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The 1961 season

Alabama finished No. 1 in the final AP poll, 11–⁠0 under Bear Bryant, after it beat Arkansas 10–⁠3 in the Sugar Bowl. Ohio State also claims the national title. The biggest game by the rankings: No. 3 LSU 25, No. 6 Colorado 7 (Jan 1, 1962). One ranked team lost to unranked or lower-ranked opponents.

Heisman Trophy: Ernie Davis, RB/FB/LB, Syracuse.

The Heisman vote: Ernie Davis 824 points, Bob Ferguson 771
PlayerPoints1st2nd3rd
Ernie Davis RB, Syracuse82417910381
Bob Ferguson FB, Ohio State77112215693
Jimmy Saxton RB, Texas5518110598
Sandy Stephens QB, Minnesota543 *1047868
Pat Trammell QB, Alabama362764544
Joe Romig OG, Colorado279554034
John Hadl QB, Kansas172332523
Gary Collins E, Maryland167283121
Roman Gabriel QB, NC State155232732
Merlin Olsen DT, Utah State93131916

First-, second- and third-place votes (3, 2 and 1 points), from the season’s Wikipedia article, as published. * The votes shown don’t add up to the points shown; the source has a typo in one of them.

The 1961 LSU team
The 1961 LSU team: Official team portrait from 1962 GumboPhoto: not named, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The 1961 LSU season →

Scoreboards

Final AP poll

1AlabamaSoutheastern Conference
2Ohio StateBig Ten
3TexasSouthwest Conference
4LSUSoutheastern Conference
5Ole MissSoutheastern Conference
6MinnesotaBig Ten
7ColoradoBig Eight
8Michigan StateBig Ten
9ArkansasSouthwest Conference
10Utah StateSkyline Conference
11MissouriBig Eight
12PurdueBig Ten
13Georgia TechSoutheastern Conference
14SyracuseIndependent
15RutgersMiddle Atlantic University Conference
16UCLAAthletic Association of Western Universities
17ArizonaIndependent
17Penn StateIndependent
17RiceSouthwest Conference
20DukeAtlantic Coast Conference

Biggest upsets

Nov 25, 1961Missouri 10, 8Kansas 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 1961, week by week1510152025Wk 1Wk 2Wk 3Wk 4Wk 5Wk 6Wk 7Wk 8Wk 9Wk 10Wk 11FinalUtah State: 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 unranked, Wk 11 unranked, Final No. 1010 Utah StateArkansas: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 unranked, Wk 4 unranked, Wk 5 No. 10, Wk 6 unranked, Wk 7 unranked, Wk 8 unranked, Wk 9 unranked, Wk 10 No. 9, Wk 11 No. 9, Final No. 99 ArkansasMichigan State: Wk 1 No. 6, Wk 2 No. 10, Wk 3 No. 6, Wk 4 No. 5, Wk 5 No. 1, Wk 6 No. 1, Wk 7 No. 1, Wk 8 No. 6, Wk 9 No. 9, Wk 10 No. 8, Wk 11 No. 8, Final No. 88 Michigan StateColorado: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 unranked, Wk 4 unranked, Wk 5 No. 9, Wk 6 No. 10, Wk 7 No. 8, Wk 8 No. 8, Wk 9 No. 8, Wk 10 No. 7, Wk 11 No. 6, Final No. 77 ColoradoMinnesota: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 unranked, Wk 4 unranked, Wk 5 unranked, Wk 6 unranked, Wk 7 unranked, Wk 8 No. 5, Wk 9 No. 5, Wk 10 No. 3, Wk 11 No. 7, Final No. 66 MinnesotaOle Miss: Wk 1 No. 9, Wk 2 No. 2, Wk 3 No. 2, Wk 4 No. 1, Wk 5 No. 2, Wk 6 No. 2, Wk 7 No. 2, Wk 8 No. 7, Wk 9 No. 6, Wk 10 No. 6, Wk 11 No. 5, Final No. 55 Ole MissLSU: Wk 1 No. 5, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 unranked, Wk 4 unranked, Wk 5 No. 10, Wk 6 No. 7, Wk 7 No. 6, Wk 8 No. 4, Wk 9 No. 4, Wk 10 No. 4, Wk 11 No. 3, Final No. 44 LSUTexas: Wk 1 No. 4, Wk 2 No. 6, Wk 3 No. 5, Wk 4 No. 4, Wk 5 No. 3, Wk 6 No. 3, Wk 7 No. 3, Wk 8 No. 1, Wk 9 No. 1, Wk 10 No. 5, Wk 11 No. 4, Final No. 33 TexasOhio State: Wk 1 No. 2, Wk 2 No. 3, Wk 3 No. 8, Wk 4 No. 7, Wk 5 No. 7, Wk 6 No. 6, Wk 7 No. 5, Wk 8 No. 3, Wk 9 No. 3, Wk 10 No. 2, Wk 11 No. 2, Final No. 22 Ohio StateAlabama: Wk 1 No. 3, Wk 2 No. 4, Wk 3 No. 4, Wk 4 No. 3, Wk 5 No. 5, Wk 6 No. 4, Wk 7 No. 4, Wk 8 No. 2, Wk 9 No. 2, Wk 10 No. 1, Wk 11 No. 1, Final No. 11 Alabama
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. 6
  2. Coloradounranked → No. 7
  3. Arkansasunranked → No. 9
  4. Utah Stateunranked → No. 10
  5. Missouriunranked → No. 11

Fell

  1. IowaNo. 1 → unranked
  2. KansasNo. 8 → unranked
  3. Penn StateNo. 7 → No. 17

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

National leaders

Passing yardsRon Miller (Wisconsin)1,487 yds
Passing touchdownsChon Gallegos (San José State)14 TD
Passer ratingRon DiGravio (Purdue)140.1
Rushing yardsPreacher Pilot (New Mexico State)1,278 yds
Rushing touchdownsPete Pedro (West Texas State)21 TD
Yards per carryJimmy Saxton (Texas)7.9
ReceptionsHugh Campbell (Washington State)53 catches
Receiving yardsPat Richter (Wisconsin)817 yds
Yards per catchJim Stewart 21.7
Receiving touchdownsLarry Vargo 8 TD
PointsPreacher Pilot (New Mexico State)138 pts
Points per gamePreacher Pilot (New Mexico State)13.80
Total offenseDave Hoppman (Iowa State)1,638 yds
Total offense per gameDave Hoppman (Iowa State)163.8
Punt return yardsLance Alworth (Arkansas)336 yds
Punt return averageTom Larscheid (Utah State)23.4
Kickoff return yardsDick Mooney (Idaho)494 yds
Kickoff return averagePaul Allen (BYU)40.1

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

Athletic Association of Western Universities
UCLA
Atlantic Coast Conference
Duke
Big Eight
Colorado
Big Ten
Ohio State
Border Conference
Arizona State
Ivy League
Columbia and Harvard (shared)
Mid-American Conference
Bowling Green
Skyline Conference
Utah State and Wyoming (shared)
Southeastern Conference
Alabama and LSU (shared)
Southern Conference
The Citadel
Southwest Conference
Arkansas and Texas (shared)

Small college

California Collegiate Athletic Conference
Fresno State
Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association
North Carolina Central
Frontier Conference
Northern Arizona
Gulf States Conference
SE Louisiana
Indiana Collegiate Conference
Butler
Interstate Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Southern Illinois
Lone Star Conference
Sam Houston
Midwestern Conference
Tennessee State
North Central Conference
Northern Iowa and South Dakota State (shared)
Ohio Valley Conference
Tennessee Tech
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Florida A&M
Southwestern Athletic Conference
Jackson State
Yankee Conference
Maine

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 1961 All-America article. Every selector’s teams, first to last, are on the 1961 All-America teams page.

The 1961 awards

Every award

Player of the year

By position

Coaches

From the newspapers

The Evening star's story: COTTON BOWL UPSET Ole Miss AerioIs Halted by Texas
The bowl4Texas 12, 5Ole Miss 71961 Texas · 1961 Ole MissEvening star, January 2, 1962, page 13
Read the text

COTTON BOWL UPSET Ole Miss AerioIs Halted by Texas thought II the two teams met in a series one would win as many games as the other. Coach Johnny Vaught of Mississippi, possessor of a fabulous bowl record-six victories in eight-said the interruptions killed the Rebels, particularly one that came just before the half and stopped what appeared to be a determined Mississippi touchdown drive. Texas got the breaks and Texas made some Of them, but it was the work of that underrated but brawling Longhorn line that crippled Misissippi’s ground attack. And players such as Tommy Ford, Pat Culpepper and Jerry Cook, who in tercepted three passes, brought a bushel of thrills to a roaring crowd of 75,504. The Longhorns tried to score the first time they had the ball-getting it on a Mississippi tumble but Eldon Moritz missed a field goal attempt from the Mississippi 40. SaxtOn Gets Touchdown But later in the same period Ford intercepted one of Glynn Griffing’s passes to set up the first Texas touchdown. The clever Gotten, picking flaws in the Mississippi defense, sent two erstwhile defensive play ers. Culpepper and David Rus sell, and Ray Poage, the in jured fullback who got we’ll just in time. smashing and slashing down to the 1-yard line. Then Jim Saxton, the 160pound All-America, dart ed through a tiny hole in the line for the score. But Texas didn’t have to use break for its second and win ming touchdown in the second period. 1t just slammed 72 yards with Cotten’s passing and running leading the Long horns to glory. Gotten threw to Jack Collins for the touch down on a play covering “a yards. One placement kick try for the extra point was blocked, and a running attempt for a 2-point conversion failed. That left Texas with a 1910 half time lead, and Mississippi was in position to win if it could score twice and convert even once. Griffing Passes for Score Then Texas had to fight off the blistering Mississippi aerial attack the rest of the way yielding one touchdown to it but stopping other dangerous threats with a defense that bloomed when the time was ripe. Griffing, who passed for 163 yards but had three passes in tercepted, pitched for 81 yards and ran for another 81 ir spearing the 86-yard third period surge climaxed with a 20-yard throw to Reed Davis in the Texas end zone. . The partisan crowd almost had a series of heart attacks when the massive Rebels roareo to the Texas % with minutes to 60. But out of the pack came Bob Moses, the magnifiicent Texas wingman, to fell Griffing on the “a as the Rebe. quarterback tried desperately on fourth down for the two yards that would have giver Mississippi life. That was the ball game. II meant the Southwest Confer ence had won a Cotton Bow, game for the first time in five years. Saxton was picked as the outstanding back and Moses the top lineman by sports writers covering the game between the Nations No. 3 and No. 5 teams Sub Fullbacks Hurt Mississippi entered the game with its ground attack severely hampered through loss of Billy Ray Adams, its fine fullback to accident injuries. Buck Ran. dali, a sophomore, started ir Adams place but was knocked out in the second period Vaught said this made him rely on his halfbacks and pass ing, virtually killing his ground game. Each school will get a check for about $175,000 and each has to divVy up with its owr conference. But Texas will come up with about $4,000 and Mis-. sissippi about $4,000. M&H1sRsnIsss1pP1 &HRns - 9 Z g! |

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 9, 1961Baylor 24, Utah State 9Gotham Bowl
Dec 9, 1961New Mexico 28, Western Michigan 12Aviation Bowl
Dec 16, 1961Kansas 33, Rice 7Bluebonnet Bowl
Dec 16, 1961Syracuse 15, Miami 14Liberty Bowl
Dec 30, 1961Penn State 30, Georgia Tech 15Gator Bowl
Dec 30, 1961Villanova 17, Wichita State 9Sun Bowl
Jan 1, 19621Alabama 10, 9Arkansas 3Sugar Bowl
Jan 1, 19623LSU 25, 6Colorado 7Orange Bowl
Jan 1, 19627Minnesota 21, UCLA 3Rose Bowl
Jan 1, 19624Texas 12, 5Ole Miss 7Cotton Bowl