1937 college football season

Conference and program changes

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 the California Aggies (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 No. 1, followed by Alabama, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and Yale. LSU, despite a 54–0 scoring edge over its opposition, was sixth.

October 23 No. 1 California beat No. 11 USC 20–6. In Washington, No. 2 Alabama defeated GWU, 19–0. No. 3 Pittsburgh won at No. 16 Wisconsin 26–6. No. 4 Minnesota was idle. No. 5 Yale beat No. 19 Cornell, 9–0. The next top five was No. 1 California, No. 2 Pittsburgh, No. 3 Alabama, No. 4 Minnesota, and No. 5 Yale

October 30 In Los Angeles, No. 1 California defeated UCLA 27–14, while in Pittsburgh, the No. 2 Pitt Panthers beat Carnegie Tech, 25–14. No. 3 Alabama beat Kentucky, 41–0. No. 4 Minnesota lost to Notre Dame, 7–6, and No. 5 Yale and No. 9 Dartmouth played to a 9–9 tie. No. 6 Baylor, which reached 6–0–0 with a 6–0 win over TCU, and No. 10 Fordham, which won at No. 15 North Carolina, 14–0, moved up to fourth and fifth place in the next Top Five, behind California, Alabama, and Pittsburgh.

November

November 6 No. 1 California and Washington played to a 0–0 tie. In New Orleans, No. 2 Alabama beat No. 19 Tulane, 9–6. No. 3 Pittsburgh won at No. 12 Notre Dame, 21–6 to take the top spot in the next poll. No. 4 Baylor lost to unranked Texas, 9–6. No. 5 Fordham beat Purdue, 21–3. No. 9 Dartmouth, which beat Princeton 33–9, reached the next Top Five: No. 1 Pittsburgh, No. 2 California, No. 3 Alabama, No. 4 Fordham, and No. 5 Dartmouth.

November 13 No. 1 Pittsburgh defeated visiting No. 11 Nebraska, 13–7. In Portland, No. 2 California beat Oregon, 26–0. In Birmingham, No. 3 Alabama beat Georgia Tech, 7–0. No. 4 Fordham was idle. No. 5 Dartmouth and Cornell played to a 6–6 tie. No. 6 Yale returned to the Top Five with a 26–0 win over Princeton, ranking fifth behind Pittsburgh, California, Alabama, and Fordham.

November 20 No. 1 Pittsburgh beat Penn State, 28–7. No. 2 California won at No. 13 Stanford, 13–0, to finish at 9–0–1. No. 3 Alabama was idle. No. 4 Fordham beat St. Mary's, 6–0. No. 5 Yale lost its final game of the season, 13–6, at Harvard. No. 7 Minnesota closed its season with a 13–6 win over Wisconsin and moved up to fifth place behind Pittsburgh, California, Fordham, and Alabama.

On Thanksgiving Day, No. 4 Alabama beat No. 12 Vanderbilt 9–7 in Nashville. Then, on November 27 No. 1 Pittsburgh closed its season unbeaten (8–0–1) with a 10–0 win at No. 18 Duke. No. 3 Fordham closed its season unbeaten (7–0–1) with a 20–7 win over NYU at Yankee Stadium. No. 2 California and No. 5 Minnesota had completed their seasons, and the top five remained unchanged from the previous week.

Conference standings

Major conference standings

Independents

Minor conferences

Minor conference standings

Awards and honors

All-Americans

Main article: 1937 College Football All-America Team

The consensus All-America team included:

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

Heisman Trophy voting

The Heisman Trophy is given to the year's most outstanding player

Rankings

Main article: 1937 college football rankings

In the Associated Press poll of 33 sportswriters, taken on November 29, the Pitt Panthers received 29 first place votes and 327 points out of a possible 330 under the weighted scoring system. The writers agreed on the same four teams (Pitt, California, Fordham and Alabama) being the best four in the nation. California had 277, Fordham 253 and Alabama 246 points to finish second, third and fourth in the poll, and the Minnesota Gophers a distant fifth with 104 points. At the time, the final poll was taken at the end of season and was not affected by the outcome of the postseason bowl games.

Bowl games

Main article: 1937–38 NCAA football bowl games

Notes

References

References

1. [https://www.newspapers.com/article/pittsburgh-post-gazette-pitt-panthers-vo/189952668/ "Final Vote Leaves Pitt As Nation's Grid Leader— Twenty-Nine Out of Thirty-Three Experts Pick Panthers; California Is Runnerup"], ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', November 30, 1937, p.17