The 1949 season

Notre Dame finished No. 1 in the final AP poll, 10–⁠0 under Frank Leahy. The biggest game by the rankings: No. 1 Notre Dame 46, No. 4 Tulane 7 (Oct 15, 1949). 31 ranked teams lost to unranked or lower-ranked opponents. Share

Heisman Trophy: Leon Hart, E, Notre Dame, who also won the Maxwell.

The Heisman vote: Leon Hart 995 points, Charlie Justice 272

Player	Points		1st	2nd	3rd
Leon Hart E, Notre Dame	995
Charlie Justice RB, North Carolina	272
Doak Walker RB, SMU	229
Arnold Galiffa QB, Army	196
Bob Williams QB, Notre Dame	189
Eddie LeBaron QB, Pacific (CA)	122
Clayton Tonnemaker C, Minnesota	81
Emil Sitko FB/RB, Notre Dame	79

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.

Scoreboards

Final AP poll

1	Notre Dame	Independent
2	Oklahoma	Big Seven
3	California	Pacific Coast Conference
4	Army	Independent
5	Rice	Southwest Conference
6	Ohio State	Western Conference
7	Michigan	Western Conference
8	Minnesota	Western Conference
9	LSU	Southeastern Conference
10	Pacific
11	Kentucky	Southeastern Conference
12	Cornell	Independent
13	Villanova	Independent
14	Maryland	Southern Conference
15	Santa Clara	Independent
16	North Carolina	Southern Conference
17	Tennessee	Southeastern Conference
18	Princeton	Independent
19	Michigan State	Independent
20	Baylor	Southwest Conference
20	Missouri	Big Seven

Biggest upsets

Oct 22, 1949	LSU 13, 6North Carolina 7
Nov 5, 1949	Texas 20, 6Baylor 0
Nov 12, 1949	Dartmouth 16, 6Cornell 7
Oct 15, 1949	Northwestern 21, 7Michigan 20
Oct 29, 1949	Purdue 13, 7Minnesota 7
Nov 12, 1949	Oregon State 25, 8Michigan State 20
Oct 29, 1949	Pittsburgh 22, 9Pennsylvania 21
Oct 15, 1949	Rice 41, 10SMU 27
Nov 19, 1949	Tennessee 6, 11Kentucky 0
Nov 5, 1949	Stanford 34, 12USC 13
Oct 15, 1949	Santa Clara 14, 13UCLA 0
Oct 22, 1949	Iowa 28, 13Northwestern 21

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

Riceunranked → No. 5
LSUunranked → No. 9
Pacificunranked → No. 10
Marylandunranked → No. 14
Santa Claraunranked → No. 15

Fell

TulaneNo. 4 → unranked
USCNo. 8 → unranked
SMUNo. 9 → unranked
TexasNo. 12 → unranked
DukeNo. 14 → unranked

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

National leaders

Passing yards	Tom O’Malley (Cincinnati)	1,617 yds
Passing touchdowns	Buddy Lex (Wm. & Mary)	18 TD
Passer rating	Bob Williams (Notre Dame)	159.1
Rushing yards	Kayo Dottley (Ole Miss)	1,312 yds
Yards per carry	John Pont (Miami (OH))	7.6
Receptions	Art Weiner (North Carolina)	52 catches
Receiving yards	Vito Ragazzo (William & Mary)	793 yds
Yards per catch	Vito Ragazzo (William & Mary)	18.0
Points	George Thomas (Oklahoma)	117 pts
Total offense	Johnny Bright (Drake)	1,950 yds
Punt return yards	Lee Nalley (Vanderbilt)	498 yds
Punt return average	Gene Evans (Wisconsin)	21.8
Kickoff return yards	Johnny Subda (Nevada)	444 yds
Kickoff return average	Billy Conn (Georgetown)	31.1

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 Seven: Oklahoma
Border Conference: Texas Tech
Mid-American Conference: Cincinnati
Pacific Coast Conference: California
Skyline Conference: Wyoming
Southeastern Conference: Tulane
Southern Conference: North Carolina
Southwest Conference: Rice
Western Conference: Michigan and Ohio State (shared)

Small college

California Collegiate Athletic Conference: San José State
Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association: Morgan State
Dixie Conference: Florida State
Eastern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Norfolk State
Evergreen Conference: Eastern Washington
Gulf States Conference: Louisiana Tech
Interstate Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Western Illinois
Lone Star Conference: East Texas A&M
Midwestern Conference: Tennessee State
Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: St. Thomas (MN)
North Central Conference: Northern Iowa and South Dakota State (shared)
North State Conference: Western Carolina
Northern California Athletic Conference: UC Davis
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Florida A&M
Southwestern Athletic Conference: Southern
Yankee Conference: Maine and UConn (shared)

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 13 selectors’ teams

Players picked by enough of the major selectors to count as consensus, shown in bold in Wikipedia’s 1949 All-America article. Every selector’s teams, first to last, are on the 1949 All-America teams page.

The 1949 awards

Every award

Player of the year

HeismanLeon Hart, E, Notre Dame
MaxwellLeon Hart, E, Notre Dame

By position

OutlandEd Bagdon, OG, Michigan State

From the newspapers

The Minneapolis spokesman's story: SPORTS — The bowl5Ohio State 17, 2California 141949 Ohio State · 1949 CaliforniaMinneapolis spokesman, Minneapolis, Minn., January 6, 1950, page 6
Read the text
SPORTS Mechanics and Marshall are set to resume conference play on the hardwood this week. -. .ShAg Thomas and Roy Hamilton of Ohio State were In the hne-ups as the Buckeyes beat the Bears in the Rose Bowl game 17–⁠14 TO keep the Big Ten superiority over Pa cific Coast football intact. Z. . Len Jones was at tackle for the Gold en- Bears. Entee Shine, sepiR eager from South Bend Central high, was picked by q National Sport Publication for the pre-season all-state team. 80. BIN Garrett, Indlana’s Negro star, has averaged IL points per game In tho nOn-cOnference schedule, ~ Indiana has not dropped . pre-cOnferenCe game. The Sugar Bowl In New Orleans not only bars Bepia players, but spectators a. well. Charles Easter, Negro athlete from Albert Lea. MINI, IL one Of the most sought after boys In the state. -. II seems odd that the Chicago White Sox can’t find q Negro baseball player. with their parks In the middle Of the South Side -. With the large number Of Negro boxers on fight cards thru out the state, why not q Negro member OF the Minnesota Boxing Commission New York, Penn sylvania, Illinois, California have representation already. u. c. L. A. has Gene williams, a colored eager. on their squad this year. . 1t Is no wonder Southern football teams have to bring In Northern talent for foot ball. In that section Of the country. 40 per cent OF the population are Negros. who are automatically barred from participation. -. I undeFStand the Chicago Bears have had some CORES pondence with Earl Bowman. Herschell Garrett and LOuie Zachary, homo from North Gar OllnA. say that they will try some Minnesota College next fAll. ;. Jim Lee, popular sports official win call one Of Ham. lines games this month. Leo Durocher Of the New York Giants. plans to use Max Thompson at third base this coming season. -Four years ago this spring Jackie Robinson was going forth with the Montreal Royals to be the first Negro In organized base bah. Today. Jackie u synonymous with baseball. II anyone reading this column has any questions to ask about sports. send them to this paper or contact me at 6S7 Rondo Ave-, EL.khurst A7s7. and I win Try TO answer them.
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 2, 1950	15Maryland 20, Missouri 7Gator Bowl
Jan 2, 1950	5Ohio State 17, 2California 14Rose Bowl
Jan 2, 1950	3Oklahoma 35, 13LSU 0Sugar Bowl
Jan 2, 1950	7Rice 27, 19North Carolina 13Cotton Bowl
Jan 2, 1950	14Santa Clara 21, 20Kentucky 13Orange Bowl
Jan 2, 1950	UTEP 33, Georgetown 20Sun Bowl