1937 College Football Recap

Updated August 5, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Defending national champion Minnesota lost two games in 1937, to Nebraska and Notre Dame, and fell to fifth in the final AP poll.

Pittsburgh beat both the Cornhuskers and Irish on the way to an undefeated season and succeeded the Gophers as the country's top team. The one blemish on the Panthers' record was a scoreless tie with No.3 Fordham in October. It was hardly a surprise, however, considering it was the third year in a row the two had shut each other out.

Second-ranked California had the same 9–0–1 record as Pitt and its tie game was also scoreless. Playing at home, the Bears fought unranked Washington to a standstill in November. Later, they became the country's only 10–game winner, wrapping up the season with a 13–0 victory over No.4 Alabama in the Rose Bowl. The loss was the first for the Crimson Tide in five trips to Pasadena.

Halfback Clint Frank of Yale won the Heisman Trophy as the country's outstanding player, but runner-up Whizzer White of Colorado, a Rhodes Scholar and future Supreme Court Justice, turned in the season's most impressive stats. White led the nation in scoring, rushing, all-purpose running and total offense. The unbeaten Buffaloes, the first Rocky Mountain team to crack the Top 20, were invited to the Cotton Bowl but lost to Rice, 28–14.

Meanwhile, it was an outstanding season for Top 20 head coaches' nicknames.