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The 1943 season

Notre Dame finished No. 1 in the final AP poll, 9–⁠1 under Frank Leahy. The biggest game by the rankings: No. 1 Notre Dame 35, No. 2 Michigan 12 (Oct 9, 1943). 12 ranked teams lost to unranked or lower-ranked opponents.

Heisman Trophy: Angelo Bertelli, QB, Notre Dame.

The Heisman vote: Angelo Bertelli 648 points, Bob Odell 177
PlayerPoints1st2nd3rd
Angelo Bertelli QB, Notre Dame648
Bob Odell RB, Penn177
Otto Graham RB, Northwestern140
Creighton Miller RB, Notre Dame134
Eddie Prokop RB, Georgia Tech85
Hal Hamburg RB, Navy73
Bill Daley FB, Michigan71
Tony Butkovich FB, Purdue65
Jim White OT, Notre Dame52

First-, second- and third-place votes (3, 2 and 1 points), from the season’s Wikipedia article, as published. Two finishers show identical ballots in the source, which is likely a copying error there.

The 1943 Michigan team
The 1943 Michigan teamPhoto: Photographer not named, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The 1943 Michigan season →

Scoreboards

Final AP poll

1Notre DameIndependent
2Iowa Pre-FlightIndependent
3MichiganWestern Conference
4NavyIndependent
5PurdueWestern Conference
6Great Lakes NavyIndependent
7DukeSouthern Conference
8Del Monte Pre-FlightIndependent
9NorthwesternWestern Conference
10March FieldIndependent
11ArmyIndependent
12WashingtonPacific Coast Conference
13Georgia TechSoutheastern Conference
14TexasSouthwest Conference
15TulsaMissouri Valley Conference
16DartmouthIndependent
17Bainbridge NTS
18Colorado CollegeIndependent
19PacificIndependent
20PennsylvaniaIndependent

Biggest upsets

Nov 27, 1943Great Lakes Navy 19, 1Notre Dame 14
Nov 6, 1943San Diego Navy 10, 4USC 7
Nov 13, 1943North Carolina 9, 10Pennsylvania 6
Jan 1, 1944USC 29, 11Washington 0
Oct 16, 1943Northwestern 13, 14Great Lakes Navy 0
Oct 23, 1943Washington 27, 14March Field 7
Jan 1, 1944LSU 19, 16Texas A&M 14
Oct 9, 1943Texas A&M 28, 17LSU 13
Nov 6, 1943Georgia Tech 42, 20LSU 7
Nov 13, 194315March Field 35, 9USC 0
Nov 6, 19437Navy 24, 5Pennsylvania 7
Oct 23, 19437USC 6, 6Pacific 0

Ranked teams that lost as the betting favorite, the longest shots first, with the winner’s odds on the line; before lines are on file, ranked teams beaten by unranked or lower-ranked ones.

The AP poll, week by week

The AP poll’s top 10 in 1943, week by week1510152025Wk 1Wk 2Wk 3Wk 4Wk 5Wk 6Wk 7Wk 8FinalMarch Field: Wk 1 No. 16, Wk 2 No. 12, Wk 3 No. 14, Wk 4 unranked, Wk 5 unranked, Wk 6 No. 15, Wk 7 No. 8, Wk 8 No. 9, Final No. 1010 March FieldNorthwestern: Wk 1 No. 19, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 No. 17, Wk 4 No. 15, Wk 5 No. 12, Wk 6 No. 8, Wk 7 No. 9, Wk 8 No. 8, Final No. 99 NorthwesternDel Monte Pre-Flight: Wk 1 No. 15, Wk 2 No. 11, Wk 3 No. 15, Wk 4 No. 17, Wk 5 No. 14, Wk 6 No. 13, Wk 7 No. 14, Wk 8 No. 10, Final No. 88 Del Monte Pre-FlightDuke: Wk 1 No. 5, Wk 2 No. 6, Wk 3 No. 9, Wk 4 No. 8, Wk 5 No. 9, Wk 6 No. 7, Wk 7 No. 6, Wk 8 No. 5, Final No. 77 DukeGreat Lakes Navy: Wk 1 No. 12, Wk 2 No. 14, Wk 3 unranked, Wk 4 No. 18, Wk 5 unranked, Wk 6 unranked, Wk 7 unranked, Wk 8 unranked, Final No. 66 Great Lakes NavyPurdue: Wk 1 No. 7, Wk 2 No. 5, Wk 3 No. 4, Wk 4 No. 4, Wk 5 No. 2, Wk 6 No. 2, Wk 7 No. 3, Wk 8 No. 4, Final No. 55 PurdueNavy: Wk 1 No. 4, Wk 2 No. 3, Wk 3 No. 3, Wk 4 No. 3, Wk 5 No. 7, Wk 6 No. 3, Wk 7 No. 5, Wk 8 No. 6, Final No. 44 NavyMichigan: Wk 1 No. 2, Wk 2 No. 9, Wk 3 No. 10, Wk 4 No. 7, Wk 5 No. 6, Wk 6 No. 4, Wk 7 No. 4, Wk 8 No. 3, Final No. 33 MichiganIowa Pre-Flight: Wk 1 No. 8, Wk 2 No. 7, Wk 3 No. 8, Wk 4 No. 9, Wk 5 No. 8, Wk 6 No. 5, Wk 7 No. 2, Wk 8 No. 2, Final No. 22 Iowa Pre-FlightNotre Dame: Wk 1 No. 1, Wk 2 No. 1, Wk 3 No. 1, Wk 4 No. 1, Wk 5 No. 1, Wk 6 No. 1, Wk 7 No. 1, Wk 8 No. 1, Final No. 11 Notre Dame
The top 10 of the final AP poll and where each stood every week before it; a gap is a week out of the Top 25. Hover or tab to a line for its weeks.

Climbed

  1. Washingtonunranked → No. 12
  2. Georgia Techunranked → No. 13
  3. Texasunranked → No. 14
  4. Tulsaunranked → No. 15
  5. NorthwesternNo. 19 → No. 9

Fell

  1. MinnesotaNo. 9 → unranked
  2. USCNo. 10 → unranked
  3. Southwestern UNo. 11 → unranked
  4. PennsylvaniaNo. 6 → No. 20
  5. Memphis NavyNo. 13 → unranked

From the season’s first AP poll (the preseason poll) to the final one.

National leaders

Passing yardsR. Hoernschemeyer (Indiana)1,133 yds
Rushing yardsCreighton Miller (Notre Dame)911 yds
Yards per carryBill Daley (Michigan)6.8
ReceptionsNeill Armstrong (Oklahoma State)39 catches
Receiving yardsMarion Flanagan (Texas A&M)403 yds
Yards per catchMarion Flanagan (VMI)17.5
PointsSteve Van Buren (LSU)98 pts
Total offenseR. Hoernschemeyer (Indiana)1,648 yds
Punt return yardsMarion Flanagan (Texas A&M)475 yds
Punt return averageOtto Graham (Northwestern)18.4
Kickoff return yardsPaul Copoulos (Marquette)384 yds
Kickoff return averagePaul Copoulos (Marquette)34.9

The NCAA’s official leaders. From Wikipedia’s yearly NCAA leader lists for passing, rushing, receiving, scoring, total offense and returns.

Conference champions

Major college

Big Six
Oklahoma
Missouri Valley Conference
Tulsa
Pacific Coast Conference
USC
Skyline Conference
Colorado
Southeastern Conference
Georgia Tech
Southern Conference
Duke
Southwest Conference
Texas
Western Conference
Michigan and Purdue (shared)

Small college

Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association
Morgan State
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Florida A&M

From each program’s Wikipedia article, with the conference’s name that season. Titles come from the articles of today’s FBS and FCS programs, so a title shared with a school outside them lists only one champion.

Consensus All-Americans

11 playersAll 11 selectors’ teams

Players picked by enough of the major selectors to count as consensus, shown in bold in Wikipedia’s 1943 All-America article. Every selector’s teams, first to last, are on the 1943 All-America teams page.

The 1943 awards

Every award

Player of the year

From the newspapers

The The Wilmington morning star's story of the game
The bowl12Texas 7, 18Randolph Field 71943 Texas · 1943 Randolph FieldThe Wilmington morning star, Wilmington, N.C., January 3, 1944, page 3
Read the text

NEW YORK, Jan. O. - (P – Football followers had as big a headache today trying to figure out the Bowl results as they had the day before while trying to explain their own flowing Bowl escapades of New Years Eve. Southern California, to 2 underdog, blasted the University Of Washington, 20 to 0; Texas, 2 to l choice, could do no better than a 7 to 7 tie with Randolph Field; and Louisiana State upset Texas A & M, 10 to IA, after losing to the Cadets in the regular season. Those games were the features of the Rose, Cotton and Orange Bowls, respectively. In addition there were Georgia Techs hard pressed victory over Tulsa, 20 to 10, in the Sugar Bowl Southwest Texas last period 7 to 0 conquest of New Mexico in the Sun Bowl and the East’s Is to 10 tie of the West in the annual Shrine Game at San Francisco. Prior to the games, Tech. South western and the West were easy favorites. Virtually the only game that went according to the betting books was Southwestern Louisiana’s “a to 7 job on the Arkansas A & M outfit in the Oil Bowl. While the name players of the various teams lived up to their advance billing at least three Steve Van Buren, of LSU, Glen Dobbs of Randolph and Alvin Dark of Southwestern Louisiana-added to their luster and Tulsa produced new star in the spindle-legged Jimmy Ford. Van Buren,. the 200-pound NOV

Public domain, from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through American Stories (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The text is the machine reading of the page, mistakes and all.

Bowls and playoff

Scoreboard
Jan 1, 194414Georgia Tech 20, 20Tulsa 18Sugar Bowl
Jan 1, 1944LSU 19, 16Texas A&M 14Orange Bowl
Jan 1, 1944USC 29, 11Washington 0Rose Bowl