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College Football
1950Notre Dame began the 1950s as the nations number one team and owner of a 38Ð-game unbeaten streak.The Irish labored to beat North Carolina in their opener, then lost for the first time in five years to visiting Purdue 28Ð-14. The streak lasted from Sept. 28, 1946 to Oct. 7, 1950. Notre Dames record over that span was 37Ð-0Ð-2,.ND lost three more times before the end of the season, finished at 4Ð-4Ð-1 and failed to make the final Top 20 for the first time in 10 years.Two other lengthy streaks were snapped, Oklahoma and Army. Top-ranked Oklahoma swept through the regular season with 10 wins to run its unbeaten string to 31. The Sooners then met Bear Bryants No.7 Kentucky team in the Sugar Bowl. The Wildcats took a 13Ð-0 halftime lead and held on for the 13Ð-7 upset. Armys unbeaten streak of 28 games also came to an abrupt halt against Navy in Philadelphia, with a 14-2 loss. No.3 Texas and 4th-ranked Tennessee squared off in the Cotton Bowl, where the Vols came from behind to win 20Ð-14 in the last three minutes. Out in Pasadena, No.5 California, undefeated for the third regular season in a row (overall record: 29Ð-0Ð-1), lost its third straight Rose Bowl.
1951Any shot Army might have had at regaining the top spot in the AP rankings disappeared on Aug.3, 1951 when 90 Cadets (37 of them football players) were dismissed from West Point in the wake of a cheating scandal. Defending national champ Oklahoma slipped to 8Ð-2 and Texas to 7Ð-3, leaving the way clear for unbeaten Tennessee to move up and claim the title. Coach Bob Neylands bunch had been the only team in the Top 5 to win a bowl game, however, so they felt deserving of the national title. This year the opposite happened. Tennessee got the nod from AP in December then lost the Sugar Bowl to No.3 Maryland.Despite the nearly wholesale changeover to the T-formation in college ball, it was a good year for the single wing. The top two vote-getters in the Heisman balloting, Dick Kazmaier of Princeton and Hank Lauricella of Tennessee, were single wing tailbacks.Michigan State, Illinois and Georgia Tech all went unbeaten with the Illini and the Wreck winning their bowl games. The Spartans had been admitted to the Big Ten in 1950, but were still two years away from officially competing for the Rose Bowl.Finally, Ollie Matson led the nation in rushing and scoring for the San Francisco Dons. USF gave up football for finanacial reasons in 1952.
1952Still a year away from participation in the Big Ten, Michigan State rose to the top of the final AP poll by turning in its second unbeaten season in a row.Georgia Tech was also unbeaten again, raising its record to 12Ð-0 after beating Mississippi in the first All-SEC Sugar Bowl.Notre Dame returned to the Top 20 after an absence of two years and placed third. In the last month of the season the Irish played three other Top 5 teams and beat two of them. They upset Oklahoma 27Ð-21, lost to Michigan St. 21Ð-3, and then in the final game of the year, knocked off unbeaten Southern Cal 9Ð-0.Oklahoma halfback Billy Vessels gained over 1,500 yards in all-purpose running and ran off with the Heisman Trophy. Despite all the success the Sooners would enjoy this decade, Vessels would be Bud Wilkinsons only Heisman winner.Southern Cal and UCLA were both unbeaten when they met to decide who would represent the Pacific Coast Conference in the Rose Bowl. The Bruins led 12Ð-7 at the half, but USC won the game 14Ð-12. After losing to Notre Dame a week later, the Trojans came back to beat Wisconsin 7Ð-0 on New Years and give the PCC its first win over the Big Ten in seven Rose Bowls.Tennessee and Alabama gave the SEC four teams in the Top 10. The No.8 Vols were shut out 16Ð-0 by 10th-ranked Texas in the Cotton Bowl, while No.9 Bama scored a postseason record 61 points routing Syracuse in the Orange Bowl.
1953For the third time in four years, APs national champion swooned in a bowl game. At the end of the regular season, Maryland, champion of the brand new Atlantic Coast Conference, was the only unbeaten and untied major college team in the land. The Terps played No.4 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl and lost 7Ð-0.Notre Dame was APs number one team until a stubborn Iowa squad tied the Irish 14Ð-14 on Nov.21. Earlier in the season, the Irish snapped Georgia Techs 31Ð-game unbeaten streak, but coach Frank Leahy collapsed during halftime. He decided to retire at the end of the year and took his leave with a record of 107Ð-13Ð-9 and a career winning percentage second only to that of Knute Rockne.Two-way back Johnny Lattner became the fourth Notre Dame player to win the Heisman Trophy in Leahys 11 years at South Bend. Lattner edged Minnesota HB Paul Giel by just 56 votes.Michigan State had its winning streak stilled by Iowa after 28 games, but the Spartans finally made it to the Rose Bowl where they rallied from 14 points to beat UCLA 28Ð-20.In a year that saw the NCAA implement rules to cut back on two-platoon football, the most memorable play involved a player coming off the bench in the Cotton Bowl. The player was Alabamas Tommy Lewis and he left the sideline to tackle Rice halfback Dicky Maegle in the middle of what would have been a 95Ð-yard touchdown run. Maegle was given the TD (one of three he had that day) and Rice won 28Ð-6.
1954The game of the year should have been a No.1 vs No.1 battle in the Rose Bowl, but it never happened.In 1950, United Press had joined rival Associated Press in the Top 20 business, using coaches instead of sportswriters. For four years both wire services agreed on who the national champion should be. In 1954, however, they didnt. AP picked the Big Tens Ohio State, while UP crowned UCLA of the Pacific Coast Conference.The Big Ten and PCC had agreed to make the Rose Bowl an exclusive rivalry back in 1946. Nine years later, it would have been the perfect setting for this dream game. Unfortunately, both conferences also had a “no repeat” rule that prevented teams from making two consecutive trips to PasadenaUCLA had played in the most recent Rose Bowl (losing to Michigan State), so the Bruins couldnt return. Instead, Ohio State faced PCC runner-up Southern Cal and won handily, 20Ð-7.
1955Oklahoma, ranked by both polls, won its seventh straight Big Seven championship, but like UCLA was prevented from a return to the Orange Bowl by a conference “no repeat” rule.Twenty-five-year-old Terry Brennan succeeded Frank Leahy at Notre Dame and brought the Irish in fourth. Ranked No.1 in September, ND suffered its only loss when upset by Purdue on Oct. 2.Navy beat Army for