Fixing the Final 1935 UPI College Football Poll

1) Minnesota 8-0 2) Southern Methodist 12-1 3) Princeton 9-0 4) Texas Christian 12-1 5) Ohio State 7-1 6) Stanford 8-1 7) Louisiana State 9-2 8) Notre Dame 7-1-1 9) California 9-1 10) Pittsburgh 7-1-2 11) Fordham 6-1-2 12) North Carolina 8-1 13) Duke 8-2 14) Holy Cross 9-0-1 15) Auburn 8-2 16) Northwestern 4-3-1 17) Alabama 6-2-1 18) Army 6-2-1       Iowa 4-2-2       UCLA 8-2 21) Nebraska 6-2-1        Ohio 8-0       Marquette 7-2       Washington 5-3       St. Mary's (California) 5-2-2 26) Temple 7-3        Dartmouth 8-2        New York 7-1

To the left is the final 1935 UPI college football poll's rankings. The fixed final UPI poll, shortened to a top 25, follows the article below. For the rest of the top 25 rankings 1901-1934, I am going to logically repair a hypothetical AP poll's top 25. In other words, for each season I am going to start with where an AP poll would have approximately rated teams, based on my research of writers from the time, then fix any ratings that would be illogical in the same way that I fixed all the actual AP polls. However, this season I am going to do something a little different, because while there wasn't yet an Associated Press college football poll to fix, there was still a poll of college football writers this season, conducted by United Press International. An AP poll's pool of writers may not have come to the exact same ratings as the UPI poll's writers did, but I assume that they wouldn't have been that different. I mean, sportswriters are sportswriters, right? As such, for this season's top 25 I will merely fix the UPI poll's rankings the same way I would fix an AP poll. I go into more detail on the top teams in this fixed poll, particularly Minnesota, Stanford, and Princeton, in my article on the 1935 national championship.

Minnesota's 1935 football team. This was the 2nd of 3 straight national championships for Minnesota, the last time any team has "threepeated." Of course, it is much harder to do today than it was back then. Minnesota did not have to play in bowl games in the 1930s, so they played 1 top 25 caliber team in 1934, 3 this year (but none in the top 10), and 3 in 1936 (losing one of those). If they had had to play the toughest remaining challenger in a BCS type game each season, it is unlikely that they would have won out all 3 years.

Stanford, Southern Methodist, and Princeton

Southern Methodist vs. Texas Christian: A Game of the Century

When 10-0 Southern Methodist (pictured above) met 10-0 Texas Christian on November 30th, Fort Worth was the center of the college football universe, with the nation's top writers coming to town to cover it. At stake was the SWC title and a slot in the Rose Bowl, as well as a shot at a share of the mythical national championship (MNC). SMU featured a pair of consensus All Americans, halfback Bobby Wilson and guard J. C. Wetsel, as well as nonconsensus AA tackle Truman Spain. TCU countered with consensus AA center Darrell Lester and nonconsensus AA quarterback Slingin' Sammy Baugh, a college and pro Hall of Famer (Baugh pictured at left). Writer Grantland Rice called this clash the "Game of the Century," a term that had first been used just a few weeks earlier for the Ohio State-Notre Dame game. 37,000 attended.

SMU drove 73 yards to a touchdown in the opening quarter, then hit a 33 yard pass to set up a 9 yard Bobby Wilson touchdown run in the 2nd quarter, jumping out to a 14-0 lead. TCU closed the gap to 14-7 before half, getting the ball to the SMU 1 yard line on a pass interference penalty, then pushing it over goal. Sammy Baugh hit a touchdown pass early in the 4th quarter, tying the score at 14-14. In the answering drive, SMU faked a punt on 4th and 7 from the TCU 34 yard line, and though TCU was not fooled, Bobby Wilson got behind 2 defenders for the touchdown catch that gave SMU a 20-14 win. These teams combined for 677 yards of offense and 42 first downs, startling numbers for writers from other regions. Sammy Baugh threw 43 passes, though he only completed 17 because his receivers dropped potential receptions all game long.

You can watch highlights of the game here. SMU finished the regular season 12-0, and though they lost to Stanford in the Rose Bowl, they finished #1 in the Dickinson ratings, which did not count bowl games, and SMU claims a 1935 MNC based on Dickinson. Hall of Fame coach Matty Bell was in his first season at the helm, and he would end up 79-40-8 at SMU 1935-1941 and 1945-1949, winning 3 SWC titles. He was then the SMU athletic director 1950-1964. Overall he was 143-87-16 at 5 schools.

California, UCLA, and Ohio State

Ohio State vs. Notre Dame: The Original Game of the Century

The 1900s saw a lot of "Games of the Century," but the first game we know of that the press labeled as such was 5-0 Notre Dame's trip to 4-0 Ohio State on November 2nd, 1935. 81,000 attended the game, and tickets were going for $50 each (adjusted for inflation, that's $842 today). You can see an excellent video with clips from the game here. Ohio State carried a 13-0 lead into the 4th quarter, but Notre Dame used an aerial assault to come all the way back for an 18-13 win, the last touchdown a pass from Bill Shakespeare to consensus AA end Wayne Millner with 30 seconds left in the game. The SMU-TCU showdown 4 weeks later ended up being a much more important game, but the 1935 Ohio State-Notre Dame tilt is remembered as one of the greatest games of the 1930s because of its late dramatics.

Notre Dame and Louisiana State

7-1-1 Notre Dame was rated right behind 9-2 Louisiana State, but I think it should be the other way around. LSU took an upset loss (to unrated 8-3 Rice), while Notre Dame took an upset loss (to now-#17 Northwestern, 4-3-1) and a tie (to now-#19 Army, 6-2-1), but Notre Dame made up for their loss with an upset win over 7-1 Ohio State, who was rated higher than either team. That gave Notre Dame a relevant record that was effectively half a game better than LSU's.

Notre Dame would have passed LSU up in a post-bowl poll anyway, since LSU lost 3-2 to now-#5 Texas Christian in the Sugar Bowl (the winning field goal is pictured below).



Notre Dame and Louisiana State switch places, Dame #9 and LSU #10. That puts Notre Dame right behind Ohio State, whom they beat, but Our Lady's upset loss and tie leave Ohio State effectively half a game better on the season.

Pittsburgh, Fordham, and St. Mary's (California)

Next in the UPI list we find 7-1-2 Pittsburgh and 6-1-2 Fordham, who tied each other 0-0 at the Polo Grounds in New York in the game shown below. This season was the first meeting between Pittsburgh and Fordham, who would go 2-2-3 against each other 1935-1941, and who battled to a 0-0 tie 3 straight seasons 1935-1937. After the 1937 tie, Pitt would end up 9-0-1, Fordham 7-0-1.



The real issue here is 5-2-2 St. Mary's, originally ranked #21 in a tie with 4 other teams. Their 2 losses came to a pair of teams now ranked in the top 10 (California and UCLA). They were tied 7-7 by unrated 5-3-1 Washington State, but they made up for that with another 7-7 tie at now-#12 Fordham. They defeated 6-3 Oregon, set to be ranked in the fixed poll, 18-0.

St. Mary's had a relevant record that was better than those of quite a few teams ranked ahead of them. They could be ranked as high as #10, ahead of LSU, but we needn't go that far. Pittsburgh had the same relevant record as St. Mary's did, tying Fordham and an unrated team, but the latter was 2-5-1 Carnegie for Pittsburgh, a much worse team than 5-3-1 WSU, who tied St. Mary's. But Pitt beat a couple of rated teams, 6-2-1 Army (originally rated #18) and 6-2-1 Nebraska (#21), so we can let the UPI poll have Pitt.

Fordham, on the other hand, doesn't have a good reason to be rated ahead of St. Mary's. Fordham lost 20-0 at home to unrated 4-4 Purdue, a simply terrible result. They had 2 close wins over unrated opponents, a 14-7 decision over Franklin & Marshall being the worst, while St. Mary's brought home all 5 of their wins by more than a touchdown, and all in shutouts. Fordham was also the home team in all of their games but one, a neutral site bout with NYU, while St. Mary's played 4 road games, including the big tie at Fordham. So we'll move St. Mary's all the way up ahead of Fordham.

St. Mary's first made the long trip to New York City to play Fordham in 1930, winning 20-12. They then made that trip every year 1932-1942, and through this season they were 3-1-1 against Fordham. After that, the worm turned, and Fordham went 6-1 in the series 1936-1942. The teams met one last time in 1946, St. Mary's romping 33-2.

St. Mary's was coached by Hall of Famer Ed "Slip" Madigan (pictured), who had played for Knute Rockne at Notre Dame. He went 117-45-12 at St. Mary's 1921-1939, including a truckload of victories over major teams: 27 wins came over California, Southern Cal, Stanford, UCLA, Oregon, Fordham, Washington State, Temple, Texas Tech, and SMU. The Texas Tech win occurred in the Cotton Bowl following the 1938 season, and Tech came into that game 10-0 and rated #11 in the AP poll. St. Mary's first started finishing with nice records in 1924, going 9-1, 8-2, 9-0-1, and 7-2-1 through 1927, and they might have made an AP poll's top 25 once or twice during that time. But with a big schedule upgrade and multiple wins every year over major teams, St. Mary's was at their height 1929-1935, and would have been a nearly annual fixture in a top 25 during that time (48-12-5).

So our 2nd 10 begins like this: 11) Pittsburgh, 12) St. Mary's, 13) Fordham. St. Mary's also compares well against teams that had been ranked behind Fordham: North Carolina and Holy Cross beat no ranked teams, Duke lost to 5-6 Georgia Tech, and Auburn lost to 4-5 Tennessee.

Auburn, Duke, and North Carolina

Holy Cross, Northwestern, and Alabama

Army and Iowa

Oregon and Washington

Rice

Nebraska, Marquette, and Ohio

We are down to 3 teams for the last 2 slots. Big 6 champion Nebraska took an upset tie, and Marquette took an upset loss, so Nebraska moves to the top of this triad. Ohio, again, played nobody.

Marquette was a mid-major team that played 5 major opponents and 1 fellow mid-major, so they too played a schedule well beyond that played by Ohio (1 major opponent, 7 minor). However, Ohio did go 8-0, and since this is slot #25 we're talking about, I'm going to wimp out and let the UPI poll have its token minor team, albeit in a tie with Marquette for #25.

Marquette, of course, no longer has a football team. Their first claim to fame came in 1909, when they tied "Western" champion Notre Dame (7-0-1) in their finale. But the school's football program was at its height under Hall of Fame coach Frank Murray (pictured) 1922-1936. A Tufts graduate who had never played football, Murray went 8-0-1 in his first season at Marquette and 8-0 in his 2nd. In his last 2 seasons, he landed his team a spot in the UPI poll (1935) and the AP poll (1936), Marquette's only AP poll finish. They played TCU in the Cotton Bowl in Murray's last game there, losing 16-6. Murray was 90-32-6 during this stint. He later went 41-34-5 at Virginia 1937-1945, then 14-23 back at Marquette 1946-1949, for a total of 145-89-11.

This team had some talent. Raymond "Buzz" Buivid was 3rd team All American on 3 lists, and would finish 3rd in the Heisman vote in 1936. He threw 13 touchdown passes this season. Ward Cuff was a blocking back, strong defensive back, and the kicker. He played 11 years in the NFL. Art Guepe would score the first touchdown in Cotton Bowl history on a 60 yard punt return, and later served as Virginia's head coach, going 47-17-2 1946-1952 (he succeeded his former coach, Frank Murray). He then went 39-54-7 at Vanderbilt 1953-1962, and was the Ohio Valley Conference commissioner 1963-1975.

Nebraska is #24, and Marquette and Ohio are tied for #25.

Others Receiving Votes

Vanderbilt 7-3

New York 7-1

Catholic 8-1

Dartmouth 8-2

Baylor 8-3

Williams 7-1

Fixed UPI Top 25