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The 1960 season

Minnesota finished No. 1 in the final AP poll, 8–⁠2 under Murray Warmath, then lost to Washington 17–⁠7 in the Rose Bowl; the poll came out before the bowls. Iowa, Missouri, Ole Miss and Washington also claim the national title. The biggest game by the rankings: No. 3 Minnesota 27, No. 1 Iowa 10 (Nov 5, 1960). 41 ranked teams lost to unranked or lower-ranked opponents.

Heisman Trophy: Joe Bellino, RB, Navy, who also won the Maxwell.

The Heisman vote: Joe Bellino 1,793 points, Tom Brown 731
PlayerPoints1st2nd3rd
Joe Bellino RB, Navy1,79343619693
Tom Brown OG, Minnesota731127121108
Jake Gibbs QB, Ole Miss453747777
Ed Dyas FB, Auburn319466355
Billy Kilmer RB, UCLA280554231
Mike Ditka E, Pittsburgh223175268
Tom Matte QB, Ohio State165174230
Dan LaRose E, Missouri136162832
Pervis Atkins RB, New Mexico State124251813
E.J. Holub C, Texas Tech117142329

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

Scoreboards

Final AP poll

1MinnesotaBig Ten
2Ole MissSoutheastern Conference
3IowaBig Ten
4NavyIndependent
5MissouriBig Eight
6WashingtonAthletic Association of Western Universities
7ArkansasSouthwest Conference
8Ohio StateBig Ten
9AlabamaSoutheastern Conference
10DukeAtlantic Coast Conference
11KansasBig Eight
12BaylorSouthwest Conference
13AuburnSoutheastern Conference
14YaleIvy League
15Michigan StateBig Ten
16Penn StateIndependent
17New Mexico StateBorder Conference
18FloridaSoutheastern Conference
19PurdueBig Ten
19SyracuseIndependent

Biggest upsets

Nov 12, 1960Purdue 23, 1Minnesota 14
Nov 19, 1960Kansas 23, 1Missouri 7
Oct 15, 1960Purdue 24, 3Ohio State 21
Oct 29, 1960Pittsburgh 10, 3Syracuse 0
Sep 17, 1960Nebraska 14, 4Texas 13
Sep 16, 1960Oregon State 14, 6USC 0
Nov 19, 1960North Carolina 7, 6Duke 6
Sep 17, 1960UCLA 8, 7Pittsburgh 7
Oct 8, 1960Wisconsin 24, 7Purdue 13
Oct 29, 1960TCU 14, 7Baylor 6
Oct 15, 1960Maryland 19, 8Clemson 17
Nov 5, 1960Georgia Tech 14, 8Tennessee 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 AP poll’s top 10 in 1960, week by week1510152025Wk 1Wk 2Wk 3Wk 4Wk 5Wk 6Wk 7Wk 8Wk 9Wk 10Wk 11FinalDuke: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 unranked, Wk 4 unranked, Wk 5 unranked, Wk 6 unranked, Wk 7 No. 15, Wk 8 No. 13, Wk 9 No. 7, Wk 10 No. 6, Wk 11 No. 11, Final No. 1010 DukeAlabama: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 No. 5, Wk 3 No. 15, Wk 4 No. 17, Wk 5 No. 15, Wk 6 unranked, Wk 7 unranked, Wk 8 unranked, Wk 9 unranked, Wk 10 No. 18, Wk 11 No. 17, Final No. 99 AlabamaOhio State: Wk 1 No. 16, Wk 2 No. 20, Wk 3 No. 9, Wk 4 No. 5, Wk 5 No. 3, Wk 6 No. 9, Wk 7 No. 8, Wk 8 No. 5, Wk 9 No. 3, Wk 10 No. 10, Wk 11 No. 9, Final No. 88 Ohio StateArkansas: Wk 1 No. 19, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 No. 14, Wk 4 No. 9, Wk 5 unranked, Wk 6 No. 14, Wk 7 No. 12, Wk 8 No. 16, Wk 9 No. 9, Wk 10 No. 7, Wk 11 No. 6, Final No. 77 ArkansasWashington: Wk 1 No. 3, Wk 2 No. 3, Wk 3 No. 3, Wk 4 No. 12, Wk 5 No. 13, Wk 6 No. 8, Wk 7 No. 9, Wk 8 No. 7, Wk 9 No. 6, Wk 10 No. 5, Wk 11 No. 4, Final No. 66 WashingtonMissouri: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 No. 16, Wk 3 No. 19, Wk 4 No. 11, Wk 5 No. 6, Wk 6 No. 5, Wk 7 No. 5, Wk 8 No. 2, Wk 9 No. 2, Wk 10 No. 1, Wk 11 No. 5, Final No. 55 MissouriNavy: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 No. 17, Wk 4 No. 6, Wk 5 No. 5, Wk 6 No. 4, Wk 7 No. 4, Wk 8 No. 4, Wk 9 No. 8, Wk 10 No. 8, Wk 11 No. 7, Final No. 44 NavyIowa: Wk 1 No. 15, Wk 2 No. 19, Wk 3 No. 8, Wk 4 No. 3, Wk 5 No. 2, Wk 6 No. 1, Wk 7 No. 1, Wk 8 No. 1, Wk 9 No. 5, Wk 10 No. 2, Wk 11 No. 2, Final No. 33 IowaOle Miss: Wk 1 No. 2, Wk 2 No. 1, Wk 3 No. 1, Wk 4 No. 2, Wk 5 No. 1, Wk 6 No. 2, Wk 7 No. 2, Wk 8 No. 6, Wk 9 No. 4, Wk 10 No. 3, Wk 11 No. 3, Final No. 22 Ole MissMinnesota: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 No. 18, Wk 4 No. 14, Wk 5 No. 10, Wk 6 No. 6, Wk 7 No. 6, Wk 8 No. 3, Wk 9 No. 1, Wk 10 No. 4, Wk 11 No. 1, Final No. 11 Minnesota
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. Minnesotaunranked → No. 1
  2. Navyunranked → No. 4
  3. Missouriunranked → No. 5
  4. Alabamaunranked → No. 9
  5. Dukeunranked → No. 10

Fell

  1. TexasNo. 4 → unranked
  2. IllinoisNo. 5 → unranked
  3. USCNo. 6 → unranked
  4. PittsburghNo. 7 → unranked
  5. SyracuseNo. 1 → No. 19

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

National leaders

Passing yardsNorm Snead (Wake Forest)1,676 yds
Passing touchdownsCharley Johnson (Memphis)13 TD
Passer ratingEddie Wilson (Arizona)140.8
Rushing yardsBob Gaiters (New Mexico State)1,338 yds
Rushing touchdownsBob Gaiters (New Mexico State)23 TD
Yards per carryTom Larscheid (Utah State)8.4
ReceptionsHugh Campbell (Washington State)66 catches
Receiving yardsHugh Campbell (Washington State)881 yds
Yards per catchChuck Bryant (Ohio State)19.8
Receiving touchdownsHugh Campbell (Washington State)10 TD
PointsBob Gaiters (New Mexico State)145 pts
Points per gameBob Gaiters (New Mexico State)14.50
Total offenseBilly Kilmer (UCLA)1,889 yds
Total offense per gameBilly Kilmer (UCLA)188.9
Punt return yardsLance Alworth (Arkansas)307 yds
Punt return averagePat Fischer (Nebraska)21.2
Kickoff return yardsBruce Samples (BYU)577 yds
Kickoff return averageTom Hennessey (Holy Cross)33.4

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
Washington
Atlantic Coast Conference
Duke
Big Eight
Missouri
Big Ten
Iowa and Minnesota (shared)
Border Conference
New Mexico State
Ivy League
Yale
Mid-American Conference
Ohio
Skyline Conference
Utah State and Wyoming (shared)
Southeastern Conference
Ole Miss
Southern Conference
VMI
Southwest Conference
Arkansas
Yankee Conference
Massachusetts and UConn (shared)

Small college

California Collegiate Athletic Conference
Fresno State
Frontier Conference
Northern Arizona
Gulf States Conference
Louisiana Tech and SE Louisiana (shared)
Indiana Collegiate Conference
Butler
Interstate Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Southern Illinois
Midwestern Conference
Tennessee State
North Central Conference
Northern Iowa
Ohio Valley Conference
Tennessee Tech
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Florida A&M
Southwestern Athletic Conference
Grambling, Prairie View A&M and Southern (shared)
Volunteer State Athletic Conference
UT Martin

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 1960 All-America article. Every selector’s teams, first to last, are on the 1960 All-America teams page.

The 1960 awards

Every award

Player of the year

By position

Coaches

From the newspapers

The Evening star's story: Tigers Cage Be|Iino, but LoRose Labels Him Genuine AII-Americo
The bowl5Missouri 21, 7Navy 141960 Missouri · 1960 NavyEvening star, District of Columbia, January 3, 1961, page 12
Read the text

Tigers Cage Be|Iino, but LoRose Labels Him Genuine AII-Americo guessing over Bellino’s fair catch Of a Missouri punt late in the game with Navy trailing, 21–⁠14. 1t looked like Joe had running room. Coach Wayne Hardin said. and many of the fans expected lin to try cne of his fancy returns. 1T was a judgment play” Bellino said. IF let the ball roll, it might’ve taken a bad bounce. AS for trying to run, it looked like they were coming at me pretty good” y && Bellino says he will go into the Marine Corps or the sub marine service, and LaRose is having trouble making up his mind. too. He’ll go either with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League or the Boston Patriots of the rival American League, both OF which drafted him. II won’t make up my mind for a while yet,” LaRose says Both of them are pretty close in what they’re offering, and there are a lot of things you have to consider” II u u ~ halftime pageant was fantastic. 1t had a Roman holiday motif, complete with horse drawn chariots, trumpet .ers, smartly dressed soldiers in blazing red and white, spear bearers, etc. And just for realism, live lions brought in on Gagged floats. 1t was so good that someone said that the only way they’ll be able to top it next year will be to let the lions loose. FUCHS.

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 17, 196015Penn State 41, Oregon 12Liberty Bowl
Dec 17, 1960Texas 3, 17Alabama 3Bluebonnet Bowl
Dec 31, 196019Florida 13, 19Baylor 12Gator Bowl
Dec 31, 196015New Mexico State 20, Utah State 13Sun Bowl
Jan 2, 196111Duke 7, 6Arkansas 6Cotton Bowl
Jan 2, 19613Ole Miss 14, 12Rice 6Sugar Bowl
Jan 2, 19615Missouri 21, 7Navy 14Orange Bowl
Jan 2, 19614Washington 17, 1Minnesota 7Rose Bowl