1940 Boston College Eagles football team

Schedule

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Rankings

Season summary

The BC Eagles won all ten games in the regular season, were the highest-scoring team in the country, and won the Lambert Trophy, awarded to the "Eastern champion". Scoring leaders during the regular season were Frank Maznicki (80 points), Mike Holovak (67 points), and Lou Montgomery (36 points).

From 1936 to 1964, the final AP Poll ranking college football teams was taken at the end of the regular season, before the postseason bowl games. The final 1940 rankings were published on December 2, and listed undefeated Minnesota (8–0) first. Minnesota had secured a thrilling home win by an extra point, 7–6, over Michigan in early November—Michigan finished the regular season with a 7–1 record and was ranked third. Stanford (10–0) was ranked second, Tennessee (10–0) fourth, and Boston College (10–0) was fifth.

Postseason

Boston College played in the Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day and defeated Tennessee, champion of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), by a score of 19–13. The Eagles played without Montgomery, a halfback, due to racial policies of the era. Tennessee had outscored its regular season opponents 319–26, soundly beating such opponents as Alabama, Florida, LSU, Kentucky, Virginia, and Duke.

Neither Minnesota nor Michigan played in a postseason bowl game, and Stanford defeated No. 7 Nebraska in the Rose Bowl by a score of 21–13. Despite where the AP rated teams at the end of the regular season, BC's postseason win over Tennessee was widely deemed the best win of any team in the 1940 season.

Aftermath

For this era, when a limited number of bowl games were played and no polling was conducted after postseason contests, there are often competing claims for the national championship of a given season.

With its undefeated season and bowl win, the BC Eagles were widely acclaimed as national champions. While there is a banner on the BC campus that lists the score of each game the Eagles played, along with "National Champions" wording, BC's football media guide only makes passing mention of a "claim to the national championship with a 19-13 victory over Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl."

The NCAA lists only Minnesota (ranked first in the final AP Poll of early December) as the national champion for 1940, and does not credit Boston College with any national championships in football. Several other selectors list Stanford as the 1940 champion and one lists Tennessee.

References

References

1. (Fall 2001). "Teams of Destiny".
2. King, Bill. (September 22, 1940). "Boston College Crushes Centre". [[The Philadelphia Inquirer]].
3. (September 29, 1940). "Boston stuns Tulane with 27–7 victory". The Clarion-Ledger.
4. Stan Baumgartner. (October 13, 1940). "Boston College's Passes Beat Temple by 33 to 20". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
5. (October 19, 1940). "Boston College fears scoreless Idaho". Spokesman-Review.
6. (October 19, 1940). "Boston College tramples Idaho". Spokane Daily Chronicle.
7. (October 20, 1940). "Boston swamps Idaho team, 60-0". Spokesman-Review.
8. (October 27, 1940). "Boston College Wins 55-0 Rout". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
9. (November 3, 1940). "BC's Touchdown Parade Trims Jaspers, 25-0". New York Daily News.
10. (November 10, 1940). "Boston College Defeats Boston U. By 21 To 0". The Sun.
11. Francis E. Stan. (November 17, 1940). "B.C. Noses Out G.U., 19-18". The Sunday Star.
12. (November 24, 1940). "Boston College Smashes Way To Win Over Auburn". The Montgomery Advertiser.
13. (December 1, 1940). "Boston College Gets Four Lucky Breaks To Conquer Courageous Crusaders, 7-0". The Hartford Courant.
14. (January 2, 1941). "Indomitable spirit brings Eagles win". The Boston Globe.
15. DeLassus, David. "Boston College Yearly Results: 1940–1944". [[College Football Data Warehouse]].
16. (December 29, 1940). "Boston College 1940 Statistics". [[Knoxville News Sentinel]].
17. Reid Oslin (November 10, 2015). [http://bceagles.com/news/2015/11/10/FB_1110153607.aspx Boston College Athletics – The 1940 Team of Destiny] Retrieved July 21, 2016.
18. (October 29, 2020). "Learning About Lou". Boston College Athletic Communications.
19. Haywood Harris and Gus Manning (2004) “Six Seasons Remembered: The National Championship Years of Tennessee Football”, The University of Tennessee Press/ Knoxville pp. 24–45.
20. (January 3, 1941). "Sports Writers Comment on B. C. Win In Sugar Bowl". [[The Boston Globe]].
21. Twomey, David P.. (December 8, 2015). "New Boston College History States BC's 1940 National Championship in Football 'Untrue': Correcting This Mistake".
22. (2024). "Historical Timeline".
23. "FBS Football Championship History {{!}} NCAA.com".
24. (July 2022). "2022 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records". The National Collegiate Athletic Association.