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The 1963 season

Texas finished No. 1 in the final AP poll, 11–⁠0 under Darrell Royal, after it beat Navy 28–⁠6 in the Cotton Bowl. The biggest game by the rankings: No. 2 Texas 28, No. 1 Oklahoma 7 (Oct 12, 1963). 24 ranked teams lost to unranked or lower-ranked opponents.

Heisman Trophy: Roger Staubach, QB, Navy, who also won the Maxwell.

The Heisman vote: Roger Staubach 1,860 points, Billy Lothridge 504
PlayerPoints1st2nd3rd
Roger Staubach QB, Navy1,86051713245
Billy Lothridge QB, Georgia Tech5046511971
Sherman Lewis RB, Michigan State369538050
Don Trull QB, Baylor253206857
Scott Appleton OT, Texas194273347
Dick Butkus C, Illinois172104944
Jimmy Sidle QB, Auburn123112834
Terry Isaacson RB, Air Force104172013
Jay Wilkinson RB, Duke8432035
George Mira QB, Miami (FL)8061630

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

The 1963 Ole Miss team
The 1963 Ole Miss teamPhoto: Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The 1963 Ole Miss season →

Scoreboards

Final AP poll

1TexasSouthwest Conference
2NavyIndependent
3IllinoisBig Ten
4PittsburghIndependent
5AuburnSoutheastern Conference
6NebraskaBig Eight
7Ole MissSoutheastern Conference
8AlabamaSoutheastern Conference
9Michigan StateBig Ten
10OklahomaBig Eight

Biggest upsets

Oct 26, 1963Ohio State 13, 2Wisconsin 10
Nov 9, 1963Michigan 14, 2Illinois 8
Oct 12, 1963Florida 10, 3Alabama 6
Oct 5, 1963Illinois 10, 4Northwestern 9
Oct 11, 1963SMU 32, 4Navy 28
Oct 19, 1963USC 32, 4Ohio State 3
Nov 9, 1963Mississippi State 13, 5Auburn 10
Oct 5, 1963LSU 7, 7Georgia Tech 6
Oct 12, 1963Notre Dame 17, 7USC 14
Sep 28, 1963Missouri 7, 8Arkansas 6
Oct 19, 1963Auburn 29, 8Georgia Tech 21
Nov 2, 1963Michigan State 30, 8Wisconsin 13

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 1963, week by week1510152025Wk 1Wk 2Wk 3Wk 4Wk 5Wk 6Wk 7Wk 8Wk 9Wk 10Wk 11Wk 12FinalOklahoma: Wk 1 No. 4, Wk 2 No. 3, Wk 3 No. 1, Wk 4 No. 1, Wk 5 No. 6, Wk 6 No. 7, Wk 7 No. 6, Wk 8 No. 6, Wk 9 No. 5, Wk 10 No. 6, Wk 11 No. 10, Wk 12 No. 8, Final No. 1010 OklahomaMichigan State: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 unranked, Wk 4 unranked, Wk 5 unranked, Wk 6 unranked, Wk 7 unranked, Wk 8 No. 9, Wk 9 No. 4, Wk 10 No. 4, Wk 11 No. 4, Wk 12 No. 10, Final No. 99 Michigan StateAlabama: Wk 1 No. 3, Wk 2 No. 2, Wk 3 No. 2, Wk 4 No. 3, Wk 5 No. 9, Wk 6 No. 6, Wk 7 No. 7, Wk 8 No. 7, Wk 9 No. 7, Wk 10 No. 7, Wk 11 No. 6, Wk 12 No. 9, Final No. 88 AlabamaOle Miss: Wk 1 No. 2, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 No. 10, Wk 4 No. 10, Wk 5 No. 5, Wk 6 No. 5, Wk 7 No. 3, Wk 8 No. 3, Wk 9 No. 3, Wk 10 No. 3, Wk 11 No. 3, Wk 12 No. 7, Final No. 77 Ole MissNebraska: 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 No. 10, Wk 10 No. 10, Wk 11 No. 7, Wk 12 No. 6, Final No. 66 NebraskaAuburn: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 unranked, Wk 4 unranked, Wk 5 unranked, Wk 6 No. 8, Wk 7 No. 5, Wk 8 No. 5, Wk 9 No. 9, Wk 10 No. 9, Wk 11 No. 9, Wk 12 No. 5, Final No. 55 AuburnPittsburgh: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 No. 10, Wk 3 No. 9, Wk 4 No. 6, Wk 5 No. 3, Wk 6 No. 3, Wk 7 No. 10, Wk 8 No. 8, Wk 9 No. 6, Wk 10 No. 5, Wk 11 No. 5, Wk 12 No. 4, Final No. 44 PittsburghIllinois: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 unranked, Wk 4 unranked, Wk 5 No. 7, Wk 6 No. 4, Wk 7 No. 2, Wk 8 No. 2, Wk 9 No. 8, Wk 10 No. 8, Wk 11 No. 8, Wk 12 No. 3, Final No. 33 IllinoisNavy: Wk 1 No. 9, Wk 2 No. 5, Wk 3 No. 6, Wk 4 No. 4, Wk 5 No. 10, Wk 6 No. 10, Wk 7 No. 4, Wk 8 No. 4, Wk 9 No. 2, Wk 10 No. 2, Wk 11 No. 2, Wk 12 No. 2, Final No. 22 NavyTexas: Wk 1 No. 5, Wk 2 No. 4, Wk 3 No. 3, Wk 4 No. 2, Wk 5 No. 1, Wk 6 No. 1, Wk 7 No. 1, Wk 8 No. 1, Wk 9 No. 1, Wk 10 No. 1, Wk 11 No. 1, Wk 12 No. 1, Final No. 11 Texas
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. Illinoisunranked → No. 3
  2. Pittsburghunranked → No. 4
  3. Auburnunranked → No. 5
  4. Nebraskaunranked → No. 6
  5. Michigan Stateunranked → No. 9

Fell

  1. USCNo. 1 → unranked
  2. NorthwesternNo. 6 → unranked
  3. WisconsinNo. 7 → unranked
  4. ArkansasNo. 8 → unranked
  5. Ohio StateNo. 10 → unranked

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

National leaders

Passing yardsDon Trull (Baylor)2,157 yds
Passing touchdownsBob Berry (Oregon State)16 TD
Passer ratingBob Berry (Oregon)164.0
Rushing yardsDave Casinelli (Memphis)1,016 yds
Rushing touchdownsCosmo Iacavazzi (Princeton) and Dave Casinelli (Memphis)14 TD
Yards per carryTony Lorick (Arizona State)7.7
ReceptionsLarry Elkins (Baylor)70 catches
Receiving yardsLarry Elkins (Baylor)873 yds
Yards per catchPaul Krause (Iowa)23.3
Receiving touchdownsVern Burke (Wichita State)9 TD
PointsCosmo Iacavazzi (Memphis)84 pts
Total offenseGeorge Mira (Miami)2,318 yds
Total offense per gameGeorge Mira (Miami)231.8
Punt return yardsKen Hatfield (Arkansas)350 yds
Punt return averageRickie Harris (Arizona)17.4
Kickoff return yardsGary Wood (Cornell)618 yds
Kickoff return averageGary Wood (Cornell)32.5

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
NC State and North Carolina (shared)
Big Eight
Nebraska
Big Ten
Illinois
Ivy League
Dartmouth and Princeton (shared)
Mid-American Conference
Ohio
Missouri Valley Conference
Cincinnati
Ohio Valley Conference
Western Kentucky
Southeastern Conference
Ole Miss
Southern Conference
Virginia Tech
Southwest Conference
Texas
Western Athletic Conference
New Mexico
Yankee Conference
Massachusetts

Small college

Alabama Collegiate Conference
Jacksonville State
Big Sky
Idaho State
Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association
North Carolina Central
Conference Carolinas
Elon
Indiana Collegiate Conference
Butler
Interstate Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Northern Illinois
Lone Star Conference
Texas State
Mid Atlantic Conference
Delaware
Midwestern Conference
Tennessee State
Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association
Missouri State
North Central Conference
South Dakota State
Northern California Athletic Conference
UC Davis
Oregon Collegiate Conference
Portland State
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Alabama A&M and Florida A&M (shared)
Southwestern Athletic Conference
Prairie View 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

12 playersAll 10 selectors’ teams

Players picked by enough of the major selectors to count as consensus, shown in bold in Wikipedia’s 1963 All-America article. Every selector’s teams, first to last, are on the 1963 All-America teams page.

The 1963 awards

Every award

Player of the year

By position

Coaches

From the newspapers

The The chronicle's story: Leads South Team In Overtaking Yankees
The bowlBaylor 14, LSU 71963 Baylor · 1963 LSUThe chronicle, Mississippi, December 23, 1963, page 1
Read the text

Leads South Team In Overtaking Yankees George Mira Of Miami FLA walked off with a hometown decision over Boston Colleges Jack Concannon, but a rematch has been arranged for a neutrail site next year. Mira and Concannon, two Of college footballs most glamor- GUS quarterbackS, hooked up In a tremendous passing exhibition Saturday in Miami’s North South All-Star Game. Mira was declared the unofficial winner on the basis Of the South’s 23–⁠14 victory-but the two are due for another meeting in the Senior Bowl at Mobile, Ala, on Jan. 4. Don Trull, statistically the top paSser in the nation for the past two seasons, also staged a spec tacular aerial display to lead Baylor to a 14–⁠7 victory over Louisiana State in the Bluebonnet Bowl at Houston. But the only passing done at Philadelphia’s frigid Liberty Bowl was by the fans, who passed up Mississippi States 1912 victory over North Carolima State in record numbers. Both Have Signed Both Mira and Concannorl, who already have signed with the San Francisco Forty Miners and the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League, respectively turned in thorough ly professional performances in the North-South contest. Mira, playing before a home town crowd Of 1920 at the Or ange Bowl, connected on q of AZ passes for 339 yards and two touchdowns to steer the South from a $40 deficit. The IA Northern points were the work of Concannon, who scored one I’d and passed for the other while accommodating a total of 327 yards. ALI the North’s scoring was crammed into the first period. Concannon drove the Yankees Y yards to the Rebels eight late in the opening session. But on a third-down situation, Coach Bump Elliott replaced Concannon with George Brock Of North ern Illinois, and the threat died. Bluebonnet Bowl Trull shredded the LSU pass defense for rs competitions dur ing the day, but the Bears didn’t reach the end zone until the fourth quarter. Trull passed seven yards to end Jim Ingram to tie the game at ~, then hit Ingram with another I’D toss for Is yards and the victory. Louisiana State had taken an early 20 lead in the opening pc riod on Buddy Seekers eight yard scoring dash, but the crowd Of SO, 600 saw Trull easily erase the Bluebonnet passing records in the process Of erasing the Tigers lead. Liberty Bowl The Liberty Bowl was played in 22-degree weather and at tracted a sparse gathering Of $500 - a crowd which barely filled the concession stands in vast Municipal Stadium, which accommodates 1O2, ZOO people

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 21, 1963Baylor 14, LSU 7Bluebonnet Bowl
Dec 21, 1963Mississippi State 16, NC State 12Liberty Bowl
Dec 28, 1963North Carolina 35, Air Force 0Gator Bowl
Dec 31, 1963Oregon 21, SMU 14Sun Bowl
Jan 1, 19649Alabama 12, 7Ole Miss 7Sugar Bowl
Jan 1, 19643Illinois 17, Washington 7Rose Bowl
Jan 1, 19646Nebraska 13, 5Auburn 7Orange Bowl
Jan 1, 19641Texas 28, 2Navy 6Cotton Bowl