Santa Clara vs. Utah

Santa Clara and Utah first met in 1939 and have played 4 times; Santa Clara leads the series 2–⁠1–⁠1. Over the last 4 meetings it’s Santa Clara 2–⁠1.

Santa Clara wins
2
Utah wins
1
Ties
1
First meeting
1939
Longest streak
2 Santa Clara
Current streak
1 Utah
Last 10 meetings
Santa Clara 2–⁠1
Most recent
1952

The series at a glance

Every meeting by decade, colored by the winner
’0’1’2’3’4’5’6’7’8’9W–L
1930s0–⁠0–⁠1
1940s2–⁠0
1950s0–⁠1
Average margin
9 points; 1 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
At Santa Clara
1–⁠0 Santa Clara’s record at home
At Utah
0–⁠1–⁠1 Utah’s record at home
Neutral sites
0–⁠1 Santa Clara first
Shutouts
1

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

Coach against coach

YearsSanta ClaraSeriesUtah
1939–⁠1942Buck Shaw2–⁠0–⁠1Ike Armstrong

Head-coach pairings with three or more meetings on file, the series read from Santa Clara’s side (Shaw 2–⁠0–⁠1 against Armstrong). A season split between coaches goes to the one credited with the game.

Both programs through the years

End-of-season Elo ratings of Santa Clara and Utah, 1939 on13001500170019401950196019701980

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.

From the newspapers

  • The Imperial Valley press's story of the 1940 game

    1940 · Imperial Valley press, California, Sep 30, 1940

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

Nov 15, 1952Utah 16, Santa Clara 13Neutral site
Sep 26, 1942Santa Clara 12, Utah 0at Utah
Sep 28, 1940Santa Clara 34, Utah 13at Santa Clara
Sep 30, 1939Utah 7, Santa Clara 7at Utah

Every game is listed as played on the field.