| 1950 Big Nine Conference football season | |
|---|---|
| Sport | American football |
| Number of teams | 9 |
| Top draft pick | Chuck Ortmann |
| Champion | Michigan |
| Runners-up | Ohio State, Wisconsin |
| Season MVP | Vic Janowicz |
| 1950 Big Nine football standings | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team | W | L | T | W | L | T | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No. 9 Michigan $ | 4 | – | 1 | – | 1 | 6 | – | 3 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No. 14 Ohio State | 5 | – | 2 | – | 0 | 6 | – | 3 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wisconsin | 5 | – | 2 | – | 0 | 6 | – | 3 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No. 13 Illinois | 4 | – | 2 | – | 0 | 7 | – | 2 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Northwestern | 3 | – | 3 | – | 0 | 6 | – | 3 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Iowa | 2 | – | 4 | – | 0 | 3 | – | 5 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minnesota | 1 | – | 4 | – | 1 | 1 | – | 7 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Indiana | 1 | – | 4 | – | 0 | 3 | – | 5 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Purdue | 1 | – | 4 | – | 0 | 2 | – | 7 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1950 Big Nine Conference football season was the 55th season of college football played by the member schools of the Big Nine Conference (also known as the Western Conference and the Big Ten Conference) and was a part of the 1950 college football season.
College football is American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
The Big Ten Conference is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States, based in suburban Chicago, Illinois. Despite its name, the conference consists of 14 members. They compete in the NCAA Division I; its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, the highest level of NCAA competition in that sport. The conference includes the flagship public university in each of 11 states stretching from New Jersey to Nebraska, as well as two additional public land grant schools and a private university.
The 1950 college football season finished with the unbeaten and untied Oklahoma Sooners (9–0) being the consensus choice for national champion. On New Year's Day, however, the Sooners were upset by the Kentucky Wildcats in the Sugar Bowl. The Army Cadets, ranked No. 2 in the AP Poll, had been defeated in its final regular season game by 2–6 Navy, 14–2. However, the final poll had been issued on November 27, and the bowl games had no effect on Oklahoma's status as the No. 1 team.
Contents
- Season overview
- Results and team statistics
- Regular season
- Bowl games
- All-conference players
- All-Americans
- 1951 NFL Draft
- References
The 1950 Michigan Wolverines football team, under head coach Bennie Oosterbaan, won the 1950 Big Ten championship with a 6–3–1 record (4–1–1 against Big Ten opponents) and was ranked No. 9 in the final AP Poll. In the last game of the regular season, Michigan defeated Ohio State, 9–3, in the Snow Bowl, played in a blizzard, at 10 degrees above zero, on an icy field, and with winds gusting over 30 miles per hour. Michigan then defeated California in the 1951 Rose Bowl. Don Dufek was selected as the team's most valuable player. Tackle Allen Wahl was a first-team All-American.
The 1950 Michigan Wolverines football team was an American football team that represented the University of Michigan in the 1950 Big Nine Conference football season. Coached by Bennie Oosterbaan, the Wolverines won the Big Ten Conference championship with a record of 6–3–1 and defeated the California Bears in the 1951 Rose Bowl, 14–6. The team had two All-Big 10 backs in Don Dufek and Chuck Ortmann and All-American tackle R. Allen "Brick" Wahl. Despite losing three times and tying once, Michigan was ranked #9 in the AP Poll and #6 in the UPI Poll at season's end. The Wolverines played a regular season game at Yankee Stadium against Army on October 14, 1950, losing 27–6.
Benjamin Oosterbaan was a three-time first team All-American football end for the Michigan Wolverines football team, two-time All-American basketball player for the basketball team, and an All-Big Ten Conference baseball player for the baseball team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football players in Michigan history. He was selected by Sports Illustrated as the fourth greatest athlete in the history of the U.S. state of Michigan in 2003 and one of the eleven greatest college football players of the first century of the game.
The Associated Press provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 65 sportswriters and broadcasters from across the nation. Each voter provides his own ranking of the top 25 teams, and the individual rankings are then combined to produce the national ranking by giving a team 25 points for a first place vote, 24 for a second place vote, and so on down to 1 point for a twenty-fifth place vote. Ballots of the voting members in the AP Poll are made public.
The 1950 Ohio State Buckeyes football team, under head coach Wes Fesler, compiled a 6–3 record, led the conference in scoring offense (31.8 points per game), and was ranked No. 14 in the final AP Poll. Halfback Vic Janowicz was a consensus first-team All-American and won both the Chicago Tribune Silver Football trophy as the Big Ten's most valuable player and the Heisman Trophy as the best player in college football.
The 1950 Ohio State Buckeyes football team represented Ohio State University in the 1950 Big Nine Conference football season. The Buckeyes compiled a 6–3 record. The season finale against Michigan was the infamous game later known as the Snow Bowl as the teams combined for 45 punts in wintry weather. Ohio State outscored their opponents, 286–111, on the season, but head coach Wes Fesler's record against Michigan fell to 0–3–1.
Wesley Eugene Fesler was an American football, basketball, and baseball player and coach of football and basketball. He was a three-sport athlete at Ohio State University and a consensus first-team selection to the College Football All-America Team three straight years (1928–1930). Fesler was later the head football coach at Wesleyan University (1941–1942), the University of Pittsburgh (1946), Ohio State (1947–1950), and the University of Minnesota (1951–1953), compiling a career record of 41–40–8. He was also the head basketball coach at Harvard University (1933–1941), Wesleyan (1941–1944) and Princeton University (1945–1946), tallying a mark of 78–139. Fesler was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1954.
Victor Felix "Vic" Janowicz was an American football halfback in the National Football League for the Washington Redskins. He played college football at Ohio State University and was drafted in the seventh round of the 1952 NFL Draft. Janowicz was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1976.
The 1950 Illinois Fighting Illini football team, under head coach Ray Eliot, compiled a 7–2 record, led the conference in scoring defense (6.2 points allowed per game), and was ranked No. 13 in the final AP Poll. End Tony Klimek was selected as the team's most valuable player. Tackle Albert Tate and center Bill Vohaska both received first-team All-American honors.
The 1950 Illinois Fighting Illini football team was an American football team that represented the University of Illinois during the 1950 Big Nine Conference football season. In their ninth year under head coach Ray Eliot, the Illini compiled a 7–2 record, finished in fourth place in the Big Ten Conference, and were ranked #13 in the final AP Poll. The lone setbacks were losses Wisconsin and Northwestern. End Tony Klimek was selected as the team's most valuable player.
Raymond Eliot Nusspickel was an American football and baseball player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach Illinois College from 1933 to 1936 and at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign from 1942 to 1959, compiling a career college football record of 102–82–13. Eliot was also the head baseball coach at Illinois College from 1933 to 1937. His Illinois Fighting Illini football teams won three Big Ten Conference championships and two Rose Bowls. Eliot, who spent almost his entire career at the University of Illinois—he was a student athlete, an assistant football coach, head football coach, associate athletic director, and finally the interim athletic director for the university—was nicknamed "Mr. Illini." He attended the University of Illinois, played as a guard on the football team in 1930 and 1931, and was a member of Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity. He died of an apparent heart attack on February 24, 1980 in Urbana, Illinois.
William John "Bill" Vohaska was an American football player. He played college football for the Illinois Fighting Illini football team at the center position from 1948 to 1950. He was selected by the Associated Press as the first-team center on its 1950 College Football All-America Team. He later worked as a coach and teacher. He also founded and operated the Riverside Day Camp in Riverside, Illinois.
