1971 Indiana Hoosiers football team

1971 Indiana Hoosiers football
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Record	3–8 (2–6 Big Ten)
Head coach	John Pont (7th season)
MVP	Chuck Thomson
Captain	Chuck Thomson
Home stadium	Seventeenth Street Stadium
Seasons ←  1970 1972  →

1971 Big Ten Conference football standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 6 Michigan $	8	–	0	–	0			11	–	1	–	0
Northwestern	6	–	3	–	0			7	–	4	–	0
Ohio State	5	–	3	–	0			6	–	4	–	0
Michigan State	5	–	3	–	0			6	–	5	–	0
Illinois	5	–	3	–	0			5	–	6	–	0
Wisconsin	3	–	5	–	0			4	–	6	–	1
Minnesota	3	–	5	–	0			4	–	7	–	0
Purdue	3	–	5	–	0			3	–	7	–	0
Indiana	2	–	6	–	0			3	–	8	–	0
Iowa	1	–	8	–	0			1	–	10	–	0
$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

The 1971 Indiana Hoosiers football team represented the Indiana Hoosiers in the 1971 Big Ten Conference football season. The Hoosiers played their home games at Seventeenth Street Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana. The team was coached by John Pont, in his seventh year as head coach of the Hoosiers.

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 11		at Minnesota	Memorial Stadium Minneapolis, MN	L 0–28	28,549	[1] [2]
September 18		Kentucky *	Seventeenth Street Stadium Bloomington, IN (rivalry)	W 26–8	41,954	[3]
September 25		at Baylor *	Baylor Stadium Waco, TX	L 0–10	27,500	[4] [5]
October 2		Syracuse *	Seventeenth Street Stadium Bloomington, IN	L 0–7	31,989
October 9		at Wisconsin	Camp Randall Stadium Madison, WI	L 29–35	66,156
October 16	1:30 p.m.	No. 13 Ohio State	Seventeenth Street Stadium Bloomington, IN	L 7–27	50,812
October 23		Northwestern	Seventeenth Street Stadium Bloomington, IN	L 10–24	32,409
October 30		at No. 3 Michigan	Michigan Stadium Ann Arbor, MI	L 7–61	75,751	[6]
November 6		Illinois	Seventeenth Street Stadium Bloomington, IN (rivalry)	L 21–22	23,018
November 13		at Iowa	Iowa Stadium Iowa City, IA	W 14–7	42,102
November 20		Purdue	Seventeenth Street Stadium Bloomington, IN (Old Oaken Bucket)	W 38–31	50,978
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time

^{[7] [8] [9] [10]}

First one-point safety

The first known occurrence of a one-point safety (conversion safety) was in an NCAA game on October 2, 1971, scored by Syracuse in the first quarter of a game at Indiana. On a point-after-touchdown kick, the ball was kicked almost straight up in the air. An Indiana player illegally batted the ball in the end zone (a spot foul defensive penalty). Syracuse won the game, 7–0. ^{[11] [12] [13]} The 1970 rulebook (Rule 8-5-3) stated, "If a scrimmage kick fails to cross the neutral zone, or crosses the neutral zone and is first touched by Team B, or is untouched and then rebounds into the end zone where it is recovered by Team A, it is a safety," and (8-5-4) "If the penalty for a foul committed when the ball is free leaves the ball behind a goal line, it is a safety if behind the offender's goal line." ^[14]

1972 NFL draftees

Player	Position	Round	Pick	NFL club
Steve Porter	Wide receiver	14	341	Cincinnati Bengals

^[15]

References

1. Rice, Jon (September 12, 1971). "Gophers pound out 28-0 victory". Minneapolis Tribune . Minneapolis, Minnesota. p. 1C. Retrieved December 28, 2023– via Newspapers.com .
2. Rice, Jon (September 12, 1971). "Gopher scorecard (continued)". Minneapolis Tribune . Minneapolis, Minnesota. p. 6C. Retrieved December 28, 2023– via Newspapers.com .
3. "Four field goals fire I.U. past Kentucky". The South Bend Tribune. September 19, 1971. Retrieved October 22, 2023– via Newspapers.com.
4. Kaye, Roger (September 26, 1971). "Baylor Spanks Hoosiers 10-0". Fort Worth Star-Telegram . Fort Worth, Texas. p. 1B. Retrieved December 28, 2023– via Newspapers.com .
5. Kaye, Roger (September 26, 1971). "Baylor Spanks Hoosiers 10-0 (continued)". Fort Worth Star-Telegram . Fort Worth, Texas. p. 6B. Retrieved December 28, 2023– via Newspapers.com .
6. Curt Sylvester (October 31, 1971). "Wowee! Michigan wins 61–7". Detroit Free Press. pp. 1D, 2D – via Newspapers.com.
7. "1971 Indiana Hoosiers Schedule and Results". College Football @ Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference . Retrieved December 28, 2023.
8. "1971 Football Schedule". Indiana University . Retrieved December 28, 2023.
9. "Indiana Football 2023 Record Book" (PDF). Indiana University. p. 15. Retrieved December 28, 2023.
10. "1971 Homecoming". Indiana Arbutus (yearboook). Archived from the original on June 3, 2016. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
11. Hammel, Bob (October 3, 1971). "Hungry crowd finds a 'Darling' in defense". The Bedford Daily-Times Mail. Vol. 6, no. 5. Bedford, Indiana. p. 25 – via Newspapers.com. Kicker George Bodine's effort was far short, and [Mike] Heizman, standing in front of the goal posts, reacted to the falling ball by swatting it away, mosquito-swatting style. Center Greg Aulk fell on the ball for Syracuse. ... 'It was just a reflex action,' Heizman said. 'I never even thought about the ball being live.'
12. "College Football Notes". The Vincennes Sun-Commercial. Vol. 41, no. 212. Vincennes, Indiana. October 6, 1971. p. 17 – via Newspapers.com. Syracuse was trying to kick the extra point after taking a 6-0 lead. The ball was kicked almost straight up in the air and was coming down obviously short of the crossbar when an Indiana player [illegally] batted the ball down in the end zone and Syracuse recovered.
13. Nissenson, Herschel (October 5, 1971). "Grambling TV rating 'low'". The Shreveport Journal. Vol. 77. Shreveport, Louisiana. p. 10A – via Newspapers.com.
14. Nelson, David M. (1970). 1970 NCAA Official Football Rules. Phoenix, Arizona: College Athletics Publishing Service. p. 59.
15. "1972 NFL Draft Listing - Pro-Football-Reference.com". Pro-Football-Reference.com . Archived from the original on December 21, 2007.