Pittsburgh vs. Washington

Pittsburgh and Washington have 5 meetings on file, the first in 1936; Pittsburgh leads the series 4–⁠1 in the games on file. Over the last 5 meetings it’s Pittsburgh 4–⁠1, and Pittsburgh has won the last 2.

Pittsburgh wins
4
Washington wins
1
Ties
0
Earliest on file
1936
Longest streak
2 Pittsburgh
Current streak
2 Pittsburgh
Last 10 meetings
Pittsburgh 4–⁠1
Most recent
1979

The series at a glance

Every meeting by decade, colored by the winner
’0’1’2’3’4’5’6’7’8’9W–L
1930s2–⁠0
1960s1–⁠1
1970s1–⁠0
Both ranked
2 meetings: Pittsburgh 2, Washington 0; 1 both in the top 10
Average margin
13.2 points; 2 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
At Pittsburgh
1–⁠0 Pittsburgh’s record at home
At Washington
1–⁠2 Washington’s record at home
Neutral sites
1–⁠0 Pittsburgh first
Shutouts
1

Every meeting on file, as played. Ranks are the AP poll’s going in.

Games that tell the story

  1. Pittsburgh’s biggest win1939: Pittsburgh 27, Washington 6by 21 points
  2. Washington’s biggest win1961: Washington 22, Pittsburgh 17by 5 points
  3. Ranked showdown1936: Pittsburgh 21, Washington 0No. 6 Washington at No. 4 Pittsburgh
  4. Ranked showdown1979: Pittsburgh 26, Washington 14No. 17 Pittsburgh at No. 12 Washington

Both programs through the years

End-of-season Elo ratings of Pittsburgh and Washington, 1936 on130015001700194019501960197019801990200020102020

Our Elo rating at the end of each season, a measure of how strong a team was, not a forecast; 1500 is an average FBS team.

Stars of the series

Named most valuable

Bill Daddio Pittsburgh1936

Most valuable: as the games’ Wikipedia articles name them (CC BY-SA).

From the newspapers

  • The Evening star's story of the 1936 game

    1936 · Evening star, Jan 2, 1937

  • The The Daily Alaska empire's story of the 1939 game: U. WASHINGTON BEATEN BADLY BY PITTSBURGH Partners 0ut-Maneuver Dazzle and 0ufplay Husky Eleven

    1939 · The Daily Alaska empire, Oct 2, 1939

Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The earliest meetings with a story on file; each game’s page has the full text.

Every game

Oct 20, 197917Pittsburgh 26, 12Washington 14at Washington
Sep 28, 196310Pittsburgh 13, Washington 6at Pittsburgh
Oct 7, 1961Washington 22, Pittsburgh 17at Washington
Sep 30, 1939Pittsburgh 27, Washington 6at Washington
Jan 1, 19374Pittsburgh 21, 6Washington 0Neutral siteRose Bowl

Every game is listed as played on the field.