 65-0. In Los Angeles, Washington defeated USC, 7-0. California beat Oregon State, 24-6. Yale beat Maine, 26-0.

October 9 In Houston, LSU defeated Rice, 13-0. Pittsburgh beat its cross-town rival, Duquesne, 6-0. Alabama beat South Carolina, 20-0. All three teams had held their opposition scoreless. California defeated Washington State 27-0. Washington lost to Oregon State, 6-3. Yale beat Penn, 27-7. Minnesota recovered from its Nebraska loss to beat Indiana 6-0.

October 16 LSU registered its fourth shutout in four starts, a 13-0 win over Ole Miss. Pittsburgh and Fordham played to a 0-0 tie in New York. Alabama yielded its first points, but won at Tennessee, 14-7. California beat (later UC-Davis) 14-0 and Pacific, 20-0, in a doubleheader. Yale defeated Army, 15-7. Minnesota won at Michigan, 39-6. In the first poll taken, California was #1, followed by Alabama, Pittsburgh, Minnesota and Yale. LSU, despite a 54-0 scoring edge over its opposition, was sixth.

October 23 #1 California beat #11 USC 20-6. In Washington, #2 Alabama defeated GWU, 19-0. #3 Pittsburgh won at #16 Wisconsin 26-6. #4 Minnesota was idle. #5 Yale beat #19 Cornell, 9-0.

The next top five was 1.California 2.Pittsburgh 3.Alabama 4.Minnesota 5.Yale

October 30 In Los Angeles, #1 California defeated UCLA 27-14, while in Pittsburgh, the #2 Pitt Panthers beat Carnegie Tech, 25-14. #3 Alabama beat Kentucky, 41-0. #4 Minnesota lost to Notre Dame, 7-6, and #5 Yale and #9 Dartmouth played to a 9-9 tie. #6 Baylor, which reached 6-0-0 with a 6-0 win over TCU, and #10 Fordham, which won at #15 North Carolina, 14-0, reached the next Top Five. The next top five was 1.California 2.Alabama 3.Pittsburgh 4.Baylor 5.Fordham

November

November 6 #1 California and Washington played to a 0-0 tie. In New Orleans, #2 Alabama beat #19 Tulane, 9-6. #3 Pittsburgh won at #12 Notre Dame, 21-6 to take the top spot in the next poll. #4 Baylor lost to unranked Texas, 9-6. #5 Fordham beat Purdue, 21-3. #9 Dartmouth, which beat Princeton 33-9, reached the next Top Five: 1.Pittsburgh 2.California 3.Alabama 4.Fordham 5.Dartmouth

November 13 #1 Pittsburgh defeated visiting #11 Nebraska, 13-7. In Portland, #2 California beat Oregon, 26-0. In Birmingham, #3 Alabama beat Georgia Tech, 7-0. #4 Fordham was idle. #5 Dartmouth and Cornell played to a 6-6 tie. #6 Yale returned to the Top Five with a 26-0 win over Princeton: 1.Pittsburgh 2.California 3.Alabama 4.Fordham 5.Yale

November 20 #1 Pittsburgh beat Penn State, 28-7. #2 California won at #13 Stanford, 13-0, to finish at 9-0-1. #3 Alabama was idle. #4 Fordham beat St. Mary’s, 6-0. #5 Yale lost its final game of the season, 13-6, at Harvard. #7 Minnesota closed its season with a 13-6 win over Wisconsin to return to the Top Five: 1.Pittsburgh 2.California 3.Fordham 4.Alabama 5.Minnesota

On Thanksgiving Day, #4 Alabama beat #12 Vanderbilt 9-7 in Nashville. Then, on November 27 #1 Pittsburgh closed its season unbeaten (8-0-1) with a 10-0 win at #18 Duke. #3 Fordham closed its season unbeaten (7-0-1) with a 20-7 win over NYU at Yankee Stadium. #2 California and #5 Minnesota had completed their seasons.

Conference standings

The following is a potentially incomplete list of conference standings:

1937 Big 6 football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T #11 Nebraska $ 3 – 0 – 2     6 – 1 – 2 Oklahoma 3 – 1 – 1     5 – 2 – 2 Kansas 2 – 1 – 2     3 – 4 – 2 Missouri 2 – 2 – 1     3 – 6 – 1 Iowa State 1 – 4 – 0     3 – 6 – 0 Kansas State 1 – 4 – 0     4 – 5 – 0 $ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll	1937 Big Ten football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T #5 Minnesota $ 5 – 0 – 0     6 – 2 – 0 #13 Ohio State 5 – 1 – 0     6 – 2 – 0 Indiana 3 – 2 – 0     5 – 3 – 0 Michigan 3 – 3 – 0     4 – 4 – 0 Northwestern 3 – 3 – 0     4 – 4 – 0 Purdue 2 – 2 – 1     4 – 3 – 1 Wisconsin 2 – 2 – 1     4 – 3 – 1 Illinois 2 – 3 – 0     3 – 3 – 2 Chicago 0 – 4 – 0     1 – 6 – 0 Iowa 0 – 5 – 0     1 – 7 – 0 $ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll	1937 Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Texas Tech $ 3 – 0 – 0     8 – 4 – 0 New Mexico A&M 4 – 1 – 0     7 – 2 – 0 Arizona 3 – 1 – 0     8 – 2 – 0 New Mexico 2 – 3 – 1     4 – 4 – 1 Northern Arizona 1 – 4 – 0     5 – 5 – 0 Texas Mines 0 – 3 – 0     1 – 8 – 0 Arizona State 0 – 5 – 0     0 – 8 – 1 $ – Conference champion
1937 New England Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T New Hampshire $ 1 – 0 – 0     7 – 1 – 0 Connecticut State $ 1 – 0 – 0     6 – 2 – 1 Maine 0 – 1 – 1     2 – 3 – 2 Northeastern 0 – 1 – 0     4 – 3 – 0 Rhode Island 0 – 2 – 1     3 – 4 – 1 $ – Conference champion	1937 PCC football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T #2 California $ 6 – 0 – 1     10 – 0 – 1 Stanford 4 – 2 – 1     4 – 3 – 2 Washington 4 – 2 – 2     7 – 2 – 2 Washington State 3 – 3 – 2     3 – 3 – 3 Idaho 2 – 2 – 0     4 – 3 – 1 Oregon State 2 – 3 – 3     3 – 3 – 3 USC 2 – 3 – 2     4 – 4 – 2 Oregon 2 – 5 – 0     4 – 6 – 0 UCLA 1 – 5 – 1     2 – 6 – 1 Montana 0 – 1 – 0     7 – 1 – 0 $ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll	1937 SEC football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T #4 Alabama $ 6 – 0 – 0     9 – 1 – 0 #8 LSU 5 – 1 – 0     9 – 2 – 0 Auburn 4 – 1 – 2     6 – 2 – 3 Vanderbilt 4 – 2 – 0     7 – 2 – 0 Mississippi State 3 – 2 – 0     5 – 4 – 1 Georgia Tech 3 – 2 – 1     6 – 3 – 1 Tennessee 4 – 3 – 0     6 – 3 – 1 Florida 3 – 4 – 0     4 – 7 – 0 Tulane 2 – 3 – 1     5 – 4 – 1 Georgia 1 – 2 – 2     6 – 3 – 2 Ole Miss 0 – 4 – 0     4 – 5 – 1 Kentucky 0 – 5 – 0     4 – 6 – 0 Sewanee 0 – 6 – 0     2 – 7 – 0 $ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll
1937 Southern Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Maryland $ 2 – 0 – 0     8 – 2 – 0 North Carolina 4 – 0 – 1     7 – 1 – 1 Clemson 2 – 0 – 1     4 – 4 – 1 Duke 5 – 1 – 0     7 – 2 – 1 VMI 4 – 2 – 0     5 – 5 – 0 NC State 4 – 2 – 1     5 – 3 – 1 South Carolina 2 – 2 – 1     5 – 6 – 1 Washington and Lee 2 – 3 – 0     4 – 5 – 0 The Citadel 2 – 3 – 0     7 – 4 – 0 Richmond 2 – 3 – 0     5 – 4 – 1 Furman 1 – 2 – 2     4 – 3 – 2 Virginia Tech 2 – 4 – 0     5 – 5 – 0 William & Mary 1 – 3 – 0     4 – 5 – 0 Wake Forest 1 – 4 – 0     3 – 6 – 0 Davidson 1 – 6 – 0     2 – 8 – 0 $ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll	1937 Southwest Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T #18 Rice $ 4 – 1 – 1     6 – 3 – 2 #16 TCU 3 – 1 – 2     4 – 4 – 2 #14 Arkansas 3 – 2 – 1     6 – 2 – 2 Baylor 3 – 3 – 0     7 – 3 – 0 Texas A&M 2 – 2 – 2     5 – 2 – 2 SMU 2 – 4 – 0     5 – 6 – 0 Texas 1 – 5 – 0     2 – 6 – 1 $ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

Awards and honors

All-Americans

Main article: 1937 College Football All-America Team

The consensus All-America team included:

Position	Name	Height	Weight (lbs.)	Class	Hometown	Team
QB	Clint Frank	5'10"	190	Sr.	Evanston, Illinois	Yale
HB	Marshall Goldberg	5'11"	185	Jr.	Elkins, West Virginia	Pittsburgh
HB	Byron White	6'1"	185	Sr.	Wellington, Colorado	Colorado
FB	Sam Chapman	6'0"	180	Sr.	Mill Valley, California	California
E	Chuck Sweeney	6'0"	190	Sr.	Bloomington, Indiana	Notre Dame
T	Ed Franco	5'8"	196	Sr.	Jersey City, New Jersey	Fordham
G	Joe Routt	6'0"	193	Sr.	Brenham, Texas	Texas A&M
C	Alex Wojciechowicz	5'11"	192	Sr.	South River, New Jersey	Fordham
G	Leroy Monsky	5'10"	185	Sr.	Montgomery, Alabama	Alabama
T	Tony Matisi	6'0"	224	Sr.	New York, New York	Pittsburgh
E	Andy Bershak	6'0"	190	Sr.	Clairton, Pennsylvania	North Carolina

Individual leaders

• Rushing yards (total): Byron White, Colorado, 1,121 yards
• Rushing yards (per carry): Dick Cassiano, Pittsburgh, 9.0 yards/carry
• Passing yards (total): Billy Patterson, Baylor, 1,109 yards
• Receiving yards (total): Jim Benton, Arkansas, 814 yards
• Points scored: Byron White, Colorado, 122 points
• Punting: Johnny Pingel, Michigan State, 42.9 yards/punt

Final polls

Main article: 1937 NCAA football rankings

Bowl games

Main article: 1937–38 NCAA football bowl games

Bowl	Winning Team	points	Losing Team	points
Rose Bowl	#2 California Golden Bears	13	#4 Alabama Crimson Tide	0
Sugar Bowl	#9 Santa Clara Broncos	6	#8 LSU Tigers	0
Orange Bowl	Auburn Tigers	6	Michigan State Spartans	0
Cotton Bowl	#18 Rice Owls	28	#17 Colorado Buffaloes	14
Sun Bowl	West Virginia Mountaineers	6	Texas Tech Red Raiders	0

See also

• 1937 College Football All-America Team