1961_Big_Ten_Conference_football_season

1961 Big Ten Conference football season

Sports season

The 1961 Big Ten Conference football season was the 66th season of college football played by the member schools of the Big Ten Conference and was a part of the 1961 NCAA University Division football season.

Quick Facts Sport, Number of teams ...

1961 Big Ten Conference football season
Sport	American football
Number of teams	10
Top draft pick	Bob Ferguson
Champion	Ohio State
Runners-up	Minnesota
Season MVP	Sandy Stephens
Seasons
← 1960 1962 →

More information Conf, Overall ...

1961 Big Ten Conference football standings
v t e	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
No. 2 Ohio State $	6	–	0	–	0	8	–	0	–	1
No. 6 Minnesota	6	–	1	–	0	8	–	2	–	0
No. 8 Michigan State	5	–	2	–	0	7	–	2	–	0
No. 12 Purdue	4	–	2	–	0	6	–	3	–	0
Wisconsin	4	–	3	–	0	6	–	3	–	0
Michigan	3	–	3	–	0	6	–	3	–	0
Iowa	2	–	4	–	0	5	–	4	–	0
Northwestern	2	–	4	–	0	4	–	5	–	0
Indiana	0	–	6	–	0	2	–	7	–	0
Illinois	0	–	7	–	0	0	–	9	–	0

$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

The 1961 Ohio State Buckeyes football team, under head coach Woody Hayes, compiled an 8–0–1, won the Big Ten championship, and was recognized as the national champion by the Football Writers Association of America. Fullback Bob Ferguson was a consensus first-team All-American and won the Maxwell Award and the UPI and Sporting News College Football Player of the Year awards.

The 1961 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team, under head coach Murray Warmath, compiled an 8–2, was ranked No. 6 in the final AP Poll, and defeated UCLA in the 1962 Rose Bowl. Quarterback Sandy Stephens was a consensus first-team All-American and won the Chicago Tribune Silver Football award as the Big Ten's most valuable player. As of 2017, Stephens is the most recent Minnesota player to win the award.

Ron Miller of Wisconsin received the Sammy Baugh Trophy as the nation's top collegiate passer.

Season overview

Results and team statistics

More information Conf. Rank, Team ...

Conf. Rank	Team	Head coach	AP final	AP high	Overall record	Conf. record	PPG	PAG	MVP
1	Ohio State	Woody Hayes	#2	#2	8–0–1	4–2	24.6	9.2	Bob Ferguson
2	Minnesota	Murray Warmath	#6	#3	8–2	6–1	16.8	7.8	Sandy Stephens
3	Michigan State	Duffy Daugherty	#8	#1	7–2	5–2	21.3	5.6	George Saimes
4	Purdue	Jack Mollenkopf	#12	#7	6–3	4–2	16.2	9.7	Jack Elwell
5	Wisconsin	Milt Bruhn	NR	NR	6–4	4–3	19.9	17.6	Ron Miller
6	Michigan	Bump Elliott	NR	#6	6–3	3–3	23.6	18.1	John Walker
7 (tie)	Iowa	Jerry Burns	NR	#1	5–4	2–4	23.9	18.0	Al Hinton
7 (tie)	Northwestern	Ara Parseghian	NR	NR	4–5	2–4	14.6	11.7	Boyd Melvin
9	Indiana	Phil Dickens	NR	NR	2–7	0–6	10.7	18.0	Byron Broome
10	Illinois	Pete Elliott	NR	NR	0–9	0–7	5.9	32.1	Tony Parrilli

Key
AP final = Team's rank in the final AP Poll of the 1961 season^[1]
AP high = Team's highest rank in the AP Poll throughout the 1961 season^[1]
PPG = Average of points scored per game^[1]
PAG = Average of points allowed per game^[1]
MVP = Most valuable player as voted by players on each team as part of the voting process to determine the winner of the Chicago Tribune Silver Football trophy; trophy winner in bold^[2]

Preseason

On November 20, 1960, hours after the final game of the 1960 season, Iowa announced that Forest Evashevski would be replaced as head football coach by Jerry Burns. Evashevski remained at Iowa as the athletic director. Burns, who signed a three-year contract, had been an assistant coach under Evashevski since 1954 and had played at Michigan from 1947 to 1950.^[3]

In the preseason AP Poll, Iowa was ranked No. 1, and Ohio State was No. 2.^[1]

Regular season

Bowl games

Main article: 1962 Rose Bowl

Post-season developments

There were no changes in the conference's head football coaches between the 1961 and 1962 seasons.