The 1945 season

Army finished No. 1 in the final AP poll, 9–⁠0 under Red Blaik. Oklahoma State also claims the national title. The biggest game by the rankings: No. 1 Army 48, No. 2 Notre Dame 0 (Nov 10, 1945). 26 ranked teams lost to unranked or lower-ranked opponents. Share

Heisman Trophy: Doc Blanchard, FB/LB, Army, who also won the Maxwell.

The Heisman vote: Doc Blanchard 860 points, Glenn Davis 638

Player	Points		1st	2nd	3rd
Doc Blanchard FB, Army	860
Glenn Davis RB, Army	638
Bob Fenimore RB, Oklahoma A&M	187
Herman Wedemeyer RB, St. Mary’s (CA)	152
Harry Gilmer RB, Alabama	132
Frank Dancewicz QB, Notre Dame	56
Warren Amling OG/OT, Ohio State	42
Pete Pihos FB/E, Indiana	38

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 1945 USC teamPhoto: Unidentified (El Rodeo is the University of Southern California yearbook published by University of Southern California), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The 1945 USC season →

Scoreboards

Final AP poll

1	Army	Independent
2	Alabama	Southeastern Conference
3	Navy	Independent
4	Indiana	Western Conference
5	Oklahoma State	Missouri Valley Conference
6	Michigan	Western Conference
7	Saint Mary’s (CA)	Independent
8	Pennsylvania	Independent
9	Notre Dame	Independent
10	Texas	Southwest Conference
11	USC	Pacific Coast Conference
12	Ohio State	Western Conference
13	Duke	Southern Conference
14	Tennessee	Southeastern Conference
15	LSU	Southeastern Conference
16	Holy Cross	Independent
17	Tulsa	Missouri Valley Conference
18	Georgia	Southeastern Conference
19	Wake Forest	Southern Conference
20	Columbia	Independent

Biggest upsets

Oct 27, 1945	Northwestern 26, 4Purdue 14
Nov 17, 1945	UCLA 13, 5Saint Mary’s (CA) 7
Dec 1, 1945	Great Lakes Navy 39, 5Notre Dame 7
Oct 13, 1945	San Diego Navy 33, 6USC 6
Oct 27, 1945	Rice 7, 9Texas 6
Nov 17, 1945	Temple 14, 10Holy Cross 6
Oct 20, 1945	LSU 32, 12Georgia 0
Nov 17, 1945	Michigan State 33, 12Penn State 0
Nov 24, 1945	California 6, 12UCLA 0
Nov 24, 1945	Maryland 19, 13Virginia 13
Jan 1, 1946	Miami 13, 13Holy Cross 6
Nov 3, 1945	TCU 13, 14Oklahoma 7

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 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

Saint Mary’s (CA)No. 19 → No. 7
LSUunranked → No. 15
Oklahoma StateNo. 14 → No. 5
Georgiaunranked → No. 18
Wake Forestunranked → No. 19

Fell

MinnesotaNo. 5 → unranked
PurdueNo. 15 → unranked

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

National leaders

Passing yards	Al Dekdebrun (Cornell)	1,227 yds
Rushing yards	Bob Fenimore (Oklahoma State)	1,048 yds
Rushing touchdowns	Doc Blanchard (Army)	16 TD
Yards per carry	Glenn Davis (Army)	11.5
Receptions	Reid Moseley (Michigan State)	31 catches
Receiving yards	Reid Moseley (Michigan State)	662 yds
Yards per catch	Reid Moseley (Michigan State)	21.4
Points	Doc Blanchard (Army)	115 pts
Total offense	Bob Fenimore (Oklahoma State)	1,641 yds
Total offense per game	Bob Fenimore (Oklahoma State)	205.1
Punt return yards	Jake Leicht (Oregon)	395 yds
Punt return average	Jake Leicht (Oregon)	14.1
Kickoff return yards	Al Dekdebrun	321 yds

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: Missouri
Missouri Valley Conference: Oklahoma State
Pacific Coast Conference: USC
Southeastern Conference: Alabama
Southern Conference: Duke
Southwest Conference: Texas
Western Conference: Indiana

Small college

Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Illinois State
Indiana Intercollegiate Conference: Valparaiso
Louisiana Intercollegiate Conference: Louisiana Tech
Midwestern Conference: Tennessee State
New England Conference: UConn
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

13 playersAll 16 selectors’ teams

Players picked by enough of the major selectors to count as consensus, shown in bold in Wikipedia’s 1945 All-America article. Every selector’s teams, first to last, are on the 1945 All-America teams page.

The 1945 awards

Every award

Player of the year

HeismanDoc Blanchard, FB/LB, Army
MaxwellDoc Blanchard, FB, Army

From the newspapers

The The Waterbury Democrat's story: LESS DEFENSE STRESS LIKELY NEXT CAMP AIGN — The bowl10Texas 40, 14Missouri 271945 Texas · 1945 MissouriThe Waterbury Democrat, January 2, 1946, page 10
Read the text
LESS DEFENSE STRESS LIKELY NEXT CAMP AIGN Renewed emphasis on scoring with less and less attention to dee fense appeared to be in the oftine for l946 football fans today # the results of the New Years Day bowl games can be used as Q measuring stick. Throughout the West and South. land where Q record array of lS games was offered for holiday fans, there was a parade of cleated feet to the goal lines, and 1t appeared to be significant that only two teams among the 26 antagonists failed to score a touchdown. The top team performance was at Pasadena, Cal, where Alabama’S Crimson Tloe engulfed Southern California, 34 10 l4, handing the Trojans their first defeat in nine Rose Bowl appearances. More than 9S,000 fans saw the Pacific Coast eleven go down to defeat. The Tro- janS were able to score only in the fourth period after most of Ala bama’s first Strlngers had been re- moved. LOnghOrns Swamp Mules By far the most individual per- formanee was at Dallas, Tex, where home townel Bobby Layne thrilled 46,O00 Cotton Bowl fans by ace counting for every one of the points the Texas Lon5horns scored in . 40 to 27 victory over Missouri, Layne made four touchdowns, threw two touchdown passes, kicked four out of five extra points that he attempted and completed II out of l2 passes, nine in d row. The most thrilling game was re- served for tho 38,000 Orange Bowl fans at Miami Fla, who saw an- other home town youth, Al. Hud- son, intercept Holy Cross pass in the last 10 seconds and run sS yards for the touchdown that gave Miami University Q 13 to 6 vic- tory. Two all-America backs enlivened the scene at New Orleans in the Sugar Bowl where 7S,O00 fans watched Bob Fenimore and his Oklahoma A. & M. team mates win a B to IS decision over game but outmanned St. Mary’S, led by Hawaiian Herman WedemeyOr. Fen imore made two touchdowns and scored & third himself while Wede- meyer, whose supporting cast wasn’t as powerful foreward passed for one St Mary’s touchdown and lateraled to guard Carl De Salvo for the other
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, 1946	3Alabama 34, 16USC 14Rose Bowl
Jan 1, 1946	Georgia 20, 14Tulsa 6Oil Bowl
Jan 1, 1946	Miami 13, 13Holy Cross 6Orange Bowl
Jan 1, 1946	New Mexico 34, Denver 24Sun Bowl
Jan 1, 1946	6Oklahoma State 33, 9Saint Mary’s (CA) 13Sugar Bowl
Jan 1, 1946	10Texas 40, 14Missouri 27Cotton Bowl
Jan 1, 1946	Wake Forest 26, South Carolina 14Gator Bowl