1940 Boston College Eagles football team

1940 Boston College Eagles football
National champion (self-claimed) Eastern champion Sugar Bowl champion
Sugar Bowl, W 19–13 vs. Tennessee
Conference	Independent
Ranking
AP	No. 5
Record	11–0
Head coach	Frank Leahy (2nd season)
Captain	Henry Toczylowski
Home stadium	Alumni Field Fenway Park
Seasons ←  1939 1941  →

1940 Eastern college football independents records

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 5 Boston College			–					11	–	0	–	0
Duquesne			–					7	–	1	–	0
No. 14 Penn			–					6	–	1	–	1
Penn State			–					6	–	1	–	1
No. 12 Fordham			–					7	–	2	–	0
No. 15 Cornell			–					6	–	2	–	0
La Salle			–					6	–	2	–	0
Princeton			–					5	–	2	–	1
Columbia			–					5	–	2	–	2
Brown			–					6	–	3	–	1
Bucknell			–					4	–	2	–	2
Boston University			–					5	–	3	–	0
Colgate			–					5	–	3	–	0
Hofstra			–					4	–	3	–	0
Harvard			–					3	–	2	–	3
Dartmouth			–					5	–	4	–	0
Temple			–					4	–	4	–	1
Tufts			–					4	–	4	–	0
Vermont			–					4	–	4	–	0
Villanova			–					4	–	5	–	0
Pittsburgh			–					3	–	4	–	1
Syracuse			–					3	–	4	–	1
Buffalo			–					3	–	5	–	0
Carnegie Tech			–					3	–	5	–	0
Manhattan			–					3	–	6	–	0
Providence			–					3	–	6	–	0
NYU			–					2	–	7	–	0
Yale			–					1	–	7	–	0
Army			–					1	–	7	–	1
CCNY			–					1	–	5	–	1
Massachusetts State			–					1	–	8	–	0
Rankings from AP Poll

The 1940 Boston College Eagles football team represented Boston College as an independent during the 1940 college football season. The team was led by head coach Frank Leahy in his second year, and played their home games at Fenway Park in Boston and Alumni Field in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The "team of destiny" finished with an overall record of 11–0, including six shutouts and a win in the Sugar Bowl. ^[1]

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Rank	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 21	Centre		Alumni Field Chestnut Hill, MA	W 40–0	19,000	[2]
September 28	at Tulane		Tulane Stadium New Orleans, LA	W 27–7	42,000	[3]
October 12	Temple		Fenway Park Boston, MA	W 33–20	28,000	[4]
October 19	Idaho	No. 8	Fenway Park Boston, MA	W 60–0	8,000	[5] [6] [7]
October 26	Saint Anselm	No. 10	Alumni Field Chestnut Hill, MA	W 55–0	17,000	[8]
November 2	Manhattan	No. 9	Alumni Field Chestnut Hill, MA	W 25–0	12,000	[9]
November 9	Boston University	No. 8	Fenway Park Boston, MA (rivalry)	W 21–0	20,000	[10]
November 16	No. 9 Georgetown	No. 8	Fenway Park Boston, MA	W 19–18	43,000	[11]
November 23	Auburn	No. 4	Fenway Park Boston, MA	W 33–7	30,000	[12]
November 30	Holy Cross	No. 4	Fenway Park Boston, MA (rivalry)	W 7–0	38,000	[13]
January 1, 1941	vs. No. 4 Tennessee	No. 5	Tulane Stadium New Orleans, LA (Sugar Bowl)	W 19–13	73,181	[14]
Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game Source: [15]

Season summary

The BC Eagles won all ten games in the regular season, were the highest-scoring team in the country, and won the Lambert Trophy, awarded to the "Eastern champion". Scoring leaders during the regular season were Frank Maznicki (80 points), Mike Holovak (67 points), and Lou Montgomery (36 points). ^[16]

From 1936 to 1964, the final AP Poll ranking college football teams was taken at the end of the regular season, before the postseason bowl games. The final 1940 rankings were published on December 2, and listed undefeated Minnesota (8–0) first. Minnesota had secured a thrilling home win by an extra point, 7–6, over Michigan in early November—Michigan finished the regular season with a 7–1 record and was ranked third. Stanford (10–0) was ranked second, Tennessee (10–0) fourth, and Boston College (10–0) was fifth. ^[17]

Postseason

Boston College played in the Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day and defeated Tennessee, champion of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), by a score of 19–13. The Eagles played without Montgomery, a halfback, due to racial policies of the era. ^[18] Tennessee had outscored its regular season opponents 319–26, soundly beating such opponents as Alabama, Florida, LSU, Kentucky, Virginia, and Duke. ^[19]

Neither Minnesota nor Michigan played in a postseason bowl game, and Stanford defeated No. 7 Nebraska in the Rose Bowl by a score of 21–13. Despite where the AP rated teams at the end of the regular season, BC's postseason win over Tennessee was widely deemed the best win of any team in the 1940 season. ^[20]

Aftermath

1940 banner

For this era, when a limited number of bowl games were played and no polling was conducted after postseason contests, there are often competing claims for the national championship of a given season.

Further information: College football national championships in NCAA Division I FBS

With its undefeated season and bowl win, the BC Eagles were widely acclaimed as national champions. ^{[20] [21]} While there is a banner on the BC campus that lists the score of each game the Eagles played, along with "National Champions" wording,^{[ citation needed ]} BC's football media guide only makes passing mention of a "claim to the national championship with a 19-13 victory over Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl." ^[22]

The NCAA lists only Minnesota (ranked first in the final AP Poll of early December) as the national champion for 1940, and does not credit Boston College with any national championships in football. ^[23] Several other selectors list Stanford as the 1940 champion and one lists Tennessee. ^[24]

References

1. "Teams of Destiny". BC.edu. Fall 2001. Retrieved July 2, 2025.
2. King, Bill (September 22, 1940). "Boston College Crushes Centre". The Philadelphia Inquirer . Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Associated Press. p. 42. Retrieved June 8, 2021– via Newspapers.com .
3. "Boston stuns Tulane with 27–7 victory". The Clarion-Ledger. September 29, 1940. Retrieved April 10, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
4. Stan Baumgartner (October 13, 1940). "Boston College's Passes Beat Temple by 33 to 20". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 1S – via Newspapers.com.
5. "Boston College fears scoreless Idaho". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. October 19, 1940. p. 11.
6. "Boston College tramples Idaho". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). Associated Press. October 19, 1940. p. 1.
7. "Boston swamps Idaho team, 60-0". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. October 20, 1940. p. 1, sports.
8. "Boston College Wins 55-0 Rout". The Philadelphia Inquirer. October 27, 1940. p. S1 – via Newspapers.com.
9. "BC's Touchdown Parade Trims Jaspers, 25-0". New York Daily News. November 3, 1940. p. 94 – via Newspapers.com.
10. "Boston College Defeats Boston U. By 21 To 0". The Sun. November 10, 1940. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
11. Francis E. Stan (November 17, 1940). "B.C. Noses Out G.U., 19-18". The Sunday Star. p. Sports 1 – via Newspapers.com.
12. "Boston College Smashes Way To Win Over Auburn". The Montgomery Advertiser. November 24, 1940. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
13. "Boston College Gets Four Lucky Breaks To Conquer Courageous Crusaders, 7-0". The Hartford Courant. December 1, 1940. p. IV-1 – via Newspapers.com.
14. "Indomitable spirit brings Eagles win". The Boston Globe. January 2, 1941. Retrieved August 8, 2021– via Newspapers.com.
15. DeLassus, David. "Boston College Yearly Results: 1940–1944". College Football Data Warehouse. Archived from the original on February 18, 2013. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
16. "Boston College 1940 Statistics". Knoxville News Sentinel . Knoxville, Tennessee. December 29, 1940. p. B-8. Retrieved July 2, 2025– via newspapers.com.
17. Reid Oslin (November 10, 2015). Boston College Athletics – The 1940 Team of Destiny Retrieved July 21, 2016.
18. "Learning About Lou". bceagles.com. Boston College Athletic Communications. October 29, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2025.
19. Haywood Harris and Gus Manning (2004) “Six Seasons Remembered: The National Championship Years of Tennessee Football”, The University of Tennessee Press/ Knoxville pp. 24–45.
20. "Sports Writers Comment on B. C. Win In Sugar Bowl". The Boston Globe . Boston, Massachusetts. January 3, 1941. p. 9. Retrieved June 8, 2021– via Newspapers.com .
21. Twomey, David P. (December 8, 2015). "New Boston College History States BC's 1940 National Championship in Football 'Untrue': Correcting This Mistake" – via WordPress.^{[ self-published source ]}
22. "Historical Timeline" (PDF). BC Football Media Guide. 2024. p. 61. Retrieved July 3, 2025– via bceagles.com.
23. "FBS Football Championship History | NCAA.com". www.ncaa.com. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
24. "National Champion Major Selections (1896 to Present)". 2022 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records (PDF). Indianapolis: The National Collegiate Athletic Association. July 2022. pp. 112–114. Retrieved January 4, 2023. The criteria for being included in this historical list of poll selectors is that the poll be national in scope, either through distribution in newspaper, television, radio and/or computer online. The list includes both former selectors, who were instrumental in the sport of college football, and selectors who were among the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) selectors.