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The 1959 season

Syracuse finished No. 1 in the final AP poll, 11–⁠0 under Ben Schwartzwalder, after it beat Texas 23–⁠14 in the Cotton Bowl. Ole Miss also claims the national title. The biggest game by the rankings: No. 1 LSU 7, No. 3 Ole Miss 3 (Oct 31, 1959). 44 ranked teams lost to unranked or lower-ranked opponents.

Heisman Trophy: Billy Cannon, RB, LSU.

The Heisman vote: Billy Cannon 1,929 points, Richie Lucas 613
PlayerPoints1st2nd3rd
Billy Cannon RB, LSU1,92951914778
Richie Lucas QB, Penn State61397109104
Don Meredith QB, SMU286266774
Bill Burrell OG, Illinois196234733
Charlie Flowers FB, Ole Miss193115844
Dean Look RB, Michigan State176234125
Dale Hackbart QB, Wisconsin134192135
Dwight Nichols RB, Iowa State126212513
Monty Stickles E, Notre Dame126162136
Ron Burton RB, Northwestern122102836

First-, second- and third-place votes (3, 2 and 1 points), from the season’s Wikipedia article, as published.

Scoreboards

Final AP poll

1SyracuseIndependent
2Ole MissSoutheastern Conference
3LSUSoutheastern Conference
4TexasSouthwest Conference
5GeorgiaSoutheastern Conference
6WisconsinBig Ten
7TCUSouthwest Conference
8WashingtonAthletic Association of Western Universities
9ArkansasSouthwest Conference
10AlabamaSoutheastern Conference
11ClemsonAtlantic Coast Conference
12Penn StateIndependent
13IllinoisBig Ten
14USCAthletic Association of Western Universities
15OklahomaBig Eight
16WyomingSkyline Conference
17Notre DameIndependent
18MissouriBig Eight
19FloridaSoutheastern Conference
20PittsburghIndependent

Biggest upsets

Sep 26, 1959Tennessee 3, 3Auburn 0
Oct 3, 1959Illinois 20, 4Army 14
Nov 21, 1959UCLA 10, 4USC 3
Oct 17, 1959Ohio State 15, 6Purdue 0
Nov 14, 1959Illinois 9, 7Wisconsin 6
Nov 21, 1959Pittsburgh 22, 7Penn State 7
Nov 28, 1959Notre Dame 16, 7USC 6
Oct 3, 1959Purdue 28, 8Notre Dame 7
Nov 21, 1959Illinois 28, 8Northwestern 0
Oct 17, 1959Wisconsin 25, 9Iowa 16
Oct 31, 1959Duke 10, 9Georgia Tech 7
Nov 14, 195918TCU 14, 2Texas 9

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 1959, week by week1510152025Wk 1Wk 2Wk 3Wk 4Wk 5Wk 6Wk 7Wk 8Wk 9Wk 10Wk 11Wk 12FinalAlabama: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 unranked, Wk 4 unranked, Wk 5 unranked, Wk 6 unranked, Wk 7 unranked, Wk 8 unranked, Wk 9 unranked, Wk 10 No. 17, Wk 11 No. 19, Wk 12 No. 11, Final No. 1010 AlabamaArkansas: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 unranked, Wk 4 No. 19, Wk 5 No. 12, Wk 6 No. 10, Wk 7 No. 17, Wk 8 No. 16, Wk 9 No. 20, Wk 10 No. 13, Wk 11 No. 10, Wk 12 No. 9, Final No. 99 ArkansasWashington: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 unranked, Wk 4 unranked, Wk 5 No. 18, Wk 6 unranked, Wk 7 No. 17, Wk 8 No. 12, Wk 9 No. 13, Wk 10 No. 14, Wk 11 No. 9, Wk 12 No. 8, Final No. 88 WashingtonTCU: Wk 1 No. 13, Wk 2 No. 9, Wk 3 unranked, Wk 4 unranked, Wk 5 unranked, Wk 6 No. 16, Wk 7 No. 15, Wk 8 No. 17, Wk 9 No. 18, Wk 10 No. 10, Wk 11 No. 8, Wk 12 No. 7, Final No. 77 TCUWisconsin: Wk 1 No. 6, Wk 2 No. 8, Wk 3 No. 12, Wk 4 No. 9, Wk 5 unranked, Wk 6 No. 12, Wk 7 No. 10, Wk 8 No. 9, Wk 9 No. 7, Wk 10 No. 9, Wk 11 No. 5, Wk 12 No. 6, Final No. 66 WisconsinGeorgia: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 No. 17, Wk 3 No. 13, Wk 4 unranked, Wk 5 unranked, Wk 6 unranked, Wk 7 No. 14, Wk 8 No. 11, Wk 9 No. 12, Wk 10 No. 6, Wk 11 No. 6, Wk 12 No. 5, Final No. 55 GeorgiaTexas: Wk 1 No. 17, Wk 2 No. 15, Wk 3 No. 10, Wk 4 No. 4, Wk 5 No. 3, Wk 6 No. 3, Wk 7 No. 4, Wk 8 No. 3, Wk 9 No. 2, Wk 10 No. 5, Wk 11 No. 4, Wk 12 No. 4, Final No. 44 TexasLSU: 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, Wk 9 No. 3, Wk 10 No. 3, Wk 11 No. 3, Wk 12 No. 3, Final No. 33 LSUOle Miss: Wk 1 No. 8, Wk 2 No. 4, Wk 3 No. 3, Wk 4 No. 5, Wk 5 No. 5, Wk 6 No. 4, Wk 7 No. 3, Wk 8 No. 5, Wk 9 No. 5, Wk 10 No. 2, Wk 11 No. 2, Wk 12 No. 2, Final No. 22 Ole MissSyracuse: Wk 1 No. 20, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 No. 20, Wk 4 No. 12, Wk 5 No. 8, Wk 6 No. 6, Wk 7 No. 5, Wk 8 No. 4, Wk 9 No. 1, Wk 10 No. 1, Wk 11 No. 1, Wk 12 No. 1, Final No. 11 Syracuse
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. Georgiaunranked → No. 5
  2. SyracuseNo. 20 → No. 1
  3. Washingtonunranked → No. 8
  4. Arkansasunranked → No. 9
  5. Alabamaunranked → No. 10

Fell

  1. AuburnNo. 3 → unranked
  2. SMUNo. 4 → unranked
  3. ArmyNo. 5 → unranked
  4. Ohio StateNo. 7 → unranked
  5. IowaNo. 9 → unranked

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

National leaders

Passing yardsDick Norman (Stanford)1,963 yds
Passing touchdownsCharley Johnson (New Mexico State)18 TD
Passer ratingCharley Johnson (New Mexico State)135.7
Rushing yardsPervis Atkins (New Mexico State)971 yds
Rushing touchdownsPervis Atkins (New Mexico State)13 TD
Yards per carryBilly Brown (New Mexico)7.8
ReceptionsChris Burford (Stanford)61 catches
Receiving yardsChris Burford (Pacific)757 yds
Yards per catchBake Turner (Texas Tech)20.2
Receiving touchdownsPaul Maguire (The Citadel)10 TD
PointsPervis Atkins (New Mexico State)107 pts
Total offenseDick Norman (Stanford)2,018 yds
Punt return yardsPervis Atkins (New Mexico State)241 yds
Punt return averageJacque MacKinnon (Colgate)17.5
Kickoff return yardsDon Perkins (New Mexico)520 yds
Kickoff return averageDon Perkins (New Mexico)34.7

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

Athletic Association of Western Universities
UCLA, USC and Washington (shared)
Atlantic Coast Conference
Clemson
Big Eight
Oklahoma
Big Ten
Wisconsin
Border Conference
Arizona State
Ivy League
Pennsylvania
Mid-American Conference
Bowling Green
Missouri Valley Conference
Houston and North Texas (shared)
Ohio Valley Conference
Middle Tennessee and Tennessee Tech (shared)
Skyline Conference
Wyoming
Southeastern Conference
Georgia
Southern Conference
VMI
Southwest Conference
Arkansas, TCU and Texas (shared)
Yankee Conference
UConn

Small college

Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference
Central Arkansas
California Collegiate Athletic Conference
Fresno State
Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association
North Carolina A&T
Eastern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Norfolk State
Frontier Conference
Northern Arizona
Gulf States Conference
Louisiana Tech
Indiana Collegiate Conference
Butler
Interstate Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Western Illinois
Lone Star Conference
East Texas A&M
Mid Atlantic Conference
Delaware
Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association
Southeast Missouri State
Midwestern Conference
Tennessee State
Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference
Idaho State
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Florida A&M
Southwestern Athletic Conference
Southern

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 9 selectors’ teams

Players picked by enough of the major selectors to count as consensus, shown in bold in Wikipedia’s 1959 All-America article. Every selector’s teams, first to last, are on the 1959 All-America teams page.

The 1959 awards

Every award

Player of the year

By position

Coaches

From the newspapers

The Evening star's story: Cannon Case May End in Court Battle
The bowl1Syracuse 23, 4Texas 141959 Syracuse · 1959 TexasEvening star, District of Columbia, January 2, 1960, page 10
Read the text

Cannon Case May End in Court Battle The established Nationa ! Football League and budding American Football League have come to grips in earnest follow ing yesterdays bowl games in their scramble for top college players. / An announcement that the AFL Houston Oilers had signed All-American Halfback Billy Cannon of Louisiana State touched off an argument with the Los Angeles Rams that could end in a court battle. c. s. (Bud) Adams, Houston owner, said Cannon signed a contract with Adrian Burke, Adams attorney, shortly after LSU’s 2l-0 loss to Mississippi in the Sugar Bowl. But General Manager Pete Rozelle of the Rams said his club had a binding contract with the highly publicized player q. and we intend to enforce it.” Silent on Details Rozelle, currently in New Orleans. would not say If the Rams contract was written OF verbal. Nor would he say wher Cannon, LAS No. / draft choice. signed with that club But there was no doubt thai Rozelle was prepared to so tt the legal no with the Oiler. in the matter. | The San francisco Forty. Miners signed Cannon team. mate. Center Max Fugler, Il a one-year contract after thu game. Assistant Coach Mari Duncan said the NFL clul planned to use the 6-foot-1 l21O-pounder on defense. The Boston American League entry announced the signing of two Syracuse players afte the Oranges 23–⁠14 Cottol Bowl victory over Texas. Bill : Sullivan. Boston oil con1pan, executive who heads the club said he signed GerharC : Schwedes, 187-pound halfback land Bob Yates, 220-pounO tackle. Terms were mot dis , closed. Led Orange Scorers Schwedes, who came to thi l country from Germany 10 year ago. was captain Of the ma tional champion Syrac I eleven and leading scorer wit + 100 points. Sullivan said Yate ‘ as a left-footed field goal kicke e will be tremendous in pr 4 football” $ The AFL also may get j seasoned campaigner from TIL older circuit If Preston Car j penter can obtain a releas S from the Pittsburgh Steeler d Carpenter and Lowe (Junior = Wren were traded from tn Cleveland Browns to Pittsburg It a couple of days ago for Qual d terback Len Dawson and En- Germ Nagler.

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
Dec 19, 195910Clemson 23, 7TCU 7Bluebonnet Bowl
Dec 19, 195914Penn State 7, 11Alabama 0Liberty Bowl
Dec 31, 1959New Mexico State 28, North Texas 8Sun Bowl
Jan 1, 19605Georgia 14, 20Missouri 0Orange Bowl
Jan 1, 19602Ole Miss 21, 3LSU 0Sugar Bowl
Jan 1, 19601Syracuse 23, 4Texas 14Cotton Bowl
Jan 1, 19608Washington 44, 6Wisconsin 8Rose Bowl
Jan 2, 19609Arkansas 14, Georgia Tech 7Gator Bowl